Neanderthal(lat. Homo neanderthalensis) - an extinct species from the genus People (lat. Homo). The first people with Neanderthal features (protoanderthals) appeared in Europe about 600 thousand years ago. Classic Neanderthals formed about 100-130 thousand years ago. The latest remains date back to 28-33 thousand years ago.
Opening
The remains of H. neanderthalensis were first discovered in 1829 by Philippe-Charles Schmerling in the caves of Engie (modern Belgium), it was the skull of a child. In 1848, the skull of an adult Neanderthal was found in Gibraltar (Gibraltar 1). Naturally, neither of these finds was considered at that time as evidence of the existence of an extinct species of people, and they were classified as the remains of Neanderthals much later.
The type specimen (holotype) of the species (Neanderthal 1) was found only in August 1856 in a limestone quarry in the Neanderthal Valley near Düsseldorf (North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany). It consists of the skull vault, two femurs, three bones from the right arm and two from the left, part of the pelvis, fragments of the scapula and ribs. The local gymnasium teacher Johann Karl Fuhlroth was interested in geology and paleontology. Having received the remains from the workers who found them, he paid attention to their complete fossilization and geological position and came to the conclusion of their considerable age and important scientific significance. Fuhlroth then handed them over to Hermann Schaafhausen, professor of anatomy at the University of Bonn. The discovery was announced in June 1857; this happened 2 years before the publication of Charles Darwin’s work “The Origin of Species.” In 1864, at the suggestion of the Anglo-Irish geologist William King, the new species was named after the place of its discovery. In 1867, Ernst Haeckel proposed the name Homo stupidus (i.e., Stupid Man), but in accordance with the rules of nomenclature, priority remained with King's name.
In 1880, the jawbone of a child of H. neanderthalensis was found in the Czech Republic, along with tools from the Mousterian period and the bones of extinct animals. In 1886, the perfectly preserved skeletons of a man and a woman were found in Belgium at a depth of about 5 m, also along with numerous Mousterian tools. Subsequently, the remains of Neanderthals were discovered in other places on the territory of modern Russia, Croatia, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Iran, Uzbekistan, Israel and other countries. To date, the remains of more than 400 Neanderthals have been found.
The status of the Neanderthal as a previously unknown species of ancient man was not immediately established. Many prominent scientists of that time did not recognize him as such. Thus, the outstanding German scientist Rudolf Virchow rejected the thesis of “primitive man” and considered the Neanderthal skull to be just a pathologically altered skull of a modern person. And the doctor and anatomist Franz Mayer, having studied the structure of the pelvis and lower limbs, hypothesized that the remains belonged to a man who spent a significant part of his life riding a horse. He suggested that it could be a Russian Cossack from the Napoleonic Wars era.
Classification
Almost since the discovery, scientists have been debating the status of Neanderthals. Some of them are of the opinion that Neanderthal man is not an independent species, but only a subspecies of modern man (lat. Homo sapiens neanderthalensis). This is largely due to the lack of a clear definition of the species. One of the hallmarks of the species is reproductive isolation, and genetic studies suggest that Neanderthals and modern humans interbred. On the one hand, this supports the point of view about the status of Neanderthals as a subspecies of modern humans. But on the other hand, there are documented examples of interspecific crossings, as a result of which fertile offspring appeared, so this characteristic cannot be considered decisive. At the same time, DNA studies and morphological studies show that Neanderthals are still an independent species.
Origin
A comparison of the DNA of modern humans and H. neanderthalensis shows that they descended from a common ancestor, dividing approximately, according to various estimates, from 350-400 to 500 and even 800 thousand years ago. The likely ancestor of both of these species is Homo heidelbergensis. Moreover, Neanderthals descended from the European population of H. heidelbergensis, and modern humans – from the African one and much later.
Anatomy and morphology
Men of this species had an average height of 164-168 cm, weight about 78 kg, women - 152-156 cm and 66 kg, respectively. The brain volume is 1500-1900 cm 3, which exceeds the average brain volume of a modern person.
The cranial vault is low but long, the face is flat with massive brow ridges, the forehead is low and strongly inclined back. The jaws are long and wide with large teeth, protruding forward, but without a chin protrusion. Judging by the wear on their teeth, Neanderthals were right-handed.
Their physique was more massive than that of modern man. The chest is barrel-shaped, the torso is long, and the legs are relatively short. Presumably, the dense physique of Neanderthals is an adaptation to the cold climate, because. due to a decrease in the ratio of body surface to its volume, heat loss by the body through the skin is reduced. The bones are very strong, this is due to highly developed muscles. The average Neanderthal was significantly stronger than modern humans.
Genome
Early studies of the H. neanderthalensis genome focused on mitochondrial DNA (mDNA) studies. Because mDNA under normal conditions is inherited strictly through the maternal line and contains a significantly smaller amount of information (16,569 nucleotides versus ~3 billion in nuclear DNA), so the significance of such studies was not very great.
In 2006, the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology and 454 Life Sciences announced that the Neanderthal genome would be sequenced over the next few years. In May 2010 they were published preliminary results this work. Research has revealed that Neanderthals and modern humans may have interbred, and every living person (except Africans) carries between 1 and 4 percent of H. neanderthalensis genes. Sequencing of the entire Neanderthal genome was completed in 2013, and the results were published in the journal Nature on December 18, 2013.
Habitat
Fossil remains of Neanderthals have been discovered over a large area of Eurasia, which includes such modern countries as Great Britain, Portugal, Spain, Italy, Germany, Croatia, Czech Republic, Israel, Iran, Ukraine, Russia, Uzbekistan. The easternmost find is the remains discovered in the Altai Mountains (Southern Siberia).
However, it should be taken into account that a significant part of the period of existence of this species occurred during the last glaciation, which could have destroyed evidence of Neanderthal habitation in more northern latitudes.
No traces of H. neanderthalensis have yet been found in Africa. This is probably due to the adaptation to the cold climate of both themselves and the animals that formed the basis of their diet.
Behavior
Archaeological evidence shows that Neanderthals spent most of their lives in small groups of 5-50 people. There were almost no old people among them, because... most did not live to be 35 years old, but some individuals lived to be 50. There is plenty of evidence of Neanderthals caring for each other. Among those studied, there are skeletons that have traces of cured injuries and diseases, therefore, during the healing, the tribesmen fed and protected the wounded and sick. There is evidence that the dead were buried, with funeral offerings sometimes found in the graves.
It is believed that Neanderthals rarely met strangers in their small territory or left it themselves. Although there are occasional finds of high-quality stone from sources more than 100 km away, these are not sufficient to conclude that there was trade or even regular contact with other groups.
H. neanderthalensis made extensive use of a variety of stone tools. However, over hundreds of thousands of years, their manufacturing technology has changed very little. Besides the obvious assumption that Neanderthals, despite their large brains, were not very smart, there is an alternative hypothesis. It lies in the fact that due to the small number of Neanderthals (and their number never exceeded 100 thousand individuals), the likelihood of innovation was low. Most of the Neanderthal stone tools belong to the Mousterian culture. Some of them are very sharp. There is evidence of the use of wooden instruments, but they themselves have practically not survived to this day.
Neanderthals used different kinds weapons, including spears. But most likely they were used only in close combat, and not for throwing. This is indirectly confirmed by a large number of skeletons with traces of injuries caused by large animals that Neanderthals hunted and which made up the bulk of their diet.
Previously, it was believed that H. neanderthalensis fed exclusively on the meat of large land mammals, such as mammoths, bison, deer, etc. However, later discoveries showed that small animals and some plants also served as food. And in the south of Spain, traces were found that Neanderthals ate marine mammals, fish and shellfish. However, despite the variety of food sources, obtaining sufficient quantities was often a problem. Proof of this are skeletons with signs of diseases caused by malnutrition.
It is assumed that Neanderthals already had a significant command of speech. This is indirectly evidenced by the production of complex tools and the hunting of large animals, which require communication for learning and interaction. In addition, there is anatomical and genetic evidence: the structure of the hyoid and occipital bones, the hypoglossal nerve, the presence of a gene responsible for speech in modern humans.
Extinction hypotheses
There are several hypotheses explaining the disappearance of this species, which can be divided into 2 groups: those associated with the emergence and spread of modern humans and other reasons.
According to modern ideas, modern man, having appeared in Africa, gradually began to spread to the north, where by this time Neanderthal man was widespread. Both of these species coexisted for many millennia, but Neanderthal was eventually completely replaced by modern humans.
There is also a hypothesis linking the disappearance of the Neanderthals with climate change caused by the eruption of a large volcano about 40 thousand years ago. This change led to a decrease in the amount of vegetation and the number of large herbivorous animals that fed on vegetation and, in turn, were the food of the Neanderthals. Accordingly, lack of food led to the extinction of H. neanderthalensis itself.
The first Neanderthal skull, which was recognized as belonging to a previously unstudied human species, was discovered in 1856 in the territory of modern Germany in the Neander Valley of the Dussel River, near the city of Dusseldorf.
One of the finds of the remains of a Neanderthal skull was made 15 km from the Netherlands at the bottom of the North Sea. The deceased lived in the late Pleistocene era (approximately 40 thousand BC), ate exclusively meat, as evidenced by bone analysis. Stone axes and animal bones were discovered alongside human remains. The shelf areas at that time were part of the land (flooded 6500 BC) and a favorable habitat for herbivorous animals.
Anatomy
The appearance of the Neanderthals had features that are still considered primitive today: a depressed chin, large brow ridges, very massive jaws. Their head was larger than that of a modern person, because it contained a much larger brain (from 1400 to 1700 cm 3). The average height of men was 1.65 m, women were 10 centimeters lower. But at the same time, the men weighed about 90 kg, their arms and legs were shorter. DNA analysis of Neanderthal bones suggests they may have been red-haired and fair-skinned.
Physiology
Neanderthals knew how to speak, their speech was higher and slower than that of modern people. It is believed that Neanderthals may have had more advanced abstract thinking. According to anthropologists, average duration The lifespan of Neanderthals was 30-40 years.
Genetics
It has now been established that up to 4% of the genes of some modern people belong to Neanderthals. As genetic analysis has shown, Neanderthals participated in the formation of several modern peoples (French, Spaniards, Greeks and American Indians).
The period of greatest distribution of Neanderthals on the planet occurred during climate cooling. Approximately 30 thousand years BC. the last representatives of this species lived in the very south of Spain, in the Gibraltar region, in the Pyrenees. Material from the site
Neanderthal lifestyle
Neanderthals lived in small tribal communities consisting of 2-4 families. According to the reconstruction of archaeologists, the homes of the Neanderthals were oval huts made of poles dug into the ground, tied together at the top and covered with animal skins. Inside the hut there was a fireplace made of flat stones. Spears were used for hunting.
Customs
Neanderthals buried their dead. More than twenty cases of Neanderthal burials have been discovered. No human predecessors or relatives did this—only modern humans and Neanderthals.
Man has always been interested in his origins. Who he is, where he came from and how he came from - these have been some of the main questions since ancient times. IN Ancient Greece During the period of the birth of the first sciences, the problem was fundamental in the emerging philosophy. And now this topic has not lost its relevance. Although over the past centuries scientists have managed to make great progress in the problem of the emergence of man, there are more and more questions.
None of the researchers can be completely sure that the accepted hypotheses of the origin of life, including the appearance of man, are correct. Moreover, both centuries ago and today, anthropologists wage real scientific wars, defending their ideas and refuting the theories of their opponents.
One of the most well-studied ancient people is the Neanderthal. This is a long-extinct representative of the human race who lived 130 - 20 thousand years ago.
Origin of the name
In western Germany, near Düsseldorf, there is the Neanderthal Gorge. It got its name from the German pastor and composer Neander. In the mid-19th century, an ancient human skull was found here. Two years later, the anthropologist Schaafhausen, who was involved in his research, introduced the term “Neanderthal” into scientific circulation. Thanks to him, the found bones were not sold, and they are now in the Rhineland Museum.
The term “Neanderthal” (photos obtained as a result of the reconstruction of his appearance can be seen below) does not have clear boundaries due to the vastness and heterogeneity of this group of hominids. The status of this ancient man is also not precisely determined. Some scientists classify it as a subspecies of Homo sapiens, some classify it as a separate species and even genus. Now the ancient Neanderthal man is the most studied species of fossil hominid. Moreover, bones belonging to this species continue to be found.
How it was discovered
The remains of these representatives were the first to be found among hominids. Ancient humans (Neanderthals) were discovered in 1829 in Belgium. At that time, this find was not given any significance, and its importance was proven much later. Then their remains were discovered in England. It was only the third discovery in 1856 near Düsseldorf that gave the name to the Neanderthal and proved the importance of all the previous fossil remains found.
Quarry workers discovered a grotto filled with silt. After clearing it, they found part of a human skull and several massive bones near the entrance. The ancient remains were acquired by the German paleontologist Johann Fuhlroth, who later described them.
Neanderthal - structural features and classification
The found bones of fossil people were carefully studied, and based on the research, scientists were able to recreate an approximate appearance. Neanderthal is undoubtedly one of the first people, since his similarities with are obvious. At the same time, there are a huge number of differences.
The average height of an ancient person was 165 centimeters. He had a dense physique, and in terms of the volume of the cranium, the ancient Neanderthals were superior to modern humans. The arms were short, more like paws. Broad shoulders and a barrel chest indicate great strength.
A powerful, very small chin and short neck are another feature of Neanderthals. Most likely, these features were formed under the influence of the harsh conditions of the Ice Age, in which ancient people lived 100 - 50 thousand years ago.
The structure of Neanderthals suggests that they had great muscle mass, with a heavy skeleton, ate mainly meat and were better adapted to the subarctic climate than Cro-Magnons.
They had primitive speech, most likely consisting of a large number of consonant sounds.
Since these ancient people lived over a vast territory, there were several types of them. Some had features closer to the animal-like appearance, others resembled modern humans.
Habitat of Homo neanderthalensis
From the remains found today, it is known that Neanderthal man (an ancient man who lived thousands of years ago) lived in Europe, Central Asia and the East. They were not found in Africa. Later, this fact became one of the proofs that Homo neanderthalensis is not the ancestor of modern man, but his closest relative.
How we managed to reconstruct the appearance of an ancient man
Since Schaafhausen, the “godfather” of the Neanderthal, many attempts have been made to recreate the appearance of this ancient hominid from fragments of his skull and skeleton. The Soviet anthropologist and sculptor Mikhail Gerasimov achieved great success in this. He created his own technique for restoring a person’s appearance using skeletal remains. He made more than two hundred sculptural portraits of historical figures. Gerasimov also reconstructed the appearance of the late Neanderthal and Cro-Magnon man. The anthropological reconstruction laboratory he created continues to successfully restore the appearance of ancient people today.
Neanderthals and Cro-Magnons - do they have anything in common?
These two representatives of the human race lived for some time in the same era and existed side by side for twenty thousand years. Scientists classify Cro-Magnons as early representatives of modern humans. They appeared in Europe 40 - 50 thousand years ago and were very different from Neanderthals physically and mentally. They were tall (180 cm), had a straight forehead without protruding brow ridges, a narrow nose and a more clearly defined chin. In appearance, these people were very close to modern man.
The cultural achievements of the Cro-Magnons surpass all the successes of their predecessors. Having inherited a large, developed brain and primitive technologies from their ancestors, they quickly made a giant leap forward in their development. Their discoveries are amazing. For example, Neanderthals and Cro-Magnons lived in small groups in caves and tents made of skins. But it was the latter who created the first settlements and finally formed They tamed the dog, performed funeral rites, painted hunting scenes on the walls of caves, and knew how to make tools not only from stone, but also from horn and bones. Cro-Magnons had articulate speech.
Thus, the differences between these two types of ancient man were significant.
Homo neanderthalensis and modern man
For a long time, there has been debate in scientific circles about which of the representatives of ancient people should be considered the ancestor of man. It is now known for sure that Neanderthals (photos taken based on the reconstruction of the remains of their bones clearly confirm this) are physically and externally very different from Homo sapiens and are not the ancestor of modern humans.
Previously, there was a different point of view on this matter. But recent research has given reason to believe that sapiens lived in Africa, which lay outside the habitat of Homo neanderthalensis. In the entire long history of studying the remains of their bones, they have never been found on the African continent. But this issue was finally resolved in 1997, when Neanderthal DNA was deciphered at the University of Munich. The differences in genes that scientists found were too great.
Research on the Homo neanderthalensis genome continued in 2006. It has been scientifically proven that the divergence in the genes of this species of ancient man from modern man began approximately 500 thousand years ago. To decipher the DNA, bones found in Croatia, Russia, Germany and Spain were used.
Therefore, we can say with confidence that the Neanderthal is an extinct species close to us, which is not the direct ancestor of Homo sapiens. This is another branch of the vast family of hominids, which includes, in addition to humans and his extinct ancestors, also progressive primates.
In 2010, during ongoing research, Neanderthal genes were found in many modern peoples. This suggests that there was mixing between Homo neanderthalensis and Cro-Magnons.
Life and everyday life of ancient people
Neanderthal (an ancient man who lived in the Middle Paleolithic) first used the most primitive tools that he inherited from his predecessors. Gradually, new, more advanced forms of tools began to appear. They were still made of stone, but became more varied and complex in processing techniques. In total, approximately sixty types of products have been found, which are actually variations of three main types: the chopper, the scraper and the pointed point.
During excavations at Neanderthal sites, incisors, piercings, scrapers and denticulated tools were also found.
Scrapers helped in cutting and dressing animals and their skins; pointed points had an even wider scope of application. They were used as daggers, carcass knives, and as spear and arrow tips. Ancient Neanderthals also used bone to make tools. These were mainly awls and points, but larger objects were also found - daggers and clubs made of horn.
As for weapons, they were still extremely primitive. Its main type, apparently, was a spear. This conclusion was made based on studies of animal bones found at Neanderthal sites.
These ancient people were unlucky with the climate. If their predecessors lived in a warm period, then by the time Homo neanderthalensis appeared, a strong cooling began and glaciers began to form. The landscape all around resembled tundra. Therefore, the life of Neanderthals was extremely harsh and full of dangers.
Caves continued to serve as their home, but gradually buildings began to appear on open place- tents made of animal skins and buildings made of mammoth bones.
Classes
Most of the time of ancient man was spent searching for food. Judging by various studies, they were not scavengers, but hunters, and this activity requires coordination in actions. According to scientists, the main commercial species for Neanderthals were large mammals. Since ancient man lived over a vast territory, the victims were different: mammoths, wild bulls and horses, woolly rhinoceroses, deer. The cave bear was an important game animal.
Despite the fact that hunting large animals became their main occupation, Neanderthals continued to engage in gathering. According to research, they were not completely carnivorous, and their diet included roots, nuts and berries.
Culture
The Neanderthal is not a primitive creature, as was believed in the 19th century. An ancient man who lived in the Middle Paleolithic era formed a cultural movement that was called the Mousterian culture. At this time, the emergence of a new form begins public life- tribal community. Neanderthals cared for members of their kind. The hunters did not eat their prey on the spot, but carried it home to the cave to the rest of their fellow tribesmen.
Homo neanderthalensis did not yet know how to draw or create animal figures from stone or clay. But at his sites, stones with skillfully made indentations were found. Ancient people also knew how to make parallel scratches on bone tools and make jewelry from drilled animal teeth and shells.
Their funeral rites also indicate the high cultural development of Neanderthals. More than twenty graves were found. The bodies were located in shallow pits in the pose of a sleeping person with bent arms and legs.
The ancient people also possessed the rudiments of medical knowledge. They knew how to heal fractures and dislocations. Some finds suggest that primitive people cared for the wounded.
Homo neanderthalensis - the mystery of the extinction of ancient man
When and why did the last Neanderthal disappear? This mystery has occupied the minds of scientists for many years. There is no precisely proven answer to this question. Modern man does not know why dinosaurs disappeared, and cannot say what led to the extinction of his closest fossil relative.
For a long time, there was an opinion that Neanderthals were supplanted by their more adapted and developed rival, the Cro-Magnon man. And there really is a lot of evidence for this theory. It is known that Homo neanderthalensis appeared in Europe in the range of about 50 thousand years ago, and after 30 thousand years the last Neanderthal disappeared. It is believed that these twenty centuries of living side by side in a small area were a time of fierce competition between the two species for resources. The Cro-Magnon won thanks to numerical superiority and better adaptability.
Not all scientists agree with this theory. Some put forward their own, no less interesting hypotheses. Many people are of the opinion that climate change killed the Neanderthals. The fact is that 30 thousand years ago a long period of cold and dry weather began in Europe. Perhaps this led to the disappearance of ancient man, who was unable to adapt to the changed living conditions.
A rather unusual theory was put forward by Simon Underdown, a specialist at Oxford University. He believes that Neanderthals were struck down by a disease that was common to cannibals. As you know, eating humans was not uncommon at that time.
Another version of the disappearance of this ancient man is assimilation with the Cro-Magnons.
The extinction of Homo neanderthalensis occurred unevenly over time. On the Iberian Peninsula, representatives of this type of fossil people lived a millennium after the disappearance of the rest in Europe.
Neanderthals in modern culture
The appearance of ancient man, his dramatic struggle for existence and the mystery of his disappearance have more than once become themes for literary works and films. Joseph Henri Roney Sr. wrote the novel The Fight for the Fire, which received high praise from critics and was filmed in 1981. The film of the same name received a prestigious award - the Oscar. In 1985, the film “The Tribe of the Cave Bear” was created, which told how a girl from the Cro-Magnon family, after the death of her tribe, began to be raised by Neanderthals.
A new feature film dedicated to ancient people was created in 2010. This is "The Last Neanderthal" - the story of Eo, who remains the only survivor of his kind. In this picture, the cause of the death of Homo neanderthalensis was not only the Cro-Magnons who attacked their sites and killed, but also an unknown disease. The possibility of assimilation of Neanderthals and Homo sapiens is also considered here. The film was shot in a supposedly documentary style and on a good scientific basis.
In addition, a large number of films are devoted to Neanderthals, telling about their life, activities, culture, and considering theories of extinction.
You read the memoirs of the siege survivors and understand that those people, with their heroic lives, deserved free education with medicine, and various clubs, and free 6 acres and much more. deserve it and with their labor they built that life for themselves and for us.
And the generations who have not seen such war and such a national woe, they wanted chewing gum, rock and jeans, freedom of speech and sex. And their descendants are lace panties, pederasty and “like in Europe.”
Lidiya Mikhailovna Smorodina/Siege of Leningrad. Memories
- How did the war begin for you?
I have a photograph taken on the first day of the war, my mother wrote it (shows)
I graduated from school, we were going to the dacha and went to Nevsky to take pictures, they bought me a new dress.
We drove back and couldn’t understand - there were crowds of people standing at the loudspeakers, something had happened.
And when we entered the courtyard, the men liable for military service were already being taken into the army. At 12 o'clock Moscow time it was announced, and the mobilization of the first conscription had already begun.
Even before September 8 (the start date of the siege of Leningrad), things became very alarming, drills were announced from time to time, and the food supply became worse.
I immediately noticed this, because I was the eldest of the children in the family, my sister was not yet six years old, my brother was four years old, and the youngest was only a year old. I already went to the bread line; I was thirteen and a half years old in 1941.
The first wild bombing took place on September 8 at 16:55, they were bombed mainly with incendiary bombs. They went through all our apartments, all adults and teenagers (they write that from the age of sixteen, but in fact also twelve years old) were forced to go out into the courtyard to the barns, into the attic, onto the roof.
By this time, sand and water had already been prepared in boxes. Water, of course, was not needed, because in water these bombs hissed and did not go out.
We had partitions in the attic, everyone has their own small attic, so in June-July all these partitions were broken for fire safety.
And in the yard there were woodsheds, and all the sheds had to be broken down and the wood taken into the basement, if anyone had wood there.
Then they began to prepare bomb shelters. That is, even before the blockade was completely closed, there was a very good organization of defense, they set up guards, because at first the planes were dropping leaflets and there were spies in Leningrad.
My mother handed one over to the policeman, I don’t know for what reason; she studied at a German school, and something about that man seemed suspicious to her.
They said on the radio that people should be careful, a certain number of paratroopers had been dropped, or they had crossed the front line in the area of the Pulkovo Heights, for example, it could have been done there, trams reached there, and the Germans were already standing on the heights themselves, they approached very quickly.
I have a lot of impressions from the beginning of the blockade, I will probably die - I will not forget all this horror, all this is imprinted in my memory - out of the blue, they say, but here - bombs on my head.
Literally for two weeks or a month, refugees walked through Leningrad, it was scary to watch.
Carts loaded with belongings were driving, children were sitting, women were holding on to the carts. They passed very quickly somewhere to the east, they were accompanied by soldiers, but rarely, not that they walked under escort. We, teenagers, stood at the gate and looked, we were curious, sorry for them and scared.
We, Leningraders, were very conscious and prepared, we knew that very unpleasant things could happen to us and therefore everyone worked, no one ever refused any work; they came, talked and we went and did everything.
Later it started to snow, the paths from the entrances were cleared and there was no such disgrace as now. This continued all winter: everyone went out as much as they could, but some path was cleared to the gate in order to get out.
Have you ever participated in the construction of fortifications around the city?
No, it's just older age. We were sent out to duty at the gates, and we threw lighters from the roof.
The worst thing began after September 8, because there were a lot of fires. (Checks the book) For example, 6,327 incendiary bombs were dropped on the Moscow, Krasnogvardeisky and Smolninsky districts in one day.
At night, I remember, we were on duty on the roof and from our Oktyabrsky district, from Sadovaya Street, the glow of fires was visible. The group climbed into the attic and watched as the Badayev warehouses burned, it was clear. Will you forget this?
The rations were immediately reduced, because these were the main warehouses, right on the ninth or tenth, and from the twelfth, workers already received 300 grams, children 300 grams, and dependents 250 grams, this was the second reduction, the cards were just issued. Then the terrible bombing was the first high-explosive bombs.
On Nevsky, a house collapsed, and here, in our area on Lermontovsky Prospekt, a six-story building collapsed to the ground, only one wall remained standing, covered with wallpaper, in the corner there was a table and some furniture.
Already then, in September, famine began. Life was scary. My mother was a competent, energetic woman, and she understood that we were hungry, our family was large, and what we were doing. In the morning we left the children alone, and we took pillowcases and walked outside the Moscow Gate, there were cabbage fields there. The cabbage had already been harvested, and we walked around collecting the remaining leaves and stalks.
It was very cold at the beginning of October, and we went there until it was knee-deep in snow. Somewhere, my mother got a barrel, and we put all these leaves, we came across beet tops, and we put them together and made this kind of stuff, this stuff saved us.
The third reduction in rations was on November 20: workers 250 grams, children, employees, dependents - 125 grams, and so it was until the opening of the Road of Life, until February. Immediately then they increased the amount of bread to 400 grams for workers, 300 grams for children and 250 grams for dependents.
Then workers began to receive 500 grams, employees 400, children and dependents 300, this is already February 11. They began to evacuate then, they suggested to my mother that they take us out too, they didn’t want to leave the children in the city, because they understood that the war would still last.
Mom had an official summons to pack her things for three days of travel, no more. Cars drove up and took them away; the Vorobievs then left. On this day we are sitting on bundles, my backpack is from a pillowcase, Sergei (younger brother) has just left, and Tanya is one year old, she is in my arms, we are sitting in the kitchen and my mother suddenly says - Lida, undress, undress the guys, we are not going anywhere.
A car arrived, a man in a paramilitary uniform began to swear, how is it possible, you will ruin your children. And she told him - I will ruin the children on the road.
And I did the right thing, I think. She would have lost us all, two in her arms, but what about me? Vera is six years old.
Please tell us what the mood was in the city during the first winter of the siege.
Our radio broadcast: do not fall for the propaganda leaflets, do not read. There was such a blockade leaflet that was etched in my memory for the rest of my life, the text there was “St. Petersburg ladies, don’t dig holes,” this is about the trenches, I don’t remember completely.
It's amazing how everyone pulled together then. We have a small square yard - everyone was friends, they went out to do whatever work they needed and the mood was patriotic. Then in schools we were taught to love our Motherland, to be patriots, even before the war.
Then a terrible famine began, because in the fall and winter we had food, but here we had nothing at all. Then came the difficult everyday life of the blockade.
During the bombing, the pipes burst, the water was turned off everywhere, and all winter we walked from Sadovaya to the Neva for water, with a sled, the sled turned over, returned or went home with tears, and carried buckets in our hands. My mother and I went together.
We had the Fontanka River nearby, and on the radio they forbade taking water from there because there were a lot of hospitals there that were draining water. Whenever possible, we climbed onto the roof to collect snow, this was all winter, and we tried to bring it from the Neva for drinking.
On the Neva it was like this: we walked through Teatralnaya Square, through Truda Square and at the Lieutenant Schmidt Bridge there was a descent. The descent, of course, was icy because the water was spilling, so we had to climb.
And there was an ice hole there, I don’t know who supported it, we came without any tools, we could barely walk. During the bombing, all the windows were blown out, they covered the windows with plywood, oilcloth, blankets, and pillows.
Then severe frosts came in the winter of 41-42, and we all moved into the kitchen, it had no windows and there was a large stove, but there was nothing to heat it with, we ran out of wood, even though we had a shed and a pantry on the stairs, full firewood
The grunt has run out - what to do? My father went to the dacha that we rented in Kolomyagi. He knew that a cow had been slaughtered there in the fall and the skin had been hung in the attic, and he brought this skin, and it saved us.
They all ate. The belts were cooked. There were soles - they weren’t cooked, because then there was nothing to wear, but belts - yes. Good belts, soldier's ones, they are very tasty.
We scorched that skin on the stove, cleaned it and cooked it, soaked it in the evening and made jelly, my mother had a supply bay leaf, they put it there - it was delicious! But it was completely black, this jelly, because it was cow hair, the coals remained from the scorching.
My father was near Leningrad from the very beginning, at the Pulkovo Heights at the headquarters, he was shell-shocked, he came to visit me and told me to tell my mother that the winter would be hard, that after the hospital he would come back in a couple of days.
The last time before the war he worked at a factory, and there he ordered us a potbelly stove and stove. It still stands in my dacha. He brought it, and we cooked everything on this potbelly stove, it was our salvation, because people adapted anything for stoves - there were almost no metal barrels then, and they made them out of everything.
After they started bombing with high-explosive bombs, the sewage system stopped working, and we had to take out a bucket every day. We lived in the kitchen then, we pulled out beds there and the little ones sat in bed against the wall all the time, and my mother and I, willy-nilly, had to do everything, go out. We had a toilet in the kitchen, in the corner.
There was no bathroom. There were no windows in the kitchen, so we moved there, and the lighting came from the hallway, there was a large window there, and in the evening the lantern was already lit. And our entire sewer pipe was filled with such red deposits of ice and sewage. In the spring, when warming began, it all had to be chipped off and taken out. This is how we lived.
This is the spring of '42. There was still a lot of snow, and there was an order - the entire population from 16 to 60 years old should go out to clear the city of snow.
When we went to the Neva for water and there were queues, even for bread with coupons there were queues, and it was very scary to walk, we walked together, because they tore the bread out of our hands and ate it right there. You go to the Neva for water - corpses are lying everywhere.
This is where they started taking 17-year-old girls to the NPVO. A truck was driving around everywhere, and the girls were picking up these frozen corpses and taking them away. Once, after the war, it flashed in a film magazine about such a place, it was on Maklino.
And in Kolomyagi it was on Akkuratova Street, near Stepan Skvortsov’s psychiatric hospital, and they were also stacked almost to the roof.
Before the war, we rented a dacha in Kolomyagi for two years, and the owner of this dacha, Aunt Liza Kayakina, sent her son with an offer for us to move there. He came on foot, through the whole city, and we gathered on the same day.
He came with a big sled, we had two sleds, and we loaded up and went, this is approximately the beginning of March. The children were on a sled and the three of us were dragging this sled, and there was also luggage, we had to take something. My father went to work somewhere, and my mother and I went to see him off.
Why? Cannibalism began.
And in Kolomyagi I knew a family who was doing this, they were quite healthy, they were tried later, after the war.
Our biggest fear was being eaten. They mostly cut out the liver, because the rest was skin and bones; I saw it all with my own eyes. Aunt Lisa had a cow, and that’s why she invited us: to save us and keep us safe, they had already climbed up to it, dismantled the roof, they would have killed them, of course, because of this cow.
We arrived, the cow was hanging on ropes tied to the ceiling. She still had some feed left, and they began to milk the cow, but she did not milk well, because I was also hungry.
Aunt Lisa sent me across the road to a neighbor, she had a son, they were very hungry, the boy no longer got out of bed, and I brought him a little, 100 grams of milk. Basically, she ate her son. I came and asked, and she said - he’s not there, he’s gone. Where could he go, he could no longer stand. I smell meat and steam is pouring out.
In the spring we went to the vegetable storehouse and dug ditches where spoiled food, potatoes and carrots were buried before the war.
The ground was still frozen, but it was already possible to dig out this rotten mess, mostly potatoes, and when we came across carrots, we considered ourselves very lucky, because carrots smell better, potatoes are just rotten and that’s all.
They started eating this. Aunt Lisa had a lot of duranda stored for the cow since the fall, we mixed potatoes and bran with it, and it was a feast, pancakes, flatbreads were baked without oil, just on the stove.
There was a lot of dystrophy. I was not greedy for food, but Vera, Sergei and Tatyana loved to eat and endured hunger much more difficult. Mom divided everything very precisely, cutting the bread into centimeter-by-centimeter pieces. Spring began - everyone ate, and Tanya had second-degree dystrophy, and Vera had the very last, third, and yellow spots had already begun to appear on her body.
That’s how we overwintered, and in the spring we were given a piece of land, whatever seeds we planted, and in general, we survived. We also had duranda, do you know what it is? Grain waste pressed into circles, seeded duranda is very tasty, like halva. This was given to us piece by piece, like candy, to chew. It took a long, long time to chew.
1942 - we ate everything: quinoa, plantain, whatever grass grew - we ate everything, and what we didn’t eat we salted. We planted a lot of fodder beets and found seeds. They ate it raw, boiled, and with tops - in every way.
All the tops went into a barrel for pickling, we didn’t distinguish where Aunt Lisa’s was, where ours were - everything was common, that’s how we lived. In the fall I went to school, my mother said: hunger is not hunger, go study.
Even at school, during the big break, they gave us a vegetable slop and 50 grams of bread, it was called a bun, but now, of course, no one would call it that.
We studied hard the teachers were all exhausted to the limit and put marks: if you walked, they’ll give you a three.
We, too, were all exhausted, we were nodding off in class, there was no light either, so we read with smokers. Smokehouses were made from any small jars, kerosene was poured in and the wick was lit - it smoked. There was never any electricity, but in the factories electricity was supplied at certain times, by the hour, only to those areas where there was no electricity.
Back in the spring of 1942 they began to break wooden houses for heating, and in Kolomyagi we broke a lot. We were not touched because of the children, because there were so many children, and by the fall we moved to another house, one family left, evacuated, sold the house. This was done by the NPVO, by demolishing houses, by special teams, mostly women.
In the spring we were told that we would not take exams, if we got C grades, we would be promoted to the next grade.
Classes stopped in April '43.
I had a friend in Kolomyaga, Lyusya Smolina, she helped me get a job at a bakery. The work there is very hard, without electricity - everything is done by hand.
Electricity was supplied to the bread ovens at a certain time, and everything else - kneading, slicing, forming - everything was done by hand, several people stood at a time teenagers and kneaded with their hands, the ribs of the palms were all covered with solid calluses.
The kettles with dough were also transported by hand, but they are heavy, I can’t say for sure now, but almost 500 kilograms.
I went to work for the first time at night, the shifts were like this: from 8 pm to 8 am, you rest for a day, the next shift you work a day from 8 am to 8 pm.
The first time I came home from my shift, my mother dragged me home, I got there and fell near the fence, I don’t remember further, I woke up already in bed.
Then you get involved you get used to everything, Certainly, but I worked there to the point that I became dystrophic. Once you inhale this air, you won’t be able to eat anymore.
It happened that the voltage dropped and the pin inside the oven on which the bread pans stood did not spin, but it could burn out! And no one will look whether there is electricity or what, will be court-martialed.
And what we did - near the stove there was a lever with a long handle, we hang on this lever for 5-6 people so that the pin turns.
At first I was a student, then an assistant. There, at the factory, I joined the Komsomol, people were in the right mood, everyone stick together.
Before the blockade was lifted, on December 3, there was an incident - a shell hit a tram in the Vyborg region, 97 people were injured, it was morning, people were going to the plant, and then almost our entire shift did not show up.
I was working the night shift at the time, and in the morning they rounded us up and told everyone that they wouldn’t let us leave the factory, we would all remain at our workplaces, in a barracks-like situation. In the evening they were sent home because another shift had arrived, they were working incomprehensibly, but you can’t leave people without bread!
There were many military units around, I don’t know for sure, but, in my opinion, we supplied them too. So, we were allowed to go home for less than a full day to get a change of clothes and return, and on December 12 we were transferred to barracks status.
I was there for 3 or 4 months, we slept on soldier’s bunks, two of us working, two of us sleeping. Even before all this, in the winter I went to evening school at the Pediatric Institute, but it was all in fits and starts, my knowledge was very poor, and when I entered a technical school after the war, it was very difficult for me, fundamental knowledge did not have.
Please tell us about the mood in the city, whether there was cultural life.
I know about Shostakovich’s concert in 1943. Then the Germans switched to massive shelling, since the fall, the Germans felt that they were losing, well, that’s what we thought, of course.
We lived hungry, and after the war there was still hunger, and dystrophy was treated, and cards, all that. The people behaved very well, now people have become envious and unfriendly, this was not the case with us. And they shared - you yourself are hungry, and you give a piece.
I remember, I was walking home from work with bread, and a person met me - I couldn’t tell whether it was a woman or a man, they dressed so that they were warm. She looks at me I gave a piece to her.
It’s not because I’m so good, everyone behaved that way basically. There were, of course, thieves and so on. For example, going to a store was mortally dangerous; you could be attacked and your cards taken away.
Once the daughter of our farm manager went and her daughter and her cards disappeared. All. They saw her in the store, she came out with groceries - but no one knows where she went next.
We looked around the apartments, but what was there to take? No one has food; anything more valuable was exchanged for bread. Why did we still survive? Mom traded everything she had: jewelry, dresses, everything for bread.
Please tell us how informed you were about the course of the hostilities?
They transmitted it constantly. Only they took away everyone’s receivers, those who had radios, they took everything away. In our kitchen there was a plate and a radio. It didn’t always work, but only when something needed to be conveyed, and there were loudspeakers on the streets.
There was a large loudspeaker on Sennaya, for example, and they mostly hung on the corners, the corner of Nevsky and Sadovaya, near the Public Library. Everyone believed in our victory, everything was done for victory and for the war.
In the fall of 1943, in November-December, I was called to the personnel department and told that they were sending me to the front line with a propaganda team.
Our brigade consisted of 4 people - a party organizer and three Komsomol members, two girls, approximately 18 years old, they were already our masters, and I was 15 then, and they sent us to the front line to maintain the morale of the soldiers, to the coastal artillery and There was also an anti-aircraft unit nearby.
They brought us in a truck under a tent, assigned us to different places, and we didn’t see each other. At first they said that it was for three days, but we lived there for either 8 or 9 days, I stayed there alone, lived in a dugout.
The first night was in the commander’s dugout, and after that the anti-aircraft gunner girls took me in with them. I saw how they aimed guns at the plane, they let me go everywhere, and I was amazed that they were pointing up, but looking down at the tables.
The girls are young, 18-20 years old, not teenagers anymore. The food was good, barley and canned food, a piece of bread and tea in the morning, I came from there, and it seemed to me that I had even gained weight in those eight days (laughs).
What was I doing? I walked through the dugouts, the girls in the dugouts could stand up tall, but the men had low dugouts, you could only go in half-bent and immediately sit on the bunks, with a spruce forest on them.
There were 10-15 people in each dugout. They also work on a rotational basis - someone is constantly near the gun, the rest are resting, and on alert there is a general rise. Because of such worries, we could not leave; we bombed any moving target.
It was then that our artillery worked well, and preparations began for breaking the blockade. Finland became quiet then, they reached their old borders and stopped, the only thing left on their side was the Mannerheim Line.
There was also a case when I worked at a bakery, before the New Year of 1944. Our director took out a barrel of soybean meal or he was given more seedings separately.
They made a list at the factory of how many family members they have, who will receive some kind of edible gift. I have four dependents and myself.
And so, before the New Year, they gave out a rather large piece of gingerbread (shows with his hands the size of about an A4 sheet), probably 200 grams per person.
I still remember well how I carried it, I was supposed to have 6 servings, and they cut them off in one big piece, but I didn’t have a bag or anything. They put it on a piece of cardboard for me (I was working the day shift at the time), there was no paper, at school they wrote between the lines in books.
In general, they wrapped it in some kind of rag. I often rode on the tram bandwagon, but with this, how can you jump on the bandwagon? I went on foot I had to walk 8 kilometers. It’s evening, winter, in the dark, through Udelninsky Park, and it’s like a forest, and also on the outskirts, there stood military unit, and there was talk that they were taking advantage of the girls. Anyone could do anything.
And all this time I carried the gingerbread in my hand, I was afraid to fall, there was snow all around, everything was covered. When we left home, we knew every time that we would leave and might not return, but the kids didn’t understand this.
Once I went to the other end of the city, to the harbor and walked back and forth all night, there was such a terrible shelling, lights were flashing, shell tracks, shrapnel whistling all around.
So, I came into the house with the gingerbread, everyone was hungry, and when they saw it, there was such joy! They, of course, were stunned, and for us it was a New Year's feast.
You left for Kolomyagi in the spring of 1942. When did you return back to the city apartment?
I returned alone in 1945, and they stayed to live there because they started a small vegetable garden there; there was still hunger in the city. But I entered the academy, I had to take courses, I had to study, and it was difficult for me to travel to Kolomyagi and back, I moved to the city. They glazed our frames and moved a woman with two children from a bombed house into our apartment.
Tell us how the city came to its senses after the blockade was broken and lifted.
They just worked. Everyone who could worked worked. There was an order to restore the city. But the return of the monuments and their release from disguise was carried out much later. Then they began to cover the bombed houses with camouflage to create the appearance of a city, to cover up the ruins.
At sixteen you are already an adult, working or studying, so everyone worked, well, except for the sick. After all, I went to the factory because of a work card, to help, to earn money, but no one will give food for free, and I didn’t eat bread in my family.
How much did the city's supply improve after the blockade was lifted?
The cards didn’t go away; they were still around after the war. But the same as in the first winter of the blockade, when they gave 125 grams of millet per decade (in the text - 12.5 grams per decade. I hope that there is a typo in it, but I don’t have the opportunity to check now. - Note ss69100.) - this hasn’t happened for a long time. They also gave us lentils from military supplies.
How quickly was transport communication restored in the city?
By today's standards, when everything is automated, it is very fast, because everything was done manually, the same tram lines were repaired by hand.
For us there was great rejoicing back in 1944, in January, when the blockade was lifted. I was working the night shift, someone heard something and came and told me - it was jubilation! We didn’t live any better, the hunger was the same until the very end of the war and after that we were still hungry, but there was a breakthrough! We walked down the street and said to each other - did you know that the blockade was lifted?! Everyone was very happy, although little had changed.
On February 11, 1944, I received the medal “For the Defense of Leningrad.” Few people were given this at that time; they had only just begun to give this medal.
On May 9, 1945, celebrations, concerts, and accordionists performed spontaneously on Palace Square. People sang, read poetry, rejoiced, and there was no drinking, fighting, or anything like that, not like now.
Interview and literary processing: A. Orlova
Who are Neanderthals?
During the third ice age, the outlines of Europe were completely different, not the same as now. Geologists point out differences in the position of land, seas and coastlines on the map. Vast areas to the west and northwest, covered today by the waters of the Atlantic, were then dry land, the North Sea and the Irish Sea were river valleys. The ice cap that covered both poles of the Earth pulled huge amounts of water from the oceans, and sea levels continually dropped, exposing vast areas of land. Now they were under water again.
The Mediterranean was then probably a vast valley below the general level of the sea. In the valley itself there were two inland seas, cut off from the ocean by land. The climate of the Mediterranean basin was probably moderately cold. The Sahara region, located to the south, was not then a desert with hot stones and sand dunes, but a humid and fertile area.
Between the thickness of the glacier in the north and the Mediterranean valley and the Alps in the south stretched a wild, dim region, the climate of which varied from harsh to relatively mild, and with the onset of the fourth ice age it became harsher again.
The southward advance of the glacier peaked during the fourth ice age (about 50,000 years ago) and then declined again.
First Neanderthals
In the earlier Third Ice Age, small groups of early Neanderthals roamed this plain, leaving behind nothing that could now be evidence of their presence (except for rough-hewn primary stone tools). Maybe, besides Neanderthals, there were other species living at that time great apes, anthropoids who could use stone tools. We can only guess this. Apparently they had a variety of different wooden tools. By studying and using various pieces of wood, they learned to give the desired shape to stones.
After weather conditions became extremely unfavorable, Neanderthals began to seek shelter in caves and rock crevices. It seems they already knew how to use fire back then. Neanderthals gathered around open fires on the plains, trying not to move too far from sources of water. They were already intelligent enough to adapt to new, more complex conditions. As for the ape-like people, apparently, they could not withstand the tests of the onset of the fourth ice age (the crudest, poorly processed tools were no longer encountered).
Not only people sought shelter in caves. During this period, cave lions, cave bears, and cave hyenas were encountered. Man had to somehow drive these animals out of the caves and not let them back. Fire was an effective means of attack and defense. The first people did not go too deep into the caves, because they could not yet illuminate their homes. They climbed just deep enough to be able to shelter from bad weather and store food supplies. Perhaps they blocked the entrance to the cave with heavy boulders. The only source of light that helped explore the depths of the caves could be the light of torches.
What did Neanderthals hunt?
Such huge animals as a mammoth, a cave bear or even a reindeer were very difficult to kill with the weapons that the Neanderthals had: wooden spears, clubs, sharp fragments of flint, which have survived to this day.
It is likely that Neanderthals preyed on smaller animals, although on occasion they, of course, also ate the meat of large animals. We know that Neanderthals partially ate their prey at the site where they were able to kill it, and then took large brain bones with them into caves, split them and ate them. Among the various bone debris at Neanderthal sites, there are almost no ridges or ribs of large animals, but in large quantities- cracked or crushed brain bones.
Neanderthals wrapped themselves in the skins of dead animals. It is also likely that their women tanned these skins using stone scrapers.
We also know that these people were right-handed, just like modern humans, because the left side of their brain (responsible for right side body) larger than the right one. The occipital lobes of the Neanderthals' brain, which were responsible for vision, touch and the general state of the body, were quite well developed, while the frontal lobes, associated with thinking and speech, were still relatively small. The Neanderthal's brain was no smaller than that of modern humans, but it was structured differently.
Without a doubt, the thinking of these representatives of the homo species was not similar to ours. And it’s not even that they were simpler or more primitive than us. Neanderthals are a completely different evolutionary line. It is likely that they were absolutely unable to speak or uttered fragmentary monosyllabic sounds. They certainly did not have anything that could be called coherent speech.
How did Neanderthal live?
Homo neanderthalensis
Fire was a real treasure at that time. Having lost the fire, it was not so easy to start it again. When there was no need for a large flame, it was extinguished by raking the fire into one heap. They made a fire, most likely, by striking a piece of iron pyrite against flint over a heap of dry leaves and grass. In England, inclusions of pyrite and flint are found next to each other where chalk rocks and clays are adjacent.
Women and children had to constantly monitor the fire so that the flame did not go out. At times they went in search of dry dead wood to keep the fire going. This activity gradually grew into a custom.
The only adult male in each group of Neanderthals was probably the elder. Besides him there were also women, boys and girls. But when one of the teenagers became old enough to arouse the jealousy of the leader, he attacked his opponent and drove him out of the herd or killed him. When the leader was over forty, when his teeth were worn out and his strength left him, one of the young men killed the old leader and began to rule in his place. There was no place for the elderly near the saving fire. The weak and sick at that time faced one fate - death.
What did the tribe eat at the sites?
Primitive people are usually depicted as hunters of mammoths, bears or lions. But it is unlikely that a primitive savage could hunt an animal larger than a hare, rabbit or rat. It was more likely that someone was hunting a man than he himself was the hunter.
Primitive savages were plant-eaters and carnivores at the same time. They ate hazelnuts and groundnuts, beech nuts, edible chestnuts, and acorns. They also collected wild apples, pears, cherries, wild plums and sloe, rose hips, rowan and hawthorn, mushrooms; they ate the buds, where they were larger and softer, and also ate juicy, fleshy rhizomes and underground shoots of various plants.
On occasion, they did not pass by bird nests, taking eggs and chicks, and picked out the honeycombs and honey of wild bees. Newts, frogs and snails were eaten. They ate fish, live and asleep, and freshwater shellfish. Primitive people easily caught fish with their hands, entangling it in algae or diving for it. Larger birds or small animals could be caught by hitting them with a stick or using primitive snares. The savage did not refuse snakes, worms and crayfish, as well as the larvae of various insects and caterpillars. The most delicious and nutritious prey, without a doubt, were bones, crushed and ground into powder.
Primitive man would not have protested if he had meat that was not the freshest for lunch. He constantly looked for and found carrion; even half-decomposed, it was still used for food. By the way, the craving for moldy and semi-moldy foods has persisted to this day.
In difficult conditions, driven by hunger, primitive people ate their weaker relatives or sick children who happened to be lame and deformed.
No matter how primitive primitive man may seem to us now, it is possible to call him the most advanced of all animals, because he represented the highest stage of development of the animal kingdom.
No matter how the more ancient Paleolithic people treated their dead, there is reason to assume that the later homo neanderthalensis did this at least with respect for the deceased and accompanied the process with a certain ritual. One of the most famous Neanderthal skeletons found belongs to young man, whose body, perhaps, was even deliberately buried.
Human and Neanderthal skull
The skeleton lay in a sleeping position. The head and right forearm rested on several pieces of flint, carefully arranged like a pillow. Next to the head was a large hand ax, and many charred, split bull bones were scattered around, as if left over from a funeral feast.
Neanderthals roamed Europe, camped around campfires, and died over a period that spanned 100,000 years or more. Moving higher and higher on the evolutionary ladder, these people improved, straining their limited opportunities. But the thick skull seemed to fetter the creative powers of the brain, and until the very end the Neanderthal remained a low-browed, undeveloped creature.
There is an opinion among scientists that the Neanderthal type of man, homo neanderthalensis, is an extinct species that did not mix with modern people (homo sapiens). But many scientists do not share this point of view. Some prehistoric skulls are considered by them to be the result of mixing of Neanderthals with other types of primitive people.
One thing is absolutely clear - the Neanderthal was on a completely different evolutionary line.
Last Paleolithic People
When Tasmania was discovered by the Dutch, they found there a tribe isolated from the rest of the world, whose level of development was almost no different from the man of the Lower Paleolithic. The Tasmanians were not the same type of people as the Neanderthals: this is proven by the structure of their skulls, cervical vertebrae, teeth and jaws. They had no ancestral resemblance to Neanderthals. They belonged to the same species as us.
The Tasmanians represented only the Neanderthaloid stage of development in the evolution of modern humans. There is no doubt that over many millennia (during which only scattered groups of Neanderthals were human beings in Europe) somewhere in other regions of the planet, modern humans developed in parallel with Neanderthals.
The level of development, which turned out to be the limit for Neanderthals, was only the starting level for others, but among the Tasmanians it was preserved in its original, unchanged form. Finding themselves far from those with whom they could compete or learn from, living in conditions that did not require constant effort, the Tasmanians unwittingly found themselves behind the rest of humanity. But even on these outskirts of civilization, man did not stop in his development. Tasmanians early XIX centuries were much less clumsy and undeveloped than their primitive relatives.
Rhodesian skull
1921, summer - a rather interesting find was discovered in one of the caves in the Broken Hill area, South Africa. It was a skull without a lower jaw and several bones of a new species of homo (Rhodesian man), intermediate between Neanderthal and homo sapiens. The skull was only slightly mineralized; as you can see, its owner lived only a few thousand years ago.
The discovered creature resembled a Neanderthal. But the structure of his body did not have specific Neanderthal characteristics. The skull, neck, teeth and limbs of the Rhodesian man were almost no different from modern ones. We know nothing about the structure of his palms. But the size of the upper jaw and its surface show that the lower jaw was very massive, and the powerful brow ridges gave their owner an ape-like appearance.
Apparently it was a human being with a monkey's face. It could well last until the time of the appearance of a real person and even exist in parallel with him in South Africa.
In several places in South Africa, the remains of people of the so-called Boskop type, very ancient, were also discovered, but to what extent they have not yet been reliably established. The skulls of the Boskop people were more similar to the skulls of modern Bushmen than to the skulls of some other peoples living today. It is possible that these are the most ancient human beings known to us.
Skulls found at Wadiak (Java), shortly before the discovery of the remains of Pithecanthropus, may very well bridge the gap between Rhodesian man and the Australoid aborigines.