American Journal of Physical

Anthropology
VOLUME V

JANUARY-MARCH, 1922

NUMBER1

NEW DISCOVERIES OF NEANDERTAL MAN AT LA QUINA

AND LA FERRASSIE
GEORGE GRANT MACCURDY
Director (pro temp.), American School in France for Prehistoric Studies

I n respect to the number of Mousterian skeletons represented, La

Quina in Charente and La Ferrassie in Dordogne rank among the first
of Paleolithic stations. Largely because of this La Quina has become a
pied d terre of the American School in France for Prehistoric Studies.
It was the hope of finding skeletal remains of Mousterian or Neandertal
man that kept the students of the School on the qui vive, putting forth
their very best efforts for eight long weeks of digging during the summer
of 1921 at La Quina M. They were not successful in this respect, but
they had the satisfaction of seeing the human teeth which Dr. HenriMartin found in the adjoining station of La Quina' on September 8th
and 9th. This find consisted of a second lower left molar, a third left
molar, a first upper right pre-molar with two roots, and a n incisor. All
are massive and probably belong to one individual, an adult.
A much more important discovery was made by the wife of Dr. HenriMartin in 1915, he being a t the front at that time in the service of his
country. I n the section a t La Quina C and in the same horizon (C2)
where the recent find of teeth was made, Madame Henri-Martin noted
what appeared to be the vertex of a child's skull which had come to
view through chance in the process of weathering. She a t once notified
her husband who immediately returned to La Quina. The cranium
proved to be that of a child about eight years of age. The lower jaw is
lacking, but the cranium is almost complete and not altered by postmortem pressure in the deposit. It is so nearly perfect as to throw new
light on the ontogeny of Neandertal man.
1

La Quina A, B, C, and D now belong to the French Government.

AM. J. Pws. ANTBROP.Vol. V, No. 1.

GEORGEGRANTMACCURDY

Practically all the distinguishing features of the race are present, so

that the Neandertal child of eight years resembled the adult of his
race more closely than the modern child resembles the adult of his race.2
There is present, however, one feature of the face which had not been
anticipated. All Neandertal crania thus far discovered are more or less
fragmentary; among the parts easily lost and usually missing are the
nasal bones. It has been assumed that Neandertal man had a flat,
broad nose, and all attempted reconstructions reproduce him as possessing such a nose. Fortunately the nasal bones are present in this
eight-year-old child, and by their shape prove that Mousterian man had
a well-developed nasal bridge. However, that which has been revealed
in this child from La Quina might have been predicted after the discovery at La Chapelle-aux-Saints. No nasal bones were found with the
skull of La Chapelle-aux-Saints, it is true; but the frontal processes of
the superior maxillaries were present and the structure of those portions
bordering on the nasal bones now niissing is just such as would be required for a pronounced nasal bridge.
Before leaving La Quina it is worth while to recapitulate the finds
of Neandertal skeletal remains by Dr. Henri-Martin, including La
Quina M, the site recently turned over to the American School:
1) 1908.-Two astragali found in fairly close proximity, right and left, presumably belonging to the same individual (couche C3).3
2) 1908.-Fragments of an occipital, including the right half of the occipital
protuberance (B2).
3) 1910.-Dorsal vertebra (C2).
4) 1911.4econd lower right molar and third lower left molar. Found about
one meter apart, but both belonging apparently to the same individual (C2).
5) 1911.-Part of an adult female skeleton including a nearly complete cranium
and lower jaw, the most important discovery of the series (B2).
6) 1912.-Fragment of a parietal (B2).
7) 1912.-Part of the right half of a frontal with a considerable portion of the
brow ridge (C2).
8) 1912.-Part of the left half of a frontd with a portion of the brow ridge (C2).
9) 1912.-Left ramus of a lower jaw with the two premolars and the three molars
in place (C2).
10) 1913.-Left temporal (B3).
11) 1913.-Fragment of occipital ( M 2 ) .
12) 1913.-Fragment of left frontal (M2)
Henri-Martin. LAnthropologie, XXXI, Nos. 3-4, 1921. Also Bull. & M i m . SOC.
Anthrop., Paris, 1920, n. s. I , 113-125.
3All the horizons at La Quina are of Mousterian age. Dr. Martin numbers
from the top down, so t h a t (7.3 means Section C, third horizon from the top.

NEW DISCOVERIES O F NEANDERTAL MAN

13)
14)
15)
16)
17)
18)
19)

1913.-Left parietal (M2).

1908.-Left parietal (Hl).
1913.-Right parietal of a youth (B2).
1913.-Median fragment of left temporal (C2).
1913.-Lower left canine (Cl).
1915.-Cranium of a child about eight years old (C2).
1920.-Left patella (B3).
20) 1921.-Second lower left molar, third lower left molar, first upper right premolar with two roots, and incisor; all are massive and apparently belong to the same
individual (C2).

La Ferrassie in the V6z6re valley near Bugue is likewise the site of

recent discoveries of Neandertal skeletal remains. From 1909 to 1912,
four skeletons of Mousterian age were found in the rock shelter. Two
were those of adults and two those of children. I n 1920 the skeleton
of a new-born infant was found in Mousterian deposits. The sixth
skeleton, that of a child some seven or eight years old, was discovered
likewise in Mousterian deposits in 1921. The position of the calotte was
more than half a meter from the sepulture containing the rest of the
skeleton, which was covered by a large stone with cupules,-the pitted
surface underneath-that is, next to the human remains.
There are several superposed Aurignacian horizons at La Ferrassie;
in these Capitan and Peyrony have discovered some interesting early
works of art.