Sourdoire Valley Song

A Neanderthal burial site was discovered in the Sourdoire Valley in France in 1908. The Neanderthals, of course, dwindled and died out, replaced by the more successful Homo sapiens, AKA modern man. Darnielle (as usual) tells the story of the losers. Here are the quiet last days of a dying subspecies of human. See also "Tollund Man," "Deuteronomy 2:10"

Another ancient human fact backs up foggy's interpretation. Olduvai Gorge is also sometimes called the "Cradle of Mankind". Numerous early hominid fossils dating all the way back to 2 million years ago have been found there.

I think the wistful delivery of the line "Half a world away from the Olduvai Gorge" really drives it home. Great song.

I think the lines "Take care of the old man, See if he's in pain, Have somebody stay with him, Comfort him when he complains" refer to a skeleton found in the Shanidar cave in what is now Iraq (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shanidar_Cave#Shanidar_1). It was a skeleton of a forty or fifty year old man, with severe disabilities, including a damaged eye, withered, largely useless right arm and numerous deformities on his legs and foot, which would likely have left him with a bad limp. He would have been useless to the tribe, but the injuries had healed years before death, showing the Neanderthals looked after their sick and aged.