Fig. 13. A prepared-core tool, with a single large flake detached from a preshaped 
core. Tools such as this begin to be found at around 300—200 kyr ago. Scale is 1 cm. 
The Neanderthals, quite abundantly known at sites from the At- 
lantic to Uzbekistan, and from Wales to Gibraltar and the Levant, 
were hominids with brains as large as our own (see review by Tat- 
tersall, 1995b). Those brains were, however, housed in differently 
shaped skulls, with long, low braincases and faces that protruded in 
the midline and that swept back toward the sides (fig. 14). These 
distinctive hominids emerged around 200 kyr ago and crafted stone 
tools beautifully but, as the French archaeologist Francois Bordes 
once remarked, “‘stupidly.’’ By this he meant that the productions 
of the Neanderthals, skillful as they were (we would be hard put to 
match their craftsmanship) were rather monotonous, in the sense that 
Fig. 14. Cranium of a well-preserved adult Neanderthal from La Ferrassie, France 
(MH La Ferrassie 1). Probably around 70 kyr old. Scale is 1 cm. 
ug 
