Ran across this article the other day and it reminded me of those wildman coins some on here collect. https://www.ancient-origins.net/myths-legends-europe/basajaun-0014222 The way the article talks is that the wildman is a relic of the human-Neanderthal contact passed down thru cultural memory of a group in Spain (Basques) that was never conquered, and as such, still retains the cultural memory of Neanderthals.
Since no Neanderthal mitochondria have been found in humans in the area mentioned as possible interchange makes the statistical possibility to 0.1% with modern Europeans. Many believe that they are completely different species. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC532398/
I read several years ago that during the late 1500's in Germany, they had found large bones and at the time thought they belong to a race of giants. Hence the "Wild Man" theories/stories. In the 1700 or 1800's it was proved that the bones belong to wooly Mammoths. Neat story though.
Yea I didn’t know much about how much crossover there was but all good points. I always kinda wondered why it was that the wildman designs seemed to pop-up from nowhere and then never stuck around on modern issues. Mammoth bones probably catch the imagination lol
