Documentary · 8:11
The Discovery That Rewrote Neanderthal History
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Watch the full documentary on YouTubeSynopsis
On the coast of southern Türkiye there is a cave called Üçağızlı. In the floor of a chamber at the back of it lies about two metres of dirt — thirty thousand years of people. At the bottom, 77,000 years ago, there are teeth: Neanderthal. At the top, 47,000 years ago, there are teeth: ours. Somewhere between those layers the species changed, and that is the only thing in this cave that did. The same stone tools. The same hunts. And the same small sea snail, carried up from the same shore by both kinds of human, for no reason except that they wanted it.
What the record cannot say
Stated because it is part of the evidence, not despite it.
Which of them pierced and heated the shells?
Some of the Columbella rustica shells were pierced. One was put in a fire to change its colour. One is worn smooth. The layers do not record who did it.
In the film The film says nobody knows which of them did that, and stops there.