Tristan Hughes

But time period for Neanderthals, do we think roughly over the last 500,000 years or so down to about 45,000 years ago?

And that feels certainly even more the case when trying to find examples, you know, potentially of Neanderthal art.

I mean, because generally how basic can we go with trying to describe what we believe could be art left by Neanderthals?

What types of art are we going to be talking about?

So we're not thinking at the moment, sadly, no, as of yet, Neanderthal Mona Lisa has been discovered or prehistoric Sistine Chapel equivalent.

We're thinking more like this is non-figurative drawings that have so far been discovered that we link with Neanderthals.

And these are the famous sites like Lascaux and Chauvet Cave, aren't they?

And Alteneira in Spain, you know, those...

Those iconic ones, if you type in cave heart.

Well, we are going to delve into a few of these key sites so we can really explore these artworks that have been associated with Neanderthals.

I'm very happy that you mentioned in passing that earlier simple marking of Homo erectus.

It's on a shell, isn't it, in Indonesia?

Or was it Java, one of those places?

But it's like 500,000 years old, the Trinil or Trinil marine shell?

Absolutely.

And it's a nice example to highlight.

And it's also just such an amazing artifact if you type it into Google.

But come on then, let's have a look at these sites associated with Neanderthal art.

I know you've done a lot of work around and it seems like they're largely...

in Spain, in Western Europe.