Rebecca Wragg Sykes

Niggling assumptions persist that they must have been doing something fundamentally ‘wrong’ to explain why they disappeared, even though the archaeological reality leaves claims about our superiority somewhat hanging. Even if not at all sites or in such large degree, as a species they’re far closer than used to be believed to the ‘broad spectrum’ diet that supposedly underlay early H. sapiens’ success

But the question of whether Neanderthals simply scavenged it or could produce it is, perhaps surprisingly, still debated

From about 120 ka fire was obviously part of everyday life