Did Humans and Neanderthals speak to each other?

What’s the first thing that comes to mind when you hear the word Neanderthal? If you’re like most people you probably muster up an image of lumbering grunting brutes who are just less developed versions of ourselves. You wouldn't be blamed for thinking that either, it’s the image that has been engraved into our psyche since their discovery almost 200 years ago. However, in the last 10 years our perception of Neanderthals has changed considerably, and we now know them to much smarter than we ever gave them credit for.

The main reason for this change in our perception is the availability of ancient DNA, which is capable of giving us a much clearer and concise image of how the Neanderthals lived, and what they were capable of.

The latest piece of information to be gained in this way suggests that Neanderthals may have been capable of producing much more complex speech than we previously believed, whereas before we would have assumed that the most they were capable of were primitive grunts.

This has put a spanner in the works of most language experts who have always stuck to the theory that our ability to speak came about incredibly quickly, and due to very few mutations in our genome. If this were the case, it would mean that speech began development only around 50,000 years ago.  However, this new evidence means that the development of language must have happened over a much longer period of time, and originated more than a million years ago through a combination of genetic and cultural influences.

This could give us some big clues about the interaction between Neanderthals and our ancestors, who coexisted together for a long period of time. Could humans and Neanderthals have communicated with each other? Many assume that we out competed the Neanderthals, and that’s why they died out. However, there have been suggestions over the years that Neanderthals and humans interbred with each other, a theory supported by this new revelation.  

Can you imagine if Neanderthals were around today, with us being able to chat with them whenever we liked? Texting and emailing and calling whenever we pleased.

It would be a weird world, but one that I’d definitely enjoy living in.

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