Neanderthals are our closest evolutionary cousins, yet they have received an appallingly bad press. We all know the stereotype of the dim witted, barbarous caveman – brutish and simple-minded, knocking people on the head and scouring the country for women. Actually, this reputation of Neanderthals as unintelligent savages is underserved.

Since the discovery of Homo neanderthalensis in 1856, Neanderthals have been regarded as the perfect Other, almost the antithesis of Homo Sapiens. Workers in a limestone quarry near Düsseldorf discovered unusual looking bones. The latter were submitted to anatomists, who initially believed the bones were of a deformed human.

Upon closer inspection, the bones were defined as belonging to a completely different species of hominin. Neander – derived from the Greek for ‘new man’ and thal, German for valley, the new species quickly made an impact on the wider community. Officially named in 1863, this was a time when the reading public was coming to grips with the startling implications of a new book – the Origin of Species.

Darwin was not the first to suggest that species, including our own, had a natural origin, excluding supernatural explanations. But he popularised the theory of biological evolution for an English-speaking audience. Now, the discovery of Homo neanderthalensis made clear that we are just one of numerous ancestral hominins to walk the earth.

Since the 1850s, other hominin species have been identified; Homo floresiensis, inaccurately referred to as ‘hobbits’; Homo heidelbergensis, the more recently confirmed Denisovans – all of whom occupied different geographical locations, and different times (sometimes coterminous) with our own branch of the primate family.

Neanderthals and human interbred, a discovery made possible by advances in technology analysing and cataloging information from ancient DNA. Biologists and geneticists, such as Nobel prize winner Svante Pääbo, have decoded and sequenced entire Neanderthal genomes. Pääbo pioneered the field of paleo genetics, and won the Nobel prize in medicine in 2022 for his research.

Europeans and Asians have between 1 to 4 percent Neanderthal DNA, while sub-Saharan African people have none. While Neanderthals were the first fossil hominins to be discovered, exploring their DNA has increased our understanding of their relative genetic proximity to modern humans.

It is not only analysis of ancient DNA that is changing our beliefs about Neanderthals. Newly uncovered artefacts, and improved methods for dating archaeological finds, have revealed that Neanderthals made tools, clothes, created artworks, were capable of symbolic construction, and may even have had a form of language. They took care of their families, lived in small socially cohesive groups, and buried their dead.

Hardly the picture of the lumbering, dimwit savage that we have been led to believe.

In the pages of the Scientific American magazine, the findings of archaeologists and geneticists have been elaborated, which paint a completely different picture of Neanderthals as ignorant brutes. They were capable of symbolic expression and art, even if only in nascent form. In various European caves where Neanderthal artefacts have been uncovered, researchers discovered that Neanderthals decorated themselves with body art, such as using red ochre for self-painting.

Neanderthal diet, far from being dominated by red meat, was quite diverse. They ate mussels, seals, sharks and various marine resources. Their dietary variety also included numerous types of vegetables, and indeed, vegetarian diets were not uncommon.

At Krapina, Croatia, a Palaeolithic site, Neanderthal artefacts and tools have been unearthed and catalogued, suggesting a complex system of tool manufacturing and symbolic reconstruction. Eagle talons, found buried at the site, require modification to be used as hunting tools. Not only for hunting – these talons were found to be decorated, which suggests their ornamental purpose.

Neanderthals went extinct 40 000 years ago. The causes of their extinction remains a hotly contested topic. I do not propose to resolve this debate in one article. However, we can firmly lay to rest one explanation – that modern humans hunted the Neanderthals to extinction, wiping them out through systematic violence. There is very little evidence of conflict between the two groups of hominins. There is ample evidence of their peaceful coexistence and intermingling.

Most archaeologists now favour a multi factorial explanation for the demise of the Neanderthals. Climate change and the retreating Ice Age left the Neanderthals with a narrowing food supply, diseases brought by Homo sapiens would have impacted the smaller social groups of Neanderthals, leaving them vulnerable. Exchanging packages of pathogens leads to mortality. Smaller social networks also meant smaller gene pools, thus increasing the probability of heritable conditions being passed on.

Let’s put to rest the stereotype of the knuckle-dragging troll that we have circulated regarding the Neanderthals. By recognising their cognitive capacities, we can also gain an understanding of our own humanity. In fact, the discovery of numerous hominin species is a bit like discovering the multitude of Kuiper Belt objects that could be classified as planets.

Pluto, demoted to its current status as a dwarf planet, is one of many celestial bodies in the Kuiper Belt. The latter is a circumstellar region of icy bodies ringing the Solar System. Are all the objects in the trans-Neptunian Kuiper Belt planets? A similar, parallel problem of classification arises as we research and understand the various hominin species, including Neanderthals. We need to expand our definition of humanity to include the gamut of hominins who, while different, share characteristics with us.