In 1856 the remains of a prehistoric, human-like figure were discovered in the Neander valley in Germany, causing some consternation in polite European society. The Canadian geologist John William Dawson greeted the discovery as follows:
It may have been one of those wild men, half-crazed, half-idiotic, cruel and strong, who are always more or less to be found living on the outskirts of barbarous tribes, and who now and then appear in civilized communities to be consigned perhaps to the penitentiary or the gallows, when their murderous propensities manifest themselves.
A more recent commentator wrote that the Neanderthal ‘came into the world of the Victorians like a naked savage into a ladies’ sewing circle’.
Analysis of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) extracted from Neanderthals now reveals that we share with them a common ancestry dating from around half a million years ago, and that they became extinct around 30,000 years ago in Europe, some 20,000 years after early humans arrived there. The uncomfortable closeness of the Neanderthals to ourselves seems to provide a strong imperative to insist that they were a separate species, no doubt less intelligent and more brutish. Though their brains were slightly larger than ours, we can attribute this to their slightly larger bodies, allowing us to believe that we humans are just as intellectually able, if not more so. As I have mentioned, modern scholars have argued that the Neanderthals didn’t even have the blessing of language, on the grounds that their vocal tracts were not fully adapted for speech. But speech should not be identified with language and the Neanderthals may well have communicated effectively with gestures.
In 2010 an international consortium of scientists published a draft sequence of Neanderthal DNA indicating that we are even closer to our supposedly brutish cousins than previously thought. Comparing this DNA with our own reveals that the Neanderthals contributed some 1 to 4 per cent of the genome of modern humans. This suggests that the early humans who came out of Africa some 65,000 years ago went on a spree of rape and pillage; once they arrived in Europe they set about slaughtering the hapless Neanderthals but occasionally also mating with them. Well, perhaps it wasn’t quite as bad as that, since the two groups coexisted in Europe for some 20,000 years, but the scenario is uncomfortably reminiscent of the way our species carries on when one bunch invades the territory of another. And, of course, that shared DNA blurs the notion that the Neanderthals were a separate species.
It gets worse. DNA extracted from the little finger bone of another fossil discovered in the Denisova Cave in southern Siberia suggests that there was another human-like species around, neither human nor Neanderthal, dating from some 30,000 to 50,000 years ago. Comparing that DNA with modern human DNA suggests that some of our human ancestors also mated with the Denisovans, who contributed about a twentieth of the genome of Melanesians who now inhabit Papua New Guinea and the islands northeast of Australia.
The purest ‘humans’ must therefore be those Africans who did not join the exodus of 60,000 or so years ago. Those who did head out from Africa appear to have interbred, albeit to a limited extent, with those who had migrated much earlier. It will not be surprising if new discoveries reveal further skeletons in the cupboard.
These recent revelations might seem to support ideas of racial differences between contemporary groups, perhaps also suggesting genetic differences in intelligence or social refinement. However, despite the donations of small amounts of Neanderthal and Denisovan DNA, we are all basically of African stock. Our African forebears seem to have evolved qualities that enabled them to eventually populate the globe, while the Neanderthals and Denisovans perished. Those qualities may well include superior technology, enhanced communication and even bonding rituals such as religion and rugby. In the light of human history, though, we should reflect that a major part of technological advance was the development of increasingly powerful weapons, and that rape and pillage have featured as prominently as the ties of human generosity and altruism.
And, with respect to the Neanderthals and Denisovans, it’s too late to say we’re sorry.