A clash of science and science fiction

"Clash of the Cavemen" is a History Channel documentary about the Neanderthals, with particular emphasis on their mysterious disappearance. The documentary makes a good job summarizing the relevant facts, as they looked like at the time the documentary was produced. Today, a breakthrough in DNA research suggests that the Neanderthals interbred with modern humans, and that Europeans in particular have some Neanderthal genes. This was unknown when "Clash of the Cavemen" was aired.

Unfortunately but inevitably, the hard facts have been combined with sensationalist speculations. Thus, the Cro Magnon are supposed to have ambushed and killed Neanderthals, abducted their women and raped them! Evidence? None. This is a fantasy projection based on the European conquest of America (not to mention silly patriarchal fantasies about cavemen gender relations). One of the scientists admits that he is projecting modern history onto the Stone Age: since we are violent and kill each other, surely the Cro Magnon can't have been much different when encountering the Neanderthals? It's this kind of thinking that makes archaeologists and historians deny the existence of peaceful, egalitarian and matrifocal societies, even when the evidence stares them in the face.

"Clash of the Cavemen" points out that Neanderthals and Homo sapiens co-existed for 5,000 years. No direct evidence for Sapiens-on-Neanderthal violence exists. Conversely, there is some tantalizing evidence that the Neanderthals might have mimicked the symbolic culture and tools of the Cro Magnon, which could suggest peaceful contact and trade. So what's all this stuff about genocide?

The truth is that nobody really knows why our evolutionary cousins gradually disappeared from Old Europe. "Clash of Cavemen" interviews scientists who believe that the Neanderthals, while intelligent beings, nevertheless lacked the dynamic, open-ended intelligence characteristic of our own species. In a direct competition with Homo sapiens, they were bound to come up short.

My personal guess is that Neanderthal intelligence has been underrated, deepening the mystery of their complete disappearance. Perhaps the Neanderthals were physically incapable of coping with climate change, or using more innovative hunting techniques. After all, their bodies were very different from our own. Or perhaps they were just too culturally conservative to survive - Jared Diamond's book "Collapse" includes several examples of cultures that (irrationally) refused to change their ways in the face of changing environmental circumstances, leading to their demise. The Greenland Norse is an obvious example. Our own splendid Western civilization might prove to be another. Peak oil, anyone? A more intriguing possibility suggested by the recent DNA finds, is that the Neanderthals disappeared by interbreeding with the Cro Magnon. Being fewer in number, they and their gene pool was eventually swamped by Cro Magnon genes.

Despite some of the outdated research, "Clash of the Cavemen" is nevertheless relatively interesting. However, some of its blood-curling re-enactments should perhaps be taken with a large grain of salt...

I therefore give this clash of science and fiction three stars.