Rebecca Wragg Sykes.
Kindred: Neanderthal life, love, death and art.
Bloomsbury. 2020
Since their discovery more than 160 years ago,
Neanderthals have metamorphosed from the losers of the human family tree to A-list hominins.
Rebecca Wragg Sykes uses her experience at the cutting-edge of Palaeolithic research
to share our new understanding of Neanderthals,
shoving aside clichés of rag-clad brutes in an icy wasteland.
In Kindred, they are revealed to have been curious, clever connoisseurs of their world,
technologically inventive and ecologically adaptable.
Above all, they were successful survivors for more than 300,000 years,
during times of massive climatic upheaval.
Much of what defines us was also in Neanderthals, and their DNA is still within our genetic make-up: planning, co-operation, altruism, craftsmanship, aesthetic sense, imagination – perhaps even a desire for transcendence beyond mortality. It is only by understanding Neanderthals that we can truly understand ourselves.