Homo Heidelbergensis
Homo heidelbergensis lived in Europe and Western Asia from at least 600,000-200,000 years ago, and may date in Africa, as far back as 1.3 million years. Rhodesian or Broken Hill man, was a Zambian counterpart dated from 300,000 to 125,000 years ago.
H. heidelbergensis lived in families, communicated successfully with language, and practiced burial rituals with red ocher. Their stone tools resembled the Achulean toolkit of Homo erectus, with large bifacial, pear-shaped hand axes. They also used spears like H. erectus, and likely …show more content…
This gives them a non-verbal heads up when humans approach. On the flip side, there are several reports that conversations between individuals have been overheard, though no specific words were identifiable.
Homo Neanderthalensis
Neanderthals developed in Europe and Asia perhaps 300,000 years ago, and existed until 28,000 years ago. They were stocky like their ancestors, and shared with Homo erectus certain skull features like a prominent brow, receding chin, sloping skull and large nose, which helped them warm, and breathe frigid air.
Early anthropologists depicted the Neanderthals as primitive brutish, cave men. A few decades ago, they were thought to be mute hunter-scavengers who made clubs and crude tools. Frustratingly, they were seen as incapable of real language and symbolic communication, or thought.
Actually, they were highly intelligent, and able to adapt to a variety of climates stretching from present-day England and Doggerland, to other parts of Europe, and even East to Uzbekistan, and south to the Red Sea. Some actually crossed back into