But we have nothing resembling hard evidence that precludes the existence of
language before the period before the anatomical and behavioral development of
modern humans was completed in the period 130 000–40 000 years BP. The
Neanderthals, who lived in Europe and Western Asia from around 250 000 years BP
until 28 000 years BP, might well have had some kind of language. The Neanderthals
are regarded as descendants of Homo heidelbergensis, that first appeared – as
descendants of Homo erectus (1.9 million to 27 000 years BP) – in Africa about 1
million years BP. There were Neanderthals in Europe until 12 000 years after modern
humans had settled there, and they may simply have been absorbed by the modern
humans, and Europeans may count Neanderthals among their ancestors. As stated by
John Gribbin and Jeremy Cherfas write in The First Chimpanzee. In Search of Human
Origins (p. 86):