| Science textbooks usually present cavemen as very | | | | concluded that the Chinese cave dwellers regularly |
| primitive people who were barely able to utter a few | | | | wore shoes. |
| monosyllables. However, as additional data about | | | | The obvious conclusion is that cavemen were less |
| stone age men are unearthed, the picture becomes | | | | primitive than we had thought. This same trend can |
| considerably more complex. The more we get to | | | | also be seen in how Neanderthal man is presented. |
| know about them, the more modern traits they seem | | | | First specimen was discovered in 1856 in the Neander |
| to acquire. | | | | Valley in Germany and named after the place where it |
| A recent study published in the Journal of | | | | was found (Tal is valley in German). They were initially |
| Archaeological Science suggests that cave dwellers | | | | described as virtually subhuman missing links. With the |
| wore shoes. Erik Trinkaus and Hong Shang of the | | | | passing of time, however, scientist have had to discard |
| Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri studied the | | | | their previous notions about them. It is now known that |
| toe bones of a skeleton found in a cave near Beijing. | | | | the Neanderthals made musical instruments and |
| They compared these with the toe bones of modern | | | | efficient weapons, buried their dead and even used |
| Americans, Inuits and Native Americans from the time | | | | toothpicks. |
| before the advent of the European conquerors. Shoes | | | | It thus seems that the neat progress from primitive to |
| alter the wearer's toes. People who regularly walk | | | | modern man does not exist. The cave dwellers were |
| barefoot tend to have strong and large toes while | | | | by no means primitive people. |
| those wearing shoes do not. Trinkaus and Shang | | | | |