Skull from Hahnöfersand
As head of Hahnöfersand is frontal bone of a Mesolithic humans ( Homo sapiens called), which in 1973 between Hahnöfersand ( Stade County ) and Cranz in Spülsand the same was found. The skull fragment was initially dated to 36,000 BP in the course of a forgery scandal, which, however, was 5400 BC. Had to be corrected. Nevertheless, it is considered to be the oldest human bone find from the greater Hamburg area. The frontal bone is shown in the permanent exhibition of the Hamburg Archaeological Museum in Hamburg-Harburg .
Finding circumstances
The remains of the skull were found in 1973 together with other bone fragments by the archaeologically interested lay researcher HR Labukt on a rinsing field on the southern bank of the Elbe near Cranz, near the island of Hahnöfersand. The flushing sand, presumably from the Vistula period, was pumped there, together with the piece of bone, from the Elbe channel when a dike was laid . The bone fragments found were lost before the scientific investigation. The frontal bone is completely preserved apart from a few defects and is dark brown in color. On the upper side it shows various scratches that originate from transport in the river Elbe. Its original origin is unknown.
Location: 53 ° 32 '48 " N , 9 ° 45' 54" E
First scientific processing
The first scientific processing took place at the Helms Museum and the Anthropological Institute of the University of Hamburg . The find was dated by Reiner Protsch at the Institute of Anthropology and Human Genetics for Biologists at the University of Frankfurt by means of two 14 C dates to the time around 36,000 BP . However, this dating later turned out to be a scientific forgery . The basis of evidence of Protsch datings and the pronounced brow ridges in conjunction with the relatively flat face , the skull part was in the transition period from Neanderthals ( Homo neanderthalensis ) to anatomically modern humans ( Homo sapiens ) dated and interpreted as frontal bone of a Neanderthal. The test results were presented in 1980 by Günter Bräuer . After that, the piece of bone contained an unusually large amount of collagen , which would speak against long flushing in the river Elbe. According to this, this piece of bone would be the northernmost find of a Neanderthal man. This information found wide entry in the specialist literature and fed the controversies about the timing of the replacement of the Neanderthals by anatomically modern humans and a genetic mixture of the two species .
Revision
However, more recent research refuted the earlier results and uncovered an obvious incorrect dating by Reiner Protsch. Two radiocarbon dating carried out in Oxford using accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) from 1999 and 2001 consistently dated the find to the Mesolithic period (7470 ± 100 BP and 7500 ± 55 BP), i.e. around 5400 BC. Despite this considerably more recent dating, the frontal bone continues to be one of the oldest, reliably dated human bone finds in northern Germany. This more reliable dating made a new assessment of the find necessary. Anthropological investigations of the frontal bone fragment in comparison with other human bone finds of this time also relativized the postulated, conspicuous correspondences with the skull features characteristic of Neanderthals. The fragment obviously belonged to a very robust, anatomically modern person who had a distinctive , flat forehead with pronounced bulges above the eyes, which was within normal genetic variability . A morphologically comparable find is from the somewhat more recent one, around 5170 BC. The remains of the skull of Drigge from the Strelasund near Rügen dated before. The new dating, as well as the interpretations corrected as a result, are now generally scientifically accepted. However, more detailed life or death circumstances could not be derived from the bone remnants.
literature
- Thomas Terberger, Martin Street, Günter Bräuer: The human skull remnant from the Elbe near Hahnöfersand and its significance for the Stone Age in Northern Germany . In: Archaeological correspondence sheet . No. 31 , 2001, ISSN 0342-734X , p. 521-526 .
- Ralf Busch (ed.): Hidden treasures in the collections . 100 years of the Helms Museum. Wachholtz, Neumünster 1998, ISBN 3-529-02001-X , p. 18-19 .
- Günter Bräuer: Hahnöfersand's forehead finding - and some aspects of the Neanderthal problem . In: Hammaburg NF . No. 6 (1981-83) , ISSN 0173-0886 , pp. 15-28 .
- Günter Bräuer: The morphological affinities of the Young Pleistocene frontal bone from the Elbe estuary near Hahnöfersand . In: Journal of Morphology and Anthropology . tape 71/1 , May 1980, ISSN 0044-314X , p. 1-42 .
- I make the rules . In: Der Spiegel . No. 34 , 2004 ( online ).
Web links
- A fragment that led to a scandal . Hamburger Abendblatt , March 26, 2012; Retrieved May 8, 2012
Individual evidence
- ^ Rüdiger Articus, Jochen Brandt, Elke Först, Yvonne Krause, Michael Merkel, Kathrin Mertens, Rainer-Maria Weiss: Archäologisches Museum Hamburg, Helms-Museum: A tour through the ages (= publications of the Archaeological Museum Hamburg Helms-Museum . No. 101 ). Hamburg 2009, ISBN 978-3-931429-20-1 , pp. 17 .
- ↑ Subject area natural landscape, showcase No. 4.
- ↑ a b Thomas Terberger, Martin Street, Günter Bräuer: The human skull remnant from the Elbe near Hahnöfersand and its significance for the Stone Age in Northern Germany . In: Archaeological correspondence sheet . No. 31 , 2001, ISSN 0342-734X , p. 521-526 .
- ↑ Günter Bräuer : The morphological affinities of the Jungpleistocene frontal bone from the Elbe estuary near Hahnöfersand . In: Journal of Morphology and Anthropology . tape 71/1 , May 1980, ISSN 0044-314X , p. 16 .
- ↑ Günter Bräuer: The end results of Hahnöfersand - and some aspects of Neanderthal problem . In: Hammaburg NF . No. 6 (1981-83) , ISSN 0173-0886 , pp. 15-28 .
- ↑ Ralf Busch (Ed.): Hidden treasures in the collections . 100 years of the Helms Museum. Wachholtz, Neumünster 1998, ISBN 3-529-02001-X , p. 18-19 .