LogFAQs > #891459832

shadowsword87 posted...

If a tribe of neanderthals somehow mannaged to survive into 400BC, what would they be like, compared to a society against more "modern" homo sapiens? What would they sound like? Would they even have a language? Would they have begun to have tools along with homo sapiens?

That really depends, doesn't it? If they encountered other cultures, especially on a regular basis, their society would change accordingly. However, if they were locked off from the rest of the world, odds are they might not change much at all depending on their access to resources, etc.

The best approach might be to figure out what you can about neanderthals then pick a civilization which existed in a circumstance similar to the one in which you're placing them (ie, intercultural interactions, natural resources, etc) then trace the development going forward. Given the gamut of human civilization, they *might* range anywhere from tribes of gatherer-hunters to a developed nation. After all, there are still some relatively primitive tribes left in the world today, largely thanks to having little or no contact with the outside world.

That said, science has shown that neanderthals' brains at the time were less developed in the areas associated with social interaction, etc, which means they'd be starting from a somewhat different place (although, if they continued to exist, they would have evolved over time)
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/science-shows-why-youre-smarter-than-a-neanderthal-1885827/
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