It’s hard enough to know what Neanderthals looked like, let alone sounded like. However, there’s good reason to suspect our extinct hominin cousins were capable of complex language – and not just grunts and groans. The rest of this article is behind a paywall. Please sign in or subscribe to access the full content.

You may be one of the millions of people who have seen the viral clip from the BBC show Neanderthal: The Rebirth , which explores the so-called “high-pitched voice theory”.

To recreate the sound of Neanderthal voices, vocal coach Patsy Rodenburg worked with a 3D model of a Neanderthal vocal tract, alongside knowledge of their anatomy, such as a deep rib cage, heavy skull, and large nasal cavity. When she applied this understanding to a human singer, the result was an uncann

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