Comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF) was visible from the Northern Lattitudes last night and Tuesday night as well, though the waxing gibbous moon may have made it more difficult to locate. It was particularly interesting because of its green tint. According to Time magazine, “Comets flare green when they carry diatomic carbon—two-atom carbon molecules—which reacts with the sun’s outgassing particles, the solar wind.” Because it passed so close to the sun, the color was more vivid than it might have been otherwise.
The last time this coment passed earth was 50,000 years ago when Neanderthal Man (Homo neanderthalensis) still roamed Europe and Asia. According to the ancestry research company 23andMe, I seem to be one of the few Homo Sapiens still carrying the torch for this ancient race, as I have more Neanderthal DNA than 74% of their other customers.
Classified as a long period comet and discovered last March while inside the orbit of Jupiter, the comet will be back in the year 52,023, so if you haven’t yet seen it, you likely will not get another chance.
This news story made me interested in what things might have been like during the comet’s previous past. I discovered that there were difference between life and now, but in some ways, Neanderthal Man and modern man were the same.
Global cooling, then warming, then cooling
When this comet last visited Earth, we were in the Paleolithic Age, or the Pleistocene epoch of geologic time, one which was likely in between periods of glacial advance. According to Live Science:
The ice age peaked during the Last Glacial Maximum about 20,000 years ago, when glaciers covered vast swathes of North America, Europe, South America and Asia. At that time, global temperatures were about 11 degrees Fahrenheit (6 degrees Celsius) lower than they are today, according to a 2020 study published in the journal Nature.”
Some other considerations in Live Science include:
Ice age conditions were also drier than today. Because most of the water on Earth’s surface was ice, there was little precipitation; rainfall was about half of current levels. The sea level was much lower, and the shorelines were typically much farther out because glaciation trapped water in ice sheets, according to the American Museum of Natural History in New York City.”
Fire, art and music
First of all, Neanderthals had fire and art. Anthropologists are uncertain whether this meant they “kept” fire “alive,” or whether they actually produced fire from scratch, using splint and some hard mineral for example. As far as art goes, which has been preserved on the walls of caves in Europe, their art was something like pictographs of animals, perhaps involved with rituals to guarantee good hunting, much like the Buffalo Dance that the Plains Indians of North America performed. But even so this is highly symbolized and suggests a higher order of thinking than few researchers will admit to or credit them for.
While little is known about Neanderthals and music (it is not even known with certainty that Neanderthals could speak), they may have had a rudimentary appreciation of music, which researcher Karl Bucher (“Trabajo y ritmo“) thinks may be linked to rhythmatic sound that occurred while cracking nuts, etc.
Neanderthals most generally lived at the entrance to caves or under rock overhangs whenever possible, but that could also build temporary and mobile shelters and crude walls whenever necessary. As far as daily activities go, according to the Neanderthal Museum
In order to survive, Neanderthals exploited all resources: fauna, flora and minerals. They went picking, harvesting, fishing, hunting and they sometimes scavenged carrion. The effectiveness of Neanderthal subsistence behaviour patterns implies a good understanding of the raw materials available and a good toolkit to use them – either raw or processed. Lithic objects, screenings and illustrations retrace the daily lives of Neanderthals. A diorama of the ”Romani” rock shelter in Spain and the model of a hut built with mammoth bones, located in Molodova, Ukraine, evoke other Neanderthal housing structures.“
Neanderthal man remains alert with his weapon close at hand. Photo credit: Gordenkoff (Shuttertock.)
Some of the tools that have been excavated include scrapers needed to cure hides, hatchets, spearheards and blades. These implements were crude by today’s standards, but never-the-less effective. Besides fruit, nuts and berries and herbs (Neanderthals were also aware of a number of medicinal plants), the Neanderthals also hunted small game such as rabbits, foxes, birds and so on and when found and within their abilities, they slew mammoths. Besides mammoths, one could also find mastodons and sabre-tooth tigers.
More likely than not, however, they harvested meat by picking through the carcuss of those magnificent beasts such as mammoths or dolphins that died of other causes. They readily ate dead fish and other sea animals that were found on the shore, also.
Neanderthals knew at least how to roast, boil and smoke meat. They used the meat, fat, skin and bones either for food or to craft tools. The sinews of large animals such as bison and horses were use to manufacture rope. Skins (hides) were necessary to craft clothing warm enough to protect him from the elements. Skeletons of Neanderthals occasionally reveal well-healed fractures, suggesting that these robust people endured many sorts of injuries and somerhing about the need to split a fractured limb in the position of function.
Neanderthal Family Cooking Animal Meat over Bonfire. Photo credit: Gorodenkoff (Shutterstock.)
Like many Homo Sapiens today (a branch of the family tree separate from Neanderthals), they were likely distrustful, xenophobic and superstitious. What would their reaction have been to see Comet C/2022 E3 light up Pleistecene skies? Was the event portentous? An evil omen? The end of the world as they knew it. Would it have been any different than that of the Chinese gazing at Halley’s Comet in 240 B.C.E. or the Normans staring at Halley’s Comet in 1066 A.D.?
Modern man remains alert with his weapon close at hand. Photo credit: Volodymyr Tverdokhlib (Shuttertock.)
Finally, and perhaps most regrettably, both early man and modern man could be very warlike, and their weapons were never far away. Neanderthal man would stalk and strike with his crude weapons any other humanoids he might encounter for the same reasons that we go to war today. Perhaps it was to protect his home and family, or to defend a prized parcel of land. Other reasons might include greed or revenge or a mating or leadership challenge. But a kill made the hunter come alive and feel a rush, much like Jack’s tribe in Lord of the Flies.
At some point Neanderthals disappeared. Researchers don’t know why for sure. Perhaps it was a plague from which they did not recover. Anthropologists know that Homo Sapiens were somewhat more intelligent and clever than Neanderthals. Did this give them a competitive advantage over a century (or ten centuries) and hasten Neanderthal Man’s demise?
Then I wondered why, after all of 500 centuries, we still cannot resolve our disputes peacefully? One difference between people today and people from 50,000 years ago is that we are much more efficient and sophisticated at killing and perhaps less discriminating. Often, snipers kill before there quarry knows that it is being stalked. In 48,000 B.C., a Neanderthal might kill a dozen or two dozen innocent people in the course of the primitive’s lifetime. Today, a Bombardier on a B-2 carrying a B83 thermonuclear bomb can kill thousands of people in a matter of seconds, given “ideal” circumstances (i.e. a “TRE or “target-rich environment.”)
So what exactly have we accomplished? We have designed and built many labor saving devices, automobiles, planes, shelters, cell phones, medicines and fertilizers. We have genetically engineered genes in plants, produced healthier cattle and quality homes. But we have also designed Playstations and X-boxes (which feature violent games), created robots (which we are now programmed to kill) bred violent breeds of dogs, and so on.
Are we really that different than Neanderthals? What will Comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF) find when it returns in 52,023?
