The five questions below are for you to answer based on the NOVA episode “Decoding Neanderthals” which is (for the most part) about Neanderthals, but also include some mentions of Homo heidelbergensis..
1. Describe how Levallois tools are made and why these tools are different from earlier Acheulian tools. What did experienced flint-knapper Metin Eren have to do to learn how to make these tools? What is the advantage of this type of tool?
2. What was the adhesive material that the Neanderthals used to attach their spear points to the spears? How was it made and why is that important to understanding the development of Neanderthals?
3. In what country did researchers first find Neanderthal bone material from which to extract samples of DNA? What did their investigations discover? What is the FOXP2 gene and why is it important?
4. What is the evidence of some kind of ritual behavior and perhaps a belief system for the Neanderthals? What is the evidence for burial of the dead?
5. What did John Hawkes (the guy with the jelly beans) look at to find out how much interbreeding there was between Neanderthals and modern humans (Homo sapiens)? What did he discover about the amount of interbreeding between Neanderthals and modern humans? In which geographic areas did he find evidence of the most interbreeding and the least interbreeding? If Hawkes is correct, what finally led to the disappearance of Neanderthals as a species?
Last Completed Projects
| topic title | academic level | Writer | delivered |
|---|