Human Origins Part 2 (Did Neanderthals Go to Heaven?)

Episode 21

Our Human Origins miniseries keeps rolling as we explore the implications of art, social structures, and burials among Neanderthals and early Homo Sapiens in the Stone Age (specifically about 65,000 BCE to 10,000 BCE). How much can we infer from the clues they left behind? What of the small idols that predate all known religions by 15,000 years? Was God speaking to early humans like God speaks today? Are we making too much out of too little? Why does spirituality always seem to pop up whenever humans are around? 

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produced by Zack Jackson
music by Zack Jackson and Barton Willis

 

Show Notes

Cave Paintings

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/news/2018/02/neanderthals-cave-art-humans-evolution-science/

Cave Burials

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/news/2013/12/131216-la-chapelle-neanderthal-burials-graves/

Venus Figures

http://www.visual-arts-cork.com/prehistoric/venus-of-berekhat-ram.htm 

https://www.ancient.eu/Venus_Figurine/ 

Honey Bee Dance “the Waggle”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LU_KD1enR3Q 

 

Hominids

Overview of human evolution

http://humanorigins.si.edu/evidence/human-fossils/species 

Neanderthals

https://www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/who-were-the-neanderthals.html 

Denisovan

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/2018/08/news-denisovan-neanderthal-hominin-hybrid-ancient-human/ [first generation offspring of Denisovan and Neanderthal; tiny pinky bone fragment]

https://leakeyfoundation.org/origin-stories-the-denisovans/ [podcast which was referenced]

Homo Sapiens

http://humanorigins.si.edu/evidence/human-fossils/species/homo-sapiens 

 

Giant fauna

Sloth for Kendra to curl up into : https://www.livescience.com/56762-giant-ground-sloth.html 

Marsupials with large pouches : 

http://www.bbc.com/earth/story/20160208-the-lost-giants-that-prowled-the-australian-wilderness 

They went extinct : 

https://daily.jstor.org/what-really-happened-to-the-megafauna/ 

https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2018/04/in-a-few-centuries-cows-could-be-the-largest-land-animals-left/558323/ 

Read more : https://www.americanscientist.org/article/what-became-of-the-megafauna 

 

Religious pieces

Rachel sitting on idols : https://www.sefaria.org/Genesis.31.34?lang=bi&with=all&lang2=en 

What is religiousity : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religiosity 

Spiritual / religious : https://chopra.com/articles/religion-vs-spirituality-what-is-the-difference

“Sapiens” by Yuval Harari book : https://www.ynharari.com/book/sapiens/