Meanwhile, 130,000 years ago...

[Malcolm Schweizer]

Just thought I would share this article about the REAL Neanderthals. Seems they liked to wear jewelry made of eagle claws. I wonder what method they used to sharpen them. :D

http://www.nbcnews.com/science/weird-science/neanderthals-turned-eagle-talons-stunning-jewelry-n323286

[Judson Green]

There were also nicks in three of the talons that wouldn't have been created during an eagle's life, Frayer said.

One things clear they obviously we're sharpening to acutely.

[Richard Line]

I assumed the eagles took care of sharpening the talons. They probably used 1200 grit sand stone. What I'm really wondering about is what kind of brace and bit the REAL Neanderthals used to drill the talons for assembling them into necklaces.

[Malcolm Schweizer]

Those look like bevel up talons. I wonder if they used a secondary bevel.

[Jim Koepke]

There were also nicks in three of the talons that wouldn't have been created during an eagle's life, Frayer said.

Maybe they got nicked when perching on a barbed wire fence? :D

running & ducking,

jtk

[Christopher Charles]

Did debates over sharpening lead to their demise?

[george wilson]

I could not spot how they had worked on the talons in the pictures.

Wearing jewelry shows that the neanders possibly had concepts of decoration. Possibly they had ideas of a religious nature. Maybe as in capturing the strength of the eagle by wearing their talons. That is a form of primitive religion. It is hard to say. But,the talons do show that they were able to think in abstract levels. They were not just animals searching for food and reproducing.

They had larger brains than we do. But,their frontal lobes were much reduced because of their lack of foreheads. That's what scientists have thought. I wonder if it's possible that their frontal lobes were there,just shaped differently.

At Mount Carmel there is evidence that they were able to mate with more advanced humans. The Bible mentions the "Nephilime"(sp?) That means either those who came down,or those who fell down. Alien believers think this term proves that aliens came down and improved the human race. It could also mean that humans mated with the more primitive neanders.

They were not the giants mentioned in the Bible. But,certainly there were giants many years ago. Skeletons have been found,and even photographed comparing them to normal size humans. But,somehow these skeletons,found as late as the late 19th.,early 20th. C.,have disappeared. We have only old newspaper pictures now. If you Google about giants,you will find that there is plenty of evidence about them.

Clearly,the Neanders' brains were much larger than was just required to operate their bodies.

We apparently have just this one scrap of evidence that they could think on a higher level than previously thought. Hopefully more evidence will be found of their capacity to think and reason.

[Malcolm Schweizer]

Did debates over sharpening lead to their demise?

Now that's funny!

[Mel Fulks]

Dog experts ,DOGOLOGISTS....say the smartest dogs have intelligence similar to a two year old child. Which means that
even early man could throw a temper tantrum when he couldn't have sex. I am certain that those early guys were a lot
like "Mr. T"...at least in wardrobe. This is making me think about all those single panel comics of cavemen. We laugh at
the absurdity of seeing them deal with modern situations, but they did deal with their own modern problems.

[Christopher Charles]

Ah, speak of them as not them, but us. We a true neanders :). At least n. Europeans like me...

http://www.nature.com/news/modern-human-genomes-reveal-our-inner-neanderthal-1.14615

[Winton Applegate]

ooooh
Unfortunate name Krapina.


At Mount Carmel there is evidence that they were able to mate with more advanced humans. The Bible mentions the "Nephilime"(sp?) That means either those who came down,or those who fell down. Alien believers think this term proves that aliens came down and improved the human race. It could also mean that humans mated with the more primitive neanders.

I am not saying I subscribe to the theory . . . matter of fact I might subscribe to the urgent current need for that to happen.

Hasn’t been any evolution around here for some time, more like regression.
I was speechless the other day . . . while riding to work I saw a woman driving a car up ahead of me stick her arm out the window and drop what looked, by the splash, to be a full soft drink in a paper cup. That is stupid on more than one level. At least drink it first ! Or start a donation fund and every time you feel like buying something you are just going to immediately throw out the window just put the money in my account.

That and the constant lit cigarets I still see lying about on the side walk and bike path. There was a grass fire on the bike path a couple weeks ago that I turned in. Probably a cig sucker. That and the fact that we have had devastating "forest" fires right here IN and around THE CITY LIMITS a couple of years ago. Can't blame the blighter though . . . if I had the nasty thing in my mouth I couldn't wait to get it as far away from me as I could. I wouldn't have lit the turd on fire to start with but . . .
anyway . . .

My first thought was “People still litter ? ? ? ? Seriously ? ? ? ?
I thought we learned that was sheer madness twenty years ago “.
Then I thought “Shall I catch up to the dolt and get her license plate and turn her in ? Should we, while we are at, take her to the vet so she won't be able to breed ?" I could just see the cop’s face when I reported a minor case of littering taking him away from helping with real problems.

I say the sooner the better as far as partying with the saucer gals .
If anyone has missed it and enjoys old Sci Fi and or old (black and white) English horror movies be sure to check out the Quatermass series especially Quatermass And The Pit (http://www.amazon.com/Quatermass-Pit-Classic-Television-Starring/dp/B0038MC1FO/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1426438265&sr=8-5&keywords=quatermass+and+the+pit). Good stuff ! But frightening in that case, quite frightening. By the way there are other copies than the one I posted (currently unavailable) I just like that cover the best.

[george wilson]

Winton,I live on a highway,and the amount of crap people carelessly throw into my yard is without limits. I don't know why people have to live like pigs,but many do. Not only on the highway,buy in their own homes. And,not just uneducated ones either. I have seen highly educated people live in absolutely stinking garbage.

[Winton Applegate]

George,
I know that what you say about all that is true.
Sadly.
I have been such a hermit in the last decade or so I was just caught off guard.
But we have you George. You are one of the last bastions of sanity and grace.

[Stewie Simpson]

Ah, speak of them as not them, but us. We a true neanders :). At least n. Europeans like me...

http://www.nature.com/news/modern-human-genomes-reveal-our-inner-neanderthal-1.14615

Hi Charles. Its nice to have our tail bone to remind us of our Neolithic past.

Stewie;

[Roger Rettenmeier]

That and the constant lit cigarets I still see lying about on the side walk and bike path. There was a grass fire on the bike path a couple weeks ago that I turned in. Probably a cig sucker. That and the fact that we have had devastating "forest" fires right here IN and around THE CITY LIMITS a couple of years ago.

Some real idiots in the human race. 5-10 years of beetle kill pine in the West, and multiple dry years, the fire is not a matter of "if but when". Lightning strikes are one thing, but stupidity is another.

[Jim Davis]

I took an archaeology class here at Murray State University last year. One of the unvarnished truths that came to light is that archaeology is about 5 percent evidence and 95 percent conjecture--even worse if it's on the History Channel. Not just my observation,but that of my professor as well.

Jim

[Winton Applegate]

5 percent evidence and 95 percent conjecture
Jim,
Yah those guys in Washington are something aren't they ?
Oh . . . archaeology . . . I thought you were talking about something else. :p

[george wilson]

Jim,I have little doubt that Archeology is mostly guess work. We spent a great deal of time in Williamsburg just trying to figure out how they made stuff in the 18th. C. Not that we couldn't also make those things,but figuring out how THEY did it. What tools and processes,etc.. And that was only 200 years ago. Our main job was to try to correctly emulate what the 18th. C. craftsmen did.

There are lots of books from the 18th. C.,but most of the time,they do not mention the little things in daily life,common to them at the time that we strove to find out. For example,we do not know what "plaid" was in the 18th.C.. There are long lists of words that we still do not know the correct period meaning of.

Even how they built special buildings evaded our researchers. When the museum decided to put up a plausible blacksmith building years ago,they thought that the brickwork of the forges would be quick and sloppy. But,when they excavated the Anderson Blacksmith site,they uncovered the bases of the original forges,and the brickwork was quite well done. I guess the masons were too proud of their trade to do shoddy work. In some of the original buildings though,the stair cases,chair rail moldings,and paneling were very rough. And,that was in one of the houses of the wealthy,too.

We still do not know where slaves slept. There are a huge number of everyday life things we do not know.