21st Century Neanderthal Man

The Smithsonian magazine has an article (October, 2006) on the efforts and plans to decode the Neanderthal genome and discover differences, similarities and the events we may have shared with the extinct species. From it, may come clues to disease and cures for ailments we don't share with other animals. Again, however, this is a Eurocentric view of Neanderthals and leaves out the "Shanidar Cave" burials excavated in Iraq by Ralph Solecki, Ph.D., who used to teach at Columbia University in New York City. I once worked in his small lab on a historical archaeology, for Joan Geismar, Ph.D., on a site we worked from under a "coopers" dam (barrel makers that became water powered furniture makers then still repairing furniture at the "Coopers Dam" historic site. I had a friend's rocking chair's wicker seat replaced there) and last I heard he had moved to Texas. He also discovered many of the early sites on Long Island, discovering and working in local archaeology with friends growing up there. I thought I heard Carlyle Shreeve Smith (1915-1993) who was a good friend of Thor Heyerdahl (1914-1992) who gave a talk and slide show about Thor Heyerdahl at a Suffolk County Archaeology Association annual meeting at the "Sunwood" estate, in Old Field, NY.