logo
episode-header-image
Feb 2025
53m 57s

The Last Neanderthals

History Hit
About this episode

For hundreds of thousands of years Neanderthals have roamed the lands of what is today Europe and western Asia. But how did they survive, and what caused their decline?


Tristan Hughes delves into the fate of the last Neanderthals and continues our Ice Age mini-series with Professor Chris Stringer from the Natural History Museum. They explore how Neanderthals thrived across diverse climates and investigate the intriguing story of Neanderthals' eventual decline alongside the arrival of Homosapiens 60,000 years ago. Professor Stringer also shares the fascinating evidence of interbreeding that has left traces of Neanderthal DNA in modern humans and groundbreaking insights from recent archaeological and DNA research, that shed light on why Neanderthals went extinct.


Presented by Tristan Hughes. The audio editor and producer is Joseph Knight. The senior producer is Anne-Marie Luff.

All music courtesy of Epidemic Sounds

The Ancients is a History Hit podcast.


Sign up to History Hit for hundreds of hours of original documentaries, with a new release every week and ad-free podcasts. Sign up at https://www.historyhit.com/subscribe. 


You can take part in our listener survey here: https://insights.historyhit.com/history-hit-podcast-always-on

Up next
Today
The First Hawaiians
Tristan Hughes goes on an exploration of Hawaii's earliest settlers, guided by the insights of Dr. Patrick Kirch, a leading expert on Hawaiian archeology. From the arrival of Polynesians around AD 1000, using sophisticated double-hull canoes, to their unique agricultural practice ... Show More
51m 57s
Oct 5
Gladiators: A Day in the Life
The Colosseum packed with roaring crowds, the sand stained with sweat and blood. But today, you’re not watching - you’re fighting. Welcome to a day in the life of a Roman gladiator.In this episode of The Ancients, Tristan Hughes is joined by historian and author Dr Harry Sidebott ... Show More
59m 56s
Oct 2
Origins of Mythology
From Cinderella to Beauty and the Beast, the roots of fairy tales stretch back thousands of years — to the dawn of Indo-European languages and beyond.In this episode of The Ancients, Tristan Hughes is joined by author and journalist Laura Spinney to explore the origins of mytholo ... Show More
47m 45s
Recommended Episodes
Jun 2024
Understanding Neanderthals
Early prehistorians had little more than stones and bones to work with as they tried to piece together the story of the Neanderthals, but today’s researchers work in ways that early prehistorians could never have imagined. Archaeologist and author Rebecca Wragg Sykes' new book Ki ... Show More
43m 9s
Aug 2024
483. The Mysterious Case of the Ape Man
In Sussex, in 1912, men quarrying in a gravel pit near Piltdown village turned up a human skull. According to Charles Dawson, a lawyer and amateur archeologist with a remarkable track record for finding ancient treasures, it belonged to a palaeolithic man, possibly millions of ye ... Show More
52m 21s
Jul 27
The Stone Age
The Stone Age is the foundational period of human history, stretching from roughly 3 million to 5,000 years ago, and accounting for over 99% of humanity’s time on earth. It’s the era when modern humans evolved and migrated out of Africa to populate the globe, developed language a ... Show More
56m 42s
Mar 2024
Stefanos Geroulanos, "The Invention of Prehistory: Empire, Violence, and Our Obsession with Human Origins" (Liveright, 2024)
Books about the origins of humanity dominate bestseller lists, while national newspapers present breathless accounts of new archaeological findings and speculate about what those findings tell us about our earliest ancestors. We are obsessed with prehistory—and, in this respect, ... Show More
1h 14m
Feb 2025
When Europeans reached Australia
Professor Suzannah Lipscomb delves into the dramatic story of the first European encounters with the indigenous people of Australia. She's joined by Professor Alistair Paterson who sheds light on the reported events of February 1606 when the Dutch unexpectedly stumbled upon the s ... Show More
46m 1s
Apr 2025
The Etruscans: everything you wanted to know
Lasting from the ninth century BC right up until Roman conquest in the first century BC, the Etruscans were a powerful ancient civilisation who inhabited Etruria in ancient Italy, and rubbed shoulders with the other iconic ancient cultures of their day. Often painted as a mysteri ... Show More
54m 48s
Sep 2024
Medieval documents in danger
Just how far does our understanding of the medieval past rely upon written sources? And what happens when these precious fragments of knowledge are destroyed? Taking in shocking cases of destruction and disaster, Robert Bartlett tells Emily Briffett about the material that has be ... Show More
46m 11s
Jan 2025
The Maya
In 1511, a Spanish lifeboat makes land on the Yucatán coast in modern-day Mexico. Thirteen days ago, the crew's caravel was wrecked on a reef. But their adventure is far from over. Now, they are about to become some of the first Europeans to make contact with the Maya. Custodians ... Show More
55m 12s
Sep 9
Ep. 10: Start of the Endgame for the Ancient West
When Lewis & Clark saw the West in the first years of the 1800s it still preserved the healthy biodiversity of Native-managed ecologies in place for 10,000 years. Within thirty years, everything had changed. Americans arrived in the West with religious traditions that taught anim ... Show More
1h 3m
Sep 26
King Arthur
How have tales of King Arthur evolved over centuries and why have they exerted such an enduring cultural appeal on countless generations?Matt Lewis delves into the legend of King Arthur, guided by Dr. Mary Bateman. Together they explore the evolution of Arthur's myth from ancient ... Show More
58m 44s