However, while that seems to suggest Neanderthals were somehow disposed for human language, without knowing that they had an immortal soul to elevate that communicate ability, a Thomist is thrown back on the archaeological record, searching for indirect evidence of language in human culture, say in technology or art.

The first evidence of ritual emerges in the hominin genus Homo, which emerged between 2–3 million years ago and includes modern humans, their ancestors and closest relatives.

The arrangement of remains at a 50,000-year-old burial site suggests that Neanderthals may have conducted funerary rituals and possessed symbolic thought before modern humans did.

After modern humans trekked out of Africa 60,000 to 80,000 years ago, they interbred at least once with Neanderthals, most likely in the Middle East about 50,000 years ago, previous ancient DNA research has shown.

Neanderthals also developed strong trapezius, deltoid, and tricep muscles by dragging 50 pounds of meat 30 miles home to their families. A Neanderthal had a wider pelvis and lower center of gravity than Homo sapiens, which would have made him a powerful grappler. But humans, don’t resign yourselves to defeat just yet.

Ancestry and physical appearance are highly related; it is often possible to infer an individual’s recent ancestry based on physically observable features such as facial structure and skin color.

Another concern is hacking or theft. Ancestry and similar companies take steps to protect customers’ information, such as using barcodes rather than names and encryption when samples are sent to labs. Nevertheless, there was an incident in 2017 in which hackers infiltrated a website owned by Ancestry called RootsWeb.