We humans are highly prone to consensus hugging. This hugging behaviour pertains not just to our thinking about financial markets but also in other fields including science. So, until Charles Darwin published ‘The Origin of Species’ in 1859, we believed that we have always looked like we look today. However, the first scientific proof that there were several different species on this planet 40,000 years ago who could lay claim to be “human” came three years prior to Darwin’s pathbreaking publication. This BBC video is the story of that discovery in 1856 in Germany. The BBC’s Tom Heyden says:
“In 1856, quarry workers in a peaceful German valley stumbled across 16 bones that would shake the foundations of science.
This is the incredible story of ‘Neanderthal 1’, the first ever Neanderthal to be recognised as a different species. A discovery that sparked a long scientific war and a complete reimagining of humanity’s story.”
Initially, the limestone quarry workers in Germany who found Neanderthal 1’s remains thought the bones belonged to a bear. However, a local schoolteacher had the remarkable foresight to realise that this extraordinary find was in fact a prehistoric man.
Even after the find however people on the religious right refused to believe that there could ever have been on this planet any other type of man; they attributed the unique bone structure of Neanderthal 1 to his being a Russian Cossack horserider with a case of rickets!
It took several other such finds in other parts of Europe over the next few decades AND Darwin’s book to for acceptance to kick-in. Scientists then realised that contrary to the stereotype we harbour today, Neanderthal man was a sophisticated thinker with a complex social system and abstract rituals. Today, we know that 2-3% of our DNA comes from Neanderthal man!
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