Paleohistoria

Courtesy & currently located at the Bernisches Historisches Museum. Photo taken by Xuan Che

“Sungir is an Upper Paleolithic archaeological site in Russia, about 200 km east of Moscow, on the outskirts of Vladimir. The site is approximately 28,000 to 30,000 years old and serves as a grave to an older man and two children. They were all adorned with elaborate grave goods that included ivory-beaded jewelry, clothing, and spears. The site is one of the earliest known ritual burials and evidence of the antiquity of human religious practices. It was discovered in 1955 and the site underwent excavations from 1957 to 1977. Most notably, Otto Bader excavated a Neanderthal femur that had been severed at the joints. The socket was filled with ochre-colored powder.”

Edited from Croatian Times (25 July 2012)

The partially excavated Sphinx of Giza ca. 1878

What did Neanderthals sound like? Interesting video. Thanks to their relatively short pharyngeal cavity in their supralaryngeal vocal tract (yeah guys, that’s the fun stuff I’ve been writing about all day), they would have been unable to pronounce the vowels [i] and [u].