The Visigoths Imperial Ambitions
By JASON URBANUS
March/April 2021
Most historians and archaeologists agree: The sixth century A.D. was not an easy time to be alive. The Western Roman Empire had collapsed in the previous century, plunging much of the continent into economic, political, and social upheaval. On top of this, the first outbreak and frequent recurrence of bubonic plague resulted in the estimated deaths of millions. Making matters even worse, a series of volcanic eruptions caused climatic changes from Britain to China, ushering in a cooling period known as the Late Antique Little Ice Age. Recent studies have indicated that this caused drought, crop failure, breakdown in food supply chains, and famine. Harvard University medieval historian Michael McCormick has gone so far as to characterize the period following a particularly intense volcanic eruption in A.D. 536 as one of the single worst eras in recorded human history.
Sabrina Imbler, The New York Times
Published: 09 Mar 2021 11:45 AM BdST
Updated: 09 Mar 2021 11:45 AM BdST An exhibit shows the life of a neanderthal family in a cave in the new Neanderthal Museum in the northern town of Krapina February 25, 2010. REUTERS/Nikola Solic
If you were somehow able to travel back in time some 130,000 years and chance upon a Neanderthal, you might find yourself telling them about some of humanity’s greatest inventions, such as spanakopita and TikTok. The Neanderthal would have no idea what you were saying, much less talking about, but might be able to hear you perfectly, picking up on the voiceless consonants “t,” “k” and “s” that appear in many modern human languages.
Scientific American
Could they speak, too? Did they proposition modern humans in an interspecies creole language?
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Whether or not Neandertals could speak has been studied for more than five decades and the question is still being researched because no definitive answer has been given. It is clear that our human relatives were capable of enormously complex cultural achievements. So how was all of that possible without the powerful communication capabilities afforded by speech?
To be sure, Neandertals were equipped with a well-known language gene. But some studies cast doubt on whether Neandertals’ anatomy was suitable for producing the sounds of speech: their larynx was shaped differently than that of modern humans. Still, it was considered likely that our cousin species could produce a wide variety of sounds. Whether those sounds rose to the level of actual speech remains controversial.
Neanderthals listened to the world much like us artdaily.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from artdaily.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
A new study has suggested that Neanderthals were able to hear sounds and even produce speech like today’s humans. Experts came to this conclusion by creating a digital reconstruction of the skull bones and focused on their ear cavities. It was long thought that Neanderthals weren’t very smart, but recent studies have confirmed that they. Read more »