Neanderthal’s have suffered something of a public relations disaster over the years to the point that the name itself has become a byword for something approaching lumbering idiot.

But recent evidence has pointed to a very different type of Neanderthal, one who had art, practiced funeral rights and may even have talked.

So, what do we now know about our distant cousins and how do we know it?

Rebecca Wragg Sykes is an Archaeologist and Author of Kindred: Neanderthal Life, Love, Death and Art.