326 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 83 



The stature of the Neanderthal man, compared to the modern, was 

 mostly short to submedium, rarely reaching medium. 



Proportions. — The Neanderthal man had probably a short but 

 stouter neck and a larger thorax than the man of the present day. He 

 was also, in the males at least, strongly to heavily muscular. His limbs, 

 particularly the lower extremities, were rather short. His hands and 

 feet were broad (rather than long) and strong. 



It is doubtful if the Neanderthal man walked as perfectly erect as 

 man of today. 



WcigJit. — Judging from the very stout walls of his long bones and 

 the indicated stoutness of his muscles, the Neanderthal man weighed 

 probably more in relation to stature than man weighs today; but 

 there were also weaker and lighter individuals. 



Critical Considerations of the Neanderthal Problem ' 



The characteristics and taxonomy of the Neanderthal man have 

 been written about most extensively, but often wath but little origi- 

 nality. New finds belonging to his family have become numerous — 

 almost more numerous than legitimate new thoughts. Today it is no 

 more the question of a single or a couple of Neanderthal skulls, as 

 in the time of Darwin, but of u large and important section of man's 

 antiquity, documented ever more geologically, paleontologically, and 

 anthropologically. But the distressing part is that the more there is, 

 the less prehistory seems to know what to do with it. Of speculations 

 there have been indeed enough, but most of them so far have lead not 

 into the sunlight but rather into a dark, blind alley from which there 

 appears no exit. 



The generalized present doctrine about Neanderthal man may best 

 be seen from the following brief quotations, taken from five of the 

 most recent and representative authors, two paleontologists, one an 

 anatomist, and two prehistorians : 



Marcellin Boule {Fossil Men, 1923, pp. 242-43) : 



Homo ncandcrthalensis is an archaic species of man. It was abruptly followed 

 by the Aurignacians, " who differed from the Mousterians as much in their 

 superior culture as in the superiority or diversity of their physical characters." 



M. C. Burkitt {Prehistory, 1921, p. 90) : 



The race who made this culture (Mousterian) was of a low type known as 

 the Neanderthal race. This appears to have been a throw back in the line of 

 evolution of mankind, and this retrograde sport seems to have had no successor. 



' In the preparation of this section the writer has drawn freely on his The 

 Neanderthal Phase of Man, The Huxley Memorial Lecture for 1927, Journ. Roy. 

 Anthrop. Inst., pp. 249-274, Dec, 1927. Reprinted in Ann. Rep. Smithsonian 

 Inst, for 1928, 1929. 



