3IO SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL.83 



Explorations in Palestine, thus auspiciously initiated, will continue ; 

 some new undertakings are in fact now (early in 1929) under way 

 under the leadership of Miss Garrod ; and Palestine, with other parts 

 of Asia Minor, may give much that will complement, and perhaps help 

 us to better understand, conditions in western Europe. 



THE ROME SKULL 



The specimen was found by laborers, in April, 1929, in a breccia- 

 filled cave, located about 3 km. from the Porta Pia. It was extracted 

 by the foreman and placed by the owner, Duke Grazioli, in the 

 Anthropological Institute of the University at Rome. The skull was 

 embedded in the breccia and before it was recognized it was damaged 

 by the workmen, particularly in the most interesting region, that of 

 the supraorbital arch, of which nothing remains. The lower jaw is 

 missing. 



A preliminary study of the specimen by S. Sergi * indicates that 

 it is the skull of a female about 30 years of age, of cranial capacity 

 not exceeding 1,200 cc, with low vault, relatively large size of the 

 facial parts compared to the brain case, and marked total facial prog- 

 nathism. In general the skull shows the well-known Neanderthal 

 type ; the third molars, however, are smaller than the first and second 

 (which are equal). 



The cave and the further undisturbed site of the find were care- 

 fully examined. The breccia filling the cave is of alluvial origin. It 

 has yielded in the course of the excavations various bones of extinct 

 animals, including Elcphas antiquus. Hippopotamus major, RJiinoccros 

 merckii, Ccrvus claplms, Bos primigcnius, and others. There are no 

 worked stones. The human skull proceeds in all probability from an 

 individual coeval with these forms. The age of the breccia and its 

 contents is referred to as mid-Quaternary and last (Riss-Wiirm) 

 interglacial, which seems incongruous, but is connected doubtless 

 with some local views of the ice period. 



THE LA NAULETTE JAW 



The La Naulette jaw was found in 1866 by Edouard Dupont in 

 the cave of La Naulette, Belgium, together with an ulna and a few 

 other fragments of human bones. The find was reported and the 

 bones described by Dupont in the Bulletin de 1 'Academie Royale de 



'Discovery of a cranium of Neanderthal type near Rome (in Italian). By 

 Sergi (S.) — Riv. Antrop., 1929, Vol. 28; repr. 9 pp.,' 2 pis. 



