The idea was popularized by Jean Auel's 1980 novel, The Clan of the Cave Bear, but has since been rejected by researchers. Modern humans arrived in Europe about 40,000 years ago and were soon ...

Drawing on Solecki’s research, writer Jean Auel mixed fiction and archaeology in her novel, The Clan of the Cave Bear, a 1980 bestseller that humanized, if not glamorized, Neanderthals.