Songs of the Neanderthals

The latest twist in the endlessly convoluted theorizing on the Neanderthals is an attempt to infer what they sounded like based on attempted reconstruction of their vocal apparatus. The conclusion:

Neanderthal voices were loud, womanly and probably highly melodic — not the roars and grunts previously assumed by most researchers. Stephen Mithen, professor of archeology at Reading University and author of one of the studies, said: “What is emerging is a picture of an intelligent and emotionally complex creature whose most likely form of communication would have been part language and part song.”

I have to keep reminding myself. Archaeologists are scientists..., archaeologists are scientists..., archaeologists are....

Oh, crap! Read it here.