Link Sharing

[la_samtyr]

http://www.bbc.com /earth/story/ 20150929-why-are-we-the-only-human-species-still-alive?ocid=twert


Once Earth was home to a host of human species, from Neanderthals to hobbits. But today only we survive

By Melissa Hogenboom
29 September 2015

I've only marked the first lines or so. But this article reminded me of the Wild Men of the Woods (i.e., Drúedain) -- is it possible that Tolkien was describing a last remnant of Neanderthals?

Comments

[engarian.livejournal.com]

It certainly would be possible. Consider that Piltdown Man was 'discovered' in 1912 (and not revealed as a hoax until 1953). It would have been very newsworthy and could have been incorporated into LOTR by Tolkien in that fashion. I could easily see him reading the headlines about the various discoveries in England and around Europe and jumping to create a 'pocket' of these other hominids existing almost undiscovered in the forests between Rohan and Gondor.

- Erulisse (one L)

[huinare.livejournal.com]

I really like the idea of Drúedain as Neanderthal remnants!

I'm inclined to critique that article a bit. It's ignoring a lot of current research that strongly suggests Neanderthals were the same species as us (just a different subspecies), and that interbreeding occurred when anatomically modern humans arrived "out of Africa" via the Levant. One model is that the Neanderthals were simply "bred out" because their population was much smaller than was the influx of fully modern humans.