The Valley of the Neanderthal People
Does Evidence of Human-Neanderthal Hybrids Exist?
David Claerr, Yahoo!
Contributor Network
Jul 19, 2011
Lucien
Camille Claerr, my grandfather, was born in the mid-
1800's, in Alsace Lorraine, located in the portion of the Alps that border
Lucien
learned mountaineering arts at an early age, and when he was as a young adult,
he explored the
He
related this story to me of an adventure he had near the border of
The
first thing he noticed was that the building construction was different.
Thatched houses and barns had supports made of rough-hewn trunks with some of
the big branches left on the trunk, to form arches that supported the ceiling
beams. The men of the village were all burly and barrel-chested, bushy-haired
and coarse featured, with enormous beards. They wore leather breeches and
homespun shirts. The women were staying indoors, and he didn't see any for the
first few days.
The
men spoke with an usual accent and he could not
understand some of them at all, though he spoke both French and German
fluently. But one man, speaking fragmented bits of both languages befriended
him. He offered him food, and lodging in his barn, in return for helping to
build an irrigation sluice, fashioned from halves of hollowed-out logs. My
grandfather was good with an ax, and after a week of solid labor, the man
complemented him on his skillful work and invited him to dinner at his house,
suggesting that he introduce him to his daughter. On the appointed evening, he
went to their house.
When
dinner was served, the daughter came out of the kitchen carrying a tray of
food. Lucien was shocked to see that her "bare" arms were totally
covered with the same thick, woolly hair that her father and the other men had
on theirs, and that there seemed to be sideburns under her long shaggy hair.
When she leaned forward to set the tray down, he perceived that she had more
hair on her chest than he did! He was so disturbed that he had to fight to
swallow down the food.
After
the meal the men retired to the porch to smoke pipes. Lucien's host invited him
to sleep in their house that night. Lucien accepted, but found himself lying
awake half the night, tossing and turning. He remembered hearing stories about
rural customs that required a man to be engaged to a bride after staying at her
house for a night. In a fit, he finally got up and, quietly as possible, left
the house. He went to the barn and hurriedly packed up his belongings.
Fortunately, the night was brightly lit by the full moon, so he hastily hiked
out of the valley, traveling many miles before even stopping a moment to rest.
Recently,
I was reading about the successful sequencing of the Neanderthal genome.
Consequent to the gene mapping, DNA sequences specific to the Neanderthals were
identified in the DNA of a fair percentage of modern Europeans. I remembered my
grandfather's story, which I had always thought of as a quaint and amusing
tale. But his description of the people of that remote village could easily fit
a geographically isolated population of Human-Neanderthal hybrids who had only
infrequent contact with outsiders before the 20th century. Since many genetic
researchers are currently sampling gene pools from distinct geographic areas, I
would suggest this region as a possible target for gathering comparative data
on Human-Neanderthal inter-species contact.
Sources:
The
narrative account was transcribed from a verbal account by Lucien Camille Claerr by the author, David A. Claerr.
The image is a digital illustration by David A. Claerr
and copyrighted in his name,
Published
by David Claerr
Artist
and Published Author Certified Adobe Expert View profile