>They worked by torchlight, following the same procedure hour after hour: wrench a stalagmite off the cave floor, remove the tip and base, and carefully lay it with the others.
>Today we can only guess as to why a group of Neanderthals built a series of large stalagmite structures in a French cave.
Was it a game?
>>47455936
My thought was "material for some kind of trap". I'd have to know more about the situation. I'm just glad OP didn't provide a source to go along with his quote.
>>47456031
https://www.newscientist.com/article/2090183-neanderthals-built-mystery-underground-circles-175000-years-ago/
>>47455936
It was probably a religious area, though it's strange that it was underground so it couldn't have anything to do with the sky like many stone henges.
>>47456600
>it's strange that it was underground so it couldn't have anything to do with the sky like many stone henges
Ancient religiosity often centred on chthonic sites.
>>47455936
idk why it has to be meaningful
humans do aesthetic or busywork stuff all the time that has no meaning behind it
sometimes it's fun to put all of a thing in a circle
>>47455936
My guess is it was a firepit.
>>47456725
>Giant underground firepit
For what purpose?
There's a similar thread about this on /his/ right now (or maybe it's archived now), but lets hope that /tg/ is smarter then /his/and this thread doesn't turn into a "you should feel bad because you're a homo sapien" and "WE WUZ NEANDERTHALS AND SHITZZZZZ!!!!"
>>47456864
Yeah, but couldn't we have coexisted?
Did we really need to kill their men and mate with their women?
>>47456924
Technically we kind'a did. We hung out so much that we sort of just became one species.
>>47456864
>/his/
I keep forgetting about that. Man, what a joke board. I wish the mods would stop trying to carve up /tg/.
>>47455936
One was drunk or on shrooms.
>>47457372
Neanderthals could make booze?
Oh fuck now I want to play a neanderthal Bard.
>>47457781
>Neanderthals could make booze?
No, but they could have eaten something that's fermenting.
Maybe they decided that to keep rats away they'd put stuff on the floor in a circle around their sleeping spot. Any bedding or soft things would have disintegrated with age over 175,000 years ago.
>>47456651
Indeed, tunnel to the underworld, or the womb of the earth-mother, etc.
>>47456803
>Giant underground firepit
>For what purpose?
You know it.
