The most ancient skeletal remains of man / by A. Hrdlička.

  • Alex Hrdlicka
Date:
1914
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The most ancient skeletal remains of man / by A. Hrdlička. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    flakes of quartz and flint, some fragments of ochre, broken animal bones, etc., much as in the rest of the archeological stratum above the skeleton. There was no indication that the deposits in the cave have been moved in any way since the burial of the human body. To the right of the fossa containing the skeleton there was an abundance of large fragments of various animal bones, of jaws and vertebrae of the rein- deer, and vertebrae of a large Bovid, with some well-made implements of flint. The last-named vertebrae and the flint implements were covered by two large blocks of stone; and above these stones, at the side wall of the cave, the earth showed the effects of fire, but it was not possible to determine whether this was of the same date as the deposits or the human burial beneath. Notwithstanding the care taken in the excavation some parts of the human skeleton were lost. What remains comprises the skull, almost complete, with the lower jaw; 21 vertebrae or pieces of same; 20 ribs or their fragments; an incomplete left clavicle; the two humeri, almost complete; the two radii and the two ulnae, all more or less defective; a few bones of the hands and feet; portions of the pelvic bones, fragments of the right femur (from which it is possible to reconstruct the bone) and the lower half of the left femur; the two patellae, and parts of the tibiae. The state of preservation of the specimens is exactly like that of the animal bones recovered from the deposits above the burial fossa. They are ferruginous in color, heavier than any corresponding recent human bones and very perceptibly mineralized. Due to the kindness of Prof. Boule the writer was enabled in 1912 to see the originals of the Chapelle-aux-Saints skeleton. At that time, however. Prof. Boule’s investigations on the specimens were not yet completed, in consequence of which it was not possible to undertake any detailed study on the bones, but even a brief examina- tion was sufficient to impress one deeply, particularly in the case of the skull, with the great scientific value of the remains. They repre- sent unquestionably another precious addition to the rapidly aug- menting material evidence of the highly interesting type of ancient man, the Homo neanderthalensis. Since the writer’s visit to the Paris Museum, Prof. Boule’s reports on the La Chapelle skeleton have been published in full. With these well-illustrated reports as well as a plaster model of the skull, and with what it was feasible to observe on the originals, it is possible to give the following brief notes on these specimens. The La Chapelle skull, notwithstanding its many peculiarities, is plainly a normal specimen, not affected (except in the dental arches)