Imagine living for 50,000 years without ever coming into contact with any other human group, despite knowing that there are other people just a few days’ walk away. It’s hard to imagine, isn’t it? Yet, this is the story of Thorina Neanderthal who lived between 42,000 And 50,000 years ago, isolated in France, and whose origins hide a fascinating enigma.
A surprising discovery
In 2015, in a cave in the Rhone Valleythe remains of a Neanderthal, nicknamed, were found Thorinin honor of Tolkien’s famous character. From the beginning, the discovery raised many questions: the fossils had been found in an excavation level dating back to around 40,000 years ago, but the DNA extracted from teeth and jaw it suggested that Thorin belonged to a much older population, who lived over 100,000 years ago.
To solve this puzzle, a group of researchers led by the universities of Toulouse Paul Sabatier And Copenhagen he worked for seven long years, studying not only DNA, but also the isotopes present in bones. Isotopes, which are chemical variants with different numbers of neutrons in the nucleus, revealed that Thorin lived in a very cold climatecharacteristic of the most recent period.
A mysterious population
But who were these Neanderthals? Thorin and his group were descended from a population that separated from other Neanderthals around 100,000 years ago, remaining in complete isolation for 50 millennia. Even though there were other groups of Neanderthal not far from them, there appears to have never been any exchange of genes or contact between these groups.
Have you ever wondered what it would be like to live so long without contact with other people? It’s a sobering thought. According to scholars, their lifestyle lonely it just might have been one of the factors he has carried to their extinction. A life in which he wasn’t there none interaction, no sharing of knowledge or culture, a condition that seems almost unimaginable to us today.
A world different from ours
“It’s something unthinkable for a Sapiens,” says Ludovic Slimak, one of the lead researchers. “Two populations of Neanderthals lived within a few days’ walk of each other, but for 50,000 years they lived together ignoring each other completely”. This makes us understand how much the perception of the Neanderthal world was different from ours. Sapiens have always sought connections, exchanging ideas, resources and, of course, genes. THE Neanderthalinstead, they seem to have had a much more vision of the world restrictedmore closed on itself.
The story of Thorin it offers us a rare window into a distant past, into a human group that lived in complete solitude for thousands of years, far from others, until it disappeared completely. A destiny that reminds us how fundamental contact and interaction between peoples is for survival and evolution.
And you, what do you think?
Have you ever wondered what makes us different from Neanderthals? Do you think our ability to network and communicate has helped us survive? Leave us a comment and share your reflections with us. If you found Thorin’s story interesting, share it with your friends and discover the mysteries of the past with us!
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