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By 500,000 years ago, a group of humans had reached Boxgrove in West Sussex, England. Although Boxgrove is not the site of the earliest human occupation in Britain (that gong goes to a 700,000-year old site in East Anglia discovered in June 2002), it is almost certainly the richest.
Here in 1993, archaeologists unearthed the shinbone of a heavily built male. The shinbone measured 35 centimetres (13 inches) long and had deep muscle markings, suggesting its owner stood around 180 centimetres (6 feet) and weighed 88 kilogrammes (196 pounds).
This individual belonged to Homo heidelbergensis. Skulls from elsewhere in Europe and in Africa show that heidelbergensis was developing a large brain, and the species is now seen as a key evolutionary link between ergaster and modern humans.
Today, Boxgrove is a gravel quarry. But half a million years ago, there was a beach and limestone cliffs here, with a tidal lagoon tucked behind a headland. Horses, megaloceros (giant deer), rhinoceros, voles and wolves occupied the landscape, along with a resourceful group of early humans.
And I absolutely believe that Neanderthals didn't die out--they mated with Cro-Magnons. Put any two groups of humanoids together and what happens? Sexual contact happens. Why, there used to be a guy who lived in my home town who looked like the model for the illustrations of Neanderthals. DNA from him would have been cinched it.