How do Neanderthals fit into the Human Family?
In 1856, workers in a limestone quarry in the Neander Valley of Germany uncovered a set of bones that would spark one of the most heated debates in human history. The skull cap was thick, with heavy brow ridges, and the limb bones were stout and bowed. For over a century, the scientific community largely classified these beings, dubbed Neanderthals, as a separate, primitive species. Museums and textbooks depicted them as hairy, stooped "ape-men," knuckle-dragging brutes who were evolutionarily halfway between apes and modern humans. This caricature posed a challenge to the biblical narrative: If Adam was the first man, created in the image of God, where do these "primitive" cousins fit in? However, in recent decades, the scientific consensus has undergone a radical shift, one that brings the historical reality of Neanderthals into striking alignment with the biblical account of human origins. The Rehabilitation of the "Caveman" The initial view ...