Did Neanderthals get annihilated in a blitzkrieg by modern humans? This controversial thesis argues that modern humans were responsible for the extinction of Neanderthals. We take a look at the evidence and decide for ourselves. In this video, we explore the hypothesis of whether the extinction of the Neanderthals was caused by a brutal wipeout or a slow decline, and look at recent evidence from France, the Middle East, and Germany.

New finds at a cave in the Rhone Valley, in southern France, reveal that around 54,000 years ago, modern humans from the Middle East arrived and made a failed attempt to settle the continent. The finds were discovered in a cave, known as Grotte Mandrin in the Rhone Valley, and it was astonishing when they found that there was evidence of an early modern human settlement. Moreover, they occupied a cave where Neanderthals had lived before – and would live after them. Radiocarbon analysis and luminescence dating established that the modern human layer in Grotte Mandrin is between 51,700 and 56,800 years old.