Alas, this particular news got *buried" by another piece of news about the "earliest" flute(where a "Venus" of similar age was found). This was so exciting, because it is apparently "proof" of how sophisticated "modern" humans are supposed to have been. I'm sure this was an interesting discovery, all right. And it's good that people are discussing it on various venues. But. However. This story suggests something at once exciting and depressing. Exciting, because if it bears out, it shows that (a) Neandertals could plan for long trips, (b) they knew how to smoke and dry food for preservation and (c) they could make perfectly good, warm, snug clothing -- necessary in the sort of climate they lived in. They have been denied all of these capacities by various workers, who don't want to acknowledge that, however related they might have been to "us", Neandertals had brains. And they used them.
Here is the picture that accompanies the article
It's not entirely accurate, but it shows the possible clothing Neandertals could have worn, perhaps even while hunting mammoths!
Anne G
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