us and them

Did Neanderthals have speech ?  I have always believed that they must have had a vocal way of communicating. How did they manage to be so organised if they had'nt ?

Jean M. Auel in her series of books about Neandertals and Homa Sapiens theorised that they used verbal sounds and hand signals. If you think about it we still do that today !

The discovery of a Neanderthal hyoid bone in Kebara Cave in Israel has made some anthropologists believe that Neanderthals were capable of complex speech like modern humans. 

WHAT IS THE HYOID BONE?

The hyoid bone is also known as the lingual bone. It is a horseshoe-shaped bone situated in the front of the neck between the chin and the thyroid cartilage. Unlike other bones, the hyoid is only distantly articulated to other bones by muscles or ligaments.

It aids in tongue movement and swallowing.

Others believe that the debate over Neanderthals and speech will never end because the soft tissue of the vocal tract cannot fossilize.

Scientific articles with differing viewpoints  :

• Could Neanderthalers talk ?
• Neanderthals talked like us half a million years ago and could even have shaped the language we speak today
• Study suggests that Neanderthals could speak like modern humans.

It seems we share a small % of DNA with Neanderthals !