A History of Ancient Britain by Neil Oliver Read Free Book Online Page B

crushing blow to the left side of his head that would almost certainly have left himblind in that eye, as
well as facially disfigured. His right arm was withered and wasted – the result of childhood injury, disease or birth defect – and the lower bones and hand had likely been amputated at
some point many years before death. There was also a suggestion of wasting or deformity of his right leg and foot so that he would have walked with a heavy, painful limp. Despite these weaknesses,
which would have made life very difficult for Nandy, he had obviously been cared for and valued by the tribe. Unable to hunt, he was nonetheless provided for – presumably because he was
loved.
    Another adult male buried in the cave had been placed in his grave lying in the foetal position. Analysis of the soil in the fill revealed unusually high levels of pollen of several different
flowering plants. It is possible the pollen was introduced to the grave long after the burial – perhaps by burrowing animals – but the possibility has lingered that those mourning the
deadman had filled his grave with flower heads and blossom, hardly the behaviour of grunting ape-men.
    Despite evidence like Shanidar, first impressions last and for most people today it is hard to shake off the image of the Quasimodo, the approximation of a man pictured by those who came face to
face with that first skeleton in the Neander Valley in the middle of the nineteenth century.
    Whoever – whatever – they were, it was Neanderthals who colonised the British peninsula of north-west Europe after the ice had retreated once more. Human remains were found in a
gravel quarry at Swanscombe, in Kent, in the 1930s. Like Boxgrove, the site of Swanscombe had attracted the attention of palaeontologists because of the regular discovery among the sands and
gravels there of beautifully worked flint handaxes. According to Chris Stringer, something of the order of 100,000 handaxes have been recovered from the Swanscombe area over the years –
testament to generations of occupation. The human remains are those of a woman who lived and died – on low-level terrain beside the river that would in time become the Thames – around
400,000 years ago.
    There is not much to see of Swanscombe Woman – just two pieces of bone that formed the back of her skull – but they are those of a Neanderthal just the same. To the rear of modern
skulls there is a bump, an anchor point for the muscles of the neck. On Neanderthals the same function was performed by a shallow depression and that telltale hollow is there on the Swanscombe
skull. Comparison with other skeletons from Europe enables a more complete sketch to be drawn of this very early Kentish woman.
    She would have been at least as tall or taller than an average modern woman and more powerfully built. Neanderthal men and women alike were most identifiable not by their
muscularity and width, but by their faces and heads. While the foreheads of modern humans rise almost straight up from the nose to create a domed expanse above the face, the Neanderthal equivalent
was low and flat, sweeping almost straight back into the hairline behind massively overhanging, frowning brow ridges. Rather than the protruding chin of today, the Neanderthal’s was receding
and ‘weak’ by comparison. Like Boxgrove Man, Swanscombe Woman’s teeth would likely have borne scratches resultant from holding meat and other material between clamped jaws so she
could cut at it with a sharp stone tool held in one hand. For a while it was in vogue among palaeontologists to say you could give one of those fellows a shave and a suit – or indeed some
makeup and a nice dress – and watch him or her pass unnoticed on a modern city street. Given the evidence, I still think he – and certainly she – would frighten the horses.
    In 2007 geneticists extracted DNA from the bones of two European Neanderthals and retrieved from it parts of the gene that gives