Wednesday, January 13, 2010

Neanderthal Mind Capable of Advanced Thought



"For the past 150 years, early humans have been regarded as inferior to us, unable to create art, think abstractly, or even to speak." -- John Feliks, scholar, 2009

"... early peoples such as Homo erectus, Homo ergaster, Neanderthals, and Homo heidelbergensis were just as intelligent as we are in today's modern world." -- John Feliks, scholar, 2009

Science Daily: Use of Body Ornamentation Shows Neanderthal Mind Capable of Advanced Thought

ScienceDaily (Jan. 12, 2010) — The widespread view of Neanderthals as cognitively inferior to early modern humans is challenged by new research from the University of Bristol published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Professor João Zilhão and colleagues examined pigment-stained and perforated marine shells, most certainly used as neck pendants, from two Neanderthal-associated sites in the Murcia province of south-east Spain (Cueva de los Aviones and Cueva Antón). The analysis of lumps of red and yellow pigments found alongside suggest they were used in cosmetics. The practice of body ornamentation is widely accepted by archaeologists as conclusive evidence for modern behaviour and symbolic thinking among early modern humans but has not been recognised in Neanderthals -- until now.

22 comments:

Jeffery Keown said...

Wow. You mean folks waited for evidence before drawing a conclusion?

Mind-blowing.


Still, it's nice to see Evolution positively supported on this blog.

OilIsMastery said...

Jeffery,

"Wow. You mean folks waited for evidence before drawing a conclusion?

Mind-blowing."

It is actually when you consider that scientists didn't require evidence to believe that Neaderthals were illiterate retarded apes.

Furthermore, scientist don't wait for evidence before drawing conclusions about gravitons, gravitational waves, Dark Matter, Dark Energy, or Dark Flow.

Jeffery Keown said...

Almost every time you see a reference to non-interacting forces like Dark Matter, Dark Energy, etc, you also see words like theoretical, hypothetical, and such.

The theories surrounding them are based on lensing data, observation and simulation. They just weren't pulled out of someone's ass.

The existance of such models indicates two things:

We don't know exactly what we're seeing and we're still looking.

That's science.

Quantum_Flux said...

Good article OIM.

KV said...

Now, only if OIM were to be capable of advanced thought!

Like:
- evolution; and, just because you think you are smart, it does not mean you can not be a fodder for a so called lowly virus

- defining straight line in Euclidean space

- defining Euclidean space

and, Euclid did not write down anything but one of the poor kid did...

and, there was knowledge of geometry before Euclid

It was much more practical without too many arguments and postulations.

A straight line was a straight line to an extent it can be compared to a reference...

Quantum_Flux said...

It was subatomic particles that invented geometry.

KV said...

QF,

Even at subatomic scale, it still will be a fractal line, not a straight line... I used to know the fractal dimension at that scale but can not recall mostly due to a few small glasses of wine!

Quantum_Flux said...

That fractal dimensionality must be what causes the relation between smaller wavelengths and greater energy frequencies then?

Quantum_Flux said...

Echinoderms contribute to global carbon sink

KV said...

QF,

That may possibly true, but again I studied the fractals when it was hot and to study equity price fluctuations.

If I am able to know a phenomenon is confined into Euclidean space, I can apply all the arguments and postulations; same for relativistic phenomenon; but, we must not forget that things don't have to follow what we think we know.

OilIsMastery said...

Blu ray on fractals.

KV said...

OIM,

Did you search it at Amazon? Did you ever watch it? It has been on PBS many times, and there was repeat not too long ago...

Euclid thought of fractals?

Quantum_Flux said...

Neat OIM, I'll have to watch that movie. From what I can show about fractal dimensionality is this:

Grid Points<------>Horz Grid Lines

points. . . . . . . ...-- Lines



points. . . . . . . ...-- Lines

points. . . . . . . ...-- Lines
points. . . . . . . ...-- Lines
points: : : : : : : :::==Lines
points| | | | | | ||##Lines

Vert Grid Lines<----->Plane

Of course, doing that with planes builds of a 3 dimensional space, doing that with 3 dimensional spaces builds up a space-time, etc.

KV said...

OIM,

Who was Blu ray? What was he/she doing "on" fractals?

See your mind - whatever is left after the beamers have been through with you - is now so distorted that you could not even make correct citation. Here it is:

Fractals: Hunting the Hidden Dimension
http://www.shoppbs.org/product/index.jsp?productId=3281908

You can buy the DVD there and might help toward the enlightenment of many…

KV said...

OIM,

PBS/NOVA has many programs on evolution!

You are afraid to watch!!

Do it! It might revive your brain from the harm done by beamfuckers.

Quantum_Flux said...

Have you ever been beamfucked OIM?

Jeffery Keown said...

When it comes to biology, Oils is an idiot. Like those guys on Uncommon Descent, he has a presupposed worldview and sticks to it.

He doesn't learn, he doesn't understand. He looks for works that support his worldview and quote mines them to support his erratic notions.

I do more science before lunch than he's done in the past year.

KV said...

JK,

OIM is made an idiot by the beamfuckers, and we all need to pray for his salvation!

OIM probably was good in ancient history but got abducted by round flying thingies in the sky. For some mysterious reason, the wimps of the round thingy decided to play with beams on him instead of his body orifices.

Quantum_Flux said...

That would explain a few things....

Quantum_Flux said...

Fractal Dimensionality

OilIsMastery said...

QF,

No I have never been beam fucked thank God but unlike KV I know what parthenogenesis is and I have the image to show exactly what was going on with Mary.

OilIsMastery said...

Jeffery,

"He looks for works that support his worldview and quote mines them to support his erratic notions."

Wow you mean I do what every scientist on Earth does? Shock and awe.

"It is the theory that determines what can be observed." -- Albert Einstein, mathematician, 1926