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The cave known as Sima Dde los Heuso at the Atapuerca archaeological site in Spain has yielded an incredible number of hominin remains that have shed new light on the emergence of the Neanderthals. Several <i>Homo -heidelbergensis</i> fossils were discovered at the site, with 430,000 year old bones possibly representing the earliest Neanderthals, or a transitional species between <i>heidelbergensis</i> and Neanderthal. It was after this point when the Neanderthals completely diverged and began spreading across Europe. <ref> Klein, p. 311</ref>

As the Neanderthals spread across Europe and parts of Asia, they began leaving their material culture behind, which is how they were given their current name: they were first discovered in 1856 when quarry workers discovered a skullcap and postcranial bones in a cave in the Neander Valley near Dusseldorf, Germany. Today there are more than 350 extant samples from seventy archaeological sites, which may not seem like much, but it has helped scholars recreate the emergence and movements of this early human species. <ref> Klein, pgs. 437-440</ref>