For the past year, I have tried my best to create the ultimate yearlong, global itinerary for exploring human evolution. That’s because I am one of this year’s Watson Fellows, a US based fellowship program that gives recent college graduates, like myself, free reign to explore the world for one year through a passion project of their design. My project is related to human evolution and the insights we can gain from a scientific understanding of our origins. I have sought out the most important and shocking fossil discoveries that have revolutionized our understanding of human origins and changed our conception of what it means to be human. Out of this world of possibilities, I decided to begin my adventure where paleoanthropology truly began, in the Neander Valley where the Neanderthal was first described. Now that I have been away from my home in Cornwall, New York, USA for one month, it is time for me to move onto southern France before I head off to Brazil, Georgia, and Kenya. The friendships and experiences, however, I’ve had at the Neanderthal Museum will stay with me long after I’ve gone.
Upon arriving at the museum, I was amazed by the amount of activities available outside the museum. I’d never been to a museum before that had a workshop, discovery tower, nature preserve, and playground. During my four-week stay I spent most of my time preparing for the museum’s annual Museum Fest by building wooden spears, transporting supplies, and raising tents. During the festival itself I worked at the spear throwing station alongside Dr. Jörg Orschiedt, who taught me about the atlatl technology. An atlatl, or spear-thrower, is a stick with a carved bone hook hafted to one end. The bone hooks into a notch on the back of the spear allowing the thrower to launch their spear much further and faster than previously possible. It is a ubiquitous technology invented independently by many cultures because it is such a simple and effective tool. The earliest evidence of atlatls date back to around 20,000 years ago during the depths of the last Ice Age. The vast open plains that covered much of Germany during this cold climatic interval favored the use of throwing spears. Later, these plains were replaced by forest when the climate warmed, necessitating a new technology: the bow and arrow.
Using an atlatl to hunt takes a tremendous amount of practice, as I could barely hit a stationary target from about 15 meters away. But after seeing visitors try using the atlatl all day, I would guess that most people with some athletic experience would notice a significant improvement in their throwing after only an hour of practice.
Using the museum’s extensive collection of hominin skull casts, I also learned the basic of skull anatomy and the changes that took place across our hominin evolutionary tree. For example, I learned that early hominins quickly lost their fangs, likely due to the development of pair bonding lessening the need for male-to-male conflict and display. I also learned to recognize the huge muscle attachments of Paranthropus, identify Homo erectus skulls by their brow ridge, and separate Australopithecines/Homo habilis from later hominins by their projected face.
Outside of volunteering at the Neanderthal Museum, living in Germany has been fun. I have found that Germans are generally more into recycling and biking than we are in the US. The public transport is also significantly better and I’ve loved using the Deutslandticket to get around nearby cities like Düsseldorf and Cologne. By and large, though, living in Germany has reminded me a lot of my home in New York’s Hudson Valley, which has similar natural scenery. Overall, the Neanderlands has been a wonderful place to begin my year abroad, and as I look forward to France and the other locations I have planned, I will always look back on Germany fondly.
Author: Andrew Fredericks