[TML] Maybe Vilani Started Out As Neanderthals?

[Richard Aiken]

Hey All,

In trying to write up a timeline for my new campaign, I came across a
problem.  Canon says the Ancients got humans from Earth about 300,000
years ago.  But the humans on Earth at that time (according to
Wikipedia, anyway) were all one sub-species or another of Homo
erectus.  (Well, it's actually a lot more complicated than this makes
it sound (because a lot of folk can't agree on what fossils belong to
what grouping).  But the main point is that Homo sapiens (and Homo
sapiens neanderthalus) didn't show up for until 250,000 years ago, at
the earliest.

So I'll have to change the canon dates for the Ancients.  No big deal.
 I'm already dividing everything by five, after all.

But this got me to thinking about whether or not Homo sapiens sapiens
and Homo sapiens neanderthalus could interbreed.  Especially after
fragmented populations of both had spent hundreds of thousands of
years evolving separately on 40 or so different worlds.  In trying to
find out by reading further, I stumbled over The Great Leap forward
hypothesis.  Which led to this post.

Apparently, early hominids (including Homo sapiens neanderthalus) were
very culturally conservative.  A major invention (such as a new type
of stone tool) would occur every once in a great while, but its form
would vary very little across all the different groups and areas.
Then suddenly - over a "short" period of only ~50,000 years - we get
fancy stuff like ritualized burials, planned living arrangements,
decorated fish hooks and cave paintings.  These developments seem to
coincide with the appearance of Homo sapiens sapiens in each area.

So . . . .

If the Vilani were originally Neanderthals, maybe this helps explain
their pathological conservatism?

Alternatively, maybe it was interaction with the Ancients which caused
the Great Leap Forward?

-- 
Richard Aiken

"Never insult anyone by accident."  Robert A. Heinlein