Imagine Sidling Up to This: Neo-Neanderthal Reconstruction in Norma Lateralis

In spe.

[Embarrassed admission: I ain't no artist. By now I had hoped to engage an interested individual, such as John Gurche, to take a stab at my neo-Neanderthal. Alas, no luck as yet. So, you, Dear Reader, will have to accept what you get with the price of admission such as it is.]

In my post yesterday I promised a side view of what I'd consider an anatomically correct Neanderthal. This [ahem] artist's conception takes account of the near horizontal line made by the midline suture of the ossa nasales, the most likely soft tissue conformation to the east (i.e. that of the cartilage, fat and skin), and the much larger eye orbits to the west, which are always portrayed as the size of a modern human's, and never in the way you see here. As before, the source for this mélange of mine is a web photo of a bust in the Australian Museum. [Allow me to apologize for the kindergarten level of this representation.]

If you're aware of anyone with a cast of the Shanidar 5 face (about as likely as the Moon dropping on me), or someone with a flair for CT scans of fossils, 3D manipulation of multiple imageds, wax effigy construction, makin' it up as you go along, or any of a number of similarly related avocations (I use the term avocation advisedly, since they'd have to do it for free), I'd very much appreciate your input. In the meantime, back to nursing myself back to 'wellness' (as they say, these days). [What ever happened to 'health'?]


Your's truly,
Pablo Picasso