Cannibalism, Interspecies War: A Novel About Neanderthals And Early Modern Humans

Author Neil Bockoven says he wants readers to feel immersed in an era when two human species had to coexist.

By Marina VencesJuly 17, 2019 1:06 pm,

Author Neil Bockoven says he wrote the book, “Moctu and the Mammoth People,” because he’s always been fascinated by Neanderthals – especially because they died off so quickly after Homo sapiens arrived in Europe.

“That happened about 45,000 years ago – they’re gone in a heartbeat. They were there for over a quarter-million years, and they’re gone in a heartbeat,” Bockoven says.

Moctu is an early modern-human boy who learns that Neanderthals aren’t as bad as he’d been led to believe. He had been taught that Neanderthals were cannibals.

“His people had come across these bones, where the bones had been broken for marrow, and gnawed and carved on,” Bockoven says. “I’m sure there was a lot of mistrust, and so forth, between the two species, and yet they had to interbreed somehow.”

Moctu ends up falling in love with a Neanderthal while he’s being held captive by them.

“They end up having a child,” Bockoven says.

He wants readers to feel immersed in an era when two human species had to coexist.

“They dealt with survival – everything from birthing issues to hunting mammoths to interspecies warfare,” Bockoven says.

The book is based on scientific research, but Bockoven says it reads like a novel.

“It’s just a hard-core good read of action, adventure, sex, violence, drama, love,” he says. “I look forward to sitting down and getting to write the next one.”

 

Written by Caroline Covington.