<< Our Photo Pages >> Neandertal bei Mettmann - Ancient Village or Settlement in Germany in North Rhine-Westphalia
Submitted by Andreas on Sunday, 19 June 2011 Page Views: 6681
Mesolithic, Palaeolithic and EarlierSite Name: Neandertal bei MettmannCountry: Germany Land: North Rhine-Westphalia Type: Ancient Village or Settlement
Nearest Town: Mettmann Nearest Village: Hochdahl
Latitude: 51.226940N Longitude: 6.950560E
Condition:
5 | Perfect |
4 | Almost Perfect |
3 | Reasonable but with some damage |
2 | Ruined but still recognisable as an ancient site |
1 | Pretty much destroyed, possibly visible as crop marks |
0 | No data. |
-1 | Completely destroyed |
5 | Superb |
4 | Good |
3 | Ordinary |
2 | Not Good |
1 | Awful |
0 | No data. |
5 | Can be driven to, probably with disabled access |
4 | Short walk on a footpath |
3 | Requiring a bit more of a walk |
2 | A long walk |
1 | In the middle of nowhere, a nightmare to find |
0 | No data. |
5 | co-ordinates taken by GPS or official recorded co-ordinates |
4 | co-ordinates scaled from a detailed map |
3 | co-ordinates scaled from a bad map |
2 | co-ordinates of the nearest village |
1 | co-ordinates of the nearest town |
0 | no data |
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The owner of the quarry immediately informed the teacher and natural scientist Johann Carl Fuhlrott (1803-1877), who defined the bones as the remains of a prehistorical human.
Decades later, after a harsh controverse which demonstrated the embarassingly low scientific standard of some of the most reputed German natural scientists at this time, the discovery including Fuhlrott's definition of the find was finally accepted. The members of this human subspecies became known as Neanderthals.
The valley's name relates to the theologian and hymn writer Joachim Neander (1650-1680). One of Neander's ancestors, following a fashion of his time, had changed his German name (Neumann) into the greek variation "Neander". Otherwise the prehistoric humans would probably have had been named as "Neumannsthals" respectively "Neumannstaler".
The valley itself had been a beautiful landscape. Already since the early 18th century it was known as a popular excursionists' area.
However, in spite of this, in the second half of the 19th century the neighbouring rocks were almost completely destroyed due to the exploitation of limestone, whereas exhorting voices were ignored. Just some small remains of the rocks survived. One of them is situated about 130 m southeast of the find place. It's known as Rabenstein ("Ravens Stone"). According to a local legend a robber-baron named Veit used the rock as his observation tower.
At least 9 caves, as well as the potentially belonging remains of paleolithic settlements were totally destroyed.
After the destruction of the area the exact place of discovery was thought to be lost. However, during an excavation in 1997 and 2000 several middle paleolithic artefacts, among them handaxes, knifes and scrapers, as well as several bone fragments of three individuals were found. Surprisingly some of these fragments were remains of the same individual as the bones from 1856. So the place of discovery was found again. Moreover, the name-giving Neanderthal's skeleton got some additions.
This Neanderthal was a man between (probably) 50 and 60 years.
His left arm showed traces of a heavy injury and a following handicap. However, in spite of this, he reached a rather old age. This seems to be an example for a kind of social care and solidarity of the Neanderthals.
The dead was not only buried at this site. Furthermore the site, situated about 30-35 m south of the small Düssel river, had been used as a "resting place" (or the like) by one or more groups of Neanderthals.
A few years ago a hypothetical reconstruction of this man was produced. This reconstruction seems to be much better than the older attempts which mostly showed a foolishly appearing muscle man, usually with a wooden club. (Of course there had never been any archaeological evidence for a club or something similar.)
The new reonstruction-attempt, as well as copies of his bones and lots of palaeolithic artefacts, is exhibited in the Neanderthal Museum at Mettmann.
The actual bones had been sold to Rheinisches Landesmuseum at Bonn in the year 1877.
The find place is situated about 300 metres west of Neanderthal Museum. It has been elaborated as a symbolic "archaeological park".
(The coordinates above relate to the museum.)
The acivities of the "local" Neanderthals seem to date from about 40-45.000 BP.
Later, as several found tools from upper paleolithic show, the site was reused by some Cro-Magnon people (about 30.000 BP).
References:
R.W.Schmitz/ G.C.Weniger: Das Neandertal- eine faszinierende Erinnerungslandschaft, Köln 2003
G.C. Weniger: Mettmann- Fundort Neandertal, in: H.G.Horn (Ed.): Neandertaler + Co., Eiszeitjägern auf der Spur- Streifzüge durch die Urgeschichte Nordrhein-Westfalens, Mainz 2006, p. 183-187
R.W.Schmitz: Aktuelle Forschungen am Neandertaler von 1856 und die Wiederentdeckung seiner Fundstelle, in: Roots//Wurzeln der Menschheit, Bonn/ Mainz 2006, p. 117-122
etc.
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