WHOLE VOL. SKELETAL REMAINS OF EARLY MAN HRDLICKA 339 



Vol. I, p. 223).* Thus archeology fails also, as did paleontology and 

 geology, in isolating Neanderthal man, and in separating him from 

 the succeeding forms of humanity. 



THE SKELETAL REMAINS 



The crucial part of the whole question of Neanderthal man is, how- 

 ever, that of the evidence of the skeletal material, for it is essentially 

 upon this that the separateness and discontinuance of the Neanderthal 

 type of man has been based. It would probably be easy to harmonize 

 all the rest of the differences between Neanderthal and later man with 

 the idea of a simple evolution and transmission, were it not for the 

 obstacle of the Neanderthal man's skulls and bones. These impress 

 one by such marked differences from those of any later man, that a 

 bridging over of the gap has, to many, seemed impossible. 



It will be well in this connection to contrast the Neanderthal re- 

 mains with those from the Acheulian on one side, and those from the 

 Aurignacian and the following periods on the other. The results are 

 unexpected. There is nothing authentic from Acheulian times ; and 

 there is less, in the number of finds, from the Aurignacian than there 

 is from the Mousterian period. Moreover, what there is from the 

 Aurignacian is found, on consulting the details of the discoveries, 

 to be essentially middle and upper, rather than the most needed early 

 Aurignacian. The data leave a strong impression that the material, 

 and especially that from the earlier portion of the Aurignacian period, 

 is still far from sufficient for drawing from it any far-reaching 

 deductions. 



Taking the Neanderthal remains by themselves, we find that, not- 

 withstanding their defects, they constitute a very respectable array 

 of precious material. Let us see what it teaches. If we placed all 

 this material on a table before us, ranged by the date of discovery, 

 we should see a remarkable assembly of more or less deficient or 

 fragmentary skulls, jaws, and bones, with a good number of loose 

 teeth, the specimens differing widely in color, weight, state of 

 petrifaction, and in principal morphological characters. We should 

 \ye struck by the prevailing aspect of age and somatological inferiority 

 of the material, but the arrangement would soon prove unsatisfactory 

 and we should ])roceed to another. As there is not enough for a 



' " In size of brain Neanderthal man was not a low form. His skill as a flint- 

 artisan shows that his abihties were not of a low order. He had fire at his com- 

 mand, he buried his dead, he had a distinctive and highly evolved form of cul- 

 ture — Neanderthal man was certainly not a dawn form of humanity." 



