Neanderthals and modern humans shared a common ancestor around 600,000 years ago, and Neanderthals died out about 40,000 years ago. Evidence suggests they had vocal tracts and hearing much like ours, so they could probably speak. Both species likely shared iconic words that imitate sounds and syntax, the rules for ordering words. The proposed key difference is that brain scans show modern human brains link clusters of related concepts across regions, while Neanderthal ones may have kept those clusters more isolated. Those connections would allow the comparisons between unrelated things that we call metaphor. Experts still disagree about how much of this the fossils and artefacts can really show.

Hampi is a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Karnataka, India, with more than 1,600 surviving remains spread over 4,100 hectares. It was the capital of the Vijayanagara Empire from 1336 to 1565. Travellers from Persia and Portugal described it as a prosperous, wealthy and grand city with temples, markets and farms along the Tungabhadra River. By 1500 it was estimated to be the world's second-largest city after Beijing, and probably India's richest at the time. In 1565 a coalition of Muslim sultanates defeated the Vijayanagara Empire, its capital was conquered and destroyed, and the city was left in ruins. Hampi remains a religious centre, with the active Virupaksha Temple at its heart.