Grimaldi man

Finding Grimaldi man

The Grotte dei fanciulli held Aurignacian artifacts and reindeer remains in the upper layers, while the lower layers exhibited a more tropical fauna with Merck's rhinoceros, hippopotamus and straight-tusked elephant. The lowermost horizon held Mousterian tools, associated with Neanderthals. The Grimaldi skeletons were found in the lower Aurignacian layer in June 1901, by the Canon de Villeneuve. The two skeletons appeared markedly different from the Cro-Magnon skeletons found higher in the cave and in other caves around Balzi Rossi, and were named "Grimaldi man" in honour of the Prince.

One of the two skeletons belonged to a woman past 50, the other an adolescent boy of 16 or 17. The skeletons were in remarkably good shape, though the weight of some 8 metres (26 ft) of sediments had crushed the skulls somewhat, particularly the fine bones of the face. Yet, de Villeneuve was reportedly struck by the prognathism of the skulls. With the crushed nature of the skulls, such observation would have been tentative at best. It was however later established that the old woman was indeed prognathic, though from a pathologic condition.

Age

The dating techniques of the day were limited, but the Grimaldi people were believed to be of the late Palaeolithic period. An inference of the true age can be made from the layering. The more tropical fauna of the lower levels below the Grimaldi man skeletons had rhinoceros, hippopotamus and elephants, are known from the Mousterian Pluvial, a moist period from 50,000 to 30,000 years before present. The Aurignacian is 47,000 to 41,000 years old using the most recent calibration of the radiocarbon timescale. With the Grimaldi skeletons situated at the lowest Aurignacian layer, the true age is likely in the earlier range.

Physical characteristics

The Grimaldi skeletons were very different from the finds that had been unearthed in Europe until then. Unlike the robust Neanderthals, the Grimaldi skeletons were slender and gracile, even more so than the Cro-Magnon finds from the same cave system. The Grimaldi people were small. While an adult Cro-Magnon generally stood over 170 cm (5 ft 7 in) tall (large males could reach 190 cm or 6 ft 3 in), neither of the two skeletons stood over 160 cm (5 ft 3 in). The boy was smallest at a mere 155 cm (5 ft 1 in).

The two skulls had rather tall braincases, unlike the long, low skulls found in Neanderthals and to a lesser extent in Cro-Magnons. The faces had wide nasal openings and lacked the rectangular orbitae and broad complexion so characteristic of Cro-Magnons. These traits, combined with what de Villeneuve interpreted as prognathism led the discoverers to the conclusion that the Grimaldi man had been of a "negroid" type. Some traits did not fit the picture though. The nasal bone had a high nasal bridge, like that of Cro-Magnons and modern Europeans, and was very unlike those of more tropical groups. The two rises of the frontal bone in the forehead were separate rather than forming a single median rise, another European trait. The cranial capacity was also quite large for their size.

Restoration work and interpretation

The need for reconstruction

The skulls had been damaged by the weight of the overlying sediments, and some reconstruction, particularly of the lower face was necessary. It has been established that the old woman suffered from a phenomenon known in orthodontics. Having lost all her molars of the lower jaw, the upper jaw had been progressively translated forward and the lower part of the face had become more protruding.

Reconstructing the face

The adolescent had all his teeth, but these were manipulated by the anthropologists M. Boule and R. Verneau, when trying to reconstruct the skull and the face. M. Boule drilled the maxillaries in order to release the wisdom teeth that were still inside them. By doing this, he changed the face, as the natural growth of the wisdom teeth would have remodeled the dental arc in a natural way. Having then too many teeth to fit the jawline, he reconstructed a very prognathic jaw, possibly bearing in mind the jaw of the woman. The diagnosis of "prognathism" in the adolescent is hence speculative.

Museum display

When the Grimaldi skeletons were found, the adolescent lay on his back and the woman face-down. The positions were changed when they were prepared for display. In order to make the prognathism visible, the skeletons were laid out on their side, which also suggested a ritual burial contrary to the original positions.

Photos of this display can be found in textbooks.

It is clear that Verneau did not intend to create a hoax. He documented his manipulations (at least partially), and his intention was to accentuate a feature he really believed to be present. His honesty is further corroborated as he also made and published photos of the excavation, where one can see the woman lying in a face-down position. Such photos were quite rare for that time.

History of classification

Eurocentrism

The finding of the first Cro-Magnon in 1868 led to the idea that modern humans had arisen in Europe. Some French archaeologists at the time were even ready to declare France the cradle of humanity.

Craniometric characteristics of the Grimaldi remains shared certain similarities to tropical African but also European features. Sir Arthur Keith pointed out that the Grimaldi man may be of an "intermediate race" between Africans and Europeans. He suggested Grimaldi man might have found his way to Europe over a land bridge from Northern Africa. Both the Strait of Gibraltar and a route from Algeria via Sicily was thought to have been fordable in the late Paleolithic. Others have suggested the Grimaldi people may have been related to Bushmen (Khoisan people).

Classification as Cro-Magnon

By the 1970s, new finds from Jebel Qafzeh in Israel, Combe-Capelle in Southern France, Minatogawa in Japan, the Kabwe skull from Zambia and several Paleo-Indians had considerably broadened the knowledge of early human populations. The old term "Cro-Magnon" was replaced with "anatomically modern human" to encompass the expanding population out of Africa, including the Grimaldi remains.

Afrocentrism

Cheikh Anta Diop (1981) insisted that the Grimaldi man represent a distinct "black race", different from the Cro-Magnon found in other parts of Europe and previously argued this classification in his 1974 work, "The African Origin of Civilizations" 1974. Diop had defended his use of the terminology as a set of criteria "established by anthropologists to characterise the Negro: black skin, facial prognathism, crinkly hair, flat nose (the facial and nasal indicators being very arbitrarily selected by different anthro-pologists) negritic bone structure (ratio between upper and lower limbs)". Traditional racial categories have now been abandoned by scholars with the advent of modern genetics.