Professor Steven Mithen of Reading University also thinks the cave- dwellers would have enjoyed the rhythms and sounds made by rap artists.
He said: "People often portray Neanderthals as dull and grumpy but they had a strong sense of music."
Their songs would have covered emotions such as embarrassment and happiness.
More than words
Prof Mithen told the BBC News website: "All people are musical in the sense that they appreciate it in some way. We all respond to it.
"Music and language developed together. The Neanderthals would have had set songs and phrases, which could not be broken down like modern language.
I think they would have particularly liked rap music. It has the sort of effect Neanderthals would have enjoyed
Prof Steven Mithen
"They would have used singing, clapping and dancing to communicate their state of mind. They didn't have words.
"In a sense they were more musical than we are."
Neanderthals would have sounded rather "nasal" in their singing because of their larger noses, Prof Mithen said.
Their get-togethers in caves helped group bonding.
Prof Mithen said: "There would have been a lot of singing together. Music is still used for a bonding groups today. Just look at football crowds, church choirs or kids in the playground.
Slapping and banging
"The Neanderthals would have enjoyed it. They weren't particularly creative people but they would have passed on little songs down the generations.
"They would have danced and slapped their bodies and banged sticks."
Neanderthals, who had fully evolved vocal tracts and a wide range of emotions, shared a common ancestor - Homo heidelbergensis - with man.
Have we come very far in the last 50,000 years?
They would have mimicked birdsong and other natural sounds for their music.
It is thought that language, separate from music, developed with modern man's immediate African forebears.
But, according to Prof Mithen, words are not necessary, as long as the tune is good.
He said: "Had a Neanderthal attended a rock concert, they would have liked it and recognised that it was music.
"I think they would have particularly liked rap music. It has the sort of effect Neanderthals would have enjoyed.
"I can see them rapping in my mind."
Prof Mithen's book, The Singing Neanderthals: The Origins of Music, Language and the Mind, is published on 7 July.
4 comments:
I cannot believe that Professor put his name on this article! There is no way to know whether Neanderthals sang or danced. Let alone what range of emotions the "tunes" covered.
And furthermore, just because they had a large nasal cavity does not mean they would sound "nasal". This has to do with the bony structures associated with the sphenoid and ethmoid bones.
Who gave this man a Ph.D.? Crackerjack?
While I respect your acedemic bent, Kelli...I think that attitude is what keeps our picture of prehistoric life grossly different from what it actually was like. While I don't know if the Doctor has found footprints of dance moves in a cave, I do know that Neanderthal's brain structures indicate that they possessed more intelligence, intuition, and creativity than we do. They also have found neanderthal flutes, and it's common sense that singing predates vocal instrumentation. I would like to see a new field born in academia, one that melds common sense and Ocham's Razor with the scientific method. They are just now acknowledging that man had bows and arrows and boats 60,000 years ago instead of only 15,000 like we were told in the history books....but anyone with a shred of common sense already knew that we had these things that long ago and the only reason we hadn't found them yet is because wood rots quickly.
"I do know that Neanderthal's brain structures indicate that they possessed more intelligence, intuition, and creativity than we do."
Before I can respond completely, I need clarification on your definition of "structure". Do you mean brain size? As for intuition and creativity ... those things cannot be measure by looking at the cranium alone. We'd need a live subject. The reason I say this is Phineas Gage; if we were to have found his cranial remains (without knowing the story) we would have believed he died a horrible death.
As for the "flutes" ... they have found one (not sufficient evidence that it was commonplace)- a bear femur with two complete holes. And most scientists are still skeptical that it's a musical instrument because they don't believe the artistic or symbolic behavior had been developed.
It's a romantic idea that Neanderthals were dancing and singing. But, I think you should look at this article before you reach a definitive conclusion to the Neanderthal's vocal ability.
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn13672-neanderthals-speak-out-after-30000-years.html
On a side note. I discussed the article with Anthropologists from my university and they too had issues with it's content. The author, making comparisons to Neanderthals and rap musicians is a bit on the racist side.
In my personal opinion, the article would have more validity if he used the words "could have" instead of "would have" ... it would take it from theory back to hypothesis. Because in all reality, most Anthropological ideas are only speculation.
To clarify what I mean by structure- neanderthal brains were bigger and had more folds. Number of folds is a good indication of intelligence in mammals.
Scientist who believe that symbolic thought wasn't invented at the time of the flute are being ignorant, pompous, and arrogant.
There is cave art predating them. Humans had the same brain 180,000 years ago as they have today, and yet scientist show their lack of common sense by claiming that symbolic thought didn't start until some 50,000 ybp. The fact is they just haven't found enough yet...because it's over 50,000 years old! Of course less survives in the archeological record the fasrther you go back in time...decay, wear, and rot you know. Thankfully, and amazingly, we do find some truly ancient art...and that's why symbolic thought is being pushed back in time with every new archeological find.
Your anthropolgy teachers still have you believing that 10,000 BC was the dawn of agriculture and animal domestication. Recently, domestic dogs have been found 31,000 ybp and agriculture was extended to 28,000 BC in the pacific islands.
They wanted us to believe, ridiculously, that the bow wasn't invented until 15,000 BC. We now have confirmation on what should have been a common sense deduction many years ago: the bow was around 75,000 + years ago.
I think that it's a real stretch what they try to "prove" with proposed neanderthal vocal tracts. All they really know is that they didn't sound like us, and couldn't have made many of the sounds that we do. There is debate amonf scientists over whether they were higher or lower pitched.
As far as the comparisons to rap being racists, I agree. And I also agree that they have no idea what types of music neanderthals would like.
However, I think the scientists can be forgiven because rap music is heavy on rhythm and chant, which is what we believe the first music would have been comprised of, based on the available instruments and the development of music theory.
They would have had percussion instruments, flutes, bows, and their voices to make music with....and musical style is definitely somewhat dependent on the tools you have to make it with.
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