THE HUMAN BACKGROUND 



435 



possibly he is an ancestor of the men of Neanderthal, his succes- 

 sors. (Fig. 279.) 



5. Neanderthal Man 



The remains of Neanderthal man, Homo neanderthalensis, 

 appear in the caverns or rock shelters of Europe several hundred 

 thousand years after the Heidel- 

 berg man. The history of man 

 during the vast interim has not 

 yet been revealed, but we must 

 suppose that he persisted precar- 

 iously through the intermittent 

 periods of glaciation during the 

 great ice ages. Indeed, the Nean- 

 derthal race may have diverged 

 early in the Pleistocene, but it 

 flourished in the last interglacial 

 and the early part of the last 

 glacial epoch. It appears to have 

 sprung from an earlier stock of 

 which the Java and Peking men 

 were members. (Fig. 272.) 



Neanderthal man is known to 

 us from many skeletons, one of 

 the earliest in point of discovery 

 being found in the Neander 

 Valley, near Dusseldorf, Ger- 

 many, in 1857, and one of the 

 most recent in the Cave of 



Fig. 280. - - Skeleton of Neander- 

 thal Man (A), Homo neanderthalensis, 

 compared with that of a living native 

 Robbers near Jerusalem. The Australian (B), Homo sapiens; the 

 men of Neanderthal averaged latter the lowest existing race. (After 



, . n n o • i • Woodward.) 



about live feet, lour inches m 



height and were stocky and powerful. They probably walked with 



a shuffling, slouching gait since curved thigh bones and imperfect 



curvatures of the spine show that the limbs were habitually bent 



at hip and knee. A large head with heavy jaws was supported 



by powerful neck muscles. (Fig. 280.) 



The skull is notable for its size but the cranium is low and the 



forehead retreats from a continuous brow-ridge that is distinctive 



of the race. The large brain is relatively simple compared with 



