Neanderthals Used Salicylic Acid And Antibiotics More Than 50,000 Years Ago

haidut

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So, these folks were not quite the "dumb cavemen" popular culture and TV "scientific" shows describe them as. I wonder if they discovered the beneficial effects of these substances themselves or acquired them from other ancient civilizations purported to have existed 80,000 - 100,000 years ago. Perhaps, more importantly (and disturbingly) using these simple tools allowed the human species to survive and even thrive in very inhospitable times, while we modern humans seem to have degenerated to the point of being unable to live properly without some sort of medical assistance. Oh, and our modern drugs that replaced the simple ancient ones suck big time and can often kill us faster than the disease they are supposed to...cause...I mean treat :):

https://phys.org/news/2017-03-dental-plaque-dna-neandertals-aspirin.html

"..."One of the most surprising finds, however, was in a Neandertal from El Sidrón, who suffered from a dental abscess visible on the jawbone. The plaque showed that he also had an intestinal parasite that causes acute diarrhoea, so clearly he was quite sick. He was eating poplar, which contains the pain killer salicylic acid (the active ingredient of aspirin), and we could also detect a natural antibiotic mould (Penicillium) not seen in the other specimens." "Apparently, Neandertals possessed a good knowledge of medicinal plants and their various anti-inflammatory and pain-relieving properties, and seem to be self-medicating. The use of antibiotics would be very surprising, as this is more than 40,000 years before we developed penicillin. Certainly our findings contrast markedly with the rather simplistic view of our ancient relatives in popular imagination."
 

Morgan

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Matching this with the Bruniquel Cave constructions dated for 176 thousand years ago paints a very different image of these people.

"In a letter to Nature reporting the discovery in 2016, Jacques Jaubert and his co-authors state that the structures are of anthropogenic origin, and as early Neanderthals were the only humans in the area at that time, they must have been the builders, a conclusion which is accepted by Chris Stringer of the Natural History Museum in London."

"The discovery shows that early Neanderthals were capable of building more elaborate structures than previously realised, and that they had a more complex social organisation than previously thought. The modern human Aurignacian culture, over 100,000 years later, is not known to have produced constructions in caves."
 
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I am at the 99th percentile rank for neanderthal according to 23andme, so more neanderthal than 99% of 23andme users.

My occipital lobe is huge and so are my siblings.

My forehoead slopes slightly.

I have a cleft chin.

I am hairy and have a deep voice.
 

Pointless

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Apr 13, 2016
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I am at the 99th percentile rank for neanderthal according to 23andme, so more neanderthal than 99% of 23andme users.

My occipital lobe is huge and so are my siblings.

My forehoead slopes slightly.

I have a cleft chin.

I am hairy and have a deep voice.

That's good. Well, depending on how you see things I guess. Neanderthal were the smart and artistic ones, and they were mostly wiped out by the British cro-magnon. I could be wrong. It's been a while since I read this.
 

dreamcatcher

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Oct 29, 2016
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So, these folks were not quite the "dumb cavemen" popular culture and TV "scientific" shows describe them as. I wonder if they discovered the beneficial effects of these substances themselves or acquired them from other ancient civilizations purported to have existed 80,000 - 100,000 years ago. Perhaps, more importantly (and disturbingly) using these simple tools allowed the human species to survive and even thrive in very inhospitable times, while we modern humans seem to have degenerated to the point of being unable to live properly without some sort of medical assistance. Oh, and our modern drugs that replaced the simple ancient ones suck big time and can often kill us faster than the disease they are supposed to...cause...I mean treat :):

https://phys.org/news/2017-03-dental-plaque-dna-neandertals-aspirin.html

"..."One of the most surprising finds, however, was in a Neandertal from El Sidrón, who suffered from a dental abscess visible on the jawbone. The plaque showed that he also had an intestinal parasite that causes acute diarrhoea, so clearly he was quite sick. He was eating poplar, which contains the pain killer salicylic acid (the active ingredient of aspirin), and we could also detect a natural antibiotic mould (Penicillium) not seen in the other specimens." "Apparently, Neandertals possessed a good knowledge of medicinal plants and their various anti-inflammatory and pain-relieving properties, and seem to be self-medicating. The use of antibiotics would be very surprising, as this is more than 40,000 years before we developed penicillin. Certainly our findings contrast markedly with the rather simplistic view of our ancient relatives in popular imagination."
@haidut Not related to your post but would like to ask, how you would use pure salicylic acid powder in daily skin care, since it doesn't dissolve in water or oil? I've ordered some to use it as a DIY skin wash/exfoliator before I realised that it has to be reacted with baking soda, glycerine or propylene glycol. Thank you.
 

MatheusPN

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Oct 16, 2017
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I am at the 99th percentile rank for neanderthal according to 23andme, so more neanderthal than 99% of 23andme users.

My occipital lobe is huge and so are my siblings.

My forehoead slopes slightly.

I have a cleft chin.

I am hairy and have a deep voice.
So you're closer to Australian aborigines, the most distant to Bantus, in that aspect... Interesting, is you in the picture?
@TheBeard @Homo Consumericus I saw you two commenting about it...
 
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