Neanderthals and Emergent Palaeoanthropology 50 Years Ago

Abstract

I know why you’re here, the question is why am I here and I’m here because the organizers, let us say unanimously, said “would you please come to Bonn for the 150 years of Neanderthal?”, and it took me a few minutes, maybe 6 or 7 s to say okay, and then they said what they would like me to do, and I said well, yeah, I really can do what I want, which is mostly what I do anyway, so in any case I came for several reasons. Not only because I happened to be here as Gabriele Uelsberg, the LandesMuseum Director, said for the first time in 1956, the first time I was in Europe was 1953, the same year that I received a doctorate, although I never stayed for the ceremony and they had to send it to my parents, because I was overseas, in London at Chris Stringer’s museum, and Chris had just arrived I think recently, and you’ll hear about that in some of the things I’m going to say to you. I’m going to talk to you about the 1950s, which is 50 years ago, so if you’re under fifty there are some things that you might benefit from, from what I say. If you’re over that, there are some things you might say, “well that’s interesting, I really didn’t know about that “or “that’s not the way I heard it” or something like that. All that’s possible. I really came because of something else. I was in Bonn in 1956. I was in Europe, all over with my new wife of 1 year, all over Western Europe, beginning in London and ending back in London, and all over Western Europe, Southern Europe, Central Europe and so on in a great big swoop over 3 months, looking at Neanderthal folks that I hadn’t seen already in 1953. In 1953, they were all seen either in the British Museum (Natural History), now The Natural History Museum, let us not forget, and then in Paris.

F.C. Howell died of cancer on March 10, 2007, just 8 months after presenting this lecture. A recording made by W. von Koenigswald was transcribed by Ms. Evelyn Katz and edited by Eric Delson (both of the Department of Anthropology, Lehman College/CUNY, Bronx, NY 10468, USA), with editorial assistance from Susan C. Antón (Department of Anthropology, New York University).