NEANDERTHAL MAN

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 7851, 13 July 1911, Page 10

NEANDERTHAL MAN

DISCOVERIES IN JERSEY. Exploration of a cave in the cliffs at St. lielade’s Bay, on the south coast of Jersey, has (says Tunes of . May 16th) resulted m the disco\ ery. of remains of the very earliest kno\ra in Europe—the Neanderthal. Ihe cave, situated 60ft ab , OTO , the - pT ?i en * beach, was failed and obscured by a surface fall in a long past .period, but in more recent tunes has become exposed by the action of the sea. Phe exploration, which has been carried out by the Societe Jersiaise, was suggested by the discovery of a very primitive H-pe of flint implement found in the nibble below the site of the cave. Operations under the direction of Messrs E. T Nicolle and J. Sinel were begun in 1910, and when the floor of the cave was reached, after the removal of 155 ft of overlying material, extensive traces of primitive man were found. Old hearths were indicated by the .fragments of charcoal and burnt earth, numerous flint implements of a very primitive type were found, and bones and teeth of certain extinct animals. Mr E. E. Maretl, reader in Social Anthropology at Oxford, continued the exploration, and is now preparing a detailed report of the significance of the various things discovered. The bones found have been submitted to Messrs Smith-Wood ward and Andrews, of the British Museum, who recognised among them those of the woolly rhinoceros, the reindeer, and two varieties of horse. The teeth, nine in number, have been examined by Professor Keith, conservator of the Museum, Royal College of Surgeons, who finds that they without doubt to an individual of the Neanderthal race, but are in certain features more primitive than even the teeth of the Heidelberg mandible, usually regarded as the earliest remains of man yet discovered in Europe, and assigned to the Glacial period. Mr Marett has assigned the flint implements to the Mousterion period of paleolithic culture. The remains of the Neanderthal race recently found in the Dordogne, France, also belong to this period.

This is the first discovery of Neanderthal man outside the limits of the Continent of Europe. lie has been found at Gibraltar, and in France, Belgium, Germany, Austria, and Croatia, but so far has not yet been found in England. It is probable, as Mr Marett suggests, that Jersey was united with the mainland when" it was inhabited by the Neanderthal type of man.