THE BRAIN OF PREHISTORIC MAN 897 



villagf of La Chapclk' au\ Samts, the skeleton ol a prniiiti\ f man. 1 he body 

 rested upon its back with its head toward tlie west, its leiis, thighs and lore- 

 arms llexecL The head had l)een espcciallx protected b\ Hat stones and many 

 skillliillx workt'd Hints ot the Mousterian period snrrouiuK'd the skehlon. 

 Thi'ri' was e\erv e\idenee ol interment and burial ceremony about thisdiscov- 

 ery. Prolessor Boule ol the National Museum ol Natural Historx in Paris 

 conelutk'd that the skek-ton was that ol a man about middle age, belonging 

 to the Neanderthal race. In its dimensions the skull exceeds those ol an a\eragc 

 modern man, ha\ ing tlu' exceptional capacity oi 1600 c.c, which is at least 

 120 c.c. abo\e the- modern axt'rage. But the skull w as distinetlx low \aulted 

 and had an apt'-hke supraorbital torus with low receding brow. The t'lido- 

 cranial cast ol the La Chapi'lk- man scr\es especiall\ well to gi\e us an accur- 

 ate \iew of the Neanderthal brain (,Figs. 382 to 387). 



I-F..\Tl'RES E\IDE\T IX THE CAST OF THE NEANDERTHAL SKILL FROM LA 



CHAPELLE AL'X SAINTS 



This cast shows those teatures which might i)e presumed from the 

 Neaiukrthal skull. The shape ol the bram is distinctly Hat. That arching in 

 the region ol the \'ertt'\ so promuunt m Homo sapiens and at least slightly 

 foreshadowed in the brain ol |)it hecanthropus, as wt'll as in tiie Dawn man 

 ol Piltdown, IS remarkably absent, in a portion ol this are which allects the 

 prefrontal region, the eurxt- actuall\ seems to sink inward. W itli all propcT 

 allowances lor disere|)anc\ m reconstruction, it is nevertheless certain that 

 the vertical areas ol this bram ha\e adapted tluinselves to a flattened head. 

 Ihis observation is j^art leularly pertiiunt from the fact that it is the brain 

 which m tlu' mam appears to determine the shape of the skull. Doubtless 

 there is an Interplay of factors in this growth relation, l^ut the cerebrum Is 

 the essential organ ol the cranium and its developmental demands are of 

 ehiel moment during the im|)ortant lormative period. It is the shape of the 



