Author: SCHAAFFHAUSEN, D. [SCHAAFHAUSEN, HERMANN]
Title: Zur Kenntniss der ältesten Rassenschädel.
Description: Berlin, Verlag von Veit et Comp., 1858. 8vo. W. 1 fold. plate (Numbered XVII in the series of 24 for the volume). Contemp. grey paper covers. (In: "Archiv für Anatomie, Physiologie und Wissenschaftliche Medicin, ... herausgeg. von Dr. Johannes Müller, Jahrgang 1858, pp. 453 - 478). (We offer the complete vol. for 1858, w. 24 engr. pls. and a total of 31 contributions; uncut.). (Pls. some foxing, text occasional foxing.). G&M, 204: 'First description of the Neanderthal skull, the first human fossil skull morphologically distinct from the skulls of modern 'Homo sapiens', discovered in 1856 in Neanderthal Cave in the Neander Valley, near Düsseldorf. ... Huxley [see G&M 165] made much of this discovery; however, because the skull was not unearthed from demonstrably ancient strata, its age was disputed until a more rigorously unearthed find occurred in 1886.': PMM, comp. 342: Schaafhausen is credited with the earliest publication on the subject [publ. in "Verhandlungen der Naturhistorischer Vereins der Preussische Rheinlande und Westphalens', Bonn, Febr. 1857; later that year, June 1857, followed by a joint paper with Fuhlrott and concluded in a second paper in 1859]. 'In 1856 quarrymen working in the Neanderthal between Düsseldorf and Elberfeld unearthed a number of bones in a limestone grotto. [Fuhlrott realised the importance of the find and] sent a cast of the cranium to Schaaffhausen at Bonn University, who was at once convinced that they were human, ... For a long time the antiquity of the bones was suspect.': Glass, Forerunners of Darwin, i.l.c. Among the other contributors in this volume papers by Müller, Billroth, Remak, etc.

Keywords: anthropology anthropologie fossils