Scientists have concluded that Neanderthals were not the primitive dimwits they are commonly portrayed to have been.
The view of the Neanderthal man as a club-wielding brute is one of the most enduring stereotypes in science, but researchers who trawled the archaeological evidence say the image has no basis whatsoever.
The reasons for the demise of the Neanderthals have long been debated in the scientific community, but many explanations assume that modern humans had a cognitive edge that manifested itself in more cooperative hunting, better weaponry and innovation, a broader diet, or other major advantages.
Roebroeks and his colleague, Dr Paola Villa at the University of Colorado Museum in Boulder, trawled through the archaeological records to look for evidence of modern human superiority that underpinned nearly a dozen theories about the Neanderthals’ demise and found that none of them stood up.
“The explanations make good stories, but the only problem is that there is no archaeology to back them up,” said Roebroeks.
Read the full, original story: Neanderthals were not less intelligent than modern humans, scientists find