
Neanderthals Traversed Vast Distances - FossilHominid
https://www.sapiens.org/archaeology/neanderthal-dispersal/
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aasasd
Here's a short but informative ‘lecture’ by anthropologist Stanislav
Drobyshevsky, which finally comprehensively answered the myth of ‘cavemen’ for
me. It's not about Neanderthals, but still:
[https://youtube.com/watch?v=IihGveExaqU](https://youtube.com/watch?v=IihGveExaqU)

(English subs aren't stellar but they're there.)

He mentions that territory from Siberia to Central Europe was a well-trodden
path in Paleolithic, and there's an example of one person traveling from some
sea to the centre of Europe.

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205guy
Kudos to the article for having 2 clear maps that show exactly the various
migrations that they are hypothesizing, including the different time frames.

One sad note: the maps show the present reduced state of the Aral sea, whereas
historically, I think it would have had its original size. Unless the cold and
dry climate of the time caused the same sort of shrinkage. To think that an
entire sea (albeit fragile) has been wiped out by humans in my lifetime...

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DougWebb
Note just that; the entire maps are showing present-day landscapes instead of
ice-age landscapes. There should be glaciers, lower sea levels, and
Doggerland.

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samatman
Basically every historical map of Rome which includes Britannia also depicts
the Netherlands as having its current coastline.

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Leherenn
Though in that case, correct me if I am wrong, the old coastline was actually
further inward.

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samatman
Yes.

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alberto_ol
"This article was originally published at The Conversation and has been
republished under Creative Commons."

Original article [https://theconversation.com/stone-tools-reveal-epic-trek-
of-...](https://theconversation.com/stone-tools-reveal-epic-trek-of-nomadic-
neanderthals-129886)

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WalterBright
This shouldn't be a big surprise. Just 150 years ago, tens of thousands of
people simply walked across the continental US.

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glbrew
Tens of thousands of people still regularly walk across continents. The
Appalachian trail and pacific trail, for example.

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baddox
Most do so now supported by the infrastructure of modern society that requires
them to carry less than ten days of food with them at any given time. And most
of those hikers will travel into towns and cities and take long vehicle rides
or even plane rides during their long hikes.

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mc32
One question that nags me is why did people move so much?

Pop density was _very_ low. So I can’t think they exhausted foodsources and it
can’t be that they hunted favorite pray to local extinction and were forced to
follow...

So I guess they kinda liked to be separate from other clans to avoid strife?
Or as a pop reproduced they have halvings and one of them had to migrate and
one had to remain?

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Gustomaximus
I always assume people probably weren't that different from you an I, just
different skills. Assuming they had a handle on getting food, they probably
just want to see what's over the next hill just because that's human nature.
Meet women. Or look for better places to live. Or some belief gods are
powerful over there. Much of the same reasons people travel today.

It's amazing how we travel today, but put a long walk in google maps and see
how much distance you can cover in a week. Obviously roads help this but it's
amazing how far you can get on foot in relatively small amount of time. When
hiking rule of thumb is 6km/hr on road and 4km when in bush, unless really
thick so you don't slow down that much.

Obviously this is me musing rather than evidence based so take with pitch of
salt.

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dahfizz
This is still nothing compared to the migrations of "modern" humans, no?

One of my favorite ideas about human nature is that we are absolutely driven
to explore. We walked all the way from Mesopotamia across all of Europe and
down to the top of South America! Some ancient madlad hollowed out a boat and
paddled to Australia! Why would someone do that?? But we continue to do the
same thing trying to get to the moon, Mars, etc. It's a defining feature of
the human race.

It's interesting that the neanderthals walked from Europe to Asia, but it's
nothing compared to our ancestors explorations.

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205guy
BTW, I think there was a land bridge to Australia for a time, though not all
the way to the Asian continent:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wallacea](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wallacea)

It is perhaps unknowable whether someone went of exploring for years, then
actually came back and got his/her remaining clan to migrate great distances.
More likely that those migrations were multi-generational: the clan moved
20-50 miles every season following the game, and the descendants eventually
got to a different continent.

However, there are examples of somewhat shorter distances in more modern
times: I find it fascinating how the different cultures of Europe moved about:
the Scandinavians to England and Normandy, later the Normans to Spain, Sicily,
and Africa, the Slavs to the Balkans and Adriatic, etc. These are perhaps 1000
miles at most, but it seems like an entire warrior class and parts of the
population went far away, conquered and installed themselves for generations
in a foreign (and fully populated) place.

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nineteen999
A couple of interesting articles I read concerning early arrival in Australia
recently:

[http://theconversation.com/when-did-aboriginal-people-
first-...](http://theconversation.com/when-did-aboriginal-people-first-arrive-
in-australia-100830)

[https://www.sciencealert.com/50-000-years-ago-hundreds-of-
an...](https://www.sciencealert.com/50-000-years-ago-hundreds-of-ancient-
humans-made-the-first-voyage-to-australia)

The theories contained in those articles include the ideas that they arrived
initially in relatively large numbers in a somewhat organized fashion, and
migrated around the Australian coastline in both directions.

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trianglem
Can someone explain to me or point me to some sources as to how Neanderthals
and Denisovans came about?

Was it just an older form of human that left Africa and turned into
Neanderthal/Denisovan once they got to their “final” localities?

When did this happen? What was the form that left Africa and eventually turned
into Neanderthals?

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swagasaurus-rex
Yes!

The current consensus is that Homo Erectus left africa ~2million years ago.
Homo Erectus were upright tool wielders, but were likely replaced by another
wave of hominid from Africa - the ancestors to Neandertals and Denisovans -
Homo Heidelbergensis around 500,000 years ago.

Ancient Eurasia had a variety of upright apes mostly originating from these.
When Homo Sapien-Sapien, most probably both you and I's ancestors, left Africa
(again in several waves between 40,000-70,000 years ago), they encountered,
interbred with, and maybe warred with upright, almost human looking people,
though the differences would be visible in the frame of the body and likely
the face.

More info can be found here:

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Early_human_migrations](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Early_human_migrations)

