ABSTRACT
Classifying these European “special models”, the Neanderthals, is to a high degree an intellectual game. Since scholars spoke at an early stage of “Neanderthal Men,” the designation Homo sapiens neanderthalensis followed naturally. It, in turn, was replaced by the designation mostly used today-Homo neanderthalensis-which best represents the Neanderthal’s special position in human evolution. Even though the nomenclature of the “other” fossil humans-the Neanderthals-was not entirely clarified, an image of the primitive fellow from the Neander Valley was created early in the study of primitive humans. The anatomical peculiaritiesthick supraorbital ridges, powerful joints, and a large cranium-were already unquestioned as identifying features of the Neanderthal from the time of the first finds (Figure 1). Johann Carl Fuhlrott described the skeleton of the very first specimen as “giant bones,” and all other members of the species that have been found are just as massive. The striking form of the skull was so unusual that it would not be found again even in the “most primitive races,” opined Fuhlrott’s scholarly helper, Hermann Schaaffhausen. Thus it is hardly surprising that the first sketch of the Neanderthal from Mettmann, which Schaaffhausen commissioned, appeared a little raw and uncouth (Figure 3a). Curiosity about the appearance of our early fellow humans was too great to keep artists, scholars, and model-makers from giving the Neanderthal a face. For a long time the fossil human from the ice age had to endure the mistaken image of the brutal stone-age dolt, with lots of muscles but little by way of brains. To some extent that view still survives today. Only after new finds and reconstructions did the image of the “wild man” transform into that of a civilized ice-age neighbor of modern humans (Figure 3b).
