Page Six 



EVOLUTION 



TuLv, 1929 



The Lost Race of Neanderthal 



By EDWARD GRIEG CLEMMER 



T 



HE Neanderthal race lived in the middle of the 

 Old Stone Age, during the fourth glacial epoch 

 when Northern Europe and England were covered 

 with ice. In the arctic cold that swept down through 

 Europe lived such animals as the lemming, muskrat 

 and arctic fox, while the mammoth, 

 wooly rhinoceros and reindeer roamed 

 over England and France. 



The rigorous winters drove Nean- 

 defthal man to the shelter of caves, 

 making the preservation of his re- 

 mains more certain. In summer, of 

 course, he Hved outdoors. Neander- 

 thal man was also first to bury his 

 dead, again insuring that his remains 

 would be found by later generations. 



The first Neanderthal skull, found 

 at Gibraltar in 1848, got little atten- 

 tion. In 1856 another was found in a 

 small limestone grotto in the Neander 

 Valley, Germany, from which the race 

 received its name. Other remains have 

 since been found on the banks of the 

 Thames, the Somme, Rhine, Danube, 

 and Meuse, in Wales, France, Belg- 

 ium, Italy, Germany, Spain, Switzer- 

 land, Austria, Poland, Russia, Asia 

 Minor, Africa and Egypt, the wide distribution prov- 

 ing this to have been the dominant race of the time. 



As these remains run from small fragments to prac- 

 tically complete skeletons, our reconstructions are bas- 

 ed on facts. We do not have to rely on inferences 

 drawn from scanty fragments, as we have to with 

 earlier types of men. Here the whole story is laid 

 before your eyes. 



The race was short in stature, the men varying from 

 five feet to five feet, five inches. A lone female skele- 

 ton is four feet, ten inches tall. The skull is very large 

 for primitive men, with a cubical content almost equal- 

 ing oi:r own. The shape, however, is far from modern. 

 The upper borders of the eye sockets formed a high 

 ridge which must have given a very ape-like appear- 

 ance. Back of this ridge, the low forehead sloped back 

 very sharply. The front teeth, sloping forward, gave 

 him a protruding mouth, further emphasized by the 

 lack of a pointed chin. 



Below the incisor teeth of modern man are short 

 projections of bone which give 

 attachment to certain muscles 

 of the tongue. These muscles 

 give the tongue great flexibil- 

 ity and thus make for highly 

 developed speech. In the apes 

 these bones are merely slight- 

 ly rounded prominences. In 

 Neanderthal man they were ^ p^^^-, Neanderthal Skull- 



Neanderthal Man as 



Restored 

 by J. H. McGregor 



more highly developed, but 



not yet as long and sharp as in modern man. This 

 indicates a moderately developed organ of speech, per- 

 mitting only a partially complete language. 



The heavy, short backlione made only one curve 

 from hips to skull. Our own backbones have an S- 

 shape. a hollow at the small of the 

 back, a protrusion at the shoulders 

 and a hollow at the neck. All this 

 helps absorb the shock when we land 

 from a jump. The Neanderthaler had 

 to break the shock by letting his head 

 fall forward. Also the hole in the 

 floor of the skull through which the 

 spinal cord reaches the brain is set 

 farther back than in moderns. Evi- 

 dently, the neck sloped more to the 

 front than our own. From the way 

 the thigh bone met the shin and hip, 

 we also know that Neanderthal man 

 could not stand fully erect. 



Sir Arthur Keith has made the in- 

 teresting suggestion that perhaps the 

 Neanderthal type was due to some 

 peculiar working of the pituitary 

 gland. It is one of the endocrine 

 glands which secrete and pour into the 

 blood stream certain substances called 

 hormones, chemical messengers which stimulate other 

 parts of the body to do or develop in certain ways. 

 When the pituitary gland, situated at the base of the 

 brain, becomes enlarged in modern man. Neanderthal- 

 like characters are developed in exaggerated forms. 

 Hence Keith's suggestion that Neanderthal man was 

 a "hormone" product. 



The tools of this race give us an insight into their 

 everyday life. Their method of tool-making diiifered 

 from those of preceding races. Instead of chipping 

 down a large piece of flint to the desired form, the 

 Neanderthaler struck ofif a number of chips and then 

 selected the most likely, fashioned them further if need 

 be, or used them as they were. Though not an ad- 

 vancement in skill, this was a great time-saver. 



The two principal types of implements were the 

 point and the scraper. The point was shaped from a 

 triangular chip, the bulb end forming the base, the 

 two sides tapering to a well-defined point. The sides, 

 chipped finely, gave a single good cutting edge. The 

 base, also made thinner, sug- 

 gested that the points may 

 have been hafted. This imple- 

 ment served as drill, punch, or 

 point for knife or javelin. The 

 sharp edge was used for knife 

 blade, saw, or scraper. 



The scraper type was shap- 

 the Original and as Re- ^d from non-triangular chips. 

 constructed Larger and rounded or ob- 



