Adrie and Alfons Kennis, two paleo-artists from the Kennis & Kennis Reconstructions, have used facial approximation techniques and the latest findings about Neanderthals to show how ‘Krijn’ — a young Neanderthal man with a conspicuous lump (the result of a small tumor) over his right eyebrow — might have once looked.
The reconstructed face of Krijn. Image credit: Servaas Neijens, Rijksmuseum van Oudheden / Adrie and Alfons Kennis, Kennis & Kennis Reconstructions.
“Krijn lived in the prehistoric landscape that is now under the North Sea, more than 50,000 years ago. The sea level was then 50 m lower than it is today,” said researchers from the Rijksmuseum van Oudheden in a statement.
“Mammoths, woolly rhinoceroses, reindeer, horses, and Neanderthals roamed this steppe, which was cold but offered food in abundance.”
“This region, Doggerland, and its inhabitants form the subject of the exhibition of the same name in the museum.”
A fragment of Krijn’s skull was found in 2001 by Luc Anthonis, a private collector from Belgium, among animal remains and stone artifacts on the North Sea floor.
“The fossilized orbital bone of the ‘first Neanderthal in the Netherlands’ is some 50,000 to 70,000 years old,” the scientists said.
“The fossil had been removed from the North Sea floor off the Dutch coast with a suction dredger.”
“Examination by experts at Leiden University and the Max Planck Institute in Leipzig revealed that it came from the skull of a young man with a fairly sturdy build.”
“An analysis of stable isotopes — varieties of nitrogen and carbon atoms — shows that he mostly ate meat.”
“One striking feature is the small hole just above the pronounced eyebrow,” they said.
“This was found to have been caused by a benign tumor under the skin, a phenomenon never before observed among Neanderthals.”
Source link: https://www.sci.news/archaeology/neanderthal-krijn-face-10082.html
