Abstract
Two years ago it was reported that part of a human skull had seen discovered at Fontéchevade in the Charente district of France. The importance of this discovery is related to its antiquity, for according to the preliminary account it was found in association with implements of Tayacian type and with remains of the 'warm' fauna which preceded the Würm glaciation. The skull, therefore, appears to antedate Neanderthal man and to represent the most ancient human remains (stratigraphically well documented) so far discovered in France. A note on the specimen by H. V. Vallois has recently appeared in Comptes Rendus of the Paris Academy of Sciences (February 14). Unfortunately this note is very brief, and is illustrated by only one outline drawing of the lateral view of the skull. The latter consists of the greater part of the parietal bones and approximately the upper two-thirds of the frontal. These bones are unusually thick, and in this feature are comparable to the Swanscombe skull (which dates from the middle Acheulean period). It appears also that, so far as some of their main characters are concerned, they show no evidence of Neanderthal affinities. The supra-orbital part of the frontal bone is unfortunately missing ; but the position of the upper margin of the frontal air sinus is indicated, and from this it appears certain that the curvature of the forehead region of the skull must have conformed closely to that of Homo sapiens. In other words, there is no evidence of a heavy supra-orbital torus of Neanderthal type. So far as this rather meagre evidence goes, the Fontéchevade skull confirms the evidence of the Swanscombe skull from the Thames valley that Neanderthal man was antedated in Europe by a type of man which approximated in cranial characters more closely to Homo sapiens. It is to be hoped that a full and well-illustrated account of the Fontechevade skull will not be long delayed.
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Human Skull from Fontéchevade, France. Nature 163, 435 (1949). https://doi.org/10.1038/163435b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/163435b0