The Naked Neanderthal

A Neanderthal hunter takes us on a riveting journey of discovery.

What if we have completely misunderstood who the Neanderthals truly were?

For over a century, we saw them as inferior to Homo Sapiens. Today, Neanderthals are seen as fully human, different from us only because of their distant cultural traditions.

Neanderthal hunter and paleoanthropologist Ludovic Slimak understands these enigmatic creatures like no one else after studying them for three decades. Taking us on a fascinating archaeological investigation from the Arctic Circle to the deep Mediterranean forests, he traces their steps, deciphering their stories through every single detail they left behind.

In this stunning, bold book, he argues that Neanderthals should be understood on their own terms. They had their own history, their own rituals, their own customs. Their own intelligence. A remarkable intelligence, for sure, but an intelligence that may have been very different from ours.

A thought-provoking detective story, written with wit and verve, The Naked Neanderthal shifts our understanding of deep history—and in the process reveals just how much we have yet to learn.