The Neanderthal skulls and bones that have been discovered in Europe predate 40,000 years in the past. The proof for any later than that may just be due to lack of discovered artifacts and if they occupied Europe after that time, Neanderthals were few in number. In this fiction story, (Sam) a Neanderthal died some 25000 years ago, so he would have been one of the last or possibly the last Neanderthal. Atlantis has been described by the Greek Homer and it is not clear whether it was just a fable, a civilization that lived during Homer's time or he was just relating knowledge passed down for thousands of years. The popular consensus is that Atlantis was an island containing a civilization that was far more advanced than those at the time of Homer some 2000 years ago. It is also not clear why this civilization was socially and technologically more advanced considering it was of a limited population and isolated from other civilizations. One theory is that they were advanced in all aspects, because they had been that way for many thousands of years and how they originated as a people and culture can only be guessed at. In fact, there is no evidence that Atlantis ever existed, except as described by Homer and a few that may have been influenced by Homer. The existence of Atlantis, that was believed to be an island, has never been confirmed and historic beliefs are that the island of Atlantis sank into the sea and disappeared. It is a stretch to believe that Neanderthals and the people of Atlantis were present on the earth at the same time, but never the less, this fiction story is about such a possibility. The suspected and unproven connection between Neanderthals and Atlantis was discovered at a cave site in Europe by the three archeologists in the story and this created an ongoing problem for the three archeologists that made the discovery. The consequences of their yet unproven theory that the Neanderthal (Sam) and people from Atlantis had interacted is the story in this book.
