4 ms·
One of my pet theories is that Neanderthals were the "Nephilim" [1] referred to in Genesis. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nephilim https://en.wikipedia.org
by war1025 6y ago
One of my pet theories is that Neanderthals were the "Nephilim" [1] referred to in Genesis.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nephilim https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nephilim
- ddalex 6y agoI think this idea definitely deserves a historical fiction book.
- sparsely 6y agoNot quite the same but The Inheritors by William Golding explores the coexistence of the two groups.
- pavel_lishin 6y agoSo does Robert J. Sawyer's "Neanderthal Parallax" series: https://www.goodreads.com/series/40828-neanderthal-parallax https://www.goodreads.com/series/40828-neanderthal-parallax
- sampo 6y agoHere's one more https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dance_of_the_Tiger https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dance_of_the_Tiger
- tshaddox 6y agoAronofsky’s “Noah” has some pretty interesting depictions of what I believe were fallen angel stone giants intended to represent the Nephilim. I also found it interesting how the depraved human society God sent the floods to destroy was depicted as an industrialized society harvesting some sort of strange resource that was destroying the planet.
- ColanR 6y agoI wonder where else the Neanderthals might be mentioned in old stories.
- rtx 6y agoI think most of the stories got reset during the ice age. We may not find may reference.
- nwsm 6y agoIf by stories you mean written, surely nowhere. There are some 40,000 years between the last Neanderthals and the invention of writing. Though I’m not even a history hobbyist, it seems incredibly unlikely for those stories to be passed down orally for that long in any distinct manner.
- yodon 6y agoWe know cave paintings were remarkably consistent across extremely wide geographic areas for more than 15,000 years. It's not inconceivable pre-literate cultures could maintain the fundamentals of an oral tradition on these timescales.
- simonh 6y agoThe Aborigines in one area tell a story of a hill in their lands that one day spouted fire which created the land they live on. It’s actually an extinct volcano that extended the coastline 37,000 years ago creating their wetland habitat. Details linked. https://www.earthdate.org/the-oldest-story-ever-told https://www.earthdate.org/the-oldest-story-ever-told
- Uhuhreally 6y agobut Neanderthals were short and stupid. I think the Nephilim, given the way they were described as tall "sons of God" who were "heros" and "warriors of renown" were an African people
- 29athrowaway 6y agoSome think they are stupid but we know they had 1700 cubic centimeters of brain volume compared to 1200 cubic centimeters for an anatomically modern human. It is possible that they were not that stupid and they were simply outbred by humans.
- inglor_cz 6y agoThey were certainly very conservative in their stone tool design. Mousterien tools change little over more than 100 000 years of their existence.
- 29athrowaway 6y agoThey also lived in an ice covered world full of lethal megafauna instead of a post ice age world with fertile lands ready for agriculture and smaller animals.
- inglor_cz 6y agoTrue, but was such a state of things an obstacle or an incentive for innovation? After all, with better tools and weapons lethal megafauna may be slightly less lethal for you.
- lostlogin 6y agoThere are various human groups that settled areas and didn’t make much technological progress for a long time, thousands to tens of thousands of years.
- 29athrowaway 6y agoAncient people got confused with fossils. For example, the cyclopes myth may have its origin in the fossils of Pleistocene dwarf elephants, because they look like a giant skull of a one eyed human, if you use your imagination. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyclopes https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyclopes (see Possible origins section)
- jdminhbg 6y agoThere is a very good book called "The First Fossil Hunters" that deals with discovery and interpretation of fossils in antiquity. Bones of large prehistoric mammals were frequently dug up and displayed as "giants." Some of the more esoteric animals in Herodotus are probably actually references to fossilized dinosaurs. https://www.amazon.com/First-Fossil-Hunters-Dinosaurs-Mammoths/dp/0691150133/ref=sr_1_1?crid=2BGVLOMIK1OXN&dchild=1&keywords=first+fossil+hunters&sprefix=first+fossil%2Caps%2C200&sr=8-1 https://www.amazon.com/First-Fossil-Hunters-Dinosaurs-Mammot...
- zw123456 6y agoAlso, ancient people would hike up to the top of a hill or mountain and see fossils of sea shells and fish and would accurately conclude that this ground used to be under water. Of course they would have naturally assumed there must have been a helluva flood at one time. Which is perhaps why there are flood myths in so many different cultures.
- animal_spirits 6y agoI strongly believe the flood myths we find from cultures around the globe is due to the end of the last ice-age and the influx of polar icecap meltwater[0] into the oceans during the incredible global climate catastrophe around that time[1] [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meltwater_pulse_1A https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meltwater_pulse_1A [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Younger_Dryas https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Younger_Dryas
- zarkov99 6y agoEaters of the Dead by Michael Chrichton has Neanderthals as the monsters Beowulf fights. Cool movie as well.
- singularity2001 6y ago"they later inhabited Canaan at the time of the Israelite conquest of Canaan." That would better describe nordic indo europeans than neanderthals, timing wise