Conserving Neanderthals by Mlle Loren Souchard

Neanderthal skull casts before conservation

As part of the preparations for Manchester Museum’s latest exhibition Humans in Ancient Britain: Rediscovering Neanderthals, which opens today (22nd April 2016), Mlle Loren Souchard conserved three plaster casts of Neanderthal skulls dating from the end of the 19th century. Their condition, although good overall, required conservation treatment in preparation for the exhibition, and research allowed us to learn more about their history.

Interior of cast showing label

As conservators, it is important to collect much information as possible about an object and its history in order to select the most appropriate conservation intervention.

Detail of one of the 19th century labels

On these labels, handwritten information tells us about the name and the subject of each object, and the typeface on the label informs us more widely about its origins.  We were able to bring together documentation about the skulls, including  descriptions, names, locality and provenance.

The Compagny “Dr F.Krantz / Rheinisches Mineralien-Kontor / Bonn” printed on the labels is still a widely known and respected business. It is actually the oldest geological supply house in the world, and its history is well documented. The Mineralogal Record, a database on the internet shows ‘Label Archives’ of the company from its creation to the 20^th century, and was very helpful for comparing, and providing approximate dates for the labels on the skullcaps.

So we learned that Adam August Krantz founded the firm in 1833 and “Dr. F. Krantz”, his nephew, bought the firm in 1888, and changed the Company’s name from “A. Krantz” to “Dr. F. Krantz” and the «Rheinisches Mineralien- Kontor» in 1891. Regarding the label inside the skullcaps, the fact that it is marked “F. Krantz” instead of “A. Krantz” attests the skull casts were sold after 1891.

From the lack of detail on the casts compared to the originals, we concluded that the casts were probably moulded from existing moulds and not from the originals, and may have been part of a series, as suggested by the numbers written on labels. Then we observed on the Spy skullcap cast two colours on different surface levels, which seems to distinguish the original bone (upper area) from fillings made in order to complete the shape (lower area). This finding could verify a  hypothesis that these two levels and two colours are indicative of use in an educational context to help students.

Spy skull cast after treatment, A2335.5, Manchester Museum

The circulation of archaeological and anthropological discoveries by means of moulded specimens was very important at that time, and collections, teaching models and exhibition pieces  from the Dr F.Krantz / Rheinisches Mineralien-Kontor  were sold to customers all over the world. So, these casts are probably part of a set. In the Manchester Museum, William Boyd Dawkins, the first Curator, presented two photographs of the model of a restored head of a Neanderthal skull to the Museum in 1904-5. So Neanderthals were certainly of interest to the Museum at that time.

Example of conservation planning report

By comparing the Museum’s copy with the original Gibraltar Neanderhtal Skull kept in the National History Museum of London, we were also able to have a better idea of what was  missing on the Manchester Museum cast. Old adhesive on the broken area confirmed that the piece was already broken and had been stuck some time before its loss.

Gibraltar before cleaning

After condition reporting, the casts were dusted down. The labels and the polychrome areas were cleaned with a cosmetic sponge, lightly applied, and the shiny surfaces, with patina, were only cleaned with moist cotton. It was a light cleaning, intended to preserve the patina, as an integral  part of the skulls’ authenticity and their history. The plaster surface on the damaged areas was minimised.

Gibraltar after

We choose not to remove old adhesive on the Gibraltar skull cast broken edge because it’s a part of the object’s history, we simply retouched the edge to make it less intrusive.

Loren conserving Neanderthal skull in the Conservation Laboratory

These three skulls thus have historic and documentary value, they testify about the period of manufacture and are typical of products sold by the company Dr F.Krantz, Rheinisches Mineralien-Kontora ll around the world. To say that we were dealing with plaster casts of Neanderthal skulls, this study proved to be surprisingly  interesting and rewarding, more so than we might have imagined before we started. And of course, it allowed us to learn a little more about these objects.

I am grateful to my supervisor Samantha Sportun, Senior Conservator in the Museum, for having allowed me to work on these casts, and to Bryan Sitch (Curator of Archaeology) for his help with my historic research.

Loren Souchard is a conservation intern from Manchester Museum and is studying Conservation Studies in the National Institute of Cultural Heritage in Paris. Merci beaucoup Ma’moiselle.

Radiocarbon Dating, the Neanderthal Demise, and the Arrival of Modern Humans in Europe

This year’s William Boyd Dawkins lecture will be held at 18:30 in University Place, lecture theatre A, Oxford Road, on December 9^th, and will be given by Professor Tom Higham (University of Oxford), on:-

“Time for the Palaeolithic:Radiocarbon Dating, the Neanderthal Demise, and the Arrival of Modern Humans in Europe”.

Radiocarbon dating by AMS is the key method for understanding the date of the movement of the earliest anatomically modern humans (AMH) into Europe and the concomitant demise of the Neanderthals. Work in Oxford has shown that many previously obtained radiocarbon dates have been severely compromised by contamination that has remained unremoved in many cases. New approaches, using more robust techniques, have resulted in a significant changes to the chronologies of key sites and to a change in our understanding of the timing and pace of cultural changes in the Middle to Upper Palaeolithic. This is the period during which Neanderthals and other Archaic humans were replaced by populations of anatomically modern humans (AMH). Prof. Higham will describe some of the work he has undertaken in the last 10 years, including improved chemical pretreatment methodologies and their application, and describe some of the results. Other important developments in genetics have recently transformed aspects of the field. Finally Prof. Higham will talk about the key issues that need to be tackled if scientists are to further improve our understanding of this key period and the bio-cultural shift that occurred in Eurasia between 50-30,000 years ago.

More on late Glacial hunter gatherers

Poulton le Fylde elk and barbed point

Recently I wrote about a controversy  over some barbed bone points or harpoons from Holderness in East Yorkshire that took place during the 1920s. Another discovery that sheds some light by association on the Holderness points is that of Poulton-le-Fylde. During the construction of a bungelow animal bones were discovered together with a couple of bone points. The animal had suffered a number of wounds at the hands of prehistoric hunter gatherers. One of the points had even pierced its hoof. Presumably the animal tried to escape the hunters by swimming but, weakened by its wounds, it drowned and the carcass was never recovered. Thousands of years later the animal’s skeleton was discovered during building work. The Poulton-le-Fylde elk can be seen in the Harris Museum in Preston and a truly magnificent exhibit it is too!

The results from the radiocarbon-dating showed the elk died some 13,500 years earlier. This would put it in the late Glacial. Between about 23,000 and 19,000 years ago a large ice sheet covered much of northern Britain. As Ice Age drew to a close the climate got warmer and the ice sheets retreated but this improvement was not sustained and there was a sharp cold ‘snap’ about 13,000 years ago that lasted about 500 years before the climate improved again and warm conditions prevailed similar to those we enjoy today. The elk in the UK dispappeared  because of pressure of hunting, or climate change or a combination of both factors.

The Poulton-le-Fylde elk provides an example of an animal hunted using very similar bone points to those found by the Morfitt family. The association of points with a large mammal skeleton can be compared with the point from Skipsea Withow. The date at which this happened is also of interest. The contested Holderness harpoons have never been dated. Having been boiled in glue by the early 20th century antiquaries in order to conserve them means they cannot now be accurately dated. However, a barbed point discovered in a quarry at Gransmoor in Holderness during the 1990s was dated to about 13000 BP, again comparable to the Poulton-le-Fylde example.

What we seem to have is evidence across northern Britain of hunting at an early date, after the melting of the ice sheets. Waterlogged landscapes like Holderness and the Fylde  enabled the survival of large mammal skeletons intact and the barbed points of spears associated with them. the Morfitts’ points may be even older than they were said to be during the 1920s.