THE NEANDERTHAL MEN
Croatia was a section of Hungary, before the World War altered
geographical boundaries. In the northern portion of this district,
near the small town of Krapina, in the valley of the Krapinica River,
is the famous cavern of Krapina. Here, in 1899, a discovery of men of
the Neanderthal race was made. The animal remains point to the late
Acheulean period; there are a rhinoceros, the cave bear, a species
of horse, and other mammalian remains. When the cavern was explored,
it was found to contain thousands of animal bones, mingled with
hundreds of human bones, and hundreds of stone implements and chips.
In 1906 Gorjanovic-Kramberger published the result of his researches
among these remains. He had found about three hundred pieces of human
bone, many well preserved. From these the Neanderthal race can be
reconstructed.
These men were short-skulled. The race was somewhat dwarfed, with a
broad head. The chin is still retreating. The broken condition of
these bones has led some to suggest that the Neanderthal men were
cannibals. But none of the bones were split lengthwise, as would have
been done to extract the marrow; and there is no other evidence of
cannibalism during the whole Old Stone period. These people lived
here at the close of the Third Interglacial period, and perhaps
during the Fourth Glacial period which followed. During this time the
mammoth disappeared, and then the hippopotamus; the rhinoceros and
the straight-tusked elephant lingered on for a time. The Neanderthal
races slowly passed from the Acheulean industry into that called
the Mousterian, which closed the Lower Paleolithic Age. This Fourth
Glaciation is estimated as beginning 40,000 years ago, and ending some
20,000 years ago. When it is recalled that the whole Neolithic period,
the Bronze Age, and then the Iron and Steel Ages, have only occupied
part of the last 20,000 years, and that we have some written record of
about half of this period, it becomes apparent how close in point of
years the Neanderthal race is to us. Cold tundra animals from the north
came in to replace the rhinoceros and the straight-tusked elephant, in
the shape of the woolly rhinoceros and the woolly mammoth. Arctic trees
and plants spread over Europe. This is the beginning of the reindeer
period.
In Southern Britain, some unusually interesting remains have been
found. At Crayford, near the mouth of the Thames, and along the Lea,
have been found working floors of Mousterian culture, buried beneath
four to five feet of sand and loam, and resting upon the surface of
the older river-gravels. There are spots occupied by unabraded stone
implements and flakes, which obviously lie today just as they were left
by the Old Stone workmen. At one place there is evidence that the flint
shaper squatted over his work, with his knees slightly apart; for the
chips are thrown to right and left in small piles.
The discovery of the Neanderthaloid (Neanderthal-like) races has
extended over about seventy years. There is no evidence of burial, it
is well to remember, in the cases of the Trinil, the Heidelberg, and
the Piltdown remains; the bones apparently were washed down by the
river, and mingled with those of other mammals. It is possible that the
bodies of the dead and of the aged were thrown out to the scavenger
beasts and birds, as some African tribes do today. In the Krapina
cavern there was no evidence of burial, but to the contrary there was
slight evidence of cannibalism. As we get into the Mousterian period,
all this has changed. The custom of burial, or the orderly laying out
of the remains of the dead in the floors of protected caves, came in.
The colder climate drove this race into the close quarters of caves and
grottoes; perhaps this turned attention to dead bodies, and slowly led
to forms of burial. This habit has afforded us a much fuller knowledge
of the race and its industry than we were able to obtain of previous
races.
The first discovery of a Neanderthaloid was made in 1848. This was
near Forbes Quarry, on the north face of the Rock of Gibraltar; the
skull found here is called the Gibraltar skull. The brain is extremely
small, even for this race, and the ridges above the orbits of the
eyes are only slightly developed. It is regarded as a primitive type
of this race, probably the skull of a female. A female, just as an
infant, as pointed out in the masterly studies of Lester Ward, is less
specialized and closer to the race stem than the adult male. In 1856
workmen clearing out a cave in the valley known as the Neanderthal,
on the Dussel flowing between Elberfield and Dusseldorf, discovered
some human bones, probably an entire skeleton. These were carelessly
thrown aside; but a scientist rescued what he could, including the
skullcap, both thigh bones, portions of the arm, bones of both sides,
the right collar bone, and fragments of the pelvis, shoulder-blade,
and ribs. All were well preserved, and are now in the museum of Bonn.
For forty years scientists argued concerning these remains, with wild
theories ranging to the classic hypothesis that each peculiarity in
the skeleton was caused by some bone disease. But in 1901 Schwalbe’s
great work gave the skeleton supreme importance, as the type of the
Neanderthal race. Since then, there have been more than twenty separate
discoveries of remains of the race, in France, Moravia, Belgium, and
on the Isle of Jersey. The worked stones accompanying them range from
the early type found in Krapina, Croatia, which are late Acheulean or
early Mousterian, through the whole Mousterian period, with half a
dozen skeletons accompanied by tools of slightly later epochs. The two
finely preserved skulls and skeletons found at Spy, Belgium, in 1887,
and the numerous finds since 1908 in the Dordogne region, France, were
preludes to the skeleton discovered the same year in a grotto near
La Chapelle-aux-Saintes, nearby to Le Moustier, France, which gave
its name to the Mousterian culture. This was the perfectly preserved
skeleton of an individual between fifty and fifty-five years of age,
which had been given ceremonial burial. The body was laid out in an
east and west direction in a small natural depression. Even the bones
of the face were in position; this gave the first opportunity to
measure the actual size and proportions of the brain, with only slight
possibility of error. In a Mousterian cavern on St. Brelade’s Bay, on
the Island of Jersey, thirteen human teeth were discovered, associated
with the bones of the woolly rhinoceros, the reindeer, and two types of
horse, as well as Mousterian hearths and stone implements of the same
period. This long group of more than a score of discoveries, commencing
in 1848 and multiplying recently, gives us a comparatively complete
knowledge of the bony structure of the men, women, and children of the
Neanderthal race. We are able to state positively the relative brain
developments and heights of the sexes. We know that this race, and this
race only, inhabited all of western Europe during the late Acheulean
and the whole Mousterian period. From their custom of ceremonial burial
we know that they possessed a reverence for the dead, which may have
been accompanied by some belief in an existence after death.
It is not difficult to distinguish the features of the Neanderthal
race, which mark it off from previous and subsequent races of men.
Most noticeable of all were the heavy, overhanging brows and the
retreating forehead. Many recent races have a decided ridge over the
eyes; but in recent races the outer edge of this ridge turns upward
at the outer line of the eyebrows. In the Neanderthal men, to the
contrary, this ridge surrounds the whole upper edge of the eye socket,
extending around the outside borders of the forehead; this forms a
regular roof over the eye sockets, which appear like two deep caverns.
Certain living Australians exhibit this form of ridge, without other
Neanderthal characteristics.
The face is an exceptionally high one. From upper jaw to the line of
the eyes it is much longer than that of more recent man; this suggests
the faces of the man-like apes. The jaw is less powerful than the
Heidelberg jaw; but, like it, it is very thick and massive. The chin
is receding; the Heidelberg man entirely lacked a chin. The teeth are
more human than in the Piltdown or Dawn Man. The skullcap is flat, the
forehead retreats, the ridges above the eyes are prominent, the face is
long, the cutting teeth are prominent, the chin recedes. There you have
the face of the Neanderthal man.
Most of these characteristics may be found in certain specimens of
the heads of living inferior races; but all of them are never found
in any living race. In many ways the Neanderthal race was closer to
the man-like apes than to _Homo sapiens_, or thinking man. The brain
capacity varied from 1,296 cubic centimeters, for the Gibraltar skull,
to 1,723 c. cm. for the skull known as Spy II, found in Spy, Belgium.
The left hemisphere of the brain is larger than the right, indicating
that the race was right-handed. Like the man-like apes, the frontal
portion of the brain is relatively smaller than in recent man. As far
as height is concerned, the Neanderthals were distinctly a short race.
They ranged from 5 feet 1 inch to 5 feet 5 inches for the male; the
females were approximately 4 feet 10 inches.
The head was very large, in proportion to the body. The thigh is
relatively long, the lower leg much shorter than in any existing human
race. In this respect the Neanderthal man had a shorter shinbone,
compared to the thigh, than even the man-like apes. This indicates that
the Neanderthal men were clumsy and slow of foot. Similarly the forearm
of the Neanderthals was very short, distinctly shorter than any of the
man-like apes. This points to the fact that the immediate ancestors of
the Neanderthals were ground dwellers, rather than tree dwellers. To
sum up these characteristics, the head was large, compared to the body;
the arm was short, compared to the leg; both forearm and lower leg were
short, compared to upper arm and thighbone respectively. The chest and
midbody were muscular and robust, the shoulders very broad. The hand
was extremely large, but the thumb was not as fully developed as in
recent races. There is one invariable feature of the Neanderthals. The
relation of the kneecap to the shinbone shows that this bone could not
be straightened wholly, but was always bent slightly backward. This
indicates too that the race squatted, instead of sitting. They could
not stand wholly erect; they were a bent or squatting race.
The spinal column was short and thick-set; the back curved upward
into the neck, more as in the chimpanzee than as in modern humans.
This caused a habitual stooping of the Neanderthal man at the neck
and shoulders, and prevented his ever holding his head erect. Legs
that could not be wholly straightened out, a head permanently stooped
forward—this squatting race would never appear quite human; it would
bear resemblance to certain man-like apes.
The position of the Neanderthal race in the development of human
culture and industry can be ascertained best from a table. It should be
remembered that it is the testimony of the stone implements and weapons
that determines the stage of culture.
TABLE OF IMPLEMENT CULTURE
_Years Ago_ _Age_ _Culture_ _Race of Men_
2,500 Later Iron Age Modern Recent
3,000 Earlier Iron Age Ancient Recent
4,000 Bronze Ancient Recent
10,000 Neolithic (New or Polished Recent
Stone Age)
14,000 Upper Paleolithic (Old or Azilian Cro-Magnon, etc.
Chipped Stone Age)
18,000 Magdalenean Cro-Magnon, etc.
Solutrean Cro-Magnon, etc.
Aurignacian { Cro-Magnon, etc.
{ Grimaldi Race
40,000 Lower Paleolithic (Old or Mousterian Neanderthal
Chipped Stone Age)
Acheulean Neanderthal
100,000 Chellean
Pre-Chellean { Piltdown
{ Heidelberg
475,000 Eolithic Trinil Ape-man
The localities presenting evidence of the Mousterian culture, called
Mousterian stations, are more than fifty in number, and are almost as
many as the Acheulean stations. In England we find Kent’s Hole, in
Devonshire, where among the Mousterian flints were found teeth of the
sabre-tooth tiger. There were three other stations on what was then the
mainland of England, one, on the Island of Jersey, yielding thirteen
Neanderthal teeth. In the Dordogne region of France are eight sites;
Spain, Italy, Switzerland, Germany, Austria, Moravia, and even Russia
have remains indicating that the Neanderthal men of the Mousterian
culture inhabited these scattered localities. At Dewlish, in Dorset,
England, an artificial trench has been found which is supposed to have
been a Neanderthal trap for elephants. Usually they could not kill such
prey; but they undoubtedly consumed the wounded or dead bodies of the
larger mammals, when they could find them. Part of the kill they ate
where it fell; they brought back the big marrow bones to their caves,
to crack at their leisure. These are almost the only mammalian bones
found in the caves. In addition to these rare feasts on the forest
monsters, the Neanderthal man’s regular diet included the hare, the
rabbit, and the rat—a fare supplemented by nuts, acorns, wild fruit and
buds, roots, birds’ eggs, young birds, honey from wild bees, snails and
frogs, fish, mussels, seaweed, and even caterpillars.
Compared to previous cultures, Mousterian life was dense and crowded.
It centered chiefly in caverns and grottoes, located near some
convenient stream. Primitive man had as yet no pots or vessels to
transport water. Fire was probably made by striking iron pyrites
against flint, near dried leaves; chips of these two stones are often
found together. The fire was probably banked when not needed; it was
needed most at night, as a protection against wild beasts. The herding
together must have developed something of tribal tradition, and the
germs of religious belief, as indicated in the ceremonial burials.
There is, of course, little industrial progress or invention shown in
the remains. The stone industry is quite distinct from the Acheulean,
although evidently descended from it. The change from the free and open
life of Chellean and early Acheulean times to the crowded grottoes
and shelters of Mousterian times may have had a dwarfing effect upon
the human beings and their industry. One characteristic of Mousterian
flints is that they are often retouched on only one side, leaving the
opposite side smooth, just as it had been rounded by natural forces,
such as water. The Mousterian points and scrapers usually have this
appearance. The Mousterians were the first to make widespread use of
the flake, instead of the core of the flint; this led to the decline
of the _coup de poing_ or hand-stone, used in so many ways by the
Acheuleans. When these hand-stones are found, the workmanship has
degenerated. This implement has run its course as a human tool, in the
same way that the great reptiles and prehistoric beasts had largely
run their courses; only rude, small vestiges remained. The implement
had its beginning in pre-Chellean times; it reached its maturity and
perfection, and gradually fell into degeneration and final disuse. This
occurred when it came into competition with another form of implement,
based upon a different and superior plan; in the struggle for existence
it gradually disappeared, because of the greater usefulness of the
replacing type.
The use of the bone anvil came in during this stage of industry.
Many small tools, chiefly made of flakes, were developed at the same
time, most of these being retouched on one side only. The industrial
implements are the degenerating hand-stones, the chopper, planing
tool, drill or borer, six varieties of scraper—knife-edged, saw-edged,
double-edged, etc.—the hand-point, and the hammer stone; the weapons
of war and chase are the hand-point, the spear head, the hand-stone,
throwing-stone, and knife. The planing tool is disappearing; the
scraper is the tool most used. There are very few knives; the drill and
the scraper have taken their places in industry.
There is no definite proof of the attachment of any of these stones
to a shaft or handle; there are yet no barbed or headed points. This
industry gradually blends into the first of the Upper Stone Age
industries, the Aurignacian.
For many thousands of years these Neanderthal men dwelt throughout
Europe. This long stay must have brought forth a distinct evolution
from lower to higher types, and into numerous varieties. These
variations we find in the skeletal remains, ranging from the primitive
Gibraltar skull and Krapina bones to the skeleton Spy II, more like the
modern races. The height remained fairly constant. As to what became of
the race, authorities differ. Hrdlicka and others hold that they partly
evolved into the lowest races of _Homo sapiens_, the thinking man, to
which modern races belong; that they contributed to the Brunn and other
races of the Upper Old Stone Age times, and even to the higher race of
the Cro-Magnons, which succeeded them. These scientists also hold that
traces of Neanderthal blood and physiognomy are present in some modern
Europeans. On the other side of the question stands H. F. Osborn, the
distinguished American anthropologist, and a number of followers. These
hold that the Neanderthals represent a side branch of the human race,
which became wholly extinct in western Europe.
The evidence undoubtedly points to a sudden racial change, more abrupt
than any other known, at the end of the Mousterian culture. Apparently
the Neanderthals disappeared bodily, to be replaced everywhere by the
Cro-Magnon race. From geological evidence, the date of this transition
is usually placed at between 20,000 and 25,000 years before our era.
No trace of the pure Neanderthals has been found in any of the Upper
Old Stone Age burial places; nor is there definite proof that the
Neanderthal influence appears in any later race. It may have been
that, during the rigor of the Fourth Glacial Period, the Neanderthals
were degenerating physically and industrially. In any event, toward
the end of the Lower Old Stone Age a new race entered Europe, a race
highly superior. Probably the new race competed for a time with the
Neanderthals, before they drove them out of the country, or killed them
in battle. The Neanderthals must have fought with wooden weapons and
with the stone-headed dart and spear, but there is no evidence that
they used the bow and arrow. There is a possibility that the newly
arrived Cro-Magnon race possessed this superior weapon; a barbed
arrow or spear-head appears in drawings of a later stage of Cro-Magnon
culture, the Magdalenean. In any case, the Neanderthals virtually
disappeared.
We are guided here by the evidence of skeletal and stone remains,
which in general are more trustworthy than early written records. Yet
these remains depend upon human interpretation, which is liable to
long error. Darwin thus attached no significance to the Neanderthal
skull, considering that it could not have been _Pre-Homo sapiens_
in part because of its large brain capacity. Written records are at
least as deceptive. The ancient historical writings of the Hebrews
state repeatedly that all of the primitive inhabitants of Canaan were
wiped out: “Joshua left none remaining; he utterly destroyed all that
breathed” (Joshua 10:40) sums up the story. The group of historical
books commencing with Judges tells a different story: “And it came to
pass, after the death of Joshua, that the children of Israel asked of
Jehovah, saying, Who shall go up for us first against the Canaanites,
to fight against them? And Jehovah said, Judah shall go up.... And
Jehovah was with Judah, and he drove out the inhabitants of the
hill-country; for he could not drive out the inhabitants of the valley,
because they had chariots of iron.” (Judges, 1:1, 2, 19.) This apparent
contradiction is capable of simple explanation. In this case, there was
no central organized government among the Canaanites, as far as can be
ascertained; the first kingdom was established some years after the
conquest by the victorious Israelites. Accordingly, even members of the
conquered race would desire to forget their kinship with the conquered,
and claim membership with the conquerors; until the story became
current that all of the first inhabitants had been destroyed.
This errancy of written records does not apply with equal force to
the records of anthropological remains. At the same time, a caution
must be observed. It is hardly conceivable that the lower race
could be entirely destroyed; there would in all probability be some
intermarriage, or some enslavement of the women at least of the
Neanderthals, who would bring forth offspring mingling the racial
streams. A wholesale destruction is only conceivable, if there were so
much physical difference between the races that the conquerors could
not bring themselves to mate with the vanquished. We know that the
Neanderthals were a squatting race, whose heads were always stooped;
there is evidence that they were an excessively hairy race. These
factors would decrease the probability of widespread intermingling.
Perhaps a dim racial remembrance of this bent, hairy race remains in
the ogre of folk fairy tales. Some mating must have taken place; future
excavations may bring to light intermediate types, future researches
may find in living European veins some trace of this first race whose
widespread occupancy of western Europe is shown by the enduring record
of the stones.