532 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1961 



was found 81/^ feet lower in the cave deposit than Shanidar I (and 

 some distance to the west) and on this basis is judged to be 10,000 to 

 15,000 years older (Solecki, 1960a and b). One no longer expects to 

 discover an evolutionary change in skull form in such a short period of 

 time, so interest now centers on learning more about individual vari- 

 ability in those ancient times (in this case up to about 60,000 years 

 ago). The roughly contemporaneous Mount Carmel Neanderthals 

 of Palestine were found by McCown and Keith (1939) to be so vari- 

 able that these authors considered them to be in "the throes of evolu- 

 tionary change." The writer, on the other hand, has argued (1960) 

 that the Mount Carmel remains represent two very different isolates, 

 one of which was present at Shanidar. This is based mostly on a 

 peculiarity of the pubic bone, a part unfortunately not recovered in 

 the case of Shanidar II. In view of these diverse opinions, and con- 

 sidering that Shanidar cave is located in a mountainous area 

 (virtually a refuge area), it is of current interest to know whether 

 or not Shanidar presents a parallel to Mount Carmel in individual 

 variability. 



The results of my present investigation lead me to conclude that 

 the first two Shanidar skulls are remarkably alike in features unaf- 

 fected by age changes. Both appear to be almost classic Neander- 

 thals; also, both possess a curious feature — depression of the nasal 

 floor — which thus far appears to be unique to the inhabitants of this 

 cave. I am immensely impressed that this unique feature occurs in 

 two skulls from the same place but so widely separated in time. I am 

 much less impressed by the accompanying variations in such things 

 as mastoid size, face flatness, etc. Variations of the latter sort, like 

 differences in stature, occur in every population and are too often 

 given undue emphasis when observed in isolated ancient specimens. 



The Fourth Shanidar Expedition discovered remains of other Nean- 

 derthals from both levels before this report was completed. This 

 new material should add more to our knowledge of the variability of 

 the local population at each time period. Unfortunately, however, 

 experience shows that much time and effort will have to be expended 

 on restoration and study before the information from this source will 

 be forthcoming. For the present, therefore, the evidence indicates 

 that the Shanidar Neanderthals retained an almost classic skull form 

 from about 60,000 years ago until about 45,000 years ago, when the 

 Mousterian cultural period ended and, as far as we know, the type 

 disappeared. 



LITERATURE CITED 



McCowN, Theodore D., and Keith, Sir Akthue. 



1939. The stone age of Mount Carmel. The fossil human remains from 

 the Lavalloiso-Mousterian, vol. 2, xxiv-j-390 pp., pis. 1-28, Oxford. 



