Clever Neanderthals used chemicals to light fires

[TylerDurden]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-3471642/Did-Neanderthals-use-CHEMICALS-light-fires-Extinct-early-humans-ground-rocks-powder-make-wood-flammable.html

When I first read that palaeo-era humans used  to rub two sticks together or using flint-sparks  etc.  to create fires, I was a bit suspicious. I duly tried this sort of thing at Easter scout-camp and failed utterly. Come to think of it, even using lighters was difficult as we would often be tented high up among mountain winds where the ground was  either wet or full of snow.

Anyway, the above article does suggest that they used alternative means to make it much easier to light fires for cooking/warmth etc(implying that fire-use became more frequent with the discovery of such methods, 50,000 years ago). I just wish the article had not tried to suggest that the Neanderthals can only now be seen as being a sophisticated people after definite evidence that cooking was a part of Neanderthal life.

[cherimoya_kid]

Hmm. I'd say the fact that they left Africa first and adapted to Ice Age Europe is proof that they were plenty advanced. They just couldn't compete with our hunting style. They killed one at a time. We killed whole  herds.

[TylerDurden]

Neanderthals did indeed wipe out whole herds at a time:-


https://books.google.at/books?id=zER1A3M6MBMC&pg=PA159&lpg=PA159&dq=neanderthals+exterminated+herds+of+prey&source=bl&ots=AAF67GM630&sig=0Vo4lKBZRLA7aUoBtIOcD-nOxnk&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwj435GY7KPLAhXCIpoKHfE1D4wQ6AEIGzAA#v=onepage&q=neanderthals%20exterminated%20herds%20of%20prey&f=false

[goodsamaritan]

Maybe the Neanderthals were so much more advanced they stumbled onto Feminism.

Thus they were wiped out...

[cherimoya_kid]

Neanderthals did indeed wipe out whole herds at a time:-


https://books.google.at/books?id=zER1A3M6MBMC&pg=PA159&lpg=PA159&dq=neanderthals+exterminated+herds+of+prey&source=bl&ots=AAF67GM630&sig=0Vo4lKBZRLA7aUoBtIOcD-nOxnk&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwj435GY7KPLAhXCIpoKHfE1D4wQ6AEIGzAA#v=onepage&q=neanderthals%20exterminated%20herds%20of%20prey&f=false

But humans were far better at it, being able to run farther and faster.

[TylerDurden]

But humans were far better at it, being able to run farther and faster.

Neanderthals were better at walking for long distances  and feats of strength. None of these minor advantages really explain Neanderthal extinction, though. The most likely explanation, given similiar modern examples, is death via mass epidemics.

[cherimoya_kid]

Neanderthals were better at walking for long distances  and feats of strength. None of these minor advantages really explain Neanderthal extinction, though. The most likely explanation, given similiar modern examples, is death via mass epidemics.

Since diseases mutate far faster in tropical climates, this seems very likely.