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If we can see ourselves in the way our ancient cousins dealt with death…what else could we have in common?
Thanks to Julio Lacerda (https://twitter.com/JulioTheArtist) for the excellent reconstruction of Shanidar IV!
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Awww
algorithmic punch!
Homo Naledi deliberately disposed of their dead as well. It’s not just a Homo Sapiens thing.
This presentation was a little sloppy. For example, at 2:55 there is a discussion of a Neanderthal child burial in a rock shelter. What's the dating??!!!! Was the burial pre- or post-arrival of H. sapiens?! We are not informed. Also, the diagram thrown up at 3:41 is not discussed. What the heck are we supposed to focus our attention on in this image? That is, what are we to learn from this image? Apparently nothing. This lack of caring to provide relevant contextual information continues through the video. And there is this trivial statement at 7:09 that negates the goals of the historical sciences of archaeology and paleontology: "So, like many of the biggest questions in human evolution, whether or not Neanderthals buried their dead is still open for debate. But… does it matter? Well, yes and no. Because, regardless of the evidence – or lack thereof – for burials, sites like Shanidar Cave helped change our mind about our closest cousins and what they were capable of. The idea that Neanderthals could bury a member of their group was just as important as whether or not they actually did." This is basically saying "We don't care what really happened in the past, what's really important is what we think about today." Come on PBS, you can do much, much better than this.
As a teenager in the late 60's, I remember questioning National Geographic that Neanderthals died out..rubbish.Homo sapiens have now been proved to have interbred with them…naturally! Moral of this story…always question with an open mind and fact check, fact check, fact check.
appropriate to say this may already be outdated? What are you all thinking of the news about the homo naledi burials
I mean, studies suggest both humans and animals have feelings. Why's this even a discussion, topic, or debate when science has proven otherwise. At some point everything living has evolved the ability to think and feel.
bro, legit elephants have funerals for their dead. humans ain't otherworldly. neanderthals buried their dead.
Wolves and other animals also care for their elderly and injured. some birds decorate their nests. i can guarantee animals are philosophical. they just don't have human vocal chords to tell us, and we're too stupid to learn their language/make their sounds bc we don't have their vocal chords.
Humans and their freaking egos
The only difference between humans now and 200 years ago is the technology we have not progressed as a society
Western civilization is so stagnant
I have neanderthal DNA in my genes according to 23 & me. I truly, do not believe my human ancestors could just " get it on" with a human relative of noticable, significantly less intelligence.
More than anything I think some anthropologists in the field have some deeply held biases, oversimplifications & reservations to work through.
It's not that hard to concieve the idea that the neanderthal likely was as intelligent as us. … And loved their people too.
I support my extinct humankind cousins!
I thought we were way past knuckle dragging sub-humans theories?
Of course they buried their dead. Able to survive during the ice age. Make tools. Spoke a language produce cave art. All people from European descent have some Neanderthal DNA.
Elephants and hippos are both often seen gathering around dead fellows in what looks so exactly like a mourning group it is hard to see it otherwise. Elephants will do this whenever they pass the bones of a fallen elephant. Hippos will do this with the dead of other animals even..which given their reputation for being lethal people think is "weird". Yet just think how lethal humans are. Far far FAR more lethal than any other animal, and we mourn both our own dead, and the dead of other species …our beloved pets and animals we have lived with.
People excavating a Neandertal site found a bone from a juvenile cave bear which had been hollowed out, cut, and had holes cut into it. An exact copy was made, and given to wind instrument player, who showed that she could easily play many pieces by Bach on it.
There were some "experts" who said the shape and holes could only be an accident. But what a bloody accident, right? It just happened to have holes in the exact places that made it in an instrument that could handle all the notes in classical music pieces.
Not a chance.
They played music too.
I don't think humans are the only creatures on the planet even today who understand, to some degree or another, concepts like death.
I love this channel for its honest presentation. Here's what we have found, here is what we think we know, and here is what we don't know yet. Acknowledging the need for further study.
I’ve recently visited the park of the Murgia of Matera, Italy. The guide, a famous local archaeologist, showed us the tombs escavate d in the rock bed in a shape that accommodates a foetal burial position. Those tombs are believed to be connected to the caves inhabited by the Neandertal people documented in that location.
I just know this video is gonna make me cry
Edit: I was right
There are several animal species that mourn the deaths of their loved ones in different ritual-like ways, species of corvids, elephants and wolves. Combine this with the fact that Neanderthals did perform non-functional tasks, like making jewelry and cave art, and it seems extremely likely that they had some non-functional way to deal with their dead loved ones, both to mourn and to dispose of the body.
And in my mind we don't really have to see evidence for it, because it was so long ago that it probably didn't survive or it did not involve materials. For example, the body could simply be buried but before burial the family sang songs or told stories or anecdotes or things they loved about the person.
So we may never find any evidence of it, but that doesn't mean that it is more than likely that they did have some burial practices.
Havent we disproven this "dumb cavemen" hypothesis about neanderthals already? On this channel as well. Wether they buried their dead with rites or not doesnt change that. Feels like the height of human self-centeretness to think we were somehow so much ahead of neanderthalls. Do we even qualify as a different species? Not really. Imagine a dog thinking it's in a different league to wolves because it knows how to beg for food from humans.
This comment is not about the content but about the production. I have really enjoyed the content of these videos.
My comment is that you really need to fix the lighting on the speaker. You have too much rim lighting and not enough fill or main light in front. It looks awful this season and it didn’t before. Otherwise keep up the great work.
"Modern day Kurdistan" – I love the shade thrown at Turkey!
They were feeling, thinking creatures that decorated themselves and cared for each others wounds and sicknesses. Wether if they buried, burned, ate or what ever their dead, they did definitely have a cultural way of coping with loss and a decaying bodies.
This is a proof that there is no true religion. Almost everything can be explained by science. What science cant explain are just some stuff that science still explore
Thank you very much.
Those Neanderthals were hot!
We humans graped & killed all other hominids to extinction…… It's just who we are
Imagine being the ghost of a Neandertal watching the last surviving species of humans talk about the rest of them like they were a bunch of idiots
day 796 of calling you daddy until you notice
in my believes ..there were no such thing as neanderthal ,and all those fossils belong to chimpanzee or a monkey ..and they were humans like us intelligent with primitive resources , and history said the first burial were learnt from crows
Neanderthal were smart folk. Even if they did not burial their fellows out of ritual or a burgeoning religion, they could have buried them out of practicality.
What is better – to toss a beloved person into a nearby ditch to decay malodorously and/or get dragged apart by predators OR bury them beneath the soil – no decomposition odors, no predatory scavengers.?
I took biological anthropology in high school in the early 80’s and was taught that we were not related to them, but when we examined our skulls in class I found Neanderthal traits on mine. I am glad to see that scientists have now acknowledged that there is a genetic connection between some of us and them.
The anti burial people are like the paleontologists who insist Trex was only a scavenger and dromeosaurs were solitary. >_> We interbred with Neanderthals enough to permanently incorporate their genes, they were fellow humans.
Neanderthals are what make Europeans, Europeans.
It would have been cool to see mentions of Homo Naledi since that's how I found out about other Hominins burial practices. I know they're a more recent discovery, but it would be nice to see more people about them.
You can take the necklace, grip the talons between your fingers and wrap the necklace around your knuckles boom you’re The Talon or something
Idk maybe there would be obvious evidence of that but I can dream can’t I?