Neanderthals and Modern Humans by Clive Finlayson, Cambridge University Press, 拢60, ISBN 0521820871 Reviewed by Douglas Palmer
THE image of the Neanderthal people has come a long way since our ancient human relatives were first recognised as a species back in the 19th century. In retrospect we can see how a combination of intellectual mindset and the skeletal remains of an old and decrepit Neanderthal man led to the idea that they were all thuggish in looks, temperament and intelligence.
In Neanderthals and Modern Humans, Clive Finlayson, director of the Gibraltar Museum, uses his ecological expertise to reassesses the now abundant information about these remarkable people. They were a bit like modern power-sport enthusiasts, 鈥渧ery robust, barrel-chested鈥� with legs adapted for endurance and 鈥減rolonged movement over irregular terrain鈥�. Their children鈥檚 development was precocious but the characteristic bony browridge did not appear until adolescence. Its function is still unknown and has nothing to do with intelligence or lack of it: their brain volumes were on average greater than those of modern humans.
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Modern interpretation has seen the Neanderthal build as 鈥渃old adapted to the conditions of glacial Europe鈥�. Finlayson does not buy that. Instead he makes a persuasive case that it embodies 鈥渟trength and endurance required for high mobility [and] close contact hunting鈥�.
Anyone interested in our most recent relatives will be enthralled by Finlayson鈥檚 fresh approach and comparison of Neanderthal and modern human biological makeup and lifestyles set in the often fast-changing environments of recent ice ages, even if it is academic in style. Finlayson reminds us that we owe our survival as a species to a chain of chance events. He suggests that this is 鈥渂ecause, in scrambling for survival in the margins of the world of other humans, we became increasingly inventive鈥�. This enabled us to take over when others 鈥渂etter adapted than ourselves vanished as circumstances changed鈥�.