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## Who the Neanderthals Were
The Neanderthal story is older, and in some ways better known, though the popular image has shifted considerably as research has accumulated.
Neanderthals were first identified in 1856, when workers quarrying limestone in the Neander Valley near Düsseldorf, Germany, found bones in a cave. The remains were distinctive: a heavy brow ridge, a large nasal opening, a slightly elongated skull shape compared to modern humans. These features became the defining characteristics of the group, and the name stuck.
We now know, from decades of excavation across Europe, the Middle East, and western and central Asia, that Neanderthals were widespread and long-lasting. Their earliest remains date to roughly 400,000 years ago. Their most recent securely dated remains, from sites in Iberia and the Caucasus, date to approximately 40,000 years ago. For the better part of four hundred thousand years, Neanderthals occupied a range extending from western Europe to Central Asia, adapting to environments that varied from the forests of France to the steppes of Siberia.
Physically, Neanderthals were robustly built by comparison with modern humans. Their skulls had prominent brow ridges and a distinct shape—the occipital bone at the back of the skull formed a characteristic rounded projection called a chignon. Their bodies were stocky, with shorter lower limb segments relative to upper limbs—a body plan that conserves heat in cold environments. Their brains were, by volume, comparable to or slightly larger than the brains of modern humans.
Neanderthals made and used stone tools. The Mousterian tool tradition—named for the site of Le Moustier in France—is most closely associated with Neanderthal manufacture and spans hundreds of thousands of years of technological production. Neanderthals buried their dead, at least sometimes. They used pigments, possibly for decorative or symbolic purposes. They hunted large mammals—mammoth, woolly rhinoceros, bison, reindeer—in social groups that required coordination. Evidence from sites in France and elsewhere suggests they made ornaments using eagle talons and feathers.