Page 14 THE VILLADOM TIMES I • January 23, 2013 The museum in Heidelberg, the heart of Neanderthal country, shows a reconstructed Neanderthal in a suit carrying a briefcase. Nobody who met him on a crowded bus or subway would scream, and if he had a really good deal in that briefcase, many people might sign up. About 400 Neanderthal skeletons or parts have been discovered around Europe and north Asia, as far south as Turkey or northern Israel, but never in Africa. The message is that, while 19th century eugenicists saw Africans as more primitive than white Europeans and somewhat more primitive than Asians, the exact reverse was true. Neither were the Neanderthals as primitive in culture as the “ape-man” hypothesis suggested. Flint knappers who made tools by chipping flint describe handmade Neanderthal flint cutters, used for skinning animals and cutting meat, as deliberately thought out and carefully sharpened by gradual knapping. Neanderthal spearheads were attached to the spear shafts not just by thongs, but by man-made pitch, presumably produced by heating birch wood in underground containers made of small animal skulls until the birch tree fragments, under prolonged heat from fire, oozed a black pitch that fixed the spearheads to the shafts. This somewhat blurs the old-fashioned distinction between Neolithic and Paleolithic periods. The fact that a complicated process like pitch production was handed down from one generation to the next suggests Neanderthals knew how to talk. The Neanderthals also took the time to bore holes in the tops of seashells so they could presumably string them and wear them as ornaments. What appears to be a bone needle for sewing turned up at another site. Scraps between the teeth of skulls suggest they may have eaten both vegetables and meat. Other sites reveal they painted pictures on the walls of caves. One site in Spain revealed a teenaged Neanderthal girl laid out for burial in the fetal position with both hands clasped beneath her head. This suggests, though it may not prove, that the Neanderthals had some concept of an afterlife. Sites in Russia suggest that Neanderthals built simple houses out of the bones of the animals they hunted or scavenged, possibly covered with animal hides. What became of these promising people? The old theory was that Cro-Magnons or homo sapiens -- essentially modern men and women, based on skeletal reconstruction -- swept up north out of Africa and murdered them all. The Neanderthals were the only people in northern Europe 40,000 years ago; 25,000 years ago, the full-blood Neanderthals were extinct. DNA came to the rescue. Scientists of the 21st century were able to reconstruct the Neanderthal genome and this overturned the theory of total extinction. “Those of us who live outside Africa carry a little Neanderthal DNA in us,” said Svante Pääbo of the Max Planck Institute in Leipzig in 2010. “The proportion of Neanderthal-inherited genetic material is about one to four percent,” said Dr. David Reich of Harvard Medical School, who worked on the study. “It is a small but very real proportion of ancestry in non-Africans today.” Jared Diamond once joined many other theorists in believing that Neanderthals had been exterminated. That is a theory, but DNA science is subject to peer review. Neanderthal DNA keeps cropping up among whites, Asians, and people with white or Asian ancestors. The most probable explanation is that when the homo sapiens came north from Africa, they interacted with the Neanderthals, perhaps peacefully, until the Neanderthals were swamped. Skeletal evidence suggests that there were eventually 10 Cro-Magnons for every Neanderthal in Europe and the Neanderthals were at a disadvantage, not intellectually, but because their robust bodies required a lot more protein than their new neighbors. So there you have it. The heaviest concentration of Neanderthal genes is in Tuscany, and the lowest is in China, but if you are reading this, you are almost certainly part Neanderthal, as I am. That could explain my computer skills, or lack of same, but I cannot claim to have benched 500 pounds. My full-blooded Lakota friends were optimistic when they suggested I was at least a Neander half-breed. I needed a shave that day. Next time somebody calls you a Neanderthal, smile as if you know something he or she does not. DNA testing has revealed that all people from Europe or Central Asia are Neanderthals -- at least in part. The recent “Nova” TV show, “Decoding Neanderthals,” showed an American college teacher bringing it home to his class. He took a blood sample from each student who volunteered and later gave the leery kids the results on camera. One young woman who was black, white, and Indian, was about one percent Neanderthal; a Chinese man was 1.2 percent; and a blue-eyed blonde woman was three percent. DNA samples taken all over the world indicate that full-blooded tribal Africans have no Neanderthal ancestry, continental Asians have some, and Europeans have the most, although quotients of more than four percent are unusual. Neanderthals, when first discovered, got very bad press. The first recognized Neanderthal skull and bones were discovered in the Neander Valley in western Germany in 1856, and were originally thought to be the remains of a bear. When the skull turned out to be human, the remains were ascribed to a bow-legged Cossack of mixed Mongolian ancestry who was presumed to have deserted from the Tsarist Russian contingent that was fighting Napoleon. A few years after the discovery, Charles Darwin unveiled his theory of evolution by natural selection and the Neanderthal became an “ape-man” -- a missing inking between the gorilla and the Victorian. This was not the universal opinion. Rudolf Virchow, the Prussian pathologist who argued in 1854 that spontaneous generation was a myth and that sterile matter could not come to life, examined the Neander Valley skull and bones. Virchow discovered that the skull appeared to have been deformed by childhood trauma and that the bowed leg bones were due to rickets, a nutritional disease, rather than an ancestral proximity to apes. Chris Stringer, a modern British anthropologist quoted on “Nova,” confirmed that Virchow was right about the bow-legged stance based on a nutritional deformity. Stringer said it was caused by arthritis. Virchow also asserted that there were no “pure” Germans in the 19th century. He did not conjecture Neanderthal ancestry for moderns. People listened to, or dismissed, that opinion based mostly on whether they were proud of their own achievements or those of their ancestors. Erik Trinkaus, a modern expert, has studied Neanderthal foot bones. He confirmed in 1975 that Neanderthals walked as modern humans do. Early reconstructions of the Neanderthal man followed the Darwin myth rather than the Virchow analysis. The Neanderthals were depicted as stooped and shuffling, with receding chins and foreheads. Some of the facial features, such as the high brow ridges, are evidentially correct, but were exaggerated by the “monkey model.” Better forensic reconstruction shows Neanderthals were easily recognizable as humans, though their skeletons indicate they could have benched 300 to 500 pounds, according to one anthropologist. Honk if you’re a Neanderthal Letters to the Editor Expresses gratitude for generous donation year, and we haven’t made any improvements in over 40 years. We have to put the problems where they came from, the board of education not doing the job they were elected to do. They control over $15 million of our tax dollars. What did they do with the hundreds of thousands of dollars that go to the buildings and grounds? They still have not paid off the debt from 2003. If this referendum had passed, we would have lost our home, along with other seniors who live in Midland Park. Mrs. Sullivan is a well-to-do resident who is worried about our streets. I have not had the pleasure of meeting Mrs. B. Jackson, but I hope she stays involved with the Midland Park schools. Go to a board of education meeting, and ask for a copy of the budget. They don’t have copies for the public. You have to sign for one. We need new people on the board. Amos Bennett Midland Park Dear Editor: On behalf of the Midland Park High School Boosters Association and the student athletes at Midland Park High School, I want to express our sincere gratitude to Legends Restaurant for their generous donation of $2,768. This donation was dedicated to the Boosters from the Legends Golf Outing proceeds. Each year, the Boosters publish a professionally produced Sports Journal, purchase plaques for student athletes, and award scholarships to deserving students. A total of $4,000 has been awarded in the last two years. Legends’ considerable donation will be a huge help as we approach our goal this year. Regretfully, Legends Restaurant is no longer in our community. This loss makes its commitment to the Boosters more meaningful, and we hope that we will soon see it open for business at a new location in Midland Park. Many, many thanks. John Mulligan, President MPHS Athletic Boosters Association Dear Editor: I would like to comment on this problem in our schools. My family has lived in Midland Park for over 100 years. We love living here with such beautiful children and parents. My father saw the school burn down where the library is now. He went to the Highland School. We saw the Godwin and high school built. We also saw many other homes and improvements appear in town. I worked in a dye shop in Paterson and my wife worked in a cleaners. I worked over 50 years and my wife worked for 35 years. My three girls went through the Midland Park school system and received very good educations. With our small pensions and social security, we just get by. Our taxes on our home went up 14 percent this Resident weighs in on referendum