her obsession. *3 To understand the potential impact of contact between Homo sapiens and Neanderthals, consider that Native Americans and Europeans had been separated for about 17,000 years before renewed contact literally decimated the indigenous population of the Americas in the sixteenth century. Modern humans and Neanderthals were separated for at least thirty times longer. Chapter 2 Neolithic Plagues Epidemiologically, this was perhaps the most lethal period in human history. —James Scott
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