Denisovan Ancestry in East Eurasian and Native American Populations

07 November 2014

A Lower Paleolithic human head sculpture found among cleavers in the French Pyrenees

A Lower Paleolithic human head sculpture, by Homo heidelbergensis
Henri Valentie find from the French Pyrenees region

Mr. Valentie writes: "This piece comes from the massive shale Pyrenees in France. I found it in the middle of Lower Paleolithic cleavers. A beautiful left profile. 25 cm / 19.5 / 6 cm. Cordially, Henri"

Homo heidelbergensis reconstruction

The France sculpture compared to an artist's reconstruction of a Homo heidelbergensis male courtesy of Science Photo Library.

It is important to note that the neck connection to the head and the truncation of the necks into the lower right visual corner in both art images above are strikingly similar despite their being separated by at least 200,000 years of the human aesthetic.


A reconstructed model of a Homo heidelbergensis head

Human face looking forward interpreted by Henri Valentie, Île d'Oléron, France

Valentie writes (Trans. K. Johnston): "This stone was found on the foreshore island of Oleron. The mouth too is not natural. This is one of my best pieces. I felt a great emotion when I found it given the patina of the flint is very old on the worked areas of the stone." 12cm / 11cm / 8cm

Ken Johnston illustration of interpreted facial features and their worked areas. Original photo courtesy of Henri Valentie.

No comments:

Post a Comment