Original version

BBC World Service Europe and the Middle East

The Forum

Documentaries

Factual: Arts, Culture & the Media

The programme that explains the present by exploring the past

The programme that explains the present by exploring the past.

BBC World Service Australasia

BBC World Service schedule for American satellite radio and the Caribbean

BBC World Service Americas and the Caribbean

BBC World Service

BBC World Service East and Southern Africa Schedule

BBC World Service East and Southern Africa

BBC World Service South Asia

BBC World Service News Internet

BBC World Service Online

BBC World Service West and Central Africa Schedule

BBC World Service West and Central Africa

BBC World Service East Asia

The Forum: Neanderthals: Meet the relatives

Neanderthal Female

16/02/2023 GMT

Neanderthals: Meet the relatives

BBC World Service - The Forum, Neanderthals: Meet the relatives

Recent scientific breakthroughs have overturned received wisdom about our ancient cousins

Recent scientific breakthroughs have overturned received wisdom about these archaic humans, and how their story can inform the genetic inheritance of millions around the world.

Developments in new technology such as DNA sequencing have transformed our understanding of the Neanderthals, one of a group of archaic humans who occupied Europe, the Middle East and Western Asia more than 300,000 years ago.

First identified by fossil remains in 1856 in a German quarry, the Neanderthals led an extremely physical existence as hunter-gatherers. They were stronger than us, adaptable as a species to huge variations in climate, with brains as large as ours and sophisticated ways of creating tools.

Many of us carry some of the DNA of Neanderthals, thanks to interbreeding with homo sapiens.  Although the Neanderthals today are no longer with us, their story has a lot to tell us about ourselves and our future survival on the planet.  

Rajan Datar is joined by Janet Kelso, a computational biologist and Group Leader of the Minerva Research Group for Bioinformatics at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology.  She specialises in the analysis of DNA sequencing of ancient people such as Neanderthals; Katerina Harvati, the Senckenberg Professor for Paleoanthropology and Director of the Institute for Archaeological Sciences at the University of Tübingen.  Her work focuses on the origins of modern humans and Neanderthal evolution; and archaeologist and writer Rebecca Wragg Sykes, Honorary Fellow in the School of Archaeology, Classics and Egyptology at the University of Liverpool.  Her award-winning book Kindred: Neanderthal Life, Love, Death and Art was published in 2020.

Produced by Fiona Clampin for the BBC World Service 

(Image: Neanderthal Female, re-created by artists Andrie and Alfons Kennis. Photo: Joe McNally/Getty Images)

Accessibility links

Programme Index

The Forum

Neanderthals: Meet the relatives

Genres

Formats

Brand

BBC World Service Europe and the Middle East

About BBC World Service