Read and study the following passage about Neanderthals. Then go to the Quia game links and play first the vocabulary game then the review game. Take the Quia Quiz. When you have successfully answered all the questions in the games and quiz, you will enter the Inspiration site and study the outline for Neanderthals. The outline will become your "notes" for the final test. As we progress through this unit, you will complete more and more of the Inspiration outlines yourselves.
NEANDERTHAL
As in the past the climate continued to alter. The Ice Age arrived. A new species of hominid appeared, better able to withstand the bitter cold. This species was called Homo Sapiens or Neanderthal. Homo means man. Sapiens means wise. They were also called Neanderthal because the first Homo Sapiens remains were discovered in the Neander Valley of Germany. They inhabited many parts of Europe and Asia. They adapted to the extreme cold and life on the tundras, or frozen plains.
Their tools were more sophisticated and included heavy spears. They hunted in large, organized groups to bring down the monstrous game which inhabited their areas.
 
The mammoths and other large game had many uses besides food. Their fur provided warm blankets and clothing. Their skinned hides were used to make huts as were the huge mammoth tusks.
Tusks of smaller animals were used for weapons such as spear points and to make jewelry. They lived a nomadic lifestyle, moving from place to place in search of food.
They lived in communal groups. We know they practiced some form of religion because burial sites have been found covered in dried flowers.
There is also evidence that they practiced medicine. Skeletons showing old, healed injuries and diseases such as arthritis prove that they did not abandon their injured or weak but cared for them as best they could.
In appearance they were very different from earlier species. They were powerful, short and stocky. Their features had special adaptations to help them withstand the extreme cold. They had broad, flat noses allowing them to intake the cold air without injury and wide fingertips which improved circulation to the extremities. They had receding chins and very prominent brow ridges.
They were extremely intelligent and obviously communicated and cooperated amongst themselves, but they were not capable of speech.
We know they existed from fossil finds in places like the Neander Valley, Germany. Other finds have been made throughout Europe and Asia.
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