Neanderthals in Europe up to 500,000 years ago had ‘a deep-seated sense of compassion’ for sick and weak members of their communities, archaeologists said.
Evidence of ‘routine care of the injured or infirm’ included the remains of a half-blind person with deformed feet and a withered arm who had been looked after for 20 years and a brain-damaged girl who was cared for until she was five or six years old.
The claims were made by a York university team studying the emergence of emotions in humans.
About 6 million years ago, the researchers said, our primitive ancestors had ‘the first awakenings of an empathy for others and motivation to help them, perhaps with a gesture of comfort or moving a branch to allow them to pass’.
Neanderthals had more developed feelings, while compassion was
extended to strangers, animals and objects about 120,000 years ago.
‘We have traditionally paid a lot of attention to how early humans thought about each other but it may be time to pay more attention to whether or not they cared,’ said lead researcher Dr Penny Spikins in the journal Time And Mind.
Friday, October 8, 2010
New research shows Neanderthals in Europe 500,000 years ago showed compassion toward disabled community members
From Metro in the UK:
