A Manual of the Antiquity of ManMacLean, J. P. (John Patterson)
History
A Manual of the Antiquity of Man
MacLean, J. P. (John Patterson)
Human beings -- Origin
Some discussion has arisen in respect to the geological time of these
bones. There was no stalagmite overlying the mud or loam in which the
skeleton was found, and no other bones met with save the tusk of a bear.
There is no certain data given whereby its position may be known.
Professor Huxley declares that the bones "indicate a very high
antiquity."[34] Buchner is very positive in his statement, and declares
that "the loam-deposit which partly fills the caves of the Neanderthal
and the clefts and fissures of its limestone mountains, and in which
both the Neanderthal bones and the fossil bones and teeth of animals
were imbedded, is exactly the same that, in the caverns of the
Neanderthal, covers the whole limestone mountain with a deposit from ten
to twelve feet in thickness, and the diluvial origin of which is
unmistakable."[35] Dr. Fuhlrott says, "The position and general
arrangement of the locality in which they were found, place it, in my
judgment, beyond doubt that the bones belong to the diluvium, and
therefore to primitive times, _i. e._ they come down to us from a period
of the past when our native country was still inhabited by various kinds
of animals, especially mammoths and cave-bears, which have long since
disappeared out of the series of living creatures."[36]
The diluvial or glacial origin of the Neanderthal skull is still further
confirmed by the discoveries made, in the summer of 1865, in the
Teufelskammer. This cavern is situated one hundred and thirty paces from
the one in which the human bones were found, and on the same side of the
river.. In the loam-deposit of this cave were found numerous fossil
bones and teeth of the rhinoceros, cave-bear, cave-hyena, and other
extinct animals. "A great part of these bones, especially those of the
cave-bears, agree in color, weight, density, and the preservation of
their microscopic structure, with the human bones found in the
Feldhofner Cave (in which the Neanderthal man was found), and both are
covered with the same _dendrites_, or tree-like markings."[37]
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