Neanderthal
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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"J. H. Rosny writes novels now in which the scene is laid in the Stone Age, and the subject of which is the abduction of a brawny brachycephalous pre-Aryan woman by a tall, white-skinned, dolichocephalous Aryan man."--Degeneration (1892) by Max Nordau |
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Neanderthals or Neandertals (named for the Neandertal in Germany) were a species or subspecies of archaic human, in the genus Homo, which became extinct around 40,000 years ago. They were closely related to modern humans, sharing 99.7% of DNA. Remains left by Neanderthals include bone and stone tools, which are found in Eurasia, from Western Europe to Central and Northern Asia. Neanderthals are generally classified by paleontologists as the species Homo neanderthalensis, having separated from the Homo sapiens lineage 600,000 years ago, or alternatively, as a subspecies of Homo sapiens (Homo sapiens neanderthalensis).
Etymology
From the name of the German valley where Neanderthal 1 was discovered in 1856. The Düsseltal (from Template:Etyl Düssel, a small tributary of the River Rhine + tal, “valley”) itself was renamed (from Das Gesteins (“The Rockiness”) and/or Das Hundsklipp (“The Cliff of Dogs”)) in the early 19th century to Neandershöhle (“Neander’s Hollow”), and again in 1850 to Neanderthal (“Neander Valley”); both names were in honour of the German Calvinist theologian and hymn writer Joachim Neander (1650–1680). The surname Neander is the Template:Etyl translation of the original Template:Etyl surname Neumann (“New man”), for which reason Homo neanderthalensis is sometimes called New man in English.
See also
- Adam (1880) by Max Klinger
- The Singing Neanderthal
- Caveman
- Prehistory
