Neanderthal Museum

In 1856 quarrymen clearing a limestone cave in the Neander valley threw out bones that were recognised as belonging to an unknown kind of human, and the species took the valley's name. The quarrying destroyed the cave and the valley's original limestone gorge entirely, and the exact find spot was lost until it was relocated in 1997, when further fragments from the same individual were recovered. The museum, opened in 1996, covers human evolution with reconstructions, and a garden nearby keeps aurochs-type cattle and tarpan-type horses bred back toward extinct forms. The valley's name comes from Joachim Neander, a seventeenth-century hymn writer.

History

The design was chosen in a competition in the spring of 1993 with 130 entrants from Germany and abroad, won by Günter Zamp Kelp, Julius Krauss and Arno Brandlhuber, and the museum opened on 10 October 1996 near the spot where the Neanderthal fossil was found; its multimedia exhibition was renewed in 2006 (Wikipedia, Neanderthal Museum).

What to look for

• The find site - the relocated spot, marked, where the 1856 bones were thrown out.
• The reconstructions - modelled figures based on skeletal evidence.
• The bred-back animals - aurochs-type cattle and tarpan-type horses.
• The lost gorge - a valley quarried away, with only the name surviving.

When to go

Year-round; the museum closes Mondays. The site walk and animal enclosures are best in fine weather. School groups fill it on weekdays in term time.

What to expect

The original cave and gorge no longer exist; the valley is unremarkable now. The original bones are in Bonn. The museum is aimed partly at school groups.

Nearby

Düsseldorf lies west; Wuppertal is east.

Key facts