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by J. M. G. Schmidt (Author)
COULD OUR ANCIENT HUMAN RELATIVES STILL BE OUT THERE?
For 35,000 years, they've been considered extinct. The Neanderthals-clever beings, gifted hunters, wiped from the pages of history.
But in the forgotten corners of the world, they didn't just fall silent. They waited.
Lilly Feron never expected her quiet life running a wolf park in Utah to be upended by a single, dead animal. But when a wolf-believed to be extinct-turns up on a highway with a spear tip lodged in its neck, everything changes. The weapon, made from Neanderthal bone only a few decades-old, should be impossible. After all, these hominids vanished thirty-five thousand years ago. She learns of a trapper who claims to have seen such a strange wolf hidden deep in the Bitterroot Mountains. Was it the same animal? Lilly and paleoanthropologist Austin Walker dig deeper, and uncover amazing truths about the existence of the last Neanderthals. Could they still be out there living in a shadowland? As the mystery unfolds, they must wrestle with a gripping secret-one that forces them to question everything they thought they knew about history, humanity, and what lives in the wild. All before the authorities put an end to it. The past isn't gone. It's waiting. And it's about to make its presence known. ----------
"INTO THE SHADOWLAND masterfully blends anthropological science with vivid storytelling, offering a gripping exploration of human resilience, culture, and belief in a forgotten world. With an archaeologist's precision and a novelist's imagination, J.M.G. SCHMIDT reconstructs an ancient way of life that feels startlingly real. Think Neanderthals were just grunting brutes? Think again. This fascinating journey into our deep past will challenge everything you thought you knew 8about our long-lost cousins." -Patrick Keeney, Canadian author and journalist
A fantastic story based on scientific facts
A few years ago, the Swedish scientist Svante Pääbo succeeded in sequencing the Neanderthal genome, for which he was awarded the Nobel Prize in 2022. These findings help us to paint a completely new, increasingly detailed picture of our mysterious, human-like relatives. Despite their primitive appearance, they were neither stupid nor primitive, as previously assumed, but skillful, imaginative and sensitive. They talked to each other, understood natural medicine, buried their relatives and created weapons, jewelry and works of art. Before Homo sapiens appeared on the scene, Neanderthals dominated the hunting grounds of Eurasia for a period of over 400,000 years. Today, only one species of human exists. But we carry a small part of the genes of these early humans within us. It is doubted that Neanderthals ever reached the American continent, as there is no evidence, no archaeological finds. However, some paleoanthropologists believe it is possible. In this novel, it becomes reality.
