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The tools at top right are characteristic of Neanderthal culture (Mousterian); they had an effective but fairly simple tool kit which changed very little over the life-time of the species. This constrasts sharply with the rapid advances made in technology by early modern humans.
Neanderthal sites often reveal evidence of cultural practices. The image at left is a museum reconstruction of a Neanderthal cave burial at Dordogne, France. The deceased was buried in a fetal position with tools and food; a bear skull lies at the edge of the grave. Flower pollen found in the grave suggests that medicinal plants were scattered over the body as well. These practices obviously suggest complex beliefs and rituals. .
Some Neanderthal individuals lived to middle age or older, even a few examples who had suffered crippling diseases or injuries. The two upper arm bones (humeri) at right are from a male of about 45 years of age from Shanidar, in Iraq; the left arm is completely withered from an early injury or disease. The fact that the individual with an injury this severe survived into a relatively advanced age implies the existence of a complex social life in which other group members would have shared food and life-supporting tasks. This individual must have contributed something other than physical strength to the social group in which he lived. .
It is not clear whether Neanderthals had a developed language, but there is evidence of significant cultural development.
These two artists' reconstructions of Neanderthal life show the distance we have come from our earliest conceptions of the Neanderthals. The painting at left illustrates popular prejudices and misconceptions about early humans given expression in the work of French paleontologist Marcellin Boule, who based his 1911 study of the Neanderthals on an individual who, as it turned out, was badly deformed by arthritis. Note the bent-kneed stance suggesting an imperfect or only partly erect posture, the head set forward on the spine much like that of a chimp or gorilla, and the clumsy, extremely hairy bodies.
