Shanidar Z has a low forehead, wide cheekbones and a calm demeanour. With her flowing black hair and wrinkles between her eyes that look like equal parts mirth and worry, she might be someone’s wise grandmother.

Her face is a reconstruction, however. Her skull was found in a cave in Iraqi Kurdistan in 2018, where it had lain since her body was placed there, 75,000 years ago. The rest of her species would be gone a few tens of thousands of years after that. Shanidar Z is a Neanderthal.