Discovered in 2015, Thorin's skeleton was one of the best-kept secrets in world archeology until the scientific publication in April 2023.

During the excavation of Grotte Mandrin, in the south of France, archaeologist Ludovic Slimak (CNRS) collected and analyzed these very rare fossils of a Neanderthal, in collaboration with the best experts in France, England, in Denmark and Australia.

The investigation reveals that this mysterious individual is at the end of a new lineage, which lived apart in southern Europe, at the time when the first modern humans, Homo Sapiens newcomers, began to take possession of these territories. A lineage that survives at other spectacular sites such as Gorham Cave in Gibraltar.

This documentary, which follows the research of Ludovic Slimak since 2017, reveals what we know today about this ultimate representative of this other human species called Thorin, after the name of one of the last dwarf kings present in the Tolkien's work, The Lord of the Rings.

Awards :

• 2024 UPSIDE Prize from 20th International Pariscience Festival (France)
  
• 2024 Scientific Mediation Prize from Pech Merle Prehistory Objective Festival (France)