The bone of a 6-year-old found in Spain’s Valencia region provides evidence of communal care by Neanderthals, researchers say, and maybe even compassion.
The word Neanderthal is sometimes used as a synonym for stupid or brutish, but a new fossil analysis has added weight to the hypothesis that our prehistoric cousins actually had collaborative or even compassionate qualities.
It was therefore likely that the mother continuously received help from other members of the social group, they added.were a close relative of modern humans that went extinct about 40,000 years ago, leaving traces across Europe and southwest and central Asia.
Other scientists have said Neanderthals may have provided care to sick or injured members of their group with the expectation of a reciprocal benefit, rather than out of benevolence. Critics say compassion cannot be authoritatively deduced from remains and requires too many assumptions, the paper in Science Advances acknowledged.also points to the species’ capacity for brutality.
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