Back when Heuvelmans was alive a
nd we were discussing his interpretation of the Iceman I said that most experts would disagree with his interpretation of the Neanderthal's nose being like the Iceman's.
However, I did the following little demonstration for him as well: I altered Jay Maternes' reconstruction of the Shanidar Neanderthal to something like the Iceman's snubnosed condition just by rotating the end of the nose relative to the rest of the head.
I should also note that the Shanidar skull in question illustrates one peculiar feature often found in European Neandert
hal (although Shanidar is in the Near East): the highest point of the cranium is in back and the skull slopes steeply away from that point both before and behind.
This could be what causes some witnesses to say the almas has a head that is pointed in back. Other types of early humans do not have this feature and in fact some of the first Neanderthal skulls found (such as the one at La Chapelle-aux-Saints) were incorrectly reconstructed without it, and with the profile of the cranium too low in back.
Homo erectus incidentally never has anything like it and if anything, erectus tends to have a higher peak in the front of the cranium, and tapers away to the rear in profile.
Whilst visiting my local museum (Rochester) I took some photos of an old poster and a connecting sculpture, pertaining to a poor woman, dubbed the 'Lion Queen' who many years ago during a show in Chatham was attacked and killed by two captive big cats. The taxonomy fail is blatantly obvious and I'm hoping to enquire at the museum as to who made the cock-up!
