A Brief History of the Neanderthal presents the Homo neanderthalensis species, first discovered in fossil form in the middle of the 19th century. This book takes an interesting and intellectual look at the information that we have on the Neanderthals. To do so, it starts by reviewing the history of this species' discovery in the 19th century and the great surprise that this caused among scholars of the period. Then the book takes a closer look at the Neanderthal's origins via Homo heidelbergensis during the European Ice Age, its physical characteristics and life cycles, its way of life and subsistence, its social relations, its cognitive abilities (language, arte), and the arrival of homo sapiens in its world, which contributed to the Neanderthal's demise.