Neandertal skull cap from Ochtendung, Germany

Scullcap of an early Neanderthal from Ochtendung near Koblenz, Germany.

Found 1997 at the hill „Schweinskopf/Karmelenberg“ near Ochtendung/Koblenz in an industrial Lava mine by the archeologist Axel von Berg.The scullcap shows antemortem manipulations that tell it was used by other humans as an artifact. It was found together with stonetool and bones of pleistocene mammals, that were explained as hunting remains of the Neanderthal groups hunting in this late middlepleistocene volcanic mountain ridge.This strong and thick scullcap is an example for the transition of H. Heidelbergensis to the classic Neanderthal. According to the stratigraphy the find comes from the glacial phase of 160 000 years ago, at time from where only very few hominid fossils in Europe are known.