Leicester (dpo) - Our ancestors climbed down from the trees – or did they? When British Archaeologists uncovered the approximately 20,000-year-old body of a man this weekend, they discovered some astonishing news. The anatomy and position of the body lead them to the conclusion that people back then actually lived beneath the earth, moved horizontally and looked like skeletons. Many textbooks will now have to be re-written.
But the most amazing thing about this Midlands discovery is not the age or the perfect condition of the body – it is the fact that it proves that Early Man’s everyday life really did take place horizontally and subterraneously. "Very likely‚ 'George' was hunting for earth worms or roots when he suddenly fell prey to a pack of moles", assumed archaeologist Gordon White, head of the excavation team.
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| Further excavations show that Early Men lived in subterraneous buildings filled with earth |
How exactly Early Man moved beneath the earth has yet to be explained. However, his slim, skeleton-like appearance must have been a great advantage. Anthropologists are now discussing whether a life spent horizontally makes sense from an evolutionary point of view. Actually though, there are many facts pointing in this direction. For example, researchers attribute Early Man’s comparatively high fertility rate to this fact, since people did not only spare their joints, but were also virtually always prepared for sex – a theory that would also account for Early Man George’s "stupid grin". Whether George and his contemporaries also slept lying down has yet to be discussed.
fed, ssi; picture above: Wolf Gang, CC BY-SA 2.0; first published 2016-11-14
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