Sheanderthal Not all Neanderthals were ‘ cavemen ’: half were women . What can archaeologists tell us about how they lived ? Rebecca Wragg SykesIllustration by Tom BjörklundAEON 12 January 2021 Rebecca Wragg Sykesis a Palaeolithic archaeologist and honorary fellow at the University of Liverpool , specialising in Neanderthals . She is co - founder of the Trowelblazers website , celebrating women archaeologists , palaeontologists and geologists through the ages , and the author of Kindred : Neanderthal Life , Love , Death and Art ( 2020 ) . She lives in Wales . The first Neanderthal face to emerge from time ’ s sarcophagus was a woman ’ s . As the social and liberal revolutions of 1848 began convulsing Europe , quarry workers ’ rough hands pulled her from the great Rock of Gibraltar . Calcite mantling her skull meant that , at first , she seemed more a hunk of stone than a once warm - blooded being , and obscured her decidedly odd anatomy – massive eyes , heavy brow ridges and a low , long cranium . While monarchies fell and serfs breathed the sweet air of freedom that year , it would take another decade for human origins as a science to begin its own overthrow of the old world order . The first recognised Neanderthal was a different skull - top , blasted from the Feldhofer cave in Germany in 1856 , just two years before Alfred Russel Wallace and Charles Darwin presented their theory of evolution by natural selection . However , the Forbes skull , as the earlier Gibraltarian find is now known , had to wait until 1863 for her turn in the limelight . Catching the eye of a visiting doctor with anthropological interests , she was packed aboard a ship bound for Britain , then introduced to none other than Darwin ( who reportedly found the experience ‘ wonderful ’). While her overall anatomy excited huge interest , her potential sex was little considered . Instead , the world - wrenching significance of the Forbes and Feldhofer fossils was the first proof of another kind of ancient human entirely . The adult female Neanderthal cranium discovered at Forbes ’ Quarry , Gibraltar . Photo courtesy the Natural History Museum , London As the 19 th century gave way to the 20 th and more Neanderthal bones began to be discovered , scientists began to suspect that the Forbes skull was female . Despite the pulled - forward face and cavernous nasal aperture , her skull is small and brows slightly less jutting than the Feldhofer cranium . But it was only with the development of ancient genetic analysis – so preposterously beyond 19 th - century science it would have seemed magic – that we were able to confirm she was a woman . Fine powder drilled from her inner ear was distilled down to genetic strands , then snagged onto a silica membrane ; the same elemental constituent of the stone tools she ’ d been surrounded by in life . The researchers were interested largely in her age and relatedness to other Neanderthal genetic lineages , so the fact that she was a woman was something of a sideshow . But identifying X - chromosome frequency is one thing ; what was the life of half the Neanderthal world that she represents – women – really like ? Archaeology is no exception to biases against women ’ s interests across science and the humanities . Since the early days , a tendency to conceptualise humanity ’ s deep origins as populated literally by ‘ cavemen ’ has led to presumed male activities being presented as most visible and interesting . A clear demonstration of this is found in the materialisation of these visions as reconstructions , both drawn and sculpted . The first ever sketch of a living Neanderthal imagined the owner of the Forbes skull , doodled ( apparently casually during a meeting ) by the biologist Thomas Huxley in 1864 . Its decidedly simian features have no hint of female character . In fact , for most of the subsequent 160 years , female Neanderthals – if featured at all – tend to be fewer in number , peripherally located , and limited to ‘ domesticated ’ activities including childcare and skin - working . They are essentially scenery , in the words of the anthropologist Diane Gifford - Gonzalez , rather than active providers working on stone knapping or hunting and , in addition , they ’ re often fearfully lurking , hidden in dark grottos . More nuanced approaches since the 1980 s to gender and women ’ s lives in later prehistory barely filtered through to research on early Homo sapiens , never mind Neanderthals . Most often discussed indirectly via theories of fertility as a potential reason for their disappearance by 40 , 000 years ago , Neanderthal women have been ‘ protagonists ’ only a few times in recent research . By combining newborn infant remains and rarely preserved pelvic bones , reconstructions in 2008 and 2009 gave us insight into the precise mechanisms of Neanderthal birth , while another notable study in 2006 directly considered sex - based activities , or rather a claimed lack of them . In general , however , despite ever - more ingenious archaeological methods and analysis , the experience of Neanderthal women ’ s lives has received relatively little attention . Failing to consider the biological and social context of half the population will lead to unbalanced theories , and potentially miss key perspectives . One ‘ fact ’ many people have heard is that , contrary to their historical reputation as dullards , Neanderthals had larger brains than us . In fact , on average they ’ re comparable with human males but , since it ’ s suspected that males might be over - represented in the fossil sample , it ’ s hard to know what this really means . And this is a key point : when all you have are bones , identifying sex can be tricky . While we have a fair number of partial skeletons and thousands of fragments , all too often , the most crucial part – the pelvis – is missing or damaged . In its absence , tentative identifications rest on assuming that – as with us , H sapiens – Neanderthal women tended to be smaller and more lightly built . On that basis , very few of the more complete bodies have been described as women ’ s . What if we stop treating Neanderthals as a monolithic population , and consider how being female might have influenced their life ? But things have begun to shift with the advent of ancient genetics , allowing not just confirmations in the case of the Forbes woman , but also tiny bony parts to be tested . Those identified through DNA include the Altai woman who lived in western Siberia around 90 , 000 years ago , another slightly later in time but relatively close by at Chagyrskaya cave , and the Vindija woman who died in what ’ s now Croatia much closer to the final few millennia of the Neanderthals . Even where we ’ re lucky enough to have DNA samples , assumptions must still be made . Since prehistory lacks written texts , we can ’ t hear testimony on how Neanderthals categorised themselves . Therefore , archaeologists must draw on biological and anthropological understanding of sex and gender . While it ’ s highly likely that the majority of Neanderthals conformed genetically and visually to today ’ s sexual classification of male and female , in reality these aren ’ t neatly boxed because bodies are messy . For example , based on living people , around one in 2 , 000 Neanderthals might have been intersex . Gender is another question . As a phenomenon that emerges from an individual ’ s unique biology and social context , gender can align with physical sexual characteristics or be more fluid . These issues matter beyond semantics . Brain size is a case in point : in order to construct theories about their evolution , we need to know the real range of their variability . In a similar way , it ’ s now well understood that although some Neanderthals survived the blasting cold of Pleistocene glacial ages , plenty lived in balmier climes . As a species , they were as familiar with the clicking of reindeer hooves and trumpeting of mammoths as the bellowing of hippos amid screaming cicadas . Today , their unique anatomy is increasingly understood as adapted to intensive hunter - gatherer lifestyles , whatever the climate . But there has been less focus on sex . What happens if we stop treating Neanderthals as a monolithic population , and consider how growing up female might have influenced their experience of life ? Let ’ s begin at the start . Hold two crumple - faced newborn girls , one human , one Neanderthal , and you ’ d have to look closely to see differences . Both equally vulnerable , fitting the smallest - size onesies , their skin velvety - soft . The Neanderthal baby doesn ’ t yet have heavy brows and , lit by a hearth ’ s dull glow , her eyes are probably as slate - dark and limpid as any human newborn ’ s . But cradle her downy head , and it will feel slightly longer , with a bony nobble discernible above her neck . She needs keeping close , her heartbeat and body temperature harmonising with those of her mother . Most crucially , she needs milk , and lots of it : her whole body feels weightier than a human of the same age , because her bones are already thicker . Born with a similarly tiny stomach as other babies , she must signal that she wants to nurse very often , touching her mouth , sticking out her tongue , rooting around hopefully on her mother ’ s chest . Perhaps the milk itself is richer , creamier : like a seal ’ s . But sustenance for babies is about more than calories . As a fellow primate , she needs constant care and affection for proper development . Neanderthal infant brains appear to have started out around the same size though differently shaped , and followed a similar growth pattern to our own . She will hit roughly the same magical milestones as a human infant : looking intently at faces within the first month , probably smiling in some form by six weeks . As she becomes a little girl , her body might grow up slightly faster . While there ’ s a lot of debate , it seems that most Neanderthal youngsters began losing their baby teeth a bit sooner . But , just like us , some were slower than others . Muscle markings and bone development show that all Neanderthal children were highly active Aside from being physically smaller than adults , did a Neanderthal ‘ childhood ’ exist ? As our girl turned into an unsteady yet bold toddler , she would have spent less time around adults , and more with her peers . In hunter - gatherer cultures , gangs of kids form , from the littlest up to young teens , exploring and learning about both skills and relationships through play and foraging . Astonishingly , we can see something like this in Neanderthals . Among the rarely preserved ‘ trace fossils ’ at a handful of sites , juvenile footprints are commonest , and most striking are those from the dune site of Le Rozel in France . Here , around 80 , 000 years ago , most of the foot - shadows in the sand were left by at least four , and perhaps as many as 10 , youngsters . They patter back and forth , and some are so diminutive that their owners cannot have been much more than two years old . It ’ s not possible to identify the sex of the Le Rozel children but , in general , might Neanderthal girls have had particular experiences of childhood ? One way to think about this is by considering our closest primate relatives . Over their first three years , young female chimpanzees stick closer to their mothers for longer , and have fewer playmates , than males . This mirrors the lower sociability of adult females who often lack friendships with their own sex . But this does mean that , unlike the faster - developing and more independent males , young females master the difficult technological skill of ‘ termite fishing ’ much sooner , by up to two years . Intriguingly , female - specific activity in juvenile chimps seems to extend beyond mother - daughter interactions . Youngsters in one community have a stick - carrying tradition that researchers believe is similar to doll play : basically , mimicking infant care . It can last for hours , including bringing the stick into nests and playing ‘ with ’ it . It ’ s most common in females , but crucially , unlike other uses of sticks , the carrying stops once they ’ ve had their first baby . This means that youngsters can ’ t simply be copying it from their mothers – rather , they ’ re learning from their peers . Unfortunately , without more DNA analysis of Neanderthal children ’ s remains , it ’ s impossible to pick out evidence for a distinctive ‘ girlhood ’. But , in general , muscle markings and bone development show that all children were highly active . Youngsters certainly begin mimicking – or were taught – key life skills . Wear and tiny scratches show that nine - or 10 - year - olds were nimble enough to slice food held in their teeth , while even smaller children ’ s mouths must have ached from holding or chewing materials , perhaps animal skins . Shifting into adolescence , biology kicked in hard . Across human cultures , even when younger children hang out together , their ‘ work play ’ tends to be associated with their own gender , and this becomes amplified during puberty . As Neanderthal girls became women , something similar might have been going on , and perhaps one of the things driving them to spend time with each other would have been menstruation . Assuming a comparable or slightly faster development pattern to humans , Neanderthal girls probably began bleeding between 11 to 16 years of age , and their actual experience was likely just as variable as it is today . Discomfort and even pain would have been known , while others might have been less bothered . However , rare research with hunter - gatherer women suggests that perhaps their periods were shorter , lasting three days or less , compared with the experience of women in industrialised populations . But the practicalities – what it meant to bleed , how to clean themselves – are something else . Who they learned this from is an interesting question : peers , older siblings , or mothers ? Sanitary cloths might well have been one use for those animal skins that their teeth had already been working soft for years . Of course , the other key thing many of us associate with being a teenager is a rapidly growing interest in sex . Flooded by horny hormones , along with growth spurts and emotional turmoil , we should absolutely expect that Neanderthal girls were getting it on . But did they make the connection between sex and its frequent result : babies ? Comprehending reproduction is universal across all human societies , and an apparent clear line between us and the rest of the animal world . Maternal relationships are fairly obvious , but if Neanderthals grasped paternity this would have made more complex ideas such as kin lineages a possibility . What ’ s unclear however is whether young women left their groups to live independently . Despite huge differences in the ways that their societies operate , both chimpanzees and bonobos are patrilocal , meaning that the young females must shift to another troupe to mate . Yet among hunter - gatherers , the overwhelming pattern is matrilocal : girls typically stay with their mothers . In practice , movement between groups is fluid , and sometimes siblings or even non - blood kin will host them . However , some Neanderthal populations might have been so sparse that there weren ’ t many options for sexual partners . The Altai woman ’ s DNA from Denisova cave in Siberia revealed that she not only belonged to a tiny ‘ breeding population ’ overall – probably fewer than 100 individuals – but that her parents were very close relations too . We ’ re talking either an aunt with a nephew , a grandparent with a grandchild , or even two half - siblings ; by most standards , that ’ s beyond inbred and into incest . What she , or her mother , thought of this situation is unknowable . It might have been normal or not but , intriguingly , though not coming from such close parents , the Chagyrskaya girl from the same region also came from a similarly small breeding population . Neanderthal women very likely did hunt – and were probably accompanied by babies and children Yet that ’ s not the case everywhere . The Vindija woman ’ s population , although still small , was several times larger and not hugely inbred , implying that individuals must have sometimes moved between groups . On balance , since Neanderthals are far closer evolutionarily and in lifestyle to hunter - gatherers than to chimps , perhaps we should assume that it was young women looking forward to male incomers , rather than the other way round . Large , seasonal gatherings of herds could have offered a chance to encounter strangers from far and wide , and such experiences were probably just as exciting as intimidating . Whether she stayed or moved away , what was an adult Neanderthal woman ’ s life like ? Did she , for example , hunt ? Among chimpanzees and bonobos , the dominant hunters mirror their differing social organisation , with males and females respectively taking the lead . However , while active predation ( rather than scavenging ) probably extends back over a million years in the Homo lineage , so far there ’ s no direct evidence of which sexes were involved . Could Neanderthals have been like hyaenas and wolves , where all adults hunt ? Among recent hunter - gatherers , women as dominant lioness - style predators seem nonexistent . But across various cultures they do take part and make kills , very frequently taking small game and often accompanied by children and elders . Medium - sized species are also targeted , such as Copper Inuit women hunting reindeer or seal . The Agta women of Luzon in the Philippines are especially well - known , and in one study women hunters alone or in teams provided a third of big game by weight ( add in mixed - sex groups , and it ’ s almost half ) . Overall , women spent a similar amount of time on hunting as men , killing wild pigs and deer , sometimes using bows and arrows . There ’ s also archaeological evidence from post - glacial cultures in the Americas of women ’ s burials containing hunting weaponry . But there are nuances . The larger the animals or the further away they are to be found , the less often women take part . Perhaps tackling true megafauna and fanged species – whether mammoth on the steppe , or bears slumbering in winter dens – might have been mostly male tasks . Taking all this together , Neanderthal women very likely did hunt some or much of the smaller game we find in sites , such as tortoise , rabbits and birds – and probably accompanied by babies and children . Yet the identity of big - game hunters probably shifted according to climate , season , landscape and other factors . Some 123 , 000 years ago , Neanderthal women of the forest marshes dragged beavers from their lodges , while their descendants 70 millennia – and 3 , 000 generations – later stalked red deer through wooded uplands . One of the most convincing reasons to believe that Neanderthal women did experience life differently is the testimony of their own bodies . Research on limb bones suggests that , while their thighs were as strong relatively as men ’ s , their lower legs appear less intensively used . Sample sizes are small , however the impression is of different habits in moving around , with men perhaps scaling more rough terrain . Arms tell a similar story , with women ’ s lower arms getting more of a workout than their biceps . On top of this , while Neanderthal men apparently used their right and left arms differently ( comparable to the asymmetry in professional tennis players ) , women ’ s arms were more symmetrically developed . Carrying heavy loads in both hands could cause this , just as we lug loaded travel or shopping bags . But pushing something up and down – or backwards and forwards – with both arms would also fit , which is particularly intriguing because one of the things we know that Neanderthals were doing an awful lot of is hide - working . Even if they weren ’ t always hunters , it ’ s extremely likely that women were wielding butchery tools in the bloody aftermath . Part of this was about skin preparation : gore and membranes from fresh skins leave a particular polish on stone tools , while the laborious scraping of dried hides produces its own distinctive lustre . From at least 50 , 000 years ago , there are even special , round - tipped bone tools for the latter stages of softening and burnishing , called ‘ lissoirs ’. Made from the ribs of larger animals such as bison , crucially they would have needed two hands to use ; exactly the pattern we see in Neanderthal women ’ s arms . Moreover , the intensity of tooth wear seen in Neanderthal women resembles that in Indigenous cultures with strong hide - working traditions , such as the Inuit , Yupik , Chukchi or Iñupiat . Neanderthal life saw a growing tendency to split up activities across the landscape . While initial skin cleaning was done near kill sites and potentially by both men and women , it might be likely that the more time - consuming softening and stretching using mouths and lissoirs was happening where meaty joints and slabs of fat also ended up : family living sites . Whether caves or open - air locales , Neanderthal homes were places where things from many places arrived , often accumulating around fires . It ’ s here , surrounded by aureola - like spreads of waste from shared meals and tool resharpening , that we can imagine a woman handing round animal skins , working them to softness as a child curls into her lap . This might sound unexpectedly domestic , but the archaeology itself reveals how hearths centred daily life . If Neanderthal women cradled their bumps , they experienced the kicks of squirming infants within The other thing happening in the light of the flames were relationships . Aside from archaeological evidence that they had a resource - sharing society , unlike other primates , Neanderthal body size doesn ’ t seem to have differed much between the sexes . It ’ s much more similar to most H sapiens populations , which suggests that violent male competition was not the dominant social structure . Instead , more likely something akin to the bonobos , whose adult lives are based around long - term female friendships , might have been possible . Undoubtedly squabbles happened alongside jockeying for popularity , but the emotional and sexual lives of Neanderthal women were probably just as much about affection expressed by supplying of food – even gifts – as well as verbally and physically . Based on what we see among humans and in the animal kingdom more broadly , at least some intimacy could have been between women themselves . Whether or not sexual caresses were exchanged as abundantly as between bonobos , it ’ s certain that the consequences of heterosexual encounters had an enormous impact on women ’ s experiences in life . No Neanderthal had a life of leisure , but bringing the next generation into existence added an extra burden to women ’ s already energy - hungry bodies . Gestation likely lasted as long – and bellies swelled as impressively – as ours , provoking the same physical discomforts . If Neanderthal women stroked and cradled their bumps , they certainly experienced the kicks and weird undulations of squirming infants within . What might giving birth have been like ? While experiences today vary dramatically , birthing can be life - defining : physically draining and emotionally tumultuous . Anatomically however , reconstructing this for Neanderthal women has been tricky . One of the very few mostly complete female skeletons emerged from Mount Carmel in then - Palestine in 1932 , at the opposite end of the Mediterranean from Gibraltar . Known as Tabūn 1 , her hip bones are partially preserved , and 21 st - century modelling suggests that her and her contemporaries ’ birth canals were shaped differently . Babies didn ’ t need to twist , and heads emerged sideways instead of facing backwards . On the other hand , while this potentially meant that births could have been somewhat faster , with less risk of infants getting stuck , the babies ’ longer skulls meant it was still a tight squeeze . Birthing would certainly have made women vulnerable , and a secure location would be critical , not just during labour but for the hours afterwards . Mothers probably preferred caves or other sheltered places , but did Neanderthal women go through this alone ? It ’ s been proposed that H sapiens is unique in the desire and even need for birth ‘ attendants ’ but , assuming that Neanderthal social groups included friendship between women , this might not have been an unreasonable scenario for them too . It ’ s known in bonobos , where experienced females physically supporting and protecting the mother have been observed , even holding the baby ’ s head as it emerged . After birth , other work begins , and breastfeeding was among the childcare skills that Neanderthal mothers needed to learn . Isotopic studies of teeth indicate that babies continued nursing beyond one year old , but were being introduced to solid foods around six or seven months : remarkably similar to many human cultures . Another kind of isotope shows that babies too little to walk were nonetheless moving around the landscape , and someone must have been carrying them . Frequently nursing , completely dependent babies need to be kept close and , for groups who were probably not staying anywhere for more than a few weeks , practical transport could have meant using skin wraps . So far , archaeological science hasn ’ t developed a method to tell which particular female Neanderthals were mothers , though most probably were . The Forbes woman was certainly old enough to have gone a stage further and become a grandmother . Estimated to be least 40 years old , her skull bears a distinctive bony growth that can lead to headaches , thyroid issues and substantial weight gain . Potentially caused by high oestrogen levels , it might well be connected to her age . But even if elder women were perhaps less robust , they might have had a crucial role . Returning to the issue of hunting , one of the factors that allows Agta women this freedom isn ’ t just the close proximity of game so they need be gone for no more than an hour or two . It ’ s also that they can rely on someone else to look after the infants and young children they leave behind . Older children can be babysitters , but often it ’ s more senior individuals – and , for many women , that will include their own mothers . Grandparents have been proposed as a secret weapon of our own species , not just for their child - minding , but as reservoirs of wisdom too . Many decades of life translates to grandparents ’ greater stores of knowledge and skill . One among many theories that sought , post hoc , to put Neanderthals in their place as evolutionary failures claimed that they died too young for a generation of elders to exist . However , when the totality of the skeletal data is examined , there isn ’ t much difference between them and early H sapiens . Hoary old ones are there and , even if they grew slightly faster as children , this wouldn ’ t have reduced total lifespan significantly . There ’ s no biological reason why elderly Neanderthal women – perhaps great - grandmothers – couldn ’ t have huddled by hearths . Perhaps our own biases might be limiting possibilities for Neanderthal men , too Beyond the bare fact of women ’ s existence in the deep past , that we can spy any glimmers at all of their experiences is quite remarkable . From birth , emerging into ember - glow or lucid dawn light , still connected to the bodies of their mothers , Neanderthal girls began to follow their own particular path . Surrounded as babies and toddlers by the sights , smells and sounds of adults and their activities , the threads of girl - and womanhood began aligning . Yet , the materialisation of sex - specialised roles doesn ’ t mean rigidity , but can be understood as an ever - shifting dialogue between biological considerations and the ancient hominin habit of collaboration , sharing and innovation . Caveats exist , however . The current identified female sample is still quite small and , alongside unpicking the archaeological evidence , we must disentangle our own expectations of Neanderthal women . The asymmetry in Neanderthal men ’ s upper arms doesn ’ t really match how spear use activates muscles , yet the possibility that this was due to one - handed hide - scraping has been deemed unlikely due to its ‘ un - masculine ’ association in recent hunter - gatherers . Perhaps our own biases might be limiting possibilities for Neanderthal men , too . And while chimpanzees or recent hunter - gatherers are useful as points from which to draw interpretive inspiration , what was going on 50 , 000 or 350 , 000 years ago might include things with no modern analogues . Just as the steppe - tundra contained a mosaic of plant species that are no longer found together , Neanderthal lives might have included things that we aren ’ t even imagining . What could have been normality for a girl growing up in the arid valleys of Central Asia would have been unfamiliar to her far - flung relation on the rocky coast of Iberia . These were ways of being human on a continental , epochal scale . We began with the ‘ first ’ Neanderthal face ; what about the last ? Somewhere around 40 , 000 years ago , the many generations of Neanderthal women become invisible , at least in skeletal terms . The processes underlying this must have come in many guises , in many places , but one thing we know is that women of another kind – H sapiens – played some part , because Neanderthals were not entirely extinguished . Just 10 years ago , the first nuclear genome was meticulously reconstructed from three genetically identified females at Vindija ; it revealed that , rather than ousting Neanderthals from Eurasia , we had in fact interbred with them . In the decade since , recognised periods of contact now number at least four and perhaps seven or more , going back beyond 200 , 000 years ago . Most intriguingly , something of the dynamics is visible . In some earlier instances , Neanderthal women had the children of H sapiens men , but the later interbreeding after 60 , 000 years ago tells a different story . Nobody today has mitochondrial DNA like that in Neanderthals and , since it ’ s passed only maternally , this implies that interbreeding was more often between their men and our women . It ’ s in these last hybrid babies that the female heritage of Neanderthals lives on . The DNA legacies of the mixed babies ’ relations – half - sisters , half - aunts , half - grandmothers , and beyond – persisted through thousands of generations . Their billions of descendants are still here , walking Earth today . Rebecca Wragg Sykesis a Palaeolithic archaeologist and honorary fellow at the University of Liverpool , specialising in Neanderthals . She is co - founder of the Trowelblazers website , celebrating women archaeologists , palaeontologists and geologists through the ages , and the author of Kindred : Neanderthal Life , Love , Death and Art ( 2020 ) . She lives in Wales .