Visiting Neanderthals in Düsseldorf, March 26 - 29/2017

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The reason why we visited Düsseldorf, was not to see Germans. No, we liked to meet Neanderthals.

Near Düsseldorf the first skeleton of an Neanderthal was found. Well, actually this is not true. There were already skeletons found in Belgium and Gibraltar, but no one realized those skeletons were from Neanderthals.

Some 20 kilometers out of Düsseldorf is a village called Mettman. The area is called Neandertal. The inhabitants there are...right, Neandertals. So you have Neandertals and you have Neanderthals (with a h). Neandertals speak German and belong to a species called Homo sapiens. Neanderthals belong to a species called Homo neanderthalensis. They could speak, but what language they spoke we don't know. The last Neanderthal died about 30,000 years ago.

In 1856 two miners found the skeleton in a cave. On the very spot the Neanderthal Museum was opened in 1996. It shows apart from the bones the evolution of mankind.
Of course we took an Altbeer in the Altstadt of Düsseldorf to celebrate this meeting with our old nephew.

Afterwards we crossed the hills of the Eifel to visit Trier in Southern Rhineland. Trier sits romantically at a bend of Moselle river. I remember I was there more then 50 years ago and enjoyed the delicious Moselle wine. The Moselle wine is still excellent, specially the Riesling.

There is a lot to see in Trier, remnants of the old Roman empire like the famous Porta nigra (the city gate of the 2nd century), the Dom and the Konstantin Basilika (constructed in 310 AD as Constantine's throne room). But also the house where Karl Marx was born in 1818. We strolled only one day across this nice city. Actually we would like to stay longer and taste more wine.

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Photos

Evolution of mankind
In the past a valley was called 'Thal' in German. In 1901 spelling changed. Thal became Tal. In science it is Neanderthal, while the area is called Neandertal.

Joachim Neumann (1650 - 1680)
Neumann is in Greek Neandros. The valley (Neanderthal) is called after him. He used to sit and compose in this valley.

Skeleton of Neanderthal
The skeleton was found in 1856. The original one is in Bonn.
In the 20th century more parts of the skeleton were found.

Traces on teeth showed Neanderthals brushed their teeth with grass.
Due to change in food (more plants) Neanderthals had to brush their teeth.

Tongue bone
The tongue bone of Neanderthals is similar to ours. That's why anthropologists think Neanderthals could speak.

Comments

[Femmy Lagerwaard]

Wat een leuke foto's! (en verhaaltje).
Veel plezier op reis. Gaan jullie meer van Duitsland bekijken?