Less brawn, more brains: New exhibition aims to dispel Neanderthal myths
Our ancient cousins were more civilised than we thought
Neanderthals have long been portrayed as big, dumb brutes and mindless, monosyllabic meat-eaters.
But a new exhibition at the Canadian Museum of History sets out to bust some of those myths.
Simply titled Neanderthal, the exhibition opened Friday at the Gatineau, Que., museum where it will run until Jan. 26, 2020.
"The exhibit not only deconstructs those falsehoods but it also helps us understand where they came from and the environment in which they were born," in-house curator Janet Young told CBC Radio's Ottawa Morning.
They were more like us than we originally thought.- Janet Young
The exhibit shows less knuckle-dragging and club waving, and more about how Neanderthals — who lived for 300,000 years but disappeared 30,000 years ago — were skilled artisans and strategic hunters, capable of complex thoughts.
"The stone tools they created are super sharp. They used glue to put their tools together. They buried their dead," Young said.
"They were more like us than we originally thought."
It features a reconstruction of an archeological dig, works of art, and rarely seen fossils.
There's also an axe made out of rock crystal and a reconstruction of a Neanderthal woman dressed up in modern-day clothing.
The exhibition was created by the Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle – Musée de l'Homme in France and adapted by the Canadian Museum of History.
Ottawa-Gatineau is its only North American stop.