Over 60,000 years ago, the first modern humanspeople physically identical to us todayleft their African homeland and entered Europe, then a bleak and inhospitable continent in the grip of the Ice Age. But when they arrived, they were not alone: the stocky, powerfully built Neanderthals had already been living there for hundreds of thousands of years. So what happened when the first modern humans encountered the Neanderthals?
That question has tantalised generations of scholars and seized the popular imagination. Then, in 2010, a team led by geneticist Svante Paabo announced stunning news: not only had they reconstructed much of the Neanderthal genome (an extraordinary technical feat that would have seemed impossible only a decade ago)but their analysis showed that modern humans had interbred with Neanderthals, leaving a small but consistent signature of Neanderthal genes behind in everyone outside Africa today.
Decoding Neanderthals explores the implications of this exciting discovery. In the traditional view, Neanderthals differed from us in behaviour and capabilities as well as anatomy. But were they really mentally inferior, as inexpressive and clumsy as the cartoon caveman they inspired?