title: Neanderthal

text: Gibraltarian palaeoanthropologists Clive and Geraldine Finlayson suggested that Neanderthals used various bird parts as artistic mediums, specifically black feathers. In 2012, the Finlaysons and colleagues examined 1,699 sites across Eurasia, and argued that raptors and corvids, species not typically consumed by any human species, were overrepresented and show processing of only the wing bones instead of the fleshier torso, and thus are evidence of feather plucking of specifically the large flight feathers for use as personal adornment. They specifically noted the cinereous vulture, red-billed chough, kestrel, lesser kestrel, alpine chough, rook, jackdaw, and the white tailed eagle in Middle Palaeolithic sites. Other birds claimed to present evidence of modifications by Neanderthals are the golden eagle, rock pigeon, common raven, and the bearded vulture. The earliest claim of bird bone jewellery is a number of 130,000 year old white tailed eagle talons found in a cache near Krapina, Croatia, speculated, in 2015, to have been a necklace. A similar 39,000-year-old Spanish imperial eagle talon necklace was reported in 2019 at Cova Foradà in Spain, though from the contentious Châtelperronian layer. In 2017, 17 incision-decorated raven bones from the Zaskalnaya VI rock shelter, Ukraine, dated to 43–38 thousand years ago were reported. Because the notches are more-or-less equidistant to each other, they are the first modified bird bones that cannot be explained by simple butchery, and for which the argument of design intent is based on direct evidence.


title: Neanderthal

text: Discovered in 1975, the so-called Mask of la Roche-Cotard, a mostly flat piece of flint with a bone pushed through a hole on the midsection—dated to 32, 40, or 75 thousand years ago—has been purported to resemble the upper half of a face, with the bone representing eyes. It is contested whether it represents a face, or if it even counts as art. In 1988, American archaeologist Alexander Marshack speculated that a Neanderthal at Grotte de L'Hortus, France, wore a leopard pelt as personal adornment to indicate elevated status in the group based on a recovered leopard skull, phalanges, and tail vertebrae.


title: Neanderthal

text: As of 2014, 63 purported engravings have been reported from 27 different European and Middle Eastern Lower-to-Middle Palaeolithic sites, of which 20 are on flint cortexes from 11 sites, 7 are on slabs from 7 sites, and 36 are on pebbles from 13 sites. It is debated whether or not these were made with symbolic intent. In 2012, deep scratches on the floor of Gorham's Cave, Gibraltar, were discovered, dated to older than 39,000 years ago, which the discoverers have interpreted as Neanderthal abstract art. The scratches could have also been produced by a bear. In 2021, an Irish elk phalanx with five engraved offset chevrons stacked above each other was discovered at the entrance to the Einhornhöhle cave in Germany, dating to about 51,000 years ago.


title: Neanderthal

text: In 2018, some red-painted dots, disks, lines, and hand stencils on the cave walls of the Spanish La Pasiega, Maltravieso, and Doña Trinidad were dated to be older than 66,000 years ago, at least 20,000 years prior to the arrival of modern humans in Western Europe. This would indicate Neanderthal authorship, and similar iconography recorded in other Western European sites—such as Les Merveilles, France, and Cueva del Castillo, Spain—could potentially also have Neanderthal origins. However, the dating of these Spanish caves, and thus attribution to Neanderthals, is contested.


title: Neanderthal

text: Neanderthals are known to have collected a variety of unusual objects—such as crystals or fossils—without any real functional purpose or any indication of damage caused by use. It is unclear if these objects were simply picked up for their aesthetic qualities, or if some symbolic significance was applied to them. These items are mainly quartz crystals, but also other minerals such as cerussite, iron pyrite, calcite, and galena. A few findings feature modifications, such as a mammoth tooth with an incision and a fossil nummulite shell with a cross etched in from Tata, Hungary; a large slab with 18 cupstones hollowed out from a grave in La Ferrassie, France; and a geode from Peștera Cioarei, Romania, coated with red ochre. A number of fossil shells are also known from French Neanderthals sites, such as a rhynchonellid and a "Taraebratulina" from Combe Grenal; a belemnite beak from Grottes des Canalettes; a polyp from Grotte de l'Hyène; a sea urchin from La Gonterie-Boulouneix; and a rhynchonella, feather star, and belemnite beak from the contentious Châtelperronian layer of Grotte du Renne.


title: Neanderthal

text: Purported Neanderthal bone flute fragments made of bear long bones were reported from Potočka zijalka, Slovenia, in the 1920s, and Istállós-kői-barlang, Hungary, and Mokriška jama, Slovenia, in 1985; but these are now attributed to modern human activities. The 1995 43 thousand year old Divje Babe Flute from Slovenia has been attributed by some researchers to Neanderthals, and Canadian musicologist Robert Fink said the original flute had either a diatonic or pentatonic musical scale. However, the date also overlaps with modern human immigration into Europe, which means it is also possible it was not manufactured by Neanderthals. In 2015, zoologist Cajus Diedrich argued that it was not a flute at all, and the holes were made by a scavenging hyaena as there is a lack of cut marks stemming from whittling, but in 2018, Slovenian archaeologist Matija Turk and colleagues countered that it is highly unlikely the punctures were made by teeth, and cut marks are not always present on bone flutes.


title: Neanderthal

text: Despite the apparent 150 thousand year stagnation in Neanderthal lithic innovation, there is evidence that Neanderthal technology was more sophisticated than was previously thought. However, the high frequency of potentially debilitating injuries could have prevented very complex technologies from emerging, as a major injury would have impeded an expert's ability to effectively teach a novice.


title: Neanderthal

text: Neanderthals made stone tools, and are associated with the Mousterian industry. The Mousterian is also associated with North African "H. sapiens" as early as 315,000 years ago and was found in Northern China about 47–37 thousand years ago. It evolved around 300,000 years ago with the Levallois technique which developed directly from the preceding Acheulean industry (invented by "H. erectus" about 1.8 mya). Levallois made it easier to control flake shape and size, and as a difficult-to-learn and unintuitive process, the Levallois technique may have been directly taught generation to generation rather than via purely observational learning.


title: Neanderthal

text: There are distinct regional variants of the Mousterian industry, such as: the Quina and La Ferrassie subtypes of the Charentian industry in southwestern France, Acheulean-tradition Mousterian subtypes A and B along the Atlantic and northwestern European coasts, the Micoquien industry of Central and Eastern Europe and the related Sibiryachikha variant in the Siberian Altai Mountains, the Denticulate Mousterian industry in Western Europe, the racloir industry around the Zagros Mountains, and the flake cleaver industry of Cantabria, Spain, and both sides of the Pyrenees. In the mid-20th century, French archaeologist François Bordes debated against American archaeologist Lewis Binford to explain this diversity (the "Bordes–Binford debate"), with Bordes arguing that these represent unique ethnic traditions and Binford that they were caused by varying environments (essentially, form vs. function). The latter sentiment would indicate a lower degree of inventiveness compared to modern humans, adapting the same tools to different environments rather than creating new technologies. A continuous sequence of occupation is well-documented in Grotte du Renne, France, where the lithic tradition can be divided into the Levallois–Charentian, Discoid–Denticulate (43.3±0.929–40.9±0.719 thousand years ago), Levallois Mousterian (40.2±1.5–38.4±1.3 thousand years ago), and Châtelperronian (40.93±0.393–33.67±0.450 thousand years ago).


title: Neanderthal

text: There is some debate if Neanderthals had long-ranged weapons. A wound on the neck of an African wild ass from Umm el Tlel, Syria, was likely inflicted by a heavy Levallois-point javelin, and bone trauma consistent with habitual throwing has been reported in Neanderthals. Some spear tips from Abri du Maras, France, may have been too fragile to have been used as thrusting spears, possibly suggesting their use as darts.


title: Neanderthal

text: The Châtelperronian in central France and northern Spain is a distinct industry from the Mousterian, and is controversially hypothesised to represent a culture of Neanderthals borrowing (or by process of acculturation) tool-making techniques from immigrating modern humans, crafting bone tools and ornaments. In this frame, the makers would have been a transitional culture between the Neanderthal Mousterian and the modern human Aurignacian. The opposing viewpoint is that the Châtelperronian was manufactured by modern humans instead. Abrupt transitions similar to the Mousterian/Châtelperronian could also simply represent natural innovation, like the La Quina–Neronian transition 50,000 years ago featuring technologies generally associated with modern humans such as bladelets and microliths. Other ambiguous transitional cultures include the Italian Uluzzian industry, and the Balkan Szeletian industry.


title: Neanderthal

text: Before immigration, the only evidence of Neanderthal bone tools are animal rib lissoirs — which are rubbed against hide to make it more supple or waterproof — although this could also be evidence for modern humans immigrating earlier than expected. In 2013, two 51.4–41.1 thousand year old deer rib lissoirs were reported from Pech-de-l’Azé and the nearby Abri Peyrony in France. In 2020, 5 more lissoirs made of aurochs or bison ribs were reported from Abri Peyrony, with one dating to about 51,400 years ago and the other four to 47.7–41.1 thousand years ago. This indicates the technology was in use in this region for a long time. Since reindeer remains were the most abundant, the use of less abundant bovine ribs may indicate a specific preference for bovine ribs. Potential lissoirs have also been reported from Grosse Grotte, Germany (made of mammoth), and Grottes des Canalettes, France (red deer).


title: Neanderthal

text: The Neanderthals in 10 coastal sites in Italy (namely Grotta del Cavallo and Grotta dei Moscerini) and Kalamakia Cave, Greece, are known to have crafted scrapers using smooth clam shells, and possibly hafted them to a wooden handle. They probably chose this clam species because it has the most durable shell. At Grotta dei Moscerini, about 24% of the shells were gathered alive from the seafloor, meaning these Neanderthals had to wade or dive into shallow waters to collect them. At Grotta di Santa Lucia, Italy, in the Campanian volcanic arc, Neanderthals collected the porous volcanic pumice, which, for contemporary humans, was probably used for polishing points and needles. The pumices are associated with shell tools.


title: Neanderthal

text: At Abri du Maras, France, twisted fibres and a 3-ply inner-bark-fibre cord fragment associated with Neanderthals show that they produced string and cordage, but it is unclear how widespread this technology was because the materials used to make them (such as animal hair, hide, sinew, or plant fibres) are biodegradable and preserve very poorly. This technology could indicate at least a basic knowledge of weaving and knotting, which would have made possible the production of nets, containers, packaging, baskets, carrying devices, ties, straps, harnesses, clothes, shoes, beds, bedding, mats, flooring, roofing, walls, and snares, and would have been important in hafting, fishing, and seafaring. Dating to 52–41 thousand years ago, the cord fragment is the oldest direct evidence of fibre technology, although 115,000-year-old perforated shell beads from Cueva Antón possibly strung together to make a necklace are the oldest indirect evidence. In 2020, British archaeologist Rebecca Wragg Sykes expressed cautious support for the genuineness of the find, but pointed out that the string would have been so weak that it would have had limited functions. One possibility is as a thread for attaching or stringing small objects.


title: Neanderthal

text: The archaeological record shows that Neanderthals commonly used animal hide and birch bark, and may have used them to make cooking containers, although this is based largely on circumstantial evidence, because neither fossilizes well. It is possible that the Neanderthals at Kebara Cave, Israel, used the shells of the spur-thighed tortoise as containers.


title: Neanderthal

text: At the Italian Poggetti Vecchi site, there is evidence that they used fire to process boxwood branches to make digging sticks, a common implement in hunter-gatherer societies.


title: Neanderthal

text: Many Mousterian sites have evidence of fire, some for extended periods of time, though it is unclear whether they were capable of starting fire or simply scavenged from naturally occurring wildfires. Indirect evidence of fire-starting ability includes pyrite residue on a couple of dozen bifaces from late Mousterian (c. 50,000 years ago) northwestern France (which could indicate they were used as percussion fire starters), and collection of manganese dioxide by late Neanderthals which can lower the combustion temperature of wood. They were also capable of zoning areas for specific activities, such as for knapping, butchering, hearths, and wood storage. Many Neanderthal sites lack evidence for such activity perhaps due to natural degradation of the area over tens of thousands of years, such as by bear infiltration after abandonment of the settlement.


title: Neanderthal

text: In a number of caves, evidence of hearths has been detected. Neanderthals likely considered air circulation when making hearths as a lack of proper ventilation for a single hearth can render a cave uninhabitable in several minutes. Abric Romaní rock shelter, Spain, indicates eight evenly spaced hearths lined up against the rock wall, likely used to stay warm while sleeping, with one person sleeping on either side of the fire. At Cueva de Bolomor, Spain, with hearths lined up against the wall, the smoke flowed upwards to the ceiling, and led to outside the cave. In Grotte du Lazaret, France, smoke was probably naturally ventilated during the winter as the interior cave temperature was greater than the outside temperature; likewise, the cave was likely only inhabited in the winter.


title: Neanderthal

text: In 1990, two 176,000 year old ring structures, several metres wide, made of broken stalagmite pieces, were discovered in a large chamber more than from the entrance within Grotte de Bruniquel, France. One ring was with stalagmite pieces averaging in length, and the other with pieces averaging . There were also 4 other piles of stalagmite pieces for a total of or worth of stalagmite pieces. Evidence of the use of fire and burnt bones also suggest human activity. A team of Neanderthals was likely necessary to construct the structure, but the chamber's actual purpose is uncertain. Building complex structures so deep in a cave is unprecedented in the archaeological record, and indicates sophisticated lighting and construction technology, and great familiarity with subterranean environments.


title: Neanderthal

text: The 44,000 year old Moldova I open-air site, Ukraine, shows evidence of a ring-shaped dwelling made out of mammoth bones meant for long-term habitation by several Neanderthals, which would have taken a long time to build. It appears to have contained hearths, cooking areas, and a flint workshop, and there are traces of woodworking. Upper Palaeolithic modern humans in the Russian plains are thought to have also made housing structures out of mammoth bones.


title: Neanderthal

text: Neanderthal produced the adhesive birch bark tar, perhaps using plant-based resins for hafting. It was long believed that birch bark tar required a complex recipe to be followed, and that it thus showed complex cognitive skills and cultural transmission. However, a 2019 study showed it can be made simply by burning birch bark on smooth vertical surfaces, such as a flat, inclined rock.


title: Neanderthal

text: Neanderthals were likely able to survive in a similar range of temperatures to modern humans while sleeping: about while naked in the open and windspeed , or while naked in an enclosed space. Since ambient temperatures were markedly lower than this—averaging, during the Eemian interglacial, in July and in January and dropping to as a low as on the coldest days—Danish physicist Bent Sørensen hypothesised that Neanderthals required tailored clothing capable of preventing airflow to the skin. Especially during extended periods of travelling (such as a hunting trip), tailored footwear completely enwrapping the feet may have been necessary.


title: Neanderthal

text: Nonetheless, as opposed to the bone sewing-needles and stitching awls assumed to have been in use by contemporary modern humans, the only known Neanderthal tools that could have been used to fashion clothes are hide scrapers, which could have made items similar to blankets or ponchos, and there is no direct evidence they could produce fitted clothes. Indirect evidence of tailoring by Neanderthals includes the ability to manufacture string, which could indicate weaving ability, and a naturally-pointed horse metatarsal bone from Cueva de los Aviones, Spain, which was speculated to have been used as an awl, perforating dyed hides, based on the presence of orange pigments. Whatever the case, Neanderthals would have needed to cover up most of their body, and contemporary humans would have covered 80–90%.


title: Neanderthal

text: Since human/Neanderthal admixture is known to have occurred in the Middle East, and no modern body louse species descends from their Neanderthal counterparts (body lice only inhabit clothed individuals), it is possible Neanderthals (and/or humans) in hotter climates did not wear clothes, or Neanderthal lice were highly specialised.


title: Neanderthal

text: Remains of Middle Palaeolithic stone tools on Greek islands indicate early seafaring by Neanderthals in the Ionian Sea possibly starting as far back as 200–150 thousand years ago. The oldest stone artefacts from Crete date to 130–107 thousand years ago, Cephalonia 125 thousand years ago, and Zakynthos 110–35 thousand years ago. The makers of these artefacts likely employed simple reed boats and made one-day crossings back and forth. Other Mediterranean islands with such remains include Sardinia, Melos, Alonnisos, and Naxos (although Naxos may have been connected to land), and it is possible they crossed the Strait of Gibraltar. If this interpretation is correct, Neanderthals' ability to engineer boats and navigate through open waters would speak to their advanced cognitive and technical skills.


title: Neanderthal

text: Given their dangerous hunting and extensive skeletal evidence of healing, Neanderthals appear to have lived lives of frequent traumatic injury and recovery. Well-healed fractures on many bones indicate the setting of splints. Individuals with severe head and rib traumas (which would have caused massive blood loss) indicate they had some manner of dressing major wounds, such as bandages made from animal skin. By-and-large, they appear to have avoided severe infections, indicating good long-term treatment of such wounds.


title: Neanderthal

text: Their knowledge of medicinal plants was comparable to that of contemporary humans. An individual at Cueva del Sidrón, Spain, seems to have been medicating a dental abscess using poplar—which contains salicylic acid, the active ingredient in aspirin—and there were also traces of the antibiotic-producing "Penicillium chrysogenum". They may also have used yarrow and camomile, and their bitter taste—which should act as a deterrent as it could indicate poison—means it was likely a deliberate act. In Kebara Cave, Israel, plant remains which have historically been used for their medicinal properties were found, including the common grape vine, the pistachios of the Persian turpentine tree, ervil seeds, and oak acorns.


title: Neanderthal

text: The degree of language complexity is difficult to establish, but given that Neanderthals achieved some technical and cultural complexity, and interbred with humans, it is reasonable to assume they were at least fairly articulate, comparable to modern humans. A somewhat complex language—possibly using syntax—was likely necessary to survive in their harsh environment, with Neanderthals needing to communicate about topics such as locations, hunting and gathering, and tool-making techniques. The FOXP2 gene in modern humans is associated with speech and language development. FOXP2 was present in Neanderthals, but not the gene's modern human variant. Neurologically, Neanderthals had an expanded Broca's area—operating the formulation of sentences, and speech comprehension, but out of a group 48 genes believed to affect the neural substrate of language, 11 had different methylation patterns between Neanderthals and modern humans. This could indicate a stronger ability in modern humans than in Neanderthals to express language.


title: Neanderthal

text: In 1971, cognitive scientist Philip Lieberman attempted to reconstruct the Neanderthal vocal tract and concluded that it was similar to that of a newborn and incapable of producing a large range of speech sounds, due to the large size of the mouth and the small size of the pharyngeal cavity (according to his reconstruction), thus no need for a descended larynx to fit the entire tongue inside the mouth. He claimed that they were anatomically unable to produce the sounds /a/, /i/, /u/, /ɔ/, /g/, and /k/ and thus lacked the capacity for articulate speech, though were still able to speak at a level higher than non-human primates. However, the lack of a descended larynx does not necessarily equate to a reduced vowel capacity. The 1983 discovery of a Neanderthal hyoid bone—used in speech production in humans—in Kebara 2 which is almost identical to that of humans suggests Neanderthals were capable of speech. Also, the ancestral Sima de los Huesos hominins had humanlike hyoid and ear bones, which could suggest the early evolution of the modern human vocal apparatus. However, the hyoid does not definitively provide insight into vocal tract anatomy. Subsequent studies reconstruct the Neanderthal vocal apparatus as comparable to that of modern humans, with a similar vocal repertoire. In 2015, Lieberman hypothesized that Neanderthals were capable of syntactical language, although nonetheless incapable of mastering any human dialect.


title: Neanderthal

text: It is debated if behavioural modernity is a recent and uniquely modern human innovation, or if Neanderthals also possessed it.


title: Neanderthal

text: Claims that Neanderthals held funerals for their dead with symbolic meaning are heavily contested and speculative. Although Neanderthals did bury their dead, at least occasionally—which may explain the abundance of fossil remains— it is not indicative of a religious belief of life after death, as such burial could have also had non-symbolic motivations, such as great emotion or to prevent scavenging.


title: Neanderthal

text: Estimates made regarding the number of known Neanderthal burials range from thirty-six to sixty. The oldest confirmed burials do not seem to occur before approximately 70,000 years ago. The small number of recorded Neanderthal burials implies that the activity was not particularly common. The setting of inhumation in Neanderthal culture largely consisted of simple, shallow graves and pits. Sites such as La Ferrassie in France or Shanidar in Iraq may imply the existence of mortuary centers or cemeteries in Neanderthal culture due to the number of individuals found buried at them.


title: Neanderthal

text: The debate on Neanderthal funerals has been active since the 1908 discovery of La Chapelle-aux-Saints 1 in a small, artificial hole in a cave in southwestern France, very controversially postulated to have been buried in a symbolic fashion. Another grave at Shanidar Cave, Iraq, was associated with the pollen of several flowers that may have been in bloom at the time of deposition—yarrow, centaury, ragwort, grape hyacinth, joint pine, and hollyhock. The medicinal properties of the plants led American archaeologist Ralph Solecki to claim that the man buried was some leader, healer, or shaman, and that "The association of flowers with Neanderthals adds a whole new dimension to our knowledge of his humanness, indicating that he had 'soul' ". However, it is also possible the pollen was deposited by a small rodent after the man's death.


title: Neanderthal

text: The graves of children and infants, especially, are associated with grave goods such as artefacts and bones. The grave of a newborn from La Ferrassie, France, was found with three flint scrapers, and an infant from Cave, Syria, was found with a triangular flint placed on its chest. A 10-month-old from Amud Cave, Israel, was associated with a red deer mandible, likely purposefully placed there given other animal remains are now reduced to fragments. Teshik-Tash 1 from Uzbekistan was associated with a circle of ibex horns, and a limestone slab argued to have supported the head. A child from Kiik-Koba, Crimea, Ukraine, had a flint flake with some purposeful engraving on it, likely requiring a great deal of skill. Nonetheless, these contentiously constitute evidence of symbolic meaning as the grave goods' significance and worth are unclear.


title: Neanderthal

text: It was once argued that the bones of the cave bear, particularly the skull, in some European caves were arranged in a specific order, indicating an ancient bear cult that killed bears and then ceremoniously arranged the bones. This would be consistent with bear-related rituals of modern human Arctic hunter-gatherers, but the alleged peculiarity of the arrangement could also be well-explained by natural causes, and bias could be introduced as the existence of a bear cult would conform with the idea that totemism was the earliest religion, leading to undue extrapolation of evidence.


title: Neanderthal

text: It was also once thought that Neanderthals ritually hunted, killed, and cannibalised other Neanderthals and used the skull as the focus of some ceremony. In 1962, Italian palaeontologist Alberto Blanc believed a skull from Grotta Guattari, Italy, had evidence of a swift blow to the head—indicative of ritual murder—and a precise and deliberate incising at the base to access the brain. He compared it to the victims of headhunters in Malaysia and Borneo, putting it forward as evidence of a skull cult. However, it is now thought to have been a result of cave hyaena predation. Although Neanderthals are known to have practiced cannibalism, there is unsubstantial evidence to suggest ritual defleshing.


title: Neanderthal

text: In 2019, Gibraltarian palaeoanthropologists Stewart, Geraldine, and Clive Finlayson and Spanish archaeologist Francisco Guzmán speculated that the golden eagle had iconic value to Neanderthals, as exemplified in some modern human societies because they reported that golden eagle bones had a conspicuously high rate of evidence of modification compared to the bones of other birds. They then proposed some "Cult of the Sun Bird" where the golden eagle was a symbol of power.


title: Neanderthal

text: The first Neanderthal genome sequence was published in 2010, and strongly indicated interbreeding between Neanderthals and early modern humans. The genomes of all non-sub-Saharan populations contain Neanderthal DNA. Various estimates exist for the proportion, such as 1–4% or 3.4–7.9% in modern Eurasians, or 1.8–2.4% in modern Europeans and 2.3–2.6% in modern East Asians. Pre-agricultural Europeans appear to have had similar percentages to modern East Asians, and the numbers may have decreased in the former due to dilution with a group of people which had split off before Neanderthal introgression. Typically, studies have reported finding no significant levels of Neanderthal DNA in Subsaharan Africans, but a 2020 study detected 0.3-0.5% in the genomes of five African sample populations, likely the result of Eurasians back-migrating and interbreeding with Africans, as well as human-to-neanderthal gene flow from dispersals of "Homo sapiens" preceding the larger Out-of-Africa migration. Such low percentages of Neanderthal DNA in all present day populations indicate infrequent past interbreeding, unless interbreeding was more common with a different population of modern humans which did not contribute to the present day gene pool. Of the inherited Neanderthal genome, 25% in modern Europeans and 32% in modern East Asians may be related to viral immunity. In all, approximately 20% of the Neanderthal genome appears to have survived in the modern human gene pool.


title: Neanderthal

text: However, due to their small population and resulting reduced effectivity of natural selection, Neanderthals accumulated several weakly harmful mutations, which were introduced to and slowly selected out of the much larger modern human population; the initial hybridised population may have experienced up to a 94% reduction in fitness compared to contemporary humans. By this measure, Neanderthals may have substantially increased in fitness. A 2017 study focusing on archaic genes in Turkey found associations with coeliac disease, malaria severity, and Costello syndrome. Nonetheless, some genes may have helped modern human Europeans adapt to the environment; the Val92Met variant of the MC1R gene, which may be weakly associated with red hair, may descend from Neanderthals although this is contested as the variant was rare in Neanderthals, and light skin in modern humans did not become prevalent until the Holocene. Some genes related to the immune system appear to have been affected by introgression, which may have aided migration, such as OAS1, STAT2, TLR6, TLR1, TLR10, and several related to immune response. In addition, Neanderthal genes have also been implicated in the structure and function of the brain, keratin filaments, sugar metabolism, muscle contraction, body fat distribution, enamel thickness, and oocyte meiosis. Nonetheless, a large portion of surviving introgression appears to be non-coding ("junk") DNA with few biological functions.


title: Neanderthal

text: Due to the absence of Neanderthal-derived mtDNA (which is passed on from mother to child) in modern populations, it has been suggested that the progeny of Neanderthal females who mated with modern human males were either rare, absent, or sterile—that is to say, admixture stems from the progeny of Neanderthal males with modern human females. Due to the lack of Neanderthal-derived Y-chromosomes in modern humans (which is passed on from father to son), it has also been suggested that the hybrids that contributed ancestry to modern populations were predominantly females, or the Neanderthal Y-chromosome was not compatible with "H. sapiens" and became extinct.


title: Neanderthal

text: According to linkage disequilibrium mapping, the last Neanderthal gene flow into the modern human genome occurred 86–37 thousand years ago, but most likely 65–47 thousand years ago. It is thought that Neanderthal genes which contributed to the present day human genome stemmed from interbreeding in the Near East rather than the entirety of Europe. However, interbreeding still occurred without contributing to the modern genome. The approximately 40,000 year old modern human Oase 2 was found, in 2015, to have had 6–9% (point estimate 7.3%) Neanderthal DNA, indicating a Neanderthal ancestor up to four to six generations earlier, but this hybrid population does not appear to have made a substantial contribution to the genomes of later Europeans. In 2016, the DNA of Neanderthals from Denisova Cave revealed evidence of interbreeding 100,000 years ago, and interbreeding with an earlier dispersal of "H. sapiens" may have occurred as early as 120,000 years ago in places such as the Levant. The earliest "H. sapiens" remains outside of Africa occur at Misliya Cave 194–177 thousand years ago, and Skhul and Qafzeh 120–90 thousand years ago. The Qafzeh humans lived at approximately the same time as the Neanderthals from the nearby Tabun Cave. The Neanderthals of the German Hohlenstein-Stadel have deeply divergent mtDNA compared to more recent Neanderthals, possibly due to introgression of human mtDNA between 316 and 219 thousand years ago, or simply because they were genetically isolated. Whatever the case, these first interbreeding events have not left any trace in modern human genomes.


title: Neanderthal

text: Detractors of the interbreeding model argue that the genetic similarity is only a remnant of a common ancestor instead of interbreeding, although this is unlikely as it fails to explain why sub-Saharan Africans do not have Neanderthal DNA.


title: Neanderthal

text: Although nDNA confirms that Neanderthals and Denisovans are more closely related to each other than they are to modern humans, Neanderthals and modern humans share a more recent maternally-transmitted mtDNA common ancestor, possibly due to interbreeding between Denisovans and some unknown human species. The 400,000-year-old Neanderthal-like humans from Sima de los Huesos in northern Spain, looking at mtDNA, are more closely related to Denisovans than Neanderthals. Several Neanderthal-like fossils in Eurasia from a similar time period are often grouped into "H. heidelbergensis", of which some may be relict populations of earlier humans, which could have interbred with Denisovans. This is also used to explain an approximately 124,000 year old German Neanderthal specimen with mtDNA that diverged from other Neanderthals (except for Sima de los Huesos) about 270,000 years ago, while its genomic DNA indicated divergence less than 150,000 years ago.


title: Neanderthal

text: Sequencing of the genome of a Denisovan from Denisova Cave has shown that 17% of its genome derives from Neanderthals. This Neanderthal DNA more closely resembled that of a 120,000-year-old Neanderthal bone from the same cave than that of Neanderthals from Vindija Cave, Croatia, or Mezmaiskaya Cave in the Caucasus, suggesting that interbreeding was local.


title: Neanderthal

text: For the 90,000-year-old Denisova 11, it was found that her father was a Denisovan related to more recent inhabitants of the region, and her mother a Neanderthal related to more recent European Neanderthals at Vindija Cave, Croatia. Given how few Denisovan bones are known, the discovery of a first-generation hybrid indicates interbreeding was very common between these species, and Neanderthal migration across Eurasia likely occurred sometime after 120,000 years ago.


title: Neanderthal

text: Whatever the cause of their extinction, Neanderthals were replaced by modern humans, indicated by near full replacement of Middle Palaeolithic Mousterian stone technology with modern human Upper Palaeolithic Aurignacian stone technology across Europe (the Middle-to-Upper Palaeolithic Transition) from 41 to 39 thousand years ago. However, it is postulated that Iberian Neanderthals persisted until about 35,000 years ago indicated by the date range of transitional lithic assemblages—Châtelperronian, Uluzzian, Protoaurignacian, and Early Aurignacian. The latter two are attributed to modern humans, but the former two have unconfirmed authorship, potentially products of Neanderthal/modern human cohabitation and cultural transmission. Further, the appearance of the Aurignacian south of the Ebro River has been dated to roughly 37,500 years ago, which has prompted the "Ebro Frontier" hypothesis which states that the river presented a geographic barrier preventing modern human immigration, and thus prolonging Neanderthal persistence. However, the dating of the Iberian Transition is debated, with a contested timing of 43–40.8 thousand years ago at Cueva Bajondillo, Spain. The Châtelperronian appears in northeastern Iberia about 42.5–41.6 thousand years ago.


title: Neanderthal

text: Some Neanderthals in Gibraltar were dated to much later than this—such as Zafarraya (30,000 years ago) and Gorham's Cave (28,000 years ago)—which may be inaccurate as they were based on ambiguous artefacts instead of direct dating. A claim of Neanderthals surviving in a polar refuge in the Ural Mountains is loosely supported by Mousterian stone tools dating to 34–31 thousand years ago from the northern Siberian Byzovaya site at a time when modern humans may not yet have colonised the northern reaches of Europe; however, modern human remains are known from the nearby Mamontovaya Kurya site dating to 40,000 years ago. Indirect dating of Neanderthals remains from Mezmaiskaya Cave reported a date of about 30,000 years ago, but direct dating instead yielded 39.7±1.1 thousand years ago, more in line with trends exhibited in the rest of Europe.


title: Neanderthal

text: The earliest indication of Upper Palaeolithic modern human immigration into Europe is the Balkan Bohunician industry beginning 48,000 years ago, likely deriving from the Levantine Emiran industry, and the earliest bones in Europe date to roughly 45–43 thousand years ago in Bulgaria, Italy, and Britain. This wave of modern humans replaced Neanderthals. However, Neanderthals and "H. sapiens" have a much longer contact history. DNA evidence indicates "H. sapiens" contact with Neanderthals and admixture as early as 120–100 thousand years ago. A 2019 reanalysis of 210,000 year old skull fragments from the Greek Apidima Cave assumed to have belonged to a Neanderthal concluded that they belonged to a modern human, and a Neanderthal skull dating to 170,000 years ago from the cave indicates "H. sapiens" were replaced by Neanderthals until returning about 40,000 years ago. This identification was refuted by a 2020 study. Archaeological evidence suggests that Neanderthals displaced modern humans in the Near East around 100,000 years ago until about 60–50 thousand years ago.


title: Neanderthal

text: Historically, modern human technology was viewed as vastly superior to that of Neanderthals, with more efficient weaponry and subsistence strategies, and Neanderthals simply went extinct because they could not compete.


title: Neanderthal

text: The discovery of Neanderthal/modern human introgression has caused the resurgence of the multiregional hypothesis, wherein the present day genetic makeup of all humans is the result of complex genetic contact among several different populations of humans dispersed across the world. By this model, Neanderthals and other recent archaic humans were simply assimilated into the modern human genome – that is, they were effectively bred out into extinction.


title: Neanderthal

text: Their ultimate extinction coincides with Heinrich event 4, a period of intense seasonality; later Heinrich events are also associated with massive cultural turnovers when European human populations collapsed. This climate change may have depopulated several regions of Neanderthals, like previous cold spikes, but these areas were instead repopulated by immigrating humans, leading to Neanderthal extinction.


title: Neanderthal

text: It has also been proposed that climate change was the primary driver, as their low population left them vulnerable to any environmental change, with even a small drop in survival or fertility rates possibly quickly leading to their extinction. However, Neanderthals and their ancestors had survived through several glacial periods over their hundreds of thousands of years of European habitation. It is also proposed that around 40,000 years ago, when Neanderthal populations may have already been dwindling from other factors, the Campanian Ignimbrite Eruption in Italy could have led to their final demise, as it produced 2–4 °C cooling for a year and acid rain for several more years.


title: Neanderthal

text: Modern humans may have introduced African diseases to Neanderthals, contributing to their extinction. A lack of immunity, compounded by an already low population, was potentially devastating to the Neanderthal population, and low genetic diversity could have also rendered fewer Neanderthals naturally immune to these new diseases ("differential pathogen resistance" hypothesis). However, compared to modern humans, Neanderthals had a similar or higher genetic diversity for 12 major histocompatibility complex (MHC) genes associated with the adaptive immune system, casting doubt on this model.


title: Neanderthal

text: Low population and inbreeding depression may have caused maladaptive birth defects, which could have contributed to their decline (mutational meltdown).


title: Neanderthal

text: In late-20th-century New Guinea, due to cannibalistic funerary practices, the Fore people were decimated by transmissible spongiform encephalopathies, specifically kuru, a highly virulent disease spread by ingestion of prions found in brain tissue. However, individuals with the 129 variant of the PRNP gene were naturally immune to the prions. Studying this gene led to the discovery that the 129 variant was widespread among all modern humans, which could indicate widespread cannibalism at some point in human prehistory. Because Neanderthals are known to have practised cannibalism to an extent and to have co-existed with modern humans, British palaeoanthropologist Simon Underdown speculated that modern humans transmitted a kuru-like spongiform disease to Neanderthals, and, because the 129 variant appears to have been absent in Neanderthals, it quickly killed them off.


title: Neanderthal

text: Neanderthals have been portrayed in popular culture including appearances in literature, visual media, and comedy. The "caveman" archetype often mocks Neanderthals and depicts them as primitive, hunchbacked, knuckle-dragging, club-wielding, grunting, nonsocial characters driven solely by animal instinct. "Neanderthal" can also be used as an insult.


title: Neanderthal

text: In literature, they are sometimes depicted as brutish or monstrous, such as in H. G. Wells' "The Grisly Folk" and Elizabeth Marshall Thomas' "The Animal Wife", but sometimes with a civilised but unfamiliar culture, as in William Golding's "The Inheritors", Björn Kurtén's "Dance of the Tiger", and Jean M. Auel's "Clan of the Cave Bear" and her "Earth's Children" series.


title: My Chemical Romance

text: My Chemical Romance (commonly abbreviated to MCR or My Chem) is an American rock band from Newark, New Jersey. The band's current lineup consists of lead vocalist Gerard Way, lead guitarist Ray Toro, rhythm guitarist Frank Iero, and bassist Mikey Way. They are considered one of the most influential rock groups of the 2000s and a major act in the pop punk and emo genres, despite the band rejecting the latter label.


title: My Chemical Romance

text: Founded on September 12, 2001, by Gerard, Mikey, Toro, and drummer Matt Pelissier (and later joined by Iero), the band signed with Eyeball Records and released their debut album, "I Brought You My Bullets, You Brought Me Your Love", in 2002. They signed with Reprise Records the next year and released their major-label debut, "Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge", in 2004. Shortly after the album's release, Pelissier was replaced by Bob Bryar. The album was a commercial success, attaining platinum status over a year later.


title: My Chemical Romance

text: The success of the band's previous albums was eclipsed by that of their 2006 rock opera concept album, "The Black Parade", which was a major commercial success, with lead single "Welcome to the Black Parade" topping the UK singles chart. The album solidified the band's following, despite negative coverage in the "Daily Mail" generating controversy. The band's fourth studio album, "", was released in 2010. Bryar departed the band prior to the release of the album, and in 2012, they added touring keyboardist James Dewees. In 2012 and 2013, the band released a series of singles they had recorded in 2009 under the collective title "Conventional Weapons". My Chemical Romance announced its breakup on March 22, 2013. In 2014, a greatest hits album titled "May Death Never Stop You" was released and a tenth-anniversary reissue of "The Black Parade" was released in 2016.


title: My Chemical Romance

text: On October 31, 2019, the band announced a reunion show, which took place in Los Angeles on December 20, 2019. In January 2020, they announced additional shows and a Reunion Tour, which commenced in 2022 after a two-year postponement due to the COVID-19 pandemic.


title: My Chemical Romance

text: The band was formed by frontman Gerard Way and drummer Matt Pelissier in Newark, New Jersey, soon after the September 11 attacks. Witnessing the World Trade Center towers fall influenced Way's life to the extent that he decided to start a band. Shortly thereafter, Ray Toro was recruited as the band's guitarist because at the time Way could not sing and play the guitar simultaneously. Way has said "music was this thing I secretly wanted to do" and later wrote the song "Skylines and Turnstiles" to express his feelings about September 11.


title: My Chemical Romance

text: The name of the band was suggested by bass guitarist Mikey Way, younger brother of Gerard, who was working in a Barnes & Noble when he was struck by the title of a book by Irvine Welsh named "". The first recording sessions were undertaken in Pelissier's attic, where the songs "Our Lady of Sorrows" and "Cubicles" were recorded. The band refers to those sessions as "The Attic Demos". After hearing the demo and dropping out of college, Mikey Way decided to join the band. While with Eyeball Records, the band met Frank Iero, the lead vocalist and guitarist for Pencey Prep. Following Pencey Prep's split in 2002, Iero became a member of My Chemical Romance, just days prior to the recording of the band's debut album. They recorded their debut album, "I Brought You My Bullets, You Brought Me Your Love", just three months after the formation of the band and released it in 2002 through Eyeball Records. The album was produced by Thursday frontman Geoff Rickly after the band became friends with him while playing shows in New Jersey. Iero played guitar on two of the tracks, one of which was "Early Sunsets Over Monroeville". During this time, the band was booked at the infamous venue Big Daddy's, where it began to receive more attention.


title: My Chemical Romance

text: My Chemical Romance offered free downloads through PureVolume and the social networking website MySpace, where they gained an initial fan base.


title: My Chemical Romance

text: On August 31, 2003, the band announced via their website that they had signed a deal with Reprise Records. Following a tour with Avenged Sevenfold, the band began working on their second album, which was titled "Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge", which was released on June 8, 2004. A month after the album's release, the band replaced Matt Pelissier with Bob Bryar. The band released four singles from the album: "I'm Not Okay (I Promise)", "Thank You for the Venom", "Helena", and "The Ghost of You". The album went platinum in just over a year after its release.


title: My Chemical Romance

text: At the beginning of 2005, the band was featured on the first Taste of Chaos tour along with The Used and Killswitch Engage. The band also was the opening act for Green Day on their "American Idiot" tour. They then co-headlined Warped Tour 2005 with Fall Out Boy and co-headlined a tour with Alkaline Trio and Reggie and the Full Effect around the US. That same year, My Chemical Romance collaborated with The Used for a cover of the Queen and David Bowie classic, "Under Pressure", which was released as a benefit single for tsunami relief on iTunes and other Internet outlets.


title: My Chemical Romance

text: In March 2006, the album "Life on the Murder Scene" was released, incorporating a CD and two DVDs. It included one documentary DVD chronicling the band's history, and a second DVD with music videos, the making of their videos and live performances. An unauthorized biography DVD "Things That Make You Go MMM!" was also released in June 2006. The DVD does not actually feature any My Chemical Romance music clips or performances but contains interviews with those who knew the band before much of their fame. A biography titled "Something Incredible This Way Comes" was also released, written by Paul Stenning and published in 2006. It features information on their beginnings right through to their third album, "The Black Parade".


title: My Chemical Romance

text: My Chemical Romance started recording their third studio album on April 10, 2006 with Rob Cavallo, producer of many of Green Day's albums. It was originally thought to be titled "The Rise and Fall of My Chemical Romance" (in reference to "The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars" by David Bowie), but in an interview with "Kerrang!" magazine, Gerard Way suggested this was just the album's working title, stating "It was never the title of the album, more a spoof, or joke."


title: My Chemical Romance

text: On August 3, 2006, the band completed shooting the videos for their first two singles from the album, "Welcome to the Black Parade" and although not released until January 2007, "Famous Last Words". Both videos were directed by Samuel Bayer, director of Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit" and Green Day's "American Idiot" videos. During filming for the second video, band members Gerard Way and Bob Bryar were injured. Way suffered torn ligaments in his ankle, and Bryar a burn to the leg which caused a severe staph infection that needed constant monitoring in the hospital. Consequently, the band was forced to cancel a few tour dates. While these injuries were reported by several news agencies to have been the result of a car accident, a statement released by the band on their website and MySpace page confirmed that these injuries occurred on the set of the video.On August 22, 2006, the band played a special one-off show at the 1,800-capacity London Hammersmith Palais. The show sold out in 15 minutes, which led to tickets being re-sold on eBay at prices well above face value. The name of the album was announced and 20 people dressed in black capes with their faces obscured paraded around the Hammersmith venue, followed by a large group of fans and street team members with signs saying "The Black Parade". Later during the show, the album title and the UK release date were confirmed. Before the band took the stage, it was announced that My Chemical Romance was unable to play, but they would be replaced by The Black Parade. After initial crowd hostility, it became clear the band was simply performing under a pseudonym in keeping with the theme of the album. Since then, the band would often perform under the alias "The Black Parade", wearing the costumes seen in the album's music videos. Gerard Way would adopt the persona of the leader of the marching band, The Black Parade, and vary his behavior and performance accordingly. The band were bottled during a performance at the Reading Festival by fans of the band Slayer, who performed before them at the festival; Way later described it as their "greatest victory as a show".


title: My Chemical Romance

text: "Welcome to the Black Parade" was released as a single on September 11, 2006. On September 26, 2006, the music video for "Welcome to the Black Parade" was released in the UK, and on September 27 in the US. The single became the band's first number one on the UK Singles Chart in October 2006. "The Black Parade" was released on October 23, 2006, in the United Kingdom and on October 24, 2006, in the United States to positive reviews. In the US, "Welcome to the Black Parade" reached number nine on the "Billboard" Hot 100, making it the band's only top ten hit to date on the chart.


title: My Chemical Romance

text: "The Black Parade World Tour" commenced on February 22, 2007, with the eventuating 133 shows featuring Rise Against, Thursday and Muse as support acts. Reggie and the Full Effect frontman James Dewees joined the band to play keyboards and synthesizer from there on. In April 2007, it was announced that Mikey Way would temporarily leave the tour to spend time with his new wife, Alicia Simmons-Way. Way's temporary replacement was Matt Cortez, a friend of the band. During the third leg of the tour, as a support act for Muse, members of My Chemical Romance and their crew, along with members of Muse's crew, suffered food poisoning, and consequently had to cancel six shows. The band later featured on Linkin Park's "Projekt Revolution" tour in 2007, along with Placebo, Mindless Self Indulgence, Saosin, Taking Back Sunday and HIM.


title: My Chemical Romance

text: My Chemical Romance received a range of accolades for "The Black Parade". "Kerrang!" rated "The Black Parade" as the fourth-greatest album of 2006. In "Rolling Stone" magazine's ranking of the top 50 albums of 2006, "The Black Parade" was voted the 20th best album of the year. My Chemical Romance went on to win the award for Best International Band at the 2007 NME Awards, and Gerard Way also won the Hero of the Year award. My Chemical Romance was also nominated for Best Alternative Group at the 2007 American Music Awards.


title: My Chemical Romance

text: The band announced in a blog on their website that they would be going on a final tour in the United States before taking a break. At the same time, they announced they will be releasing a live DVD/CD collection titled "The Black Parade Is Dead!", which includes two concerts from October 2007, the final Black Parade concert in Mexico, and a small show at Maxwell's in New Jersey. The DVD/CD was meant to be released on June 24 in the United States and June 30 in the UK, but was postponed to July 1 because of a technical fault with the Mexico concert. On February 3, 2009, an EP of B-side songs from singles on "The Black Parade" was released, titled "". The band then announced that they would be releasing "a collection of nine never-before-seen live videos, straight from the encore set of the Mexico City show from October 2007" during their Black Parade World Tour, titled "¡Venganza!". The release came on a bullet-shaped flash drive and also contained exclusive photos of the band from the show. It was released on April 29, 2009.


title: My Chemical Romance

text: British tabloid "Daily Mail" characterised the band and their fans as "emo" and a "cult of self-harm" in 2006. "The Guardian" described My Chemical Romance's perceived association with emo originated from "Iero's appearance, their debut being produced by a member of Thursday, and the band members' openness about their mental-health issues" while acknowledging major stylistic differences between emo and My Chemical Romance's music. The band disputed their association with emo and the characterisation of their music as dangerous, comparing it to controversies surrounding Judas Priest in the 1980s. The media attention, which coincided with the release of "The Black Parade," is thought to have boosted the band's popularity in the UK.


title: My Chemical Romance

text: On May 16, 2008, the "Daily Mail" published an article titled "Why no child is safe from the sinister cult of emo". It discussed the suicide of a thirteen-year-old British girl named Hannah Bond, who supposedly took her life because of her involvement in an "emo cult" which the newspaper directly associated with My Chemical Romance and their fans, and their then-current album "The Black Parade". The basis for the article was a statement by coroner Roger Sykes from the investigation into Bond's death, who expressed concern that her "emo" lifestyle glamorized suicide and suggested that her obsession with My Chemical Romance was linked to her death. The "Mail" followed this with several stories also describing the band and emo as a "sinister cult" and "dangerous". Supporters of emo music contacted "NME" to defend the genre against accusations that it promotes suicide. The band responded by paying tribute to Bond, saying that their music is "anti-violence and anti-suicide" and aiming to provide comfort and solace to fans, and encouraged fans experiencing feelings of depression or suicide to seek help.


title: My Chemical Romance

text: A group of British fans eventually planned a march across London in protest against the depiction of the band in the media. The march was expected to be held on May 31, beginning at Hyde Park's West Pond and ending outside the offices of the "Daily Mail". The march was expected to attract 500–1,000 protesters, according to the organizers. After concerns by police, the march was called off and instead about 100 fans congregated at Marble Arch. The band repeated the statement "fuck the "Daily Mail"" during their gigs in the United Kingdom.


title: My Chemical Romance

text: "The Daily Mail" defended its position saying its coverage was "balanced and restrained" and "in the public interest" and that they were reporting genuine concerns raised by the coroner at the inquest. They stated that their coverage of the coroner's remarks and the parents' comments was in common with that of other newspapers and pointed to their publishing of readers' letters defending the band and positive reviews of the band's albums and tours. "Kerrang!" later described the original story as having a "heavy-handed approach and factual inaccuracies" and demonised the emo subculture. In a 2022 retrospective, "The Guardian" described the backlash against the band and emo music as a "moral panic".


title: My Chemical Romance

text: On February 1, 2009, My Chemical Romance released a new single titled "Desolation Row" (a cover of the Bob Dylan song). It was recorded to feature as the end credit track for the 2009 film "Watchmen", an adaptation of the graphic novel of the same name.


title: My Chemical Romance

text: On May 27, 2009, My Chemical Romance's web designer, Jeff Watson, announced via the band's website that the band was headed to the studio to record their fourth full-length album. The recording took place over the following few weeks with producer Brendan O'Brien, who has worked with AC/DC, Mastodon, and Pearl Jam.


title: My Chemical Romance

text: In an interview with "NME", Gerard Way said the band's next record would be a rock album, saying, "I think [the next album] will definitely be stripped down. I think the band misses being a rock band." In a separate interview with "Idiomag", Way commented that the next release would be less theatrical in scope, stating that "it's not going to be hiding behind a veil of fiction or uniforms and makeup anymore." In an interview with PopEater, Way also stated that the next album will be "full of hate". He also said "over the years that we've been hearing ourselves live and hearing us on records, we kind of prefer the live. There's more of a garage feel and more energy. I'd like to capture some of that, finally. That's the goal for the next one."


title: My Chemical Romance

text: On July 31 and August 1, 2009, My Chemical Romance played two "secret" shows at The Roxy Theater in Los Angeles. The shows were the first concerts the band had played since Madison Square Garden in May 2008. The band also premiered several new songs said to be from their upcoming fourth album during the shows, one reportedly titled "Death Before Disco", a song that Way said he was particularly excited about. The song was since renamed "Party Poison" and was included on the new album. Way explained further in a "Rolling Stone" interview that "it's a completely different sound for the band — it's like an anti-party song that you can party to. I can't wait for people to hear it. It brings back, lyrically, some of that wonderful fiction from the first album."


title: My Chemical Romance

text: Gerard Way also said in a November 2009 interview with "Rock Sound" that the fourth album would be their defining work. "A friend who heard the record recently said he now had no interest in listening to our older work anymore, that we had made all our old material redundant. I took it as a compliment, the next thing you should always make the last thing seem unimportant and I think that will happen when we finally release this album."


title: My Chemical Romance

text: On March 3, 2010, Iero announced on their official website that Bob Bryar had left the band, writing:


title: My Chemical Romance

text: In a March 2010 MTV interview about the new album, Way explained, "There's no title yet ... I'm actually kind of excited about that. It's kind of 'anything goes' at this point, but I'm so happy with the songs." Though the band since decided on the title of their fourth album, it continued to go unannounced, with various rumors circulating and the band stating on their website that it will be revealed "all in due time" and in Way's words, "a special way this time. Maybe some sort of event, something fun, something soon."


title: My Chemical Romance

text: During the San Diego Comic-Con 2010, Way announced that the band had finished recording the fourth studio album. This was later confirmed by Iero on the band's website, announcing that the album was "done, finished, kaput, in the proverbial can, and being played loudly as we drive way too fast in our respective cars."


title: My Chemical Romance

text: In September, a trailer video was uploaded to My Chemical Romance's official YouTube page titled "Art is a Weapon", which announced the title of the album: "". The video featured the band wearing strangely colored outfits and battling unusual characters in a desert surrounding, and featuring a sample of music from the song "Na Na Na (Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na)". Notable comic book author and the band's personal friend, Grant Morrison, makes a special appearance, in the role of an enemy and leader of a band of masked characters. On September 22, 2010, the band premiered their song "Na Na Na (Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na)" on Zane Lowe's BBC Radio 1 show, and Los Angeles-based radio station KROQ-FM. The album was released on November 22, 2010.


title: My Chemical Romance

text: "Rock Sound" had a preview of the album and gave a positive review, commenting "the way they've used everything they learned on "The Black Parade" and tightened up in certain places feels natural and confident" and that it sees "the creativity of the band taking flight musically, graphically and literally."


title: My Chemical Romance

text: During a performance at Wembley Arena on February 12, 2011, Way announced that the band would be appearing at a UK festival later in the year, later confirmed as the Reading and Leeds Festivals, which they headlined. They also performed at Radio 1's Big Weekend in Carlisle, England on May 15, 2011.


title: My Chemical Romance

text: On September 2, 2011, Frank Iero posted a blog on the band's site stating, "The relationship between My Chemical Romance and Michael Pedicone is over" and explaining Pedicone was sacked because "he was caught red-handed stealing from the band and confessed to police after our show last night in Auburn, Washington." He also mentioned his hope of getting a new drummer in time for their next show and avoiding having to cancel any performances in the process.


title: My Chemical Romance

text: On September 4, 2011, it was revealed through various sources that Jarrod Alexander will be the new touring drummer for the remainder of the Honda Civic tour. He also performed with them in late October at Voodoo Experience and at their Australian + New Zealand shows at Big Day Out in early 2012.


title: My Chemical Romance

text: In an interview with "Rolling Stone" in October 2011, guitarist Frank Iero revealed that new music could be out "by summer".


title: My Chemical Romance

text: On April 28, 2011, US broadcaster Glenn Beck labelled the My Chemical Romance song "Sing" as "propaganda" after it was featured and covered on the US musical drama TV series "Glee" in February 2011. Beck stated "It's an anthem saying 'Join us'. How can you and I possibly win against that?"


title: My Chemical Romance

text: The lyrics that Beck pointed out were: "Cleaned up corporation progress, dying in the process / Children that can talk about it living on the railways / People moving sideways / Sell it till your last days / Buy yourself the motivation / Generation nothing / Nothing but a dead scene / Product of a white dream". Gerard Way responded to the accusation on the band's official website, writing, "I think the word Glenn Beck was looking for was 'subversion' not 'propaganda', because I don't know what it would be considered propaganda for—truth? Sentiment?" He also said that he was "shocked that no actual fact-checking was done on the lyrics". Bassist Mikey Way told the BBC, "If we're getting reaction from people like that we're doing something right."


title: My Chemical Romance

text: On December 18, 2011, the band appeared on Nick Jr.'s "Yo Gabba Gabba!", and performed a song called "Every Snowflake Is Different (Just Like You)". This was part of a Christmas special for the show. The special includes other famous guest appearances such as Tony Hawk and Tori Spelling.


title: My Chemical Romance

text: In February 2012, members of My Chemical Romance revealed that they had been building a studio in Los Angeles to record music for the band's fifth album under the working title MCR5, now with touring keyboardist James Dewees as an official member. The band worked with engineer Doug McKean, who previously worked on "The Black Parade" and "". On September 14, 2012, Frank Iero announced through the band's official website a new project titled "Conventional Weapons". The project revolved around 10 unreleased songs that were recorded in 2009, prior to the making of "Danger Days". The band released two songs each month for five months from the "Conventional Weapons sessions", starting in October 2012 and finishing in February 2013. According to the October 2012 issue of "Q Magazine", Frank Iero reported early sessions for MCR's next album with the new drummer Jarrod Alexander were progressing well. "Jarrod is a rad guy and a fantastic player. It's been really fun making music with him these past few months," Iero commented.


title: My Chemical Romance

text: On March 22, 2013, the band announced their break-up on their official website, issuing this statement:


title: My Chemical Romance

text: Gerard Way posted an extended tweet on his Twitter account two days after the website announcement, in which he confirmed the disbanding of the group but denied that altercations between band members were the reason for the split.


title: My Chemical Romance

text: On March 25, 2014, the band released a greatest hits collection, titled "May Death Never Stop You", containing material spreading their entire career, as well a single unreleased track. The track "Fake Your Death" was made available digitally on February 17. It is the only song in MCR's discography having James Dewees playing on keyboards.


title: My Chemical Romance

text: Following the band's breakup, the members of the band continued to pursue music. Lead vocalist Gerard Way announced his debut solo album "Hesitant Alien" with the release of an advance-single, "Action Cat". "Hesitant Alien" was released on September 29, 2014, in the UK, and a day later in the U.S. "Hesitant Alien" was a moderate commercial success, topping the US "Billboard" Alternative Albums chart and reaching No. 16 on the US "Billboard" 200. "Hesitant Alien" also topped the "Ten Essential Albums Of 2014" list in "Alternative Press".


title: My Chemical Romance

text: Rhythm guitarist Frank Iero sporadically collaborated with My Chemical Romance keyboardist James Dewees, forming Death Spells and performing in Reggie and the Full Effect (alongside Ray Toro), releasing "No Country for Old Musicians" on November 19, 2013. Afterwards, he announced via his official website that he signed to Staple Records and would be releasing a full-length solo album titled "Stomachaches" under the moniker of "frnkiero andthe cellabration". The album featured former My Chemical Romance touring drummer Jarrod Alexander. "Stomachaches" was released worldwide on August 25, 2014.


title: My Chemical Romance

text: Bassist Mikey Way formed Electric Century along with Sleep Station vocalist David Debiak in 2014 and released their debut single "I Lied" in February 2014. The duo announced their debut self-titled EP on March 10, 2015, and it was released on Record Store Day on April 18, 2015.


title: My Chemical Romance

text: Lead guitarist Ray Toro posted a song on his SoundCloud account titled "Isn't That Something" on May 24, 2013. On January 1, 2015, he posted a new song, titled "For the Lost and Brave", on his website, dedicating the song to Leelah Alcorn, a transgender teen who committed suicide.


title: My Chemical Romance

text: On July 20, 2016, the band posted on their official Twitter and Facebook pages a video with the piano intro from "Welcome to the Black Parade", ending with a cryptic date, "9/23/16". The video was also published on the band's YouTube channel with the video titled "MCRX". This led to numerous rumors and reports on the band's possible reunion until it was revealed to be a reissue of "The Black Parade" with unreleased demos. The reissue, titled "The Black Parade/Living with Ghosts", includes 11 demos and live tracks. Two months before its release, an early version of "Welcome to the Black Parade", titled "The Five of Us Are Dying", was made available for streaming.


title: My Chemical Romance

text: In a discussion of his work on the comic book "Doom Patrol", Gerard Way told "Billboard", "I wouldn't count (a reunion) out, but at the same time everybody's doing stuff in their lives now that they're really enjoying."


title: My Chemical Romance

text: On October 31, 2019, the band announced they would be reuniting in Los Angeles on December 20 and a new merchandise line. The announcement was accompanied by the captions "Return" and "Like Phantoms Forever...". The show sold out in 4 minutes despite high ticket prices. Believed initially to be a one-off show, almost a week later, the band announced more dates in Australia, Japan and New Zealand for 2020. They later revealed via Twitter that they had first regrouped in 2017 and had been working together since then, before the official 2019 announcement. The concert grossed $1,451,745, with an attendance of 5,113.


title: My Chemical Romance

text: In January 2020, the group announced plans to present one, then two, then three concerts at Stadium MK (Milton Keynes, England), on the 18th, 20th and 21 June 2020, as tickets for each day sold out within minutes. The stadium has an (all round) capacity of 30,500 for sports events. Later in the month, the group premiered a cryptic video on YouTube which ended by announcing a North American tour. The North American shows went on sale on January 31, 2020, and sold out in less than six hours. Due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, all of the shows on the tour that were set to begin in 2020 were postponed to 2021, including the North American leg. These tour dates were later rescheduled again to 2022. The tour commenced on 16 May 2022 at the Eden Project.


title: My Chemical Romance

text: My Chemical Romance's music has been categorized as alternative rock, pop punk, punk rock, emo pop, hard rock, hardcore punk, gothic rock, pop rock, arena rock, glam rock, heavy metal, and, most controversially, emo. The band's official website describes their music as simply "rock" or "violent, dangerous pop". Gerard Way has publicly rejected the term "emo", describing the genre as "fucking garbage". However, Way has reportedly also described the band's style as "What-else-ya-got-emo".


title: My Chemical Romance

text: The band's sound usually has elements of punk rock, pop and alternative rock. Way's vocals have been described as "theatrical", and espousing "introspective, confessional lyrics". The band's debut album, features a raw sound that has guitar riffs, very energetic vocals and sometimes screaming. The album has been described as emo, post-hardcore, alternative rock, screamo, punk rock, gothic rock, pop punk, and garage punk. The album also has some influences from hardcore punk and heavy metal. "Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge" was described as alternative rock, emo, pop punk, post-hardcore, and punk rock. The band's third album, "The Black Parade," has been described as alternative rock, emo, pop punk, post-hardcore, punk rock, and hard rock. The album has influences from 1970s classic rock, glam rock, pop, and gothic rock. The band's fourth album, "Danger Days: The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys," integrated elements of power pop, pop rock, and electronic rock into their sound.


title: My Chemical Romance

text: Gerard Way said to "Rolling Stone", "we love bands like Queen, where it's huge and majestic, but also bands like Black Flag and the Misfits, who would go absolutely crazy." Way has stated that the band is heavily influenced by Queen, Misfits, Black Flag, Iron Maiden, the Cure, Joy Division, Bauhaus, Siouxsie and the Banshees, the Smiths and Morrissey. Way has also said that his band patterns their career after that of the Smashing Pumpkins, another band they admire. Frank Iero cites the punk band Lifetime as a big influence. My Chemical Romance's other influences include the Stooges, Ramones, Sex Pistols, the Clash, Minor Threat, Nirvana, and Operation Ivy. They also have noted that their lives, childhoods, books they've read and movies they've seen have influenced their music.


title: My Chemical Romance

text: According to "Rolling Stone", the band played "somewhat of an anomaly in New Jersey's then-burgeoning pop-punk and emo scene", before achieving their breakthrough with an "instant emo classic" "Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge," while "Spin" described it as one of the albums that launched the emo genre into the mainstream. In 2022, "The Guardian" wrote that during the height of their career they were "unlikely superstars, misfits who inadvertently infiltrated the mainstream" but upon their reunion tour, the band "return to a pop cultural landscape they helped to define". "The New York Times"s Christopher R. Weingarten has noted that "The Black Parade" inspired a number of 2010s musicians in different genres, including Twenty One Pilots, Crown the Empire, Famous Last Words, Halsey, fun, Billie Eilish and Post Malone, and even influenced the sound of movie musicals like "Frozen II". In 2016, "Nylon" wrote that the record "took the idea of a concept album and exploited it for the digital age", while being musically a rock opera "as ambitious as any post-Queen rock opera could be". Speaking on the band's reception and criticism during the early 2000s, NPR Music wrote that, "at a moment when mannered indie-pop and roughshod garage-rock were infiltrating the mainstream, [the band] was earnest, dramatic and unapologetically massive, in a way that made it conspicuously uncool," and deemed "The Black Parade" a "defining album" for a generation of pop-punk fans.


title: My Chemical Romance

text: In 2020, "Kerrang!" deemed the band "the rock superstars of the 21st century" while stating that "no other band has had such a musical or cultural impact over recent years." The magazine also noted their influence in "the current music scene" of alternative rock. "Vice" named My Chemical Romance the "artist of the decade", with writer Hannah Ewens commenting that they "influenced rock throughout the 2010s—even though they were inactive for most of the decade." In "Paste" magazine, Eli Enis wrote that "it is pretty much accepted canon at this point that My Chemical Romance are one of the most significant rock bands this side of the millennium." James McMahon of "The Independent" stated that Gerard Way "set a blueprint for emo's image of pale face, raven-black hair and perhaps a red tie, for almost 20 years." Writing on the band's influence, "Entertainment Weekly"s Kyle Anderson stated that they "offered up spiritual solutions to real problems, and they did it with huge riffs and big theatrical stage shows, with rarely a hint of irony or detachment... it's unlikely there will ever be a band quite like them again."


title: My Chemical Romance

text: In "Archer", Vince Ruston commented on the band's popularity in the queer and LGBT communities: "My Chemical Romance wanted to speak to and raise up every person who had ever felt outcast, downtrodden, or alienated. Queer teens were a huge part of that demographic". Similarly, Michelle Hyun Kim described Gerard Way as a "queer icon" in "Them", and that "after the band announced their reunion on Halloween 2019, I saw tweets from LGBTQ+ folks around the world claiming, in some way or another, that MCR either served as a queer awakening or fostered their queerness." The band have long been supportive of LGBT rights and embraced their LGBT fandom.


title: My Chemical Romance

text: My Chemical Romance played in many major tours of 2005. The band toured with Green Day in 2005 on the "Green Day Presents American Idiot Tour". They were also part of the Warped Tour in the same year. "For a lot of kids, it's the one thing they look forward to all year," said Gerard Way of the Warped Tour. "They save up for it. They get to see all the bands they like in one shot." Their set list included mostly songs from "Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge".


title: My Chemical Romance

text: My Chemical Romance co-headlined the main stage with The Used on the Taste of Chaos tour, before starting their first headlining tour, simply named the "My Chemical Romance Tour". The tour launched September 15 in Ohio, stopping at 30 locations in the United States, to promote their album, "Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge". Supporting acts included Alkaline Trio and Reggie and the Full Effect. This tour marked the beginning of the heavy theatrics later showcased in many of their live shows. Way expressed his plans for the tour in an interview with MTV, saying, "we'd talked about bringing out dancers for our headlining tour in the fall, but it's a big undertaking; you have to have a bus full of dancers. We've always wanted to do a big theatrical tour. But you have to do it in steps".


title: My Chemical Romance

text: The band joined headliners Linkin Park on Projekt Revolution 2007, starting on July 25 and ending on September 3, 2007. The band played a one-hour set on center stage, opening with "This Is How I Disappear", as flames burst behind the band. The set ended with "Cancer", occasionally accompanied by falling confetti, and fireworks. Following the Projekt Revolution tour, they opened for Bon Jovi in October and then departed for a European Tour with Mindless Self Indulgence.


title: My Chemical Romance

text: On September 19, 2010, the band announced "The World Contamination Tour", which took place in parts of the UK, France, Amsterdam and Germany.


title: My Chemical Romance

text: The band reunited out of the public eye in 2017 and announced a reunion show on October 31, 2019, which took place in Los Angeles on December 20, 2019, extending this to a small tour consisting of dates in Australia, New Zealand and Japan a week later.


title: My Chemical Romance

text: On January 28, 2020, the group announced plans to present three concerts in Milton Keynes (UK), on 18, 20 and 21 of June 2020. On January 29, 2020, the band announced a North American tour.


title: My Chemical Romance

text: In April 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, the group postponed its Milton Keynes events, initially to June 2021. In June 2020, the band postponed all North American events to September and October 2021. In April 2021, the Milton Keynes concert was postponed again to May 2022. The rest of the tour was later postponed to 2022.


title: Prometheus (2012 film)

text: Prometheus ( ) is a 2012 science fiction horror film co-produced and directed by Ridley Scott, written by Jon Spaihts and Damon Lindelof and starring Noomi Rapace, Michael Fassbender, Guy Pearce, Idris Elba, Logan Marshall-Green, and Charlize Theron. It is set in the late 21st century and centers on the crew of the spaceship "Prometheus" as it follows a star map discovered among the artifacts of several ancient Earth cultures. Seeking the origins of humanity, the crew arrives on a distant world and discovers a threat that could cause the extinction of the human species.


title: Prometheus (2012 film)

text: Development of the film began in the early 2000s as a fifth installment in the "Alien" franchise. Scott and director James Cameron developed ideas for a film that would serve as a prequel to Scott's 1979 science-fiction horror film "Alien". In 2002, the development of "Alien vs. Predator" took precedence, and the project remained dormant until 2009 when Scott again showed interest. Spaihts wrote a script for a prequel to the events of the "Alien" films, but Scott opted for a different direction to avoid repeating cues from those films. In late 2010, Lindelof joined the project to rewrite Spaihts's script, and he and Scott developed a story that precedes the story of "Alien" but is not directly connected to the original series. According to Scott, although the film shares "strands of "Alien"s DNA," and takes place in the same universe, "Prometheus" explores its own mythology and ideas.


title: Prometheus (2012 film)

text: "Prometheus" entered production in April 2010, with extensive design phases during which the technology and creatures that the film required were developed. Principal photography began in March 2011, and concluded in October 2011, with an estimated $120–130 million budget. The project was shot using 3D cameras throughout, almost entirely on practical sets, and on location in England, Iceland, Scotland, Jordan and Spain. It was promoted with a marketing campaign that included viral activities on the web. Three videos featuring the film's leading actors in character, which expanded on elements of the fictional universe, were released and met with a generally positive reception and awards.


title: Prometheus (2012 film)

text: "Prometheus" was released on June 1, 2012, in the United Kingdom and on June 8, 2012, in North America. The film earned generally positive reviews, receiving praise for the designs, production values and cast performances, but was criticized for its uneven script and unresolved plot points. The film grossed over $403 million worldwide. A sequel, "", was released in May 2017, tying the film permanently to the "Alien" franchise and making it the fifth installment.


title: Prometheus (2012 film)

text: As a spacecraft departs a planet, a humanoid alien drinks an iridescent liquid, causing its body to dissolve. Its remains cascade into a waterfall and the alien's DNA falls apart and recombines.


title: Prometheus (2012 film)

text: In 2089, archaeologists Elizabeth Shaw and Charlie Holloway discover a star map in Scotland that matches others from several unconnected ancient cultures. They interpret this as an invitation from humanity's forerunners, the "Engineers". Peter Weyland, the elderly CEO of Weyland Corporation, funds an expedition, aboard the scientific vessel "Prometheus", to follow the map to the distant moon LV-223. The ship's crew travels in stasis while the android David monitors their voyage. Arriving in December 2093, mission-director Meredith Vickers informs them of their mission to find the Engineers and not to make contact without her permission.


title: Prometheus (2012 film)

text: The "Prometheus" lands on the barren, mountainous surface near a large, artificial structure, which the team explores. Inside, they find stone cylinders, a monolithic statue of a humanoid head, and the decapitated corpse of a large alien, thought to be an Engineer; Shaw recovers its head. The crew finds other bodies, leading them to surmise that the species is extinct. Crew members Millburn and Fifield grow uncomfortable with the discoveries and attempt to return to "Prometheus", but become stranded in the structure when they get lost. The expedition is cut short when a storm forces the crew to return to the ship. David secretly takes a cylinder from the structure, while the remaining cylinders begin leaking a dark liquid. In the ship's lab, the Engineer's DNA is found to match that of humans. David investigates the cylinder and the liquid inside. He intentionally taints a drink with the liquid and gives it to the unsuspecting Holloway, who had stated he would do anything for answers. Shortly after, Shaw and Holloway have sex.


title: Prometheus (2012 film)

text: Inside the structure, a snake-like creature kills Millburn and sprays a corrosive fluid that melts Fifield's helmet. Fifield falls face-first into a puddle of dark liquid. When the crew returns, they find Millburn's corpse. David separately discovers a control room containing a surviving Engineer in stasis and a large 3D holographic star map highlighting Earth. Meanwhile, Holloway sickens rapidly. He is rushed back to "Prometheus", but Vickers refuses to let him aboard and, at his urging, burns him to death with a flamethrower. Later, a medical scan reveals that Shaw, despite being previously infertile, is now in advanced pregnancy. Fearing the worst, she uses an automated surgery table to extract a squid-like creature from her abdomen. Shaw then discovers that Weyland has been in stasis aboard "Prometheus." He explains that he wants to ask the Engineers how to prevent his death from old age. As Weyland prepares to leave for the structure, Vickers addresses him as "Father".


title: Prometheus (2012 film)

text: A monstrous, mutated Fifield returns to the "Prometheus" and kills several crew members before he is killed. The captain of "Prometheus", Janek, speculates that the structure was an Engineer military base that lost control of a virulent biological weapon, the dark liquid. He also determines that the structure houses a spacecraft. Weyland and the team return to the structure, accompanied by Shaw. David wakes the Engineer from stasis and speaks to him in Proto-Indo-European to try to explain what Weyland wants. The Engineer responds by decapitating David and killing Weyland and his team, before reactivating the spacecraft. Shaw flees and warns Janek that the Engineer is planning to release the liquid on Earth, convincing him to stop the spacecraft. Janek and the remaining crew sacrifice themselves by ramming the "Prometheus" into the alien craft, ejecting the lifeboat in the process while Vickers flees in an escape pod. The Engineer's disabled spacecraft crashes onto the ground, killing Vickers. Shaw goes to the lifeboat and finds her alien offspring is alive and has grown to gigantic size. David's still-active head warns Shaw that the Engineer is pursuing her. The Engineer forces open the lifeboat's airlock and attacks Shaw, who releases her alien offspring onto the Engineer. It thrusts an ovipositor down the Engineer's throat, subduing him. Shaw recovers David's remains and, with his help, launches another Engineer spacecraft. She intends to reach the Engineers' homeworld in an attempt to understand why they wanted to destroy humanity.


title: Prometheus (2012 film)

text: Other cast members include Kate Dickie as the ship's medic, Ford; Emun Elliott and Benedict Wong as, respectively, ship pilots Chance and Ravel; and Patrick Wilson as Shaw's father. Ian Whyte and Daniel James portray Engineers.


title: Prometheus (2012 film)

text: The central theme in "Prometheus" concerns the eponymous Titan of Greek mythology who defies the gods and gifts humanity with fire, for which he is subjected to eternal punishment. The gods want to limit their creations in case they attempt to usurp the gods. The film deals with humanity's relationship with the gods—their creators—and the consequence of defying them. A human expedition intends to find them and receive knowledge about belief, immortality and death. They find superior beings who appear god-like in comparison to humanity, and the "Prometheus" crew suffer consequences for their pursuit. Shaw is directly responsible for the events of the plot because she wants her religious beliefs affirmed, and believes she is entitled to answers from her god; her questions remain unanswered and she is punished for her hubris. The film offers similar resolution, providing items of information but leaving the connections and conclusions to the audience, potentially leaving the question unanswered. Further religious allusions are implied by the Engineers' decision to punish humanity with destruction 2,000 years before the events of the film. Scott suggested that an Engineer was sent to Earth to stop humanity's increasing aggression, but was crucified, implying it was Jesus Christ. However, Scott felt that an explicit connection in the film would be "a little too on the nose."


title: Prometheus (2012 film)

text: Artificial intelligence, a unifying theme throughout Scott's career as a director, is particularly evident in "Prometheus", primarily through the android David. David is like humans but does not want to be like them, eschewing a common theme in "robotic storytelling" such as in "Blade Runner". David is created in the image of humanity, and while the human crew of the "Prometheus" ship searches for their creators expecting answers, David exists among his human creators yet is underwhelmed; he questions his creators about why they are seeking their own. Lindelof described the ship as a prison for David. At the conclusion of the film, David's creator (Weyland) is dead and his fundamental programming will end without someone to serve. Lindelof explained that David's programming becomes unclear and that he could be programmed by Shaw or his own sense of curiosity. Following Weyland's death, David is left with Shaw, and is sincere and interested in following her, partly out of survival and partly out of curiosity.


title: Prometheus (2012 film)

text: Another theme is creation and the question of "Who Am I? Who Made Me? Why Hast Thou Forsaken Me?" Development of the in-universe mythology explored the Judeo-Christian creation of humanity, but Scott was interested in Greco-Roman and Aztec creation myths about gods who create humans in their own image by sacrificing a piece of themselves. This creation is shown in the film's opening in which an Engineer sacrifices itself after consuming the dark liquid, acting as a "gardener in space" to bring life to a world. One of their expeditions creates humanity, who create artificial life (David) in their own image. David then introduces the dark liquid to Holloway who impregnates a sterile Shaw, and the resulting child impregnates an Engineer, creating the child of all three generations. Scott likened the Engineers to the dark angels of John Milton's "Paradise Lost", and said that humanity was their offspring and not God's.


title: Prometheus (2012 film)

text: Shaw is the only religious believer in the crew and openly displays her religious belief with a necklace of a Christian cross. Lindelof said that with her scientific knowledge, her beliefs felt outdated in 2093. Shaw is excited when she learns that she was created by the Engineers and not a supernatural deity, but rather than cause her to lose her faith, it reinforces it. Lindelof said that asking questions and searching for meaning is the point of being alive, and so the audience is left to question whether Shaw was protected by God because of her faith. Scott wanted the film to end with Shaw's declaration that she is still searching for definitive answers. In addition to the religious themes, Lindelof said that "Prometheus" is pro-science and explores whether scientific knowledge and faith in God can co-exist.


title: Prometheus (2012 film)

text: Beside drawing several influences from "Paradise Lost", "The Atlantic"s Govindini Murty noted further influences, and wrote that "[t]he striking images Ridley Scott devises for "Prometheus" reference everything from Stanley Kubrick's "" to Leonardo da Vinci's "Vitruvian Man" and Mario Bava's "Planet of the Vampires". Scott also expands on the original "Alien" universe by creating a distinctly English mythology informed by Milton's "Paradise Lost" and the symbolic drawings of William Blake." In September 2021, a further analysis of the film was reported.


title: Prometheus (2012 film)

text: Development on a fifth film in the "Alien" franchise was in progress by 2002. Scott considered returning to the series he created with his 1979 science fiction horror film "Alien", to pursue a sequel that would explore the engineered origins of the series's Alien creatures, and the "space jockey"—the extraterrestrial being, who briefly appears in "Alien", as the deceased pilot of a derelict spaceship. "Alien" star Sigourney Weaver also expressed interest in returning to the series. "Aliens" director James Cameron discussed the potential for a sequel with Scott, and began working with another writer on a story for the film. It was then that 20th Century Fox approached Cameron with a script for a crossover film that would pit the series's monsters against the title characters of the "Predator" films; this project became the 2004 science fiction film "Alien vs. Predator". After Fox confirmed that it would pursue the crossover, Cameron stopped working on his own project, believing the crossover would "kill the validity of the franchise." In 2006, Cameron confirmed that he would not return to the "Alien" sequel project, believing that the series was Fox's asset, and he was unwilling to deal with the studio's attempts to influence the potential sequel.


title: Prometheus (2012 film)

text: In May 2009, Fox said that the project was a "reboot" of the "Alien" franchise, and soon afterwards was reported as an untitled prequel to "Alien". Development stopped in June 2009 when Fox clashed with Scott over his selection of former television advertisement director Carl Erik Rinsch as director. Fox was only interested in pursuing the project if Scott directed. By July 2009, Scott was contracted to direct the film, and screenwriter Jon Spaihts was hired to write the script based on his pitched idea for a direct "Alien" prequel. With the director and writer in place, and pleased with Spaihts's pitch, Fox scheduled a release date for December 2011, but this was eventually canceled. In June 2010, Scott announced that the script was complete and that pre-production would begin, and a filming date was set for January 2011. Fox eventually pushed to develop the project into an original work, and by July 2010, Lindelof had been hired to redevelop Spaihts's screenplay. In October 2010, Lindelof submitted his rewritten screenplay to Fox. Scott had initially requested a $250 million budget and an adult oriented project, but Fox was reluctant to invest this amount of money, and wanted to ensure the film would receive a lower age-rating to broaden the potential audience.


title: Prometheus (2012 film)

text: In December 2010, it was reported that the film would be called "Paradise", named after John Milton's poem "Paradise Lost", but Scott considered that this would convey too much information about the film. Fox CEO Thomas Rothman suggested "Prometheus", which was confirmed as the title in January 2011. A release date was scheduled for , but weeks later the release was postponed until . With the name confirmed, the production team began to publicly distance the film from its "Alien" origins, and were deliberately vague about the connection between the films, believing it would build audience anticipation for "Prometheus". Scott stated that "while "Alien" was indeed the jumping-off point for this project, out of the creative process evolved a new, grand mythology and universe in which this original story takes place. The keen fan will recognize strands of "Alien"s DNA, so to speak, but the ideas tackled in this film are unique, large and provocative." In June 2011, Scott and Lindelof confirmed that "Prometheus" takes place in the same universe as the events of the "Alien" series. In July 2011, Scott stated that "by the end of the third act you start to realize there's a DNA of the very first "Alien", but none of the subsequent [films]."


title: Prometheus (2012 film)

text: Spaihts met Scott in late 2009 and they discussed Scott's desire to pursue an "Alien" prequel. Spaihts offered his concept, including a "bridge" that would connect the story of the film's human characters to the "Alien" saga. Spaihts was quickly hired, which he credited to the reception of his "bridge" idea. Spaihts claimed he created the concept spontaneously, without preconception. Spaihts wrote a 20-page "extremely detailed outline"; within three and a half weeks he had completed his first draft, and he submitted it to the producers on Christmas Day, 2009. Within 12 hours, Scott returned the script with notes for changes, and Spaihts spent the Christmas holiday redrafting.


title: Prometheus (2012 film)

text: Spaihts was tasked with exploring unresolved mysteries from "Alien", such as the Space Jockey. He considered the mysteries of "Alien" to be alien in nature, and said, "all the mysteries have alien players: the exoskeleton nightmare and ... the elephantine titan that was called the 'space jockey' ... How do you make anyone care about events between creatures like this?" His solution was to link the alien mysteries to the past and future of humanity. He said: "If that story is somehow ours and deeply enmeshed with the human story, that story changes meaning within our life, things of such significance that we think of our own lives differently." Spaihts found translating Scott's stylistic visual concepts to text difficult, and he periodically constrained some of Scott's ideas. He reminded Scott that in the scene they were discussing, the characters were subject to gravity and so could not simply float. By April 2010, the script was on the fourth draft. Scott said about the script, "We are talking about gods and engineers. Engineers of space. And were the aliens designed as a form of biological warfare? Or biology that would go in and clean up a planet?" In June 2010, Scott announced that the script was complete and ready for filming.