Radiocarbon dating of bones and tools from 40 sites across Europe, published in Nature in 2014, indicates that the last Neanderthals vanished between about 41,000 and 39,000 years ago, after living in Europe and western Asia for some 300,000 years. They disappeared some 5,000 years after the arrival of modern humans, though the two groups overlapped for a time and interbred. Climate fluctuations, small populations, competition and disease may all have played a part. The Neanderthals had made tools, controlled fire, buried their dead and probably made art, and their DNA lives on in the genomes of people outside Africa.
Before and after
- about 75,100 years agoSymbolic engraving at Blombos Cave
- about 51,300 years agoSulawesi cave art is made
- from about 50,000 years ago to 2nd millenniumPre-Columbian era
- from about 50,000 years ago to 9,726 years agoUpper Paleolithic
- about 41,000 years agoNeanderthals disappear from Europe
- from about 40,000 years ago to 31,000 years agoAurignacian
- about 36,100 years agoChauvet cave paintings are made
- about 30,100 years agoThe Venus of Willendorf is carved
- about 23,100 years agoPeople are already in North America
More in Evolution & life
- from about 17,000 years ago to 12,000 years agoMagdalenian
- from about 14,000 years ago to 9th millennium BCENatufian culture
- from c. 9,050s BCE to 8,850s BCEClovis culture
- from 55th century BCE to 27th century BCECucuteni–Trypillia culture
- from 36th century BCE to 18th century BCECaral–Supe civilization
- from c. 3,300 BCE to 2,600 BCEYamnaya culture
The era
This moment belongs to the Human prehistory (300,000 years ago to 3,200 BCE), the human story before writing.