For 300,000 years, NeanderthalsNeanderthalsA fossil humanity of Eurasia, robust and cold-adapted, extinct around 40,000 years before present.→ populated Eurasia with a brain as large as ours, sophisticated technology, and cultural practices once thought exclusive to Homo sapiensHomo sapiensThe present-day human species, which emerged in Africa around 300,000 years ago, the only surviving human lineage after the extinction of Neanderthals and Denisovans.→. This documentary traces the history of this other humanity and the recent discoveries that have radically changed our view of our extinct cousins.

From the caves of Shanidar to the burials of La Chapelle-aux-Saints, from the jewellery of Cueva de los Aviones to the pigments of La Ferrassie, evidence accumulates: Neanderthal was not the "barbaric primitive" of 19th-century popular imagination. He buried his dead, adorned his body, mastered fire, and crafted tools of remarkable precision. Genetic analyses have moreover revealed that he interbred with Homo sapiens, leaving 1 to 4% of his genome in all current non-African human populations.