Chapter IV: 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.