Thursday 17 January 2013

Why were they called Neanderthals, anyway?



In 1856, in the valley of the Neander river near Dusseldorf in Germany, some miners discovered the bones of a previously unknown creature.

These creatures were humanoid, but not quite the same as our own human species.

The newly-discovered creatures have become known as Neanderthals after the place they were found*.

Unfortunately the original site was dynamited out of existence by the miners, but the people of the Neander valley are still proud of their links to early man. There’s a museum:


and the museum shop even sells something called Neanderthal cordial.

 Replete with essence of mammoth, presumably.

I wish I could try it!

 *Thal is the German for valley. The word is usually spelled Neandertal in America, because that is how you say it.

2 comments:

  1. It's the most obvious question of all and I never asked it! Shows how intellectually curious I am...very interesting too about US spelling.

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  2. But you can have too much of intellectually curious people can't you?

    There are times when you're so hungry you don't care WHAT'S in the burgers.

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