Since I ran across that National Geographic article about Neanderthals, I've been really correlating things in my head, and Rev. B sent a note about historical pot in graves in China (very interesting in general), but it had in it a tiny additional link that I thought I should mention.
BTW, here's the correlations so far:
Neanderthal died out in the mountains of Europe. Their last strongholds were the Pyrenees, the Alps, and the Caucasus.
They had some genetics which we have as well (well, some of us do). It's a gene for speech that seems to have crossed over into us from them. People who have this gene have enhanced understanding of and ability to use words.
Now, I mention this because in the article today it mentioned yet another link that I'd overlooked.
You see, there were three ancient language families that are somewhat 'related' (in a way). They are Celtic, Italic, and Anatolic.
The original stronghold of the Celts was the Pyrenees, the Italics the Alps, and the Anatolic the Caucasus.
All three groups show a line of genetics which includes the *other* main observable Neanderthal trait, red hair (the 'Mark of Cain').
In the Celtic line, the genetic trait for speech might be titled the 'gift of gab'.
When the English came over to kill off all the Irish nobility, they escaped to their relatives' houses in Italy.
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