Neanderthals: The Final Chapter of Our Closest Relatives
“They were once our kin, walking the same lands, breathing the same air—strong, cunning and built for survival, to survive the Ice Age”.
The Neanderthals, our closest relatives, thrived in the cold wilderness until, around 40,000 years ago, their presence began to fade. What happened to them? Was it a brutal struggle for survival against us, or did the unforgiving climate seal their fate?
Astonishingly, around 2-3% of our DNA is identical to theirs, with traces of their genetic legacy still alive in us today.
In this blog, we’ll dive deep into the chilling whispers of history, tracing the footsteps of a species that came so close to sharing our future, yet vanished into the cold forever.
Modern humans (Homo sapiens) and Neanderthals (Homo neanderthalensis) share a common evolutionary origin. Both species descended from a common ancestor, likely Homo heidelbergensis (Advanced species of Homo erectus), who lived in Africa around 600,000 to 800,000 years ago. As populations of Homo heidelbergensis began migrating out of Africa, some moved into Europe and western Asia, where they gradually evolved into Neanderthals, adapting to the harsh, cold environments of the Ice Age. Meanwhile, other populations of Homo heidelbergensis remained in Africa, where they evolved into modern humans.
For hundreds of thousands of years, these two species evolved in parallel, separated by geography but developing distinct traits suited to their environments.
When modern humans eventually left Africa around 60,000 years ago, they encountered Neanderthals in Europe and Asia, leading to brief periods of coexistence, competition, and even interbreeding before the Neanderthals mysteriously disappeared around 40,000 years ago.
Neanderthals had a stocky and muscular build, which helped them stay warm in cold climates. Their bodies were shorter and sturdier compared to modern humans, with broad shoulders and powerful limbs. They had distinct facial features, including prominent brow ridges, large noses to warm the cold air they breathed, and no noticeable chin. Below are images of Neanderthal faces reconstructed from skull remains found in caves where they lived. These reconstructions were created by forensic anthropologists to provide a sense of what Neanderthals looked like thousands of years ago.
Although their brain size was similar to or even larger than that of modern humans, their skulls were shaped differently. For a long time, Neanderthals were viewed as unintelligent, brutish, and primitive. Early scientists believed their stocky builds, heavy brow ridges, and sloping foreheads made them less evolved than modern humans. They were often depicted as clumsy "cave men" with little capacity for complex thought or culture. This perception painted Neanderthals as slow, incapable of abstract thinking, and lacking social structures.
However, recent discoveries have challenged this view. Neanderthals were skilled toolmakers, created symbolic art, cared for their communities, and likely had some form of language. They even buried their dead, suggesting emotional depth. These findings reveal that Neanderthals were much more intelligent and sophisticated than previously believed. Another shocking fact about Neanderthals is that they practiced cannibalism. Evidence of this behavior has been found in archaeological sites, revealing that Neanderthals sometimes consumed the flesh of their own kind.
There is evidence suggesting that Neanderthals practiced cannibalism.
Archaeological findings show cut marks on Neanderthal bones that indicate the flesh was removed and eaten. This behaviour likely occurred due to extreme environmental pressures, such as harsh winters or food shortages. The practice of cannibalism among Neanderthals might also suggest another possibility: that they consumed the flesh of their loved ones to carry on the virtues they admired in them. This idea was discussed by palaeontologist Davorka Radovčić in the Netflix documentary "The Secrets of Neanderthals.
Maybe by consuming the flesh of the person they knew, they wanted to get some kind of virtue, something that they admired in that person that they shared lives with.
The question that would arise here is whether Neanderthals killed their loved ones and ate their flesh, but it seems more likely that this did not happen, but it's quite possible that Neanderthals may have eaten the flesh of their loved ones after they had died, rather than killing them. This would align with the idea that the act was not about violence but rather a ritualistic or symbolic gesture. In some cultures, consuming the body of the deceased was believed to honor them or to keep their spirit and virtues alive within the community.
If Neanderthals practiced this form of post-mortem cannibalism, it could have been a way of dealing with death, expressing love, or ensuring that the qualities they admired in the person stayed with them. This act might have been seen as a final form of connection, rather than an act of cruelty. It also explains why, in other contexts, they buried their loved ones with care, sometimes with flowers, showing that they had a capacity for both emotional attachment and ritualised practices around death.
The period of the Neanderthals is increasingly believed to mark the beginning of religious or spiritual evolution in human history. One fascinating piece of evidence comes from a cave in France, where archaeologists discovered mysterious circular formations made from broken stalagmites, dating back over 175,000 years. These circles, located deep within the Bruniquel Cave, are thought to have been created by Neanderthals. While the exact purpose of these formations remains unclear, many researchers believe they could have been part of early ritualistic or symbolic practices, hinting at a developing sense of spirituality among Neanderthals.
The deliberate arrangement of these stones suggests that Neanderthals might have engaged in communal gatherings or ceremonies, representing one of the earliest signs of abstract thinking and a possible belief in forces beyond the physical world.
This discovery challenges the notion that only modern humans were capable of spiritual thought and opens up the possibility that the roots of religious practices began much earlier than previously believed, with our Neanderthal relatives.
Now that we've gained a clearer understanding of who Neanderthals were—how they survived the cold, their physical features, and dispelled the myth of them being simple, cave-dwelling beings—we see them as emotional, caring, intelligent creatures. They may have even been the first to initiate religious and spiritual evolution. So, the final question this article seeks to answer is: if Neanderthals were so well-adapted to cold climates, clever in finding food, and thrived on a diet of meat and vegetables, why did they go extinct? They coexisted with modern humans for over 20,000 years in Europe and parts of Asia, where their bodies were more suited for the cold. So, how is it that modern humans, whose bodies were less suited to the cold and who arrived in the region later, managed to survive while Neanderthals did not?
There are theories suggesting that Neanderthals died due to the Ice Age, but that doesn't explain why modern humans didn’t perish under the same conditions. Some suggest there were clashes between Neanderthals and modern humans, but given that Neanderthals were physically strong, this alone doesn't fully explain their extinction. Moreover, Neanderthals and modern humans lived in harmony for thousands of years, as evidenced by interbreeding—modern humans still carry Neanderthal DNA. If they coexisted peacefully, what caused the disappearance of Neanderthals but not modern humans? This remains one of the great mysteries of human evolution.
This led me to dive deeper into research articles, books, and documentaries, where I discovered potential reasons for this.
Here are the few points explaining why Neanderthals went extinct while modern humans survived:
Greater Mobility and Adaptation - Modern humans were highly mobile, migrating across different regions in search of better resources and climates. This adaptability allowed them to thrive in a wide range of environments, unlike Neanderthals, who were more regionally confined and less adaptable to sudden climate changes.
Advanced Clothing and Shelters - Modern humans were ingenious in creating warm clothing from animal hides and fur, as well as constructing more sophisticated shelters. This innovation helped them endure colder climates, whereas Neanderthals, despite their physical adaptation to the cold, didn’t develop these survival tools to the same extent.
Superior Hunting and Combat Skills - Humans developed more advanced tools and weapons, which gave them an edge in both hunting and potential conflicts. The possibility of clashes between Neanderthals and modern humans, combined with the superior weaponry and tactical skills of Homo sapiens, may have contributed to the Neanderthals’ decline.
Social and Communication Superiority - Modern humans had more complex social structures and better communication, enabling them to form larger, cooperative groups. This enhanced their ability to strategise , share resources, and outcompete Neanderthals for food and shelter.
Imagine a world where our closest relatives, the Neanderthals, still lived alongside us- Two human species, each with their own strengths and stories. What could we have learned from them? How might our cultures have grown together? Their disappearance remains a mystery, but it makes us wonder: how different would our world be if they were still here? Would we have shared a future, or faced new challenges together? Though they are gone, their legacy lives on in us. They may be lost, but as long as we exist, they will never be forgotten.