They worked by torchlight, following the same procedure hour after hour: wrench a stalagmite off the cave floor, remove the tip and base, and carefully lay it with the others.

Today we can only guess as to why a group of Neanderthals built a series of large stalagmite structures in a French cave – but the fact they did provides a rare glimpse into our extinct cousin’s potential for social organisation in a challenging environment.

Gone are the days when we thought of Neanderthals as crude and unintelligent.

Archaeological evidence now suggests they were capable of symbolic thought, had a basic knowledge of chemistry, medicine and cooking, and perhaps some capacity for speech. They may even have taught modern humans new artisanal skills when the two species met and interbred.

They are roughly 175,000 years old, which means they easily predate the arrival of modern humans in Europe. They were built at a time when Neanderthals were the only hominins in the region.

The stalagmite structures are 50 centimetres high in places, says Jaubert. They are built from around 400 individual stalagmites with a combined weight of about 2 tonnes.

“That must take time ,” he says – although exactly how long it took the Neanderthals to build the structures isn’t clear. “As often in prehistory, measuring time is not easy.”

What we do know is that the structures were built in dark, challenging conditions and the builders had no natural light to help them. Indeed, Jaubert’s team found traces of fire at several points around and on the structures.

https://www.newscientist.com/article/2090183-neanderthals-built-mystery-underground-circles-175000-years-ago/#ixzz6Br7c7LCR

PermeateFree said:

They worked by torchlight, following the same procedure hour after hour: wrench a stalagmite off the cave floor, remove the tip and base, and carefully lay it with the others.

Today we can only guess as to why a group of Neanderthals built a series of large stalagmite structures in a French cave – but the fact they did provides a rare glimpse into our extinct cousin’s potential for social organisation in a challenging environment.

Gone are the days when we thought of Neanderthals as crude and unintelligent.

Archaeological evidence now suggests they were capable of symbolic thought, had a basic knowledge of chemistry, medicine and cooking, and perhaps some capacity for speech. They may even have taught modern humans new artisanal skills when the two species met and interbred.

They are roughly 175,000 years old, which means they easily predate the arrival of modern humans in Europe. They were built at a time when Neanderthals were the only hominins in the region.

The stalagmite structures are 50 centimetres high in places, says Jaubert. They are built from around 400 individual stalagmites with a combined weight of about 2 tonnes.

“That must take time ,” he says – although exactly how long it took the Neanderthals to build the structures isn’t clear. “As often in prehistory, measuring time is not easy.”

What we do know is that the structures were built in dark, challenging conditions and the builders had no natural light to help them. Indeed, Jaubert’s team found traces of fire at several points around and on the structures.

https://www.newscientist.com/article/2090183-neanderthals-built-mystery-underground-circles-175000-years-ago/#ixzz6Br7c7LCR

I’m Neanderthal man
You’re Neanderthal girl
Let’s have a philosophical discussion

neanderthals had kids, totally free range, neanderthal kids, popped them out, no prophylactics, quite a few’d fall off cliffs, possibly get eaten by big cats, bitten by snakes, get killed by their siblings, the selection pressures were busy, this is back in the day before herbert spencer, darwin, or david attenborough and the love of variously intellectualizing (about) nature

anyway kids explore a lot, left to their own devices, little explorers, form tribes even, of explorers

anyway i’m being silly, was playing with the idea what’s been found is the work of kids, neanderthal kids

> They worked by torchlight, following the same procedure hour after hour: wrench a stalagmite off the cave floor, remove the tip and base, and carefully lay it with the others. Today we can only guess as to why a group of Neanderthals built a series of large stalagmite structures in a French cave – but the fact they did provides a rare glimpse into our extinct cousin’s potential for social organisation in a challenging environment.

Well, if I was to wrench a large number of stalagmites out of a cave floor … what would be my motive?

A lot of the people who went into these deep caves were youngsters, we know this from the hand prints. A test of strength perhaps, or somewhere to sit down. A den, club room, wrestling arena.