In the world of science a message out of time...

E-boy

http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn21458-first-neanderthal-cave-paintings-discovered-in-spain.html

From forty-three thousand years ago (give or take). The message?

"Dear Homo Sapiens Sapiens,

Suck it!

Sincerely,
Homo Sapiens Neanderthalensis"

In all seriousness, the most likely current interpretation is that this is in fact Neanderthal work. It pretty much means it's necessary for some paleoanthropologists to re-evaluate some of their more cherished assumptions about Neanderthal cognitive abilities.
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"Life is tough, but it's tougher when you're stupid" ~ SGT John Stryker from "Sands of Iwo Jima".

Mr Gary · Posted: Tue Feb 14, 2012 12:53 am Post subject:

Sure, why not? If Taylor Lautner is an actor, why can't Neanderthals be painters? Good on 'em I say! They're the new YBAs!
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E-boy · Posted: Tue Feb 14, 2012 2:37 am Post subject:

But they lived in Spain... Of course, back then it might have been part of Neanderthal Britain.... Y'all's imperialist tendencies might be older than I thought.
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"Life is tough, but it's tougher when you're stupid" ~ SGT John Stryker from "Sands of Iwo Jima".

E-boy · Posted: Thu Mar 01, 2012 5:43 am Post subject:

http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg21328544.800-neanderthals-were-ancient-mariners.html

Boats too?!!!! What now beyotches?!
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"Life is tough, but it's tougher when you're stupid" ~ SGT John Stryker from "Sands of Iwo Jima".

E-boy · Posted: Thu Mar 01, 2012 6:27 pm Post subject:

Okay I suppose I should apologize for my, perhaps, excessive enthusiasm for a long extinct species. I just find the idea that an animal that much like us in so many ways was some dull brute to be a bit of BS founded as much on a desire of certain moderns to continue to feel 'special' as on the, until recently, almost complete lack of evidence for more advanced behavior in Neanderthals.

The differences could just as easily be explained by social organization. Living in small family groups with, at best, sporadic contact with other groups isn't likely to produce large amounts of innovation of any kind. Under the right circumstances though maybe they did live in much larger groups, and perhaps that explains these areas where innovation and art, are, at last, coming to light.

They definitely weren't us (which is part of what makes them so fascinating to me), and, for whatever reason, they didn't survive long past our arrival in their territory but they don't appear to have been slouches either.
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"Life is tough, but it's tougher when you're stupid" ~ SGT John Stryker from "Sands of Iwo Jima".