Branches Of The Genetic Tree

Today I conclude this look at Neanderthals, and tomorrow I'll start taking you elsewhere in the Museum of History.

This is the fossilized skeleton of a Neanderthal male, whose remains and the tools with him proved that Neanderthals walked upright, just like us.

All of us are branches on the same genetic tree, and for homo sapiens and Neanderthals, that included contact.

This painting, Stone Age Abduction, still plays to the old stereotypes about Neanderthals. Paul Jamin painted it in the 19th century, so the stereotypes were to be expected.

A series of displays show statistics on various species of the human genetic tree.

DNA analysis is examined at a spot near the end of the exhibit. Science now looks at Neanderthals in a very different light. 

One of the things I found particularly interesting was at the lower left. Science has been able to determine how three vowels would have sounded being pronounced by Neanderthals, based on study of the vocal tract. These vowels sound a bit different than how we pronounce them, but not that different. If you're of European descent, you're going to have anywhere up to 5 percent Neanderthal in your genetic background. They interbred with us, and in doing so went into decline. And yet because of that interbreeding, they live on in us.

Leaving the exhibit, we're left with this question.

 A final display is a forensic reconstruction by Elizabeth Daynes. This is a Neanderthal woman given the name Kinga.

Kinga looks quite friendly, and quite contemporary.

A Changing View Of Neanderthals

Panels and artifacts in the Neanderthal exhibit continue to shed a different view of the species.

A video display was on rotation, examining a site in France.

Here are images from the video.

The realization that Neanderthals buried their dead started a shift in thinking.

Were they artists?

A different take on the Neanderthal is displayed here with a cranium. Less of a brute and more of a person.

Stereotypes And Shifting Thinking

As scientists of the 19th century and beyond uncovered Neanderthal sites, it was left to artists to interpret what they would have looked like. More often than not, the sub-human, savage, dull witted interpretation won out.

This painting is called Neanderthal Flintworkers, a 1924 mural by Charles Knight.

The Field Museum in Chicago has, over time, changed dioramas about Neanderthals to reflect new thinking.

Today I finish with two cranium sections for comparison. Both have significance in the field of paleoanthropology.

The Misperceptions About A Species

Apologies for my prolonged absence from many of your blogs; I'm away from home at the moment, and for good measure have been under the weather. I will try to catch up.

One of the prevailing images of the Neanderthal is the idea of the club. It's been seen time and time again in pop culture, art, and advertising, such as this ad from 1940. I like the role reversal of the usual stereotype.

Or in the case of a Buster Keaton film.

Guess what? There's no evidence in Neanderthal sites that clubs were ever used.

Spears, however, were. The displays go into detail on the misinterpretations of these people that have been going on since their first discovery.

For today I leave off with these skulls for comparison.

Neanderthal Toolmakers And Architects

The exhibit on Neanderthals examined their techniques on toolmaking, including specific pieces in display cases.

A small replica you could touch fascinated me: an enclosure of mammoth bones found in Moldova in 1928. It would be a formidable defensive structure and an unusual place to call a home.

This is a reconstruction of a Neanderthal cave habitat, based on a Spanish site that was inhabited 56 000 years ago.