The Face Of The First European
The face of the first European, reconstructed by forensic artist Richard Neave. Using the incomplete skull and jaw bone in a cave in the southwest of the Carpathian Mountains in Romania, scientists had revealed for the first time the face of the first European.
Scientists doesn’t know if this modern human is a male or a female but using radiocarbon analysis they found that this individual lived around 34,000 to 36,000 years ago. Around this time, Europe is home to both Neanderthals and modern humans. Modern humans first arrive to Europe from Africa.
The skull of this individual is human-like, though there are also some archaic traits such as large molars. Some scientists speculated that this skull belongs to a Neanderthal and modern human hybrid though it was disproved by many experts.
Richard Neave, a forensic artist used clay to reconstruct this individual for a BBC program about the origins of the human race and evolution.
Originally posted on Prancing Papio.
i”m curious why artists/scientists always portray people from this time period as ‘out of Africa’. At this point in time I’m not sold that they were. For example, we never see Neanderthals portrayed as dark skinned. I think it’s interesting that eskimos have been hanging out near the Arctic circle for 13,000 years that we know of, yet we don’t see any of them with blond hair, blue eyes or big noses. My personal opinion is that modern man entered Europe much earlier than 35K years ago. I’d be curious to see if anyone has studied how many generations it would take to get a blue eyed blonde if you put a community of Africans on Greenland. I don’t think 35K years be enough time
Kari
May 13, 2009 at 5:08 pm
Having blonde hair or blue eyes is a trait, not a matter of race. We know so far that there are Australian Aboriginal children that are born with blonde hair, as well as African children that are born with light colored eyes. 35K years is plenty of time for mutations to take place. I think its safe to say that its unknown what the first people looked like.
jay
May 23, 2009 at 4:10 pm
Kari,
Humans did not evolve from neandrathals. On the evolutionary chain, we are siblings with neandrathals, not the children of. Neandrathals and modern humans share a common ancestor.
Just because being in a Northern climate led Europeans to evolve light colored skin, doesn’t mean Northern climates ALWAYS cause a group to evolve light skin.
c almond
July 19, 2009 at 9:52 am
Kari – the skin colour is not being depicted as any colour other than the clay with which the reconstruction was made!
Gareth
July 19, 2010 at 11:12 am
Because BBC is so poor they cant afford to paint most of the guys face. Of course they did have enough money to paint his eyes and even do his lips and mouth in specific shades.
shel
August 24, 2010 at 9:14 pm
Neanderthals were not Homo sapiens
Theodora Anagor Flat 2, 27 Oxford Gardens London
February 12, 2011 at 3:21 am
Can you please delete my previous message it has my address and phone number thank you
Theodora
February 12, 2011 at 3:23 am