A sculpture of what a Neanderthal man might have looked like on display at the Neanderthal Museum in Mettmann, Germany.
Credit: Getty /Canopy

When scientists first recognized Neanderthals as a species slightly different than our own, the species was demonized. The first Neanderthal skeleton, reconstructed in 1911, was nicknamed the “Old Man of La Chapelle” and described as a wretched creature: hunched over, brutish, dim-witted, and primitive.

In the years since, archeologists have concluded from other Neanderthal remains that their bodies were riddled with trauma, particularly in terms of fractures or injuries on the head and neck. That led researchers to believe that Neanderthals were quite violent, or lived more brutal lives, even compared to their contemporary Homo sapiens counterparts. “The only sample which closely matches the Neanderthals” in terms of injuries, a 1995 paper concluded, were rodeo athletes (you know, the ones who ride bulls).

But there’s a new paper out in Nature from researchers at the University of Tübingen in Germany containing evidence that dispels the notion that Neanderthals were […]