Neanderthal, the fascinating historical exhibition at the Val d'Oise archaeological museum

Several hundred thousand years ago,Homo sapiens was not the only human on Earth:Neanderthals were also present in Eurasia and the Near East. Little is known about these distant cousins, but advances in science and new archaeological discoveries are lifting the veil on some of the mysteries surrounding Neanderthal.

The Musée archéologique du Val d'Oise invites us to discover all the secrets of these lost ancestors, with the educational exhibition Néandertal, l'expo. From February 11 to December 22, 2023, the museum takes us on a journey in the footsteps of these extinct nomads.

Let's travel back in time to the Paleolithic, some 300,000 years ago, and meet the Neanderthals. These hunter-gatherers lived on snow-covered steppes as well as in temperate forests. Their robust bodies and intelligence enabled them to survive and adapt for centuries, despite the harshness of the climates they endured.

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Neanderthals hunted and used the attributes of mammoths, woolly rhinoceroses, hyenas, cave lions and bears, wolves, deer, eagles, foxes and more. These animals provided them with food, clothing and the tools they needed to survive. Fossils, tools and archaeological ar tefacts allow us to visualize the daily life of Paleolithic man. Life-size scenes reproduce the Neanderthal environment, showing the animals and flora of the time.

The exhibition also highlights the close ties between Neanderthal and Homo sapiens. The two species lived side by side for a long time, particularly in the Balkans of Central and Eastern Europe. Recent DNA studies even show that the two groups were able to mate and reproduce: some Neanderthal DNA is still present in certain populations today!

The Musée Archéologique du Val d'Oise presents a fascinating exhibition. This exhibition, mounted and presented by the Natural History Museum in 2018, is free to see this year: don't miss it!