Episode 8: 32,468 BCE, Base of the Weichselian Glaciation Range

I think the real star of this piece is the music. So here's a shortened version of it, without all that talking:



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But about the story. It's a "parable" about the extinction of the Neanderthals, in the sense that elements were picked to line up with theories as to why Neanderthals died out.

• Climate change. Choosing the Weichselian Glaciation Range 34,000 years ago means the action is occurring in northeastern Germany, possibly Poland, at a time when ice sheets were retreating. The Neanderthals of France and Iberia had already vanished by this time. Neanderthals had been advantaged by cold climate - their stockier, "heartier" bodies retained more heat - and the warming of Europe corresponded with a northward spread of modern humans.
• Domestication of animals was a competitive advantage for humans that has been advanced as a reason Neanderthals lost habitat and hunting range. Particularly humans' wolves/proto-dogs, which helped to track game, attack enemies, and serve as guards and alarm systems.
• Competition with humans. At least a couple percent - possibly up to four - of modern European humans' DNA comes from Neanderthals. So there's no question interbreeding occurred. This story grimly suggests the mating happened in the form of rape, used as a tool of war. I don't personally believe this was the only reason our gene pools mixed. But for populations of hominids who "looked different" racially, and were competing for food and land - it's my view of human nature to believe wars and violent displacements happened tens of thousands of years ago that are something like in this story (even if I don't believe there was necessarily a full-on human genocide against Neanderthals. We just can't know.).

At any rate, the point behind referencing a few theories of Neanderthal extinction, was to avoid favoring any one of them.

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RE: Inevitably Embarrassing Caveman Names. I outsourced for support. So, "Lok" is a character in William Golding's (Lord of the Flies) Neanderthal novel The Inheritors. "Oulham" comes from the name of the tribe in Quest for Fire, the Oulhamr. The village of Crebrun - I ran together a pair of character names from Clan of the Cave Bear.

In the story, Lok and Oulham have just finished hunting an auroch. These are the ancestors of all domesticated cattle. The wild species survived to modern times, and its last known members were seen in eastern Europe as late as the 1600s.

The image of a prehistoric protagonist fleeing from pursuers into icy mountains - this Radiolab episode did help fire the imagination.

And lastly, there is no need not to include a link to the debut sketch of Phil Hartman as Unfrozen Caveman Lawyer.