114 
NATURE 
[Aprit 4, 1912 
MAN OF NEANDERTHAL ING AD) JON IEUE, 
CAMBRIDGE FENS. 
TT°HE bones of primeval nian are so rare, and 
there is so much uncertainty as to the mode 
of occurrence and association of the earlier speci- 
mens, that it is important to place on record any 
new case which may be brought under our notice. 
I have had the good fortune lately to assist in 
digging out the skeleton of a man whose skull 
was distinctly of Neanderthal type. In this case 
I think I am justified in using that name, because 
as much as was preserved of the Neanderthal 
man is represented in the skull now described, 
and is similar to it. 
We cannot compare the Neanderthal man, 
whose lower jaw was lost, with the man of Mauer, 
near Heidelberg, of whom only the lower jaw has 
been preserved. But we have the lower jaw of 
the man found near Shippea Hill in the Cambridge 
Fens, and it differs in essential characters from 
that of Mauer. The skull of the Shippea man 
differs also in form from those of Sainte Chapelle, 
described by M. Marcellin Boule. The general 
section across the ground is as shown in Fig. 1. 
An island of Kimeridge Clay, known as Shippea 
Hill, rises out of the fen about 3 miles E.S.E. of 
Littleport, and on it a farm represents the site, 
and preserves some of the ancient masonry, of a 
monastic retreat connected with Ely. 
Fic. 1.—Shippea Hill. 
a, Kimeridge clay; 4, 
marl; ¢, Buttery clay ; +, position of skeleton. 
gravel; c, peat; @, white 
On the Littleport side the peat, with beds of 
white marl in it, rests at a depth of from 4 to 6 
feet on a blue-grey fine unctuous clay, which we 
refer to as the Buttery Clay. This contains large 
shells of the common cockle with valves adherent, 
Tellina (Tacoma) balthica, Scrobicularia piperata, 
and other estuarine shells, and, in the peat above 
it, bones of the Urus, wild boar, and beaver 
have been found. 
On the south side of Shippea Hill the section is 
much the same, but here we have not, so far, 
found the estuarine shells in the Buttery Clay. 
Freshwater shells occur commonly in the white 
marl and less commonly in the peat. 
The skeleton was found in digging trenches 
through the peat in order to obtain the under- 
lying clay to lay on the land, so that a clean cut 
was made down to the Buttery Clay in each 
trench. 
Mr. Luddington, to whom the property belongs, 
and Mrs. Luddington, who has a collection of 
objects from the fens, informed us of the dis- 
covery, and gaye us every facility for investigating 
the circumstances on the spot at once. We were 
thus able to examine the section and collect a 
large number of the fragments of the skull and 
other bones of the skeleton which had been over- 
looked at first. 
The skeleton was found between Shippea Hill 
NO. 2214, VOL. 89| 
Farm and the railway, about 4 feet down in the 
peat, and a few inches above the Buttery Clay. 
It was bunched up so that all the bones were 
packed into a space not more than two feet 
square. It looked as if the man had been mired 
and sunk straight down exhausted, and not as if 
a dead body had been carried down by water. 
The character of the peat also precludes this sup- 
position, for it is peat grown on the spot, and 
not travelled peat, though in that often-flooded 
area it readily becomes sludge, and penetrates into 
any cavity. I lay stress upon this point because 
I know from my own experience in excavations 
that there are sources of error in speculations as 
to the original form of fossil skulls. 
If a sepulchral urn has not been tightly filled 
before interment, and the interior is capable of 
compression, it 1s commonly crushed, or, if not 
well fired, squeezed out of shape, without much 
fracture, and on drying retains its flattened form. 
Skulls also, if buried under conditions which do 
not allow of their being filled pari passw with the 
disappearance of the organic matter inside, are 
sometimes, of course, crushed flat, but sometimes 
only deformed by the pressure, and, when dried, 
appear to be of abnormal shape. In _ the 
example now described, however, the peat filled 
the skull and preserved its form against the small 
pressure of the overlying spongy material. Un- 
fortunately it got broken in the first excavation, 
but the fragments were not deformed, and readily 
fell into their place in the rotundity of the cranium. 
It has now been skilfully restored by Mr. C. E. 
Gray, and I hope on a future occasion to be able 
to offer a full description of it by an expert. 
I will only point out now that it is a good round 
skull, somewhat largely developed posteriorly, 
but not elongated into a conical projection in the 
occipital region. . It agrees very well in its norma 
verticalis with the Neanderthal skull. (See 
Fig. 2.) 
The most conspicuous feature is the prominent 
brow, its strong supraciliary ridges and flattened 
forehead bringing it again into comparison with 
the Neanderthal skull. (See Fig. 3, side view, 
and Fig. 4, front view.) 
There is very little of the face or upper jaw 
preserved. The lower jaw of the Neanderthal 
man is missing; so here our comparison with that 
example ends. In the Shippea Hill man the lower 
jaw (see Fig. 5)* is well preserved. It does not 
show the flat or receding chin of the Mauer jaw 
or of some of those recently described by M. 
Marcellin Boule. The teeth are large, strong, 
and sound, but curiously worn down obliquely on 
the outer margin, as if the upper jaw had been 
somewhat broader than the lower. 
Here, therefore, is a man whose skull shows 
all the characteristics of that of Neanderthal, in- 
cluding the prominent supraciliary ridges, but 
having in addition a powerful lower jaw, and 
large terminations to his limb bones, and found 
undoubtedly im the peat of the fens. 
1 The drawings Figs. 1 to 5 are by the skilful and experienced pencil of 
Mr. Edwin Wilson. 
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