Of ‘Demons, monsters and creatures’

I’m interested in early hominids, or early man.
I’m also what I call an ‘aggregator’, I absorb information from multiple unrelated sources, and I come to conclusions or hypothesis based on that aggregation.

I believe the reason Homo Sapiens were the ‘winner’ of the ‘hominid competition’, was not that we were smarter. We developed an unusual adaptation. We learned to live in larger groups without killing each other.
Chimpanzees, our closest great ape relatives (we are a species of great ape) do not live in groups larger than 150 individuals. Between 100-150, schisms start to appear and the group will split. They even war with each other over territory. A ‘Civil War’ if you will.

Several things we know;
Homo Sapiens cro-magnons or modern humans have been basically unchanged, mentally and physically for approximately 300,000 + years.
We also have discovered several other species of hominids that existed along side of early modern humans. We of European descent, carry DNA from Neanderthals, Asians carry DNA from Denisovans. Therefore we interbred with them.

There has also been found Homo Sapien/Neanderthal hybrid remains along with Denisovan/Neanderthal hybrid remains.
As an example, since the discovery of DNA, we know that Red hair, white skin, and Cholesterol came from Neanderthals.
The ability to live at high altitudes, like Tibet, came from Denisovans.

In Africa, they recently discovered an area in Rising Star Cavern, where they’ve found the remains of a totally new hominid, Homo Naledi, which also lived at the same time as early Homo Sapiens.
These remains were of the very young, the very old, the sick and injured. We call that a ‘Graveyard’ but scientist won’t call it that because ‘they weren’t human’.
Further it is also believed that Homo Erectus, the species we most likely evolved from, also continued for another 100,000 years after the emergence of ‘modern man’.
Homo Erectus, made stone tools, controlled fire, and had the ability to build boats.

It is my contention, that stories of Demons, and ‘human like’ creatures, were our reaction to these other hominid groups.
The reason they all went extinct, is that we hunted them down, and killed them as abominations.

Think of the religious fervor that many humans exhibit. It would not be a far reach to imagine the hunting and slaughter of other human species as a religious duty.
After all, they only resemble ‘humans’, it’s not like killing an actual person, or so they would believe. We now kill each other over religion, and immutable features such as eye, hair and skin color.
Why would we not kill something that was (thought of as)human like, but still an animal. No more than a Chimp or Ape.

Grok doesn’t agree as modern archeologists either don’t agree, or haven’t thought of it yet.

I also contend that the Neanderthals of Europe, were wiped out by the Super Volcano under Naples Italy. Vesuvius is part of that system. There was a major eruption 34-40 thousand years ago. It covered most of modern Europe with several feet to several hundred feet of ash. Making it a wasteland for centuries. The only area of Europe spared was western Iberia near and on modern Gibraltar. The last place Neanderthals were known to exist were in costal caves of Gibraltar as recently as 20 thousand years ago.
The rest of the Neanderthals disappeared around 35 -40 thousand years ago.
I’ve recently seen a documentary that has the same hypothesis.

If you’ve read this, this far, you must really feel sorry for my wife.
She has to hear stuff like this all of the time.
Her eyes glaze…

Picture: The Centaur, in early Greece was used to represent ‘Barbarians’ or uncivilized peoples. The word ‘barbarian’ was coined because when they spoke, not in Greek of course, it sounded to the Greeks as though they were saying ‘Bar bar bar’.