Still in our quest to understand our origins, we are brought face to face with a history of our very own lives. In the long standoff between the religious community and the scientific community, whereas religion has sought to keep up with the standards of the creation of man, science on the other hand, has taken no rest in undermining it. The tussle persists and so our story continues...
Sometime in the 18th century, some labourers blasted a cave at the Neander valley and with the hollow wonder laid a complete skeleton. The laborers had not seem to bother themselves with the findings as they were after something more valuable than the remains of a dead man. It was kept aside, and the quarry for valuables continued. The skeleton was kept by the owner of the quarry and life went on for a while. And soon enough, what remained of the bones, some bits of arms and legs, skullcap, pelvis and a few ribs, found its way to the Elberfield Natural Science Society and the president of the society, J. C Fuhlrott took a profound interest in the bones.
The bones were human, that could not be disputed. The ridge of the eyebrow were slanted and the limbs were thick and bent. That, at least was for sure. What was uncertain, however, was where and when exactly did this creature existed? Who was it? And how much did those scraps of bones had to say about when we had begun this journey of existence?
Fuhlrott did not hesitate to conclude after much observations that the individual had lived a long time ago and had probably been washed into a cave during the deluge. But, he wasn't quite keen on his conclusion so he called upon proffessor Schaaffhausen, a professor of anatomy.
The professor made his analysis:
...The cranium is of an unusual size, and of a long elliptical form. A most remarkable peculiarity is at once obvious in the extraordinary development of the frontal sinuses...the cavity holds 16,876 grains of water, whence its cubical contents may be estimated at 57.64 inches, or 1033.24 cubic centimeters. The content equalled 31 ounces, Prussian Apothecaries weight.
In his speculations, the professor deduced the bones belonged to one of the aboriginal people who occupied northern Europe before the Germans.
Others disagreed. Science is not a matter to be taken lightly and when it came to matters such as our origins, differing opinions were sure to fill the air.
Professor Andreas Wagner of Göttingen claimed it was a Dutch sailor. Dr. Pruner-Bey of Paris thought it was the remains of an old celt who perished during a tribal migration.
Schaaffhausen's colleague, Professor Robert Mayer speculated otherwise: A Mongolian Cossack killed in the early eighteenth century while Napoleon was being chased across the Rhine. This observation of his was because the ulna was bent inwards, a feature of a man who rode horses a lot. Therefore, it was a wounded soldier who crawled into a hole to die.
Director of the Berlin Pathological Institute, Rudolf Virchow, concluded after his studies of the specimen that the bones were not prehistoric but diseased by rickets thus explaining the bent femurs. The slanted brows above the eyes were as a result of arthritis and it was obvious that the individual had suffered a lot of blows on the head while he was alive since no one would bother to inflict such wounds on a dead man. He was also old, despite all his malformations, which pointed to the fact that he must have lived in settled community and since settled communities did not exist a long time ago, the bones therefore had to be recent. Much more recent.
The bones tell us more.
In 1957, the skeleton was reexamined and scrutinized much more diligently, subjected to various chemical, electronic and radioactive test, it was confirmed that he really suffered from arthritis of the jaw and spine and limbs but there was also a connection between the modern man and the Neanderthal man with a slight difference in posture. As for the culture of these creatures we shall discuss later, but one fact is obvious, they had a way of doing things themselves, almost as well as we do.
We are therefore left with the questions of what became of this race. Did they vanish? Were they extinguished? Did they merge with another race? Soviets peharps or American?
However, there are speculations that the Neanderthals still exists among us, taking up refuge in mountains and deserts. It is quite possible that the race would have survived and evolved and even if they hadn't, their charactestics must have endured the corrosion of time and even in the most speckful of reasoning, it is possible that an isolated race exists, cut off from the modern man. Big foot perhaps? Large hairy cannibals with an angled shaped skull? We cannot say for sure. But according to Evan. S. Connell in his book the White Lantern:
....these people we faintly abhor and seldom think about, yet who seem always to be not far away.
