Calling someone a “Neanderthal” is still an insult today, but it’s a fallacious one. The idea that Neanderthals were brutish, stupid, and unevolved has been demonstrably proven to be false. They were no more brutish than our own Homo sapiens ancestors. They were just as smart, just as capable of existential examination as we are. There is evidence they practiced religion. In short, they were just as HUMAN as anybody else. Every day now it seems more evidence is unearthed to reinforce this determination. Turns out we humans living today are even PART Neanderthal ourselves. It is time to stop denigrating our fellow humans, our brothers, the Neanderthals.
There were no “modern” humans, no Homo sapiens, living in France 176,000 years ago, when a series of ring-like structures were constructed deep inside Bruniquel Cave. That these works were deliberate creations, and required a sophistication of thought, is evident. Neanderthals built them, though scientists have yet to determine what purpose the structures served. One thing that HAS been determined, however, from the stones, is that Neanderthals used fire. And, despite that whole “cave men” cliché, this discovery is the first real evidence that Neanderthals traversed so deeply into caves. One stereotype busted while simultaneously confirming another. Nice work, Neanderthals!