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Admin moved page How Did the Neanderthals Become the Dominant Human Species? to Who were the Neanderthals
[[File: Homo_sapiens_and_Neanderthal.jpg|300px250px|thumbnail|left|Modern Recreation and Comparison of an Early Modern Man (RL) and a Neanderthal Man (LR)]]
The study of human history, often termed “historiography,” is technically the study of the past through primary documents and sources. Although those primary sources can include art and architecture, they are most often written documents, including religious texts, annals and other historiographical records, and administrative records just to name a few. According to scholars, anything before the dawn of human civilization and writing, which roughly coincides with 3,100 BC, is considered “pre-history.” But obviously history was being made before 3,100 BC, so it too is studied, but with different methodologies, tools, and by a different set of scholars.
===The First Europeans===
<i>Homo neanderthalensis</i>, usually just known by the abbreviated term “Neanderthal,” inhabited the Earth, primarily in Europe, but also parts of Asia and north Africa, from about 400,000 to 30,000 years ago. They were once thought to have been the final step in the evolutionary ladder, but today anthropologists believe that although closely related to modern humans, with the average some modern European Europeans and Asian Asians having 1% to 4% Neanderthal DNA, they were not direct ancestors. Research now indicates that the Neanderthals emerged from a common ancestor not long before modern humans and can be specifically tied to a cave in Spain about 400,000 years ago. After emerging as a distinct species, the Neanderthals demonstrated superior intelligence, which was seen in their advanced tool making culture, allowing them to be the dominant species in Europe and parts of Asia for more than 200,000 years.
===<i>Homo erectus</i> and <i>Homo heidelbergensis</i>===
===Sima de los Heuso Cave===
[[File: Neanderthal_BajaLuka.jpg|300px250px|thumbnail|left|Recreation of a Neanderthal Hunting]]
The cave known as Sima Dde los Heuso at the Atapuerca archaeological site in Spain has yielded an incredible number of hominin remains that have shed new light on the emergence of the Neanderthals. Several <i>Homo heidelbergensis</i> fossils were discovered at the site, with 430,000 year old bones possibly representing the earliest Neanderthals, or a transitional species between <i>heidelbergensis</i> and Neanderthal. It was after this point when the Neanderthals completely diverged and began spreading across Europe. <ref> Klein, p. 311</ref>
===References===
<references/>
[[Category: ArchaeologyArcheology]] [[Category: European History]] [[Category: Anthropology]] [[Category: Paleolithic Period]] [[Category: Deep Impact History]]
