340 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL.83 



geographical subdivision, it would be logical to try next an arrange- 

 ment of the specimens by their antiquity, from the oldest to the latest. 

 The indications are that the Mousterian period was a long one, and 

 of three cultural stages — the inferior, middle, and superior. We 

 should like, therefore, at least to arrange our material by these stages. 



But we strike at once great difficulties. The very type-specimen 

 of the lot, the Neanderthal skeleton, lacks direct chronological identi- 

 fication. There were neither animal nor industrial remains with it, 

 or, if there were, they were not saved. Everything indicates that it 

 is very old : physically it is in every one of its parts a prototype of 

 Mousterian man ; chronologically it may be even pre-Mousterian. 

 Similar and other difficulties confront us in the case of the first 

 Gibraltar skull and the Baiiolas jaw, the important Krapina remains, 

 and the Ehringsdorf jaws ; and it is not certain just where within the 

 period to place most of the remaining specimens. The final conclusion 

 is that, if the eyes are shut to the somatological characters of the re- 

 mains, a satisfactory chronological grading of them becomes very 

 difficult and uncertain. 



The state of preservation or petrifaction of the remains is a 

 question of local geophysics and geochemistry, and therefore incapable 

 of giving any fair basis for classification. Thus there remain only 

 the somatological characteristics of the skulls and bones themselves, 

 and the endeavor to arrange them on this basis proves of much interest. 



The general physical characters of the Neanderthal race have been 

 more or less summed up by a number of eminent anatomists and 

 anthropologists, including especially Schwalbe, Boule, Keith, and 

 Sollas. The main features of the average Neanderthaler are therefore 

 fairly well known. They include a moderate stature, heavy build, and 

 a good-sized, rather thick, oblong skull, with pronounced supraorbital 

 torus, low forehead, low vault, protruding occiput, large, full upper 

 maxilla, large nose, large teeth and a large, more or less heavy lower 

 jaw with receding chin. To which may be added stout bones of the 

 skeleton, particularly the ribs and the bones of the lower part of the 

 body, femora and tibiae with heavy articular extremities, the tibia 

 relatively short and with head more than now inclined backward, a 

 peculiar astragalus, and a variety of secondary primitive features. 

 To this generalized type some of the specimens conform, it is soon 

 seen, much more than others. It is realized that the general conception 

 of the type has been built up essentially on the Neanderthal, Spy 

 No. I, the La Chapelle and the adult La Quina skulls and skeletons, 

 but that from this generalization there are many aberrations. 



