Morphological analysis of the neanderthal calotte from Ochtendung,Germany

In 1997 one of the authors (AvB) found three pieces of a calotte of a Neanderthal in a crater depression within the slag-cone volcanic-group called “Wannenköpfe” near the village of Ochtendung in the state of Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. Three stone tools of the Mousterian culture were directly associated with the hominid fossil. The individual can be securely stratigraphically and absolutely chronologically placed within the early glacial phase of the second last glaciation, the Saale. A comparative-morphological analysis confirms earlier analyses that the remains were those of an adult male. The relatively old age establishes it as another important find of an early Neanderthal in Europe. In absolute years it dates roughly to the transitional time period of the latest EuropeanHomo erectus to the earliest Neanderthal. Morphological analysis confirms that the individual is close to a typical Neanderthal with also some additional erectoid characters. This observation supports the most widely accepted view that the Neanderthal of Europe evolved from an autochthonousHomo erectus group.