Hermann Schaaffhausen

“ Whilst at Schwaan the bones were deposited in a Germanic grave of stone, and consequently are brought into relation with the historical period, the bones from Plau, on the contrary, were merely laid in the sand, together with implements of bone of the rudest kind. The Minsk skull, in like manner, was found in the sand of an ancient river-bed. But the human bones and cranium from the Neanderthal exceed all the rest in those peculiarities of conformation which lead to the conclusion of their belonging to a barbarous and savage race. ”

“ Nor should we be justified in regarding the cranial conformation as perhaps representing the most savage primitive type of the human race, since crania exist among living savages, which, though not exhibiting such a remarkable conformation of the forehead, which gives the skull somewhat the aspect of that of the large apes, still in other respects, as for instance in the greater depth of the temporal fossse, the crest-like, prominent temporal ridges, and a generally less capacious cranial cavity, exhibit an equally low stage of development. ”

“ In many instances, also, in which human bones, taken as the oldest traces of the existence of our race on the earth, have been found intermixed with those of extinct animals, they have exhibited an undeveloped primitive form of the cranium. Among the crania collected by Schlotheim in the gypsum caves near Köstritz, Link found one with a remarkably flattened forehead. In a bone-cavern in Brazil, Lund discovered human crania mixed with the bones of extinct animals, in which the forehead receded on a level with the face—a formation which is also represented in ancient Mexican pictures. ”

“ The skull is quite symmetrical, and shows no indication of counter-pressure at the occiput, whilst, according to Morton, in the Flat-heads of the Columbia, the frontal and parietal bones are always unsymmetrical. Its conformation exhibits the sparing development of the anterior part of the head which has been so often observed in very ancient crania, and affords one of the most striking proofs of the influence of culture and civilization on the form of the human skull. ”

“ Now, when it is found from these numerous examples, that a marked prominence of the supraorbital region, traces of which can be perceived even at the present time, occurs most frequently in the crania of barbarous, and especially of northern races, to some of which a high antiquity must be assigned, it may fairly be supposed that a conformation of this kind represents the faint vestiges of a primitive type, which is manifested in the most remarkable manner in the Neanderthal cranium, and which must have given the human visage an unusually savage aspect. ”

“ In the early part of the year 1857, a human skeleton was discovered in a limestone cave in the Neanderthal, near Hochdal, between Düsseldorf and Elberfeld. Of this, however, I was unable to procure more than a plaster cast of the cranium taken at Elberfeld, from which I drew up an account of its remarkable conformation, which was, in the first instance, read on the 4th of February, 1857, at the meeting of the Lower Rhine Medical and Natural History Society, at Bonn. ”

“ In the skull from Plau, a portion of the upper jaw with the teeth, and the entire lower jaw, have been preserved; it is orthognathous. The bones are thick, but very light, and adhere strongly to the tongue. The muscular impressions on the occiput above the mastoid process are very strongly developed; the sutures are wholly unossified; the last upper molar on the right side has not yet come through the alveolus; the teeth are worn away, the entire crown in some of the molars having disappeared; the lower canine teeth are far larger than the incisors, and project in front of the row of teeth ”

“ Human skeletons in the squatting posture have been found in ancient graves in France and Germany, as well as in Scandinavia. Tschudi, it is well known, brought mummies of this kind from Peru; and Trogon observed the same thing in the most ancient burial-places in the Canton Wallis. The skulls from Plau and the frontal bone from Schwaan, which present a conformation resembling that of the Neanderthal cranium, bear, however, but a distant resemblance to the two frontal bones from Pisede, also preserved in the Grand Duke's collection at Schwerin. ”

“ Of this cranium only the frontal and two parietal bones remain. The frontal is strongly depressed, the supraorbital ridges, including the border of the orbit, form prominent elevations; the two halves of the frontal bone are unequal, and the sagittal suture manifestly flattened. Dr. Kutorga considers it very probable that this conformation was brought about by artificial compression; but the figure which he gives does not convey the decided characters of an artificial deformity. The other skull, taken from an ancient sepulchral mound in the same region, exhibits a well-developed forehead ”

“ As we cannot now look upon the primitive world as representing a wholly different condition of things, from which no transition exists to the organic life of the present time, the designation of fossil, as applied to a bone, has no longer the sense it conveyed in the time of Cuvier. ”

“ It is certain that even in ancient times the various Germanic stocks, according as they retained their purity of race, or became blended with the remains of a primitive population, or even with Roman blood, and in proportion as they led a savage or more civilized mode of life, differed in corporeal constitution, as well as in the formation of the face and head. ”

“ It remains, consequently, a subject of the deepest importance for future discoveries to determine whether the conformation in question be merely an individual peculiarity, or a typical character. The peculiarity consists in a remarkable prominence or projection of the superciliary region of the forehead; for the enlargement in this part is so great, that it can hardly be described as limited to the superciliary ridges. Dr. Schaaffhausen appears to regard this extraordinary conformation as due to an expansion of the frontal sinuses. ”

“ The course of the frontal suture is indicated externally by a slight ridge; and where it joins the coronal, this ridge rises into a small protuberance. The course of the sagittal suture is grooved, and above the angle of the occipital bone the parietals are depressed. ”

“ As in the German traditions and tales, many traces of the mode of life of our ancestors have come down to us from heathen times, so also may the tradition respecting cannibalism, which, from Grimm's researches, though it appears as early as Homer in the history of Polyphemus, is also widely diffused in the legends of the Fins, Tartars, and Germans, have originated in the actual remembrance of that abominable practice. ”

“ V., fig. 6. ↑ In order to render the apparent resemblance between the Neanderthal cranium and that of the higher apes the more evident, we have given the outline of a corresponding portion of the skull of a Chimpanzee, in which the third molars are just appearing, and which will serve to show the remarkable similarity in contour, at any rate, between the two. The human cranium, it is hardly necessary to say, is represented half the size of nature, whilst that of the Chimpanzee is but slightly reduced, so as to bring it to the same comparative scale. ”

“ A left humerus, of which the upper-third is wanting, and which is so much slenderer than the right as apparently to belong to a distinct individual; a left ulna, which, though complete, is pathologically deformed, the coronoid process being so much enlarged by bony growth, that flexure of the elbow beyond a right angle must have been impossible; the anterior fossa of the humerus for the reception of the coronoid process being also filled up with a similar bony growth. ”

“ The fragments of crania from Schwaan and Plau, on account both of their anatomical conformation and of the circumstances under which they were found, may probably be assigned to a barbarous, aboriginal people, which inhabited the North of Europe before the Germani; and, as is proved by the discovery of similar remains at Minsk in Russia, and in the Neanderthal near Elberfeld, mnst have been extensively spread—being allied, as may be presumed from the form of the skull, with the aboriginal populations of Britain, Ireland, and Scandinavia. ”

“ Sufficient grounds exist for the assumption that man coexisted with the animals found in the diluvium; and many a barbarous race may, before all historical time, have disappeared, together with the animals of the ancient world, whilst the races whose organization is improved have continued the genus. The bones which form the subject of this Paper present characters which, although not decisive as regards a geological epoch, are, nevertheless, such as indicate a very high antiquity. ”

“ It has become a matter, therefore, among others, of extreme interest to determine how far it may be possible, from the scanty remains of his bones as yet discovered, to ascertain whether, and in what respects, the priscan race or races may have differed from those which at present inhabit the earth. ”

“ The figures, with the exception of the Chimpanzee skull, are all reduced to the same scale, or to half the natural size. They are all, excepting the front view of the Engis cranium, placed as nearly as possible in the same position, so that they admit of direct comparison. ”

“ A small cave or grotto, high enough to admit a man, and about 15 feet deep from the entrance, which is 7 or 8 feet wide, exists in the southern wall of the gorge of the Neanderthal, as it is termed, at a distance of about 100 feet from the Düssel, and about 60 feet above the bottom of the valley. ”

“ A small portion of another cranium, [42] found in a limestone quarry near Plymouth, at a depth of about six feet below the present turf, exhibits a different form; it is chiefly remarkable for the retreating forehead and the projection, without much thickening, of the supra- orbital ridges, the margin of the orbit being very acute. ”

“ The assumption that the eight bodies placed in the foundation belonged to a more ancient period than the principal corpse, is not justified by the more decayed condition of their bones, which obviously depends upon the way in which they were buried ”

“ They are remarkably small, globular, and almost round; the upper jaw and the nasal bones project considerably in front. They are chiefly distinguished from the skulls of other races by the low and much depressed forehead. Eschricht, as stated before, describes the skull from the Hünengräbern of Denmark in similar terms. ”

“ Veiel, disinterred some years since in Cannstadt, near the Uffkirche, and which were found in Germanic graves, together with earthenware vessels, weapons, and ornaments, none of which articles presented any trace of Roman art, are orthognathic, of an elongated form, with a much projecting occiput, large orbits, particularly from above downwards, the supraorbital ridges prominent, and the root of the nose hollowed. Five ancient Germanic skulls, from Selsen, preserved in the Romano-Teutonic Museum at Mayence, two of which are prognathic, present similar prominent supraorbital ridges ”