Neandertal Travel Guide

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The animal enclosures of the Neandertal keep rare animals of the Ice Age. There are three species: Tarpan horses, aurochs and wisent (I was astonished to see that there is no plural-s for the latter two species!).
Breeding and keeping those species began in 1935 when a nature conversation organisation was founded in Neandertal.

While wisent had survived in a small reagion in Eastern Europe, aurochs and tarpan horses were extinct in the 17th and 18th century. They were "bred back" by the German brothers Heck using related species. Thus, they are not members of the real historic species, but recreated and rebred species. While the tarpan horse is probably very close to the original horse because closely relative species were used for the breeding, it is highly debated how close the so-called aurochs is to the original species. Correctly, this rebred species should not be called aurochs, but heck cattle. There are now new projects that aim to breed a "real" aurochs on the basis of better evidence.

I was looking forward to seeing these beautiful and impressive animals, but we only found the tarpan horses. The enclosures are huge and probably the cattle were staying in another corner of them further away. We did not feel like walking so far, though.
The horses were beautiful. Obviously they were waiting for their dinner as they were all standing in a line next to a hut! :-)

What I found very nice is that in autumn you can collect chestnuts and bring them to the organisation, and they will feed them to the animals :-)

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The Neanderthal Man was found in the so-called Feldhof Grotto. This grotto was completely destroyed because it was used as a chalk quarry later. There is now only one piece of stone left that belonged to the original grotto. You can see that stone in the main picture. There is a plaque commemorating the finding of the man, translated it says:


To the memory of the discovery of the Neanderthal Man by Prof. Dr. C. Fuhlrott, Elberfeld, in the summer of 1856


If you walk past this stone, you come to the area where the chalk was mined. The very place where the man was found is now marked by red and white poles and I must admit that... hm, it was not too interesting... it was just a piece of lawn with red and white poles! ;-)
The place is surrounded by stone crosses and other stone objects that all mean something special (there was a big competition for the design of this place!), but I did not really get it. Maybe I should have listened to the audioguide!

The place is easy to find from the museum because the way is marked by green signs.

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The Neanderthal Museum does not only deal with the discovery of the Neanderthal Man, but with the history of humankind in general. It shows information and artefacts of the very first beginnings in Africa, until today. Topics are for example Darwin's theory, the life and biology of the Neanderthal people, stone age tools, the beginning of the bronze age, etc. It is shown how humans have developed from 120,000 years ago until today, how they survived and adapted to new conditions. But as I said, the history goes until today, and so today's life is also a topic, for example medical research and population growth.

Although the stone age is not my favourite period of history, I found the museum very interesting. The atmosphere is very pleasant and comfortable, and the information is presented very concise and understandable. There are four different levels, and you wind your way up like a great spiral while you see the exhibition pieces and read the information tables. I also liked the architecture of the building. It was constructed in the 1990s and is completely surrounded by glass. The interior consists of a big spiral that winds itself up to the roof.

There were several school classes, so it was a bit loud, but it was also great to see how much the children were interested in everything they saw! The exhibitions are very child-friendly and not too complicated. I think it is a great day out for a family.
All the explanations are in German and English. Of course there is also a café and a shop.

Opening times: Open daily from 10.00 to 18.00, closed on Mondays

Fee: 8€ for adults, 4€ for children, 7€ for students. Discounts for families available, additional fees for special exhibitions.

When you walk from the carpark to the museum, you will encounter this statue of the Neanderthal Man. It needs to be noted, though, that this statue does not show the Neanderthal Man as he probably looked like, but a cliché version of it. It was produced in 1928 by a local artist for the beergarden of a restaurant. There is no accordance to scientific evidence, but it shows how people imagined stone age people. You see a primitive, stout man, strong and hairy, using a club.
Scientific evidence nowadays shows that Neanderthal people did not look like this, but I think that the cliché is still quite strong in the heads of most people.