...Thank you for this page. Well, I thought you were referring to the world's oldest agricultural settlements in Jericho, about 12,000 years ago. But it seems rather that you are referring to Neanderthals - and your data is confirmed in a book I have. Well, if Neanderthals and modern humans share this anatomical capacity for speech, that implies that it goes back to their common ancestor, perhaps 400,000 years ago. In fact I read that the brain structure (from the cast of the inside of the skull) of Homo erectus seems to show speech areas, and possibly also that of Homo habilis so going back perhaps 2 million years. That suggests that the capability of speech dates back as long as that. Of course that does not prove that they actually spoke, but it does suggest that they may well have done. Well, if the Neanderthal inhabitants of Israel could speak, that does not imply that they spoke Hebrew, or even proto-Hebrew.
I'm not a specialist in the field, but I recall publication some years agoI would be interested in more details of this one.
of unearthing in Jericho the remains of the oldest human with some specific
anatomical feature, necessary for speech. Articulate speech did not start
long ago.
http://www.channel4.com/history/microsites/N/neanderthal/facts/map_israel.html
But most scholars seem to hold that humans have been anatomically modern and
so capable of
speech for more than 100,000 years.
Capable - does not mean they actually spoke. Aborigenes are capable of
developing nuclear bomb, but they did not.
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