Sculpted Neanderthal head from Germany may have Oregon and Ohio North American analogs

Finding by rock art and tool investigator Hans Grams, Germany

"Head of a Neanderthal: 25 kilograms, 36 x 33 x 17 centimeters"

Finding by James May, at the mouth of the Columbia River gorge, Oregon, identified by Ken Johnston as a possible Neanderthal head sculpture, left profile view.

James May find, Oregon. The triangular shaped carved "eye" on this sculpture is above, and slightly to the left, of the finger in this photo.

The point at far left of the stone may be interpreted as the nose of the human head. The Germany and Oregon, USA, heads have a very similar facial profile with prominence of the mid-face. That is, the nose is seen far forward and the chins and foreheads recede from there. This is in line with the Neanderthal facial morphology as reconstructed based on fossil skull data. A similar expression of this type of facial structure is seen in this post of some smaller artifacts from Arizona and Ohio, also suspected of being Neanderthal head figures. Paleolithic art scholar and author Pietro Gaietto, indicates human heads are one of the 8 most common sculpture types of that time.

This example of a human head sculpture in flint from Ohio also has mid-facial prominence and a triangular eye as is seen the Oregon example.

-kbj