The World of Emperor Gon of Carthage
"Neanderthals"
Emperor Gon of Carthage
September 3, 2001
Neanderthals
Part 1
1. A pathetic Cossack cavalryman
Parts of a distinctive human skeleton were discovered in a cave in the Neander Valley near the city of D&uiuml;sseldorf, Germany. While this finding was a great discovery that later became known as the Neanderthals, it was after a long history of debate that this skeleton was recognized as a species separate from humans.
 These bones were recovered by a limestone quarryman who thought they were those of a badger and therefore kept it without giving it much thought. Luckily, before these findings were thrown away they were given to a local high school teacher named Fuhlrott.
Fuhlrott, who also was an amateur naturalist, discovered what seemed to be extremely old human bones among the fossils that were brought in, and returned at once to the site where the fossils had been recovered to excavate the remaining parts of the skeleton. Unfortunately, the cave where the fossils were found had been entirely quarried away.
Fuhlrott could not dismiss the distinctiveness of the skeletons and sent the materials to an anatomist named Schaaffhausen at the University of Bonn for further scientific research.
On the skull of this peculiar skeleton were some traits that clearly represented some primitive form of mankind. These were: a low receding brow; lengthy skull stretching from front to back; and a large arch-ike brow ridges. Schaaffhausen, who at first suspected it to be of an already extinct large anthropoid, concluded that it belonged to a barbarous and beast-like aborigine that resided before the modern Germans. Schaaffhausen's theory was only a step away from the modern evolutionary point of view. But such a theory was completely denied by Virchow who dominated life science back then.
Virchow argued strongly against the idea of evolution, and claimed the curved leg bones and pelvis were evidence of a long history of horseback riding since childhood, and the thick brow ridges were the result of the constant distortion of his face with pain from his improperly healed left arm which transformed the skull. He also stated that this creature had suffered rickets that also caused some bone transformation.
Based on all these results, Shaaffhausen concluded that this skeleton belonged to a Cossack cavalryman who had deserted at the end of Napoleonic War.
It is beyond our understanding that such a thoughtless theory could have gone unchallenged, but the power of Shaaffhausen was so strong in Germany during this era that nobody dared to question this Cossack deserter theory.
Translated by Rie Ishida
| 
