That finding reframed everything.

If Neanderthals and modern humans could interbreed, they were not the cognitively and socially distant beings that the old model implied.

They were close enough, in behavior and in social compatibility, that individuals from the two populations could encounter each other and form relationships that produced children.

At the same time, the archaeological evidence was being reinterpreted.

The cave paintings in Spain, dated to before modern human arrival.

The eagle feathers.