Neanderthals: Surprising Intellect and Medical Mastery

From painkillers and antibiotics to cave rituals, everything indicates that Neanderthals possessed exceptional intelligence and knowledge about the world around them.

[Photo: Neanderthal-Museum, Mettmann, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons]

Treating illnesses, constructing complex structures, carefully burying the dead, and creating works of art — all these abilities were previously considered the domain of Homo sapiens. However, recent research reveals that thousands of years before representatives of this species appeared in Europe, and sometimes even tens of thousands of years before they came up with the idea of leaving their African cradle, Neanderthals possessed knowledge that is impressive even from today’s perspective.

Sometimes it involved the proper utilization of available resources, while other times, it was connected to deciphering symbolism based on beliefs and rituals. Their purpose and proceedings cannot be reconstructed today. In short, Neanderthals had intelligence and cognitive abilities that were denied to them until recently, often depicted as mindless brutes.

Neanderthals used penicillin.

Sensational findings published in the prestigious journal ‘Nature’ in early March 2017 confirm this. The…