What is love to a Neandertal?

Neandertals, historically, have gotten a bad rap (which they do not deserve!). In her 2020 book, Kindred: Neanderthal Life, Love, Death, and Art, Rebecca Wragg Sykes reflects on the Neandertal legacy, highlighting the important work that Jean Auel did in her fiction series Earth’s Children (perhaps best known by the first book in the series, Clan of the Cave Bears). Sykes writes that, because of Auel’s books, people now saw that “Neanderthals were allowed to love, and be loved.”

And so, in honor of Valentine’s Day—a day centered on love…