Modern people (Homo Sapiens) seem to have evolved in Africa about 100 thousand years ago (although the date is far from clear) and lived there while the Neanderthals were spreading around the world. An interglacial (warm period) began 35 thousand years ago. Then modern people came out of Africa and spread. Within a few thousand years they replaced the Neanderthals in Europe and Asia.

Then about 25 thousand years ago the weather turned cold again and a glacial began. During the glacial, people improved the tools used by Neanderthals, developing specialized tools for different jobs. But the thing which really set them apart from Neanderthals was their use of art and decoration. Cave paintings, beads, clay statuettes, carvings on the handles of tools, all show a more developed sense of art than Neanderthals ever did.

Many animals were hunted to extinction and people spread around the world.
The weather turned warm 11 thousand years ago and the present interglacial
began. Many of the glaciers melted, it rained heavily, and the oceans rose
100 meters. New animals and plants replaced the old.

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