The Neandertal Enigma

Catalog description

The Neandertals are the best-understood group of non-modern fossil hominids, having been known to science since 1856. Yet even today they inspire many provocative questions. Who were the Neandertals? How were they different from us? Did they have language? How and why did they disappear? Were they our ancestors, or did our ancestors out compete them? And if the Neandertals were not our ancestors, then who were? These are some of the questions we will explore in this class on the classic cavemen.