Not all Neanderthals were strong and healthy, suggests scientist

Neanderthals were not all strapping, healthy beings like we have been led to believe, a leading scientist has said.

Instead many of our prehistoric ancestors were ill and disabled, looking like they had been in the “wars”.

Dr Penny Spikins, a lecturer in archaeology at York University, said the notion of a caveman past where everyone was strong and healthy is “kind of worrying”.

Speaking at the British Science Festival in Coventry and Warwickshire, she explained: “We are not very good at vulnerability, and we are vulnerable to being lonely, we’re physically vulnerable.

“Nobody likes thinking about death and we have this image of ourselves as competitive and individualistic which is often unhelpful and unhealthy.

“Then we apply that back on to the past and then that justifies the present again and that’s slightly worrying.”

She added: “But when you think, ‘well actually throughout our evolutionary we’ve been interdependent and everyone has periods of vulnerability’, maybe that might help you find it easier to handle being vulnerable.”

Prof Spikins said on the one hand Neanderthals were healthy because they walked around a lot, but there was also a very high injury rate.

“So almost every skeleton has got signs of an injury or illness just because of their lifestyles.

“They’re not suffering from the sedentary lifestyles that we are but they are dealing with a difficult life as well,” said Prof Spikins.

She also said that museums should look at the way they portray Neanderthals, suggesting that many would look injured and scarred.