Homo sapiens demonstrated its talent for mass murder in the 20th century. But scientists have determined that this talent goes back tens of thousands of years.

Humans and Neanderthals, thought to have coexisted for 10,000 years across the whole of Europe, are more likely to have lived at the same time for only 6,000 years, the new study suggests.

Scientists believe the two species could have lived side by side at specific sites for periods of only about 2,000 years, but Mellars claims they would have lived in competition at each site for only 1,000 years....

...Mellars claims the first modern humans arrived in the Balkans from Israel around 46,000 years ago, about 3,000 years earlier than thought.

His study claims they were able to spread west to the Atlantic coast in around 2,500 to 3,000 years, about 1,000 years quicker than believed.

"What it has revealed is the interaction between modern humans and Neanderthals was much shorter, 6,000 years instead of 10,000," said William Davies, of the Center for Human Origins, at the University of Southampton, who was not connected to the study.

Upside: a shorter war (6,000 years).

Downside: an earlier defeat (for the Neanderthals).

The point of this blog post: I dunno. I saw it in Yahoo news and it struck me how much more efficient at genocide we've gotten. I mean, really, if we had a 6,000-year war these days, well, I don't think many citizens would vote for the Republicans yet again.

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