“Shanidar I.†From Shanidar Cave, Erbil, Iraq. Circa 60,000 to 45,00o BCE. On display at the Pre-History Gallery of the Iraq Museum in Baghdad, Iraq.
“Shanidar I.†From Shanidar Cave, Erbil, Iraq. Circa 60,000 to 45,00o BCE. On display at the Pre-History Gallery of the Iraq Museum in Baghdad, Iraq.
When you think of cavemen, you probably think of large, ape-like people who harmed others for the fun of it. Barbaric monsters that would eat a child’s brain if they looked at them funny.
You may compare them to the way medieval people treated those with dwarfism. They viewed them as demonic entities who could only work as clowns, or entertainment for the higher ups in society. Or you may think of the Spartans who killed any imperfect child. Even Aristotle supported these practices. He once stated that there should be a law that kept any imperfect child from being able to live.
When you see how violent and conservative ancient civilizations were, you’d probably believe that prehistoric people were even worse, however, that couldn’t be further from the truth. Before we can look at how kind these people truly were, we need to look at the biological reasons behind compassion.
Kindness is arguably our most important trait behind intelligence. We’re very social animals. Cooperation was very important for ancient societies. Having one group member die possibly meant having your whole tribe wiped out. Even when another tribe lost a member, that meant your species was dropping in population, therefore your children would have less people to mate with.
Selflessness isn’t only something people have. Compassion has been seen in chimps, which are the closest living relative to current humans. This shows that care isn’t a trait we evolved to have, but something that was always there.
In Iraq there is a cave (Shanidar Cave) that holds the remains of several Neanderthals. While remains are very common in the Middle East, there’s something about these people. They reached extremely old ages. All of the fossils found in the cave were between the ages of 35-50. That’s about 85 in today’s standards. This speaks volumes to the family unit that these individuals lived in. One of the skeletons is different though. It holds the answer to one of the most underrated questions in recorded history.
Specimen 1, aka “Nandy†was disabled. He had a large fracture on the left side of his skull, which would have left him partially, if not completely, blind in his left eye. He also had several ear blockages that left him completely deaf. He also suffered from a withered arm that he most likely had since birth. Lastly, he also had deformities in both legs. The interesting thing about these issues is that they all showed signs of healing, meaning he lived almost 50 years with these disabilities. Someone cared for him, someone kept him clean and fed. He was someone’s dad or grandpa and they loved him enough to keep him around, despite the fact that he couldn’t contribute to their survival. He had a life and a personality, a family that valued him as a member of their home. He’s truly a heart warming example of pure love and kindness.
These so-called savages were just as human as we are. These tribes treated their people better than we did just a mere 120 years ago. While love isn’t a trait we learned, it is certainly a trait we can forget.
