ABSTRACT
The first hominin fossils were found around the time of Darwin’s publication of Origin of Species in the Neander valley in Germany. The history of the Neanderthals is explained in more detail and how initially they were wrongly perceived in Victorian and Edwardian England as vicious savages. The differences in anatomical features between Neanderthals in Europe and the anatomically modern humans who migrated from East Africa to Europe are described and how the two populations of hominins co-existed and interbred.
The cave art and other technological aspects of the ‘cognitive revolution’ are discussed and the relationship between Neanderthals and the Cro-Magnon newcomers. Various theories about the rather sudden demise of the Neanderthal population are presented, resulting in the eventual domination of Homo sapiens. (123 words)
