In terms of when they existed, there\u2019s evidence of proto-Neanderthals emerging 400,000 years ago. \u201cBut they only become clearly visible in fossil and archaeological terms around 350,000 years ago,\u201d explains Wragg Sykes. \u201cThey appear to disappear from the archaeological record around 40,000 years ago \u2013 except their genes did <\/em>continue, and they\u2019re present in billions of people today.\u201d<\/p>\n And why are they so significant? \u201cNeanderthals were the first hominins that we realised were<\/em> hominins,\u201d she explains. \u201cThey\u2019ve been with us for 160 years, all the way through the development of human evolutionary science, so they give a really interesting case study for how our ideas change, how the methods that we use to investigate them have completely transformed as well.\u201d<\/p>\n When they were discovered more than 160 years ago, Neanderthals blew everyone\u2019s minds. The ideas of 19th-century naturalists Alfred Wallace and Charles Darwin<\/a> about natural selection weren\u2019t yet published, and the notion that humans had ancient, vanished relations was scarcely imaginable.<\/p>\n While the first Neanderthal fossils were compared with apes, biologists of the time like Thomas Huxley could see how much more similar they were to humans. In fact, the Neanderthal lineage only split from our shared common ancestor around 600 Ka (thousand years ago): vastly more recent than the oldest known stone tools, over 3 million years ago.<\/p>\n Early theories that Neanderthals weren\u2019t great hunters, or were stuck in a \u2018Big Game Rut\u2019, have been steadily overturned. Existing through 300,000 years of climate cycles and across western Eurasia, they adapted to a wide variety of environments and took the best of what was around them.<\/p>\n This included hunting steppe-tundra megafauna like mammoth and woolly rhino, tracking medium-sized game like deer through woods, plus smaller species like birds, rabbits, tortoises or rockpooling for fish and crustaceans. But plants were also on the menu, from tubers like waterlily roots to seeds and fruits, some of which needed cooking.<\/p>\n Images of Neanderthals as technologically unsophisticated abound, and it\u2019s been claimed their culture barely changed through hundreds of millennia. Yet they mastered many methods for taking apart stone, with varied cultures found in different regions, and there\u2019s also evidence of innovation through time.<\/p>\n Blades were once thought to define\u00a0H. sapiens<\/em>, but Neanderthals were perfectly capable of making them too. They produced adhesives for multi-part tools, including birch tar \u2013 the first synthetic substance \u2013 and a recipe mixing pine resin and beeswax.<\/p>\n Neanderthals also had carpentry skills, shown by finely carved spears and digging sticks, and even made shell tools.<\/p>\n \u2018Ugg\u2019 boots might still be fashionable, but the grunting caveman clich\u00e9s are now outdated. Anatomical evidence suggests Neanderthals had vocal capabilities not so different to our own. Their voice boxes could make largely similar sounds, and strikingly, their inner ears were tuned into the same frequencies as ours: human speech.<\/p>\n However, genetics suggest subtle differences. While sharing the language-linked FOXP2 gene, a protein difference means theirs didn\u2019t function identically.<\/p>\n What might they have talked about? Perhaps animal and plant lore, knowledge of stone and seasons, or sharing memories. Woven together, these may have become the first hearthside tales.<\/p>\n Long presented as primitive and savage, in fact the assumption that Neanderthals were by nature aggressive is not reflected in the archaeology. Hunting of big game, especially herds, must have been collaborative, and the spoils were systematically butchered and transported elsewhere to waiting mouths.<\/p>\n Other clues come from their living sites: hearths were the centres of \u2018home\u2019, and in some places we can see groups were sharing resources between different fires.<\/p>\n Rather than violent chimpanzees, this better matches our other closest primate relatives, bonobos. Their lives revolve around female friendships, and groups are far more open to meeting strangers.<\/p>\n Did Neanderthal life stretch beyond bare concerns of survival, into stories, songs or art? There\u2019s growing evidence of an aesthetic sense.<\/p>\n This includes carefully incised lines on bones with no practical explanation, and collecting unusual materials: a fossil shell in Italy was smeared with red ochre 45 Ka, as was a geode in Romania around the same age. In Spain, pigment\u00a0mixes<\/em>\u00a0are known: yellow and red minerals with sparkly \u2018fools\u2019 gold\u2019. Plus, linked to their broad interest in birds\u2019 feathers and claws, traces of another pigment recipe were recently found on an eagle talon from a Croatian site dating over 100 Ka.<\/p>\n Perhaps the greatest revolution in understanding of Neanderthals is that they did not entirely vanish. Older models envisioning H. sapiens replacing Neanderthals around 40,000 years ago were overturned in 2010 by genetic evidence showing interbreeding. A decade on, things are more complicated. H. sapiens were in Eurasia well before then \u2013 Australia by 65 Ka, China at least 80 Ka, and the Near East at 180 Ka \u2013 and new DNA samples reveal multiple phases of interbreeding going back before 200 Ka.<\/p>\n Most living people have a Neanderthal genetic legacy, and in that sense they\u2019re less extinct than some of the earliest H. sapiens populations.<\/p>\n Dr Rebecca Wragg Sykes is a Palaeolithic archaeologist, the author of Kindred: Neanderthal Life, Love, Death and Art<\/em><\/a>, and co-founder of Trowelblazers<\/a><\/strong><\/p> <\/body><\/html>\n Archaeologist Rebecca Wragg Sykes, expert on Neanderthals, explains how the ancient species relate to modern humans \u2013 and she shares seven Neanderthal facts that revolutionise our understanding of them <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":35943,"template":"","categories":[1],"acf":{"readingTimeMinutes":"6"},"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/46\/2024\/05\/your-guide-to-neanderthals-plus-7-fascinating-facts.jpg",1024,538,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/46\/2024\/05\/your-guide-to-neanderthals-plus-7-fascinating-facts-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/46\/2024\/05\/your-guide-to-neanderthals-plus-7-fascinating-facts-300x158.jpg",300,158,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/46\/2024\/05\/your-guide-to-neanderthals-plus-7-fascinating-facts-768x404.jpg",768,404,true],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/46\/2024\/05\/your-guide-to-neanderthals-plus-7-fascinating-facts.jpg",800,420,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/46\/2024\/05\/your-guide-to-neanderthals-plus-7-fascinating-facts.jpg",1024,538,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/46\/2024\/05\/your-guide-to-neanderthals-plus-7-fascinating-facts.jpg",1024,538,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbchistory\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"Archaeologist Rebecca Wragg Sykes, expert on Neanderthals, explains how the ancient species relate to modern humans \u2013 and she shares seven Neanderthal facts that revolutionise our understanding of them","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbchistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed\/35942"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbchistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbchistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/rss_feed"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbchistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbchistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35943"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbchistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35942"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbchistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35942"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Three](\"https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/7\/2024\/05\/GettyImages-2017218385-5ebb810-e1714640925395.jpg?quality=90&resize=619%2C413\" "\\"Three")
\n<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture>\n<\/div>Neanderthal facts: 7 things you need to know according to Dr Wragg Sykes<\/h2>\n
Neanderthals were not \u2018missing links\u2019<\/h3>\n
Neanderthals were not hyper-carnivores<\/h3>\n
\n
![\"Photograph](\"https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/7\/2024\/05\/GettyImages-1240329859-90faa8b-e1714640954144.jpg?quality=90&resize=619%2C413\" "\\"Photograph")
\n<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture>\n<\/div>Neanderthals could innovate<\/h3>\n
Neanderthals could talk<\/h3>\n
\n
Neanderthals were not brutish<\/h3>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/7\/2024\/05\/GettyImages-1235088525-f8fcbed-e1714640894954.jpg?quality=90&resize=619%2C413\" "\\"A")
\n<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture>\n<\/div>Neanderthals had aesthetics<\/h3>\n
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Neanderthals are not extinct<\/h3>\n
","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"