Saru Posted May 25, 2016 #1 Share Posted May 25, 2016 Remarkable prehistoric structures made from stalagmites have been discovered inside a cave in France. http://www.unexplained-mysteries.com/news/294877/neanderthal-built-stone-rings-found-in-cave 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dyna Posted May 25, 2016 #2 Share Posted May 25, 2016 Maybe it was separation of living quarters on of the first shows of the need for private space :-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Glockornothing Posted May 26, 2016 #3 Share Posted May 26, 2016 Maybe they were telling people who normally stand to pee to go in one room, those who normally squat to pee to go in the other room, no matter how you identify that day. Unless you identify as a dog then the tree or prehistoric fire hydrant out front is your place to pee. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dark_Grey Posted May 26, 2016 #4 Share Posted May 26, 2016 So is this evidence of religion 175,000 years ago? Fascinating that they were intelligent and lived along side us for so long. It makes their disappearance a little more eerie. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
highdesert50 Posted May 26, 2016 #5 Share Posted May 26, 2016 To speculate upon the meaning of the ring ... I suppose it could have been an area distinguishing the eating from sleeping, perhaps the elite from the not-so, a stage, even a crude model for a solar observatory to mark solstices. How smart do we want to make Neanderthal? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
grimsituation6 Posted May 26, 2016 #6 Share Posted May 26, 2016 why are neanderthals white? shouldnt they have dark skin? and early humans too, light skin was a genetic defect no? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Hammerclaw Posted May 26, 2016 #7 Share Posted May 26, 2016 4 minutes ago, grimsituation6 said: why are neanderthals white? shouldnt they have dark skin? and early humans too, light skin was a genetic defect no? No, it's an adaption to low UV radiation and to mitigate vitamin D depletion. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Light_skin 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+DieChecker Posted May 26, 2016 #8 Share Posted May 26, 2016 From the UM article: Quote The prehistoric builders of these rings were no dimwits, having harvested the tops of stalagmites before arranging them in a circle on the cave floor - all while illuminated only by the light of a fire. Uhh... But my 4 year old son does the same thing with lego constructs. He probably could even start a fire. Even 2 year olds will build little forts around themselves. And their brains are about a quarter that of an adult. I find this to be a sign of intelligence and engineering, but not necessarily of an equal intelligence to our current level. Don't they say that some dogs have the understanding of a 2 year old? 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+DieChecker Posted May 26, 2016 #9 Share Posted May 26, 2016 6 hours ago, Dark_Grey said: So is this evidence of religion 175,000 years ago? Fascinating that they were intelligent and lived along side us for so long. It makes their disappearance a little more eerie. I've often speculated that modern humans learned art and ceremonial religion from the Neanderthals. I don't know of much evidence of either in association with modern humans before the two groups met. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Hammerclaw Posted May 26, 2016 #10 Share Posted May 26, 2016 There's a deeply engrained prejudice against Neanderthals that persists. They were so like us the interbred with us. Also, it's curious that the most beautiful artistic expression from so remote a time occurs only on the walls of caves within the Neanderthal heartland. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pallidin Posted May 26, 2016 #11 Share Posted May 26, 2016 (edited) This truly is an amazing find. I especially like the fact that the cave entrance was blocked/hidden from outside view for 10's of thousands of years, presumably by a land/rock slide. EDIT: Kinda reminds me of the "intactness" of the King Tut tomb due to it being hidden by some type of rock slide. Edited May 26, 2016 by pallidin 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike Fox Posted May 26, 2016 #12 Share Posted May 26, 2016 A little more information here: https://www.newscientist.com/article/2090183-neanderthals-built-mystery-underground-circles-175000-years-ago/ I think the removal of the tip and base of the stalagmite gives an intriguing clue. To me it looks like sections of mammoth tusk, stacked around, as if they were replicating the success of a Neanderthal hunting scene, or the base of a hut. It's interesting if so, as later Mousterian (homo sapiens) huts had mammoth bones and tusks to provide structure. Perhaps they learned from others...? Mike 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Everdred Posted May 27, 2016 #13 Share Posted May 27, 2016 Interesting find. Keep in mind when speculating that this feature is over 300m deep inside the cave, shrouded in pitch black darkness. So It's definitely not any sort of habitation site, and it's not an easily accessible place--they had to control fire and trek deep into the cave to reach the site. I'm personally tempted to think there may be some sort of connection to a conception of the underworld. Perhaps it was a place to worship or contact the dead. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gingitsune Posted May 27, 2016 #14 Share Posted May 27, 2016 This is obviously a fighting ring. About Neandertals' pigmentation:https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg22129542-600-neanderthal-human-sex-bred-light-skins-and-infertility/ Quote One of the genes, BNC2, is involved in skin pigmentation. That implies that Eurasians owe their paler skins partly to Neanderthals. Light skin is an advantage at higher latitudes because it is more efficient at generating vitamin D from sunlight, so Neanderthal DNA may have helped modern humans to adapt to life outside Africa. There is also a mutation on another gene which hint some Neandertal were redhaired with freakles. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Hammerclaw Posted May 27, 2016 #15 Share Posted May 27, 2016 That deep in the cave, the temperature would have remained well above freezing in winter and deliciously cool in summer. The Neanderthals took advantage of natural central heat and air! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dyna Posted May 27, 2016 #16 Share Posted May 27, 2016 Here we go again, if it doesn't fit hid it, stinks to high heaven! This is partly because the previous work wasn’t published in the international scientific literature, but Villa thinks there was another reason the Bruniquel finds were overlooked in the late 90s and early 2000s: mainstream scientific thinking at the time simply rejected the idea of Neanderthals as intelligent and sophisticated. “[it] ran against the prevailing and damning views of Neanderthal inferiority compared to modern humans,” Villa says. https://www.newscientist.com/article/2090183-neanderthals-built-mystery-underground-circles-175000-years-ago/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paperdyer Posted May 27, 2016 #17 Share Posted May 27, 2016 A real cool find! Is it my imagination or does the picture of the Neanderthal used looks like Danny Trejo? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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