In the book "The Quest for Fire", the chapter "The Cave" illustrates the brutality of survival in Neanderthal life.
In "The Quest for Fire", a trio of men, named Naoh, Nam and Gaw, have set out to find and return fire to their tribe, the Oulhamr. In their time, fire was crucial to survival. In this chapter, they have camped out in a large cave to spend the night while Gaw watches for predators.
Suddenly, Gaw spots a large figure in the distance and realises that it is a grey bear, a creature said to be strong enough to strangle a horse with its paws and with claws that could slash open a man's chest. Possibly in the midst of terror, he assumes the bear lives in the cave they are in.
This surprised me, in that this beast was powerful enough to make a Neanderthal warrior terrified, as the writer also says that it could "stand up to a lion and to tigers". I couldn't imagine an animal to be like this, and only have the reference point of that it is a huge bear with the strength of an ox. This, I think, is due to humanity being apart from a vast majority of the animal kingdom.
After Gaw wakes his friends and alerts them to the bear, the trio build a makeshift wall out of stones they had collected earlier and wait for the beast.
Soon, it reaches the cave and, puzzled by the appearance of a large stone wall blocking the entrance of its cave, sticks its head inside a small opening the men had made. The bear's investigation is then cut short by the men hitting at it's head with axes and clubs.
Confused by the sudden blows, the bear withdraws its head and settles on another plan: pulling down the wall. When it finds a weak spot, a section collapses and the bear grabs Nam.
When the bear managed to pull the wall down, I was amazed at the animal's sheer strength. Of course, it was diminished by the fact the wall was hastily built. At the same time, however, it was impressive of the men to quickly build a wall under stress.
Just before the bear strikes a killing blow, Naoh, the leader, moves in and rescues Nam from its clutches. After all three men have managed to get the bear down, they rush in and start clubbing at it's jaws, snout and paws. Soon enough, they kill the beast and exchange looks, knowing that they will be spoken of in tales to come as the men who killed a grey bear.
This last passage, the final, brutal killing of the bear, shocked me as in our modern times, this would be looked at with lots of criticism. Today, you wouldn't just go out and kill a bear like that. It would have to be a life or death situation in order to do that.
Happy Anzac Day everyone.
