Have compassion for Neanderthals

Neanderthals may have cared for their sick and elderly. Photo / Supplied

Penny Spikins is an archaeologist at the University of York, England, who researches social and cognitive evolution and prehistoric social dynamics.

In her new book, The Prehistory of Compassion, written with researchers Holly Rutherford and Andy Needham, she rejects the popular portrayal of Neanderthals as simple, unfeeling brutes and suggests that our closest ancient relatives may have demonstrated a level of compassion that would put many modern humans to shame.

What is the evidence for compassion in Neanderthals?

An example for Neanderthals is of a man found in the Shanidar cave in Iraq with one withered arm, deformities in both legs and a crushed skull, which probably made him blind in his left eye. We think he survived for between 20 and 35 years, a length of time which shows that there must have been conscious care from the community, most likely undertaken by a group of people.

The long-term care of others is something that we may think of as being a modern human characteristic and, for a long time, the issue was contentious. At Sima de los Huesos in Spain, a Homo heidelbergensis [an ancestor of modern humans] child was found who suffered from lambdoid single suture craniosynostosis, where parts of the skull fuse together. He would have had a strange appearance and probably reduced mental capacity.

However, the age of the child at death is estimated at between 5 and 8 years, so this proves he would have been looked after for at least five years of his life by others.

How does this compare with humans?

When we think of compassion, we think about empathising with one another but human compassion often goes beyond this, with people willing to take immense risks on behalf of others they care about. And human compassion can extend to outside our close groups and even to inanimate objects.

I may carry around a photograph of a loved one and this object will bring out emotions in me. Some Neanderthal personal ornaments have been found but it is only with modern humans that these objects are thought to be widespread.

Is it possible that the compassion demonstrated by Neanderthals could have been exploited by early humans, contributing to their demise 30,000 years ago?

It's an interesting idea. There is a theory that the facial features of early humans may have resembled that of a child-like Neanderthal and perhaps this means the Neanderthals would have viewed them with a certain amount of undeserved trust.

How does your research relate to the study this year showing that most people living outside Africa can trace up to 4 per cent of their DNA to a Neanderthal origin?

The 4 per cent study raises many interesting questions. The idea that all interactions between humans and Neanderthals were instinctive and violent is unlikely to be true. There may well have been compassionate behaviour between the groups that led to them living harmoniously for periods of time.

Would it be fair to say that the level of compassion felt by Neanderthals falls somewhere in between humans and chimpanzees?

I think it would be unfair to Neanderthals not to allow them the potential to be as compassionate as others. There have been cases of female chimpanzees carrying around the bodies of their dead children for weeks, in what is a powerful demonstration of grief. We need to be careful about putting compassion on some kind of continuous scale where one species is better than another.

- Observer