DALE DRINNON: Item of interest

I found this while on a photo search for something else. It is from a site that advertises antique human skull memorabilia for sale. There is a section displaying several stone skull replicas from the orient, and in this case from Tibet, Chinese Turkestan and Mongolia. Most of them are not very realistic and mostly stylised. This one caught my eye because it was not only more realistic, it is decidedly Neanderthaloid. The teeth are somehat schematic, and not many individual teeth are indicated. But the shape of the forehead, brow and eye sockets are nicely done and very accurate if that is the type the sculptor is representing.

I'll tell you another thing: the nose as depicted does not show the nasal openings the way they really look on look on the skull. It shows a faithful representation of the Iceman's nose only at a smaller size.

The sculpture being done in stone, there is no way it can really be dated directly. The site says these skulls are from various periods but as far back as before the beginnings of Chinese history. This being one of the better made ones also makes me think it is more recent than that.

POSTSCRIPT: I have been trying to get this comparison photo to you for a while: it is a good shot of a Neanderthal skull in comparable position to put beside the jade representation. I had to screen dozens of candidate alternatives to get this one skull in this one view, and it would be a pity if it did not get to you. This is a museum display case view of the original (I think).