Discover the Neanderthal Man at Paris Musée de l’Homme. For this second major exhibition, the museum focuses on another human species that disappeared over 35,000 years ago, after living on the Earth for over 350,000 years.
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Living on the Earth for over 350,000 years, the Neanderthal Man disappeared over 35,000 years ago by leaving physical traces, rediscovered in the 19th century and analyzed by researchers worldwide. These traces, skeletons, skull bones, Lithic tools have been preserved for some at the Musée de l’Homme (a museum managed by the Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle) and now presented through a major exhibition.
Suited for kids, this exhibition offers to live out several experiences, combining the rigor of scientific speech to a playful museography and workshops: evolving around 3 parts, we can discover how was the daily life of the Neanderthal men, how much time they lived and finally, the exhibition will give us pieces to answer the big question “How did the encounter between Neanderthals and Homo sapiens go? Was it hostile or did an interbreeding happen?”
To answer these questions, prehistorian and head of research at the CNRS (National Center for Scientific Research) attached to the “Man and environment” department of the Muséum National d’histoire Naturel Marylène Patou-Mathis and prehistorian, paleolithician and local manager pf the INRAP (French National Institute for Preventive Archaeological Research) Pascal Depaepe gathered over 180 items (fossils and contemporary documents) that change the prejudices about Neanderthal Men!
Of course, this Neanderthal exhibition will present famous bones including Neander’s skull, the Old Man from La Chapelle Aux Saints, the child from Pech-de-L’Azé, the woman from Saint-Césaire and will even reveal the daily life of the nomad hunter-gatherers with the reconstitution at scale 1/1 of the camp of La Folie Poitiers.
These archaeological items will be accompanied by paintings, texts, documents that will return of the varied welcomes this being received during the discovery of the first skull bone in the Neander valley in Germany (Tal in German), hence the name, Neanderthal Man!
Works of art, religious or scientific texts, the Musée de l’Homme presents the way the wrong reputation of Neanderthal in the 19th century has been made, this “Other” archaic brute being has nothing to see with the Modern Man at the time where Christianism used to struggle against the Theory of Evolution.
The exhibition starts on March 28, 2018 and runs to January 7, 2019.
For an overview of the exhibition see the Museum's 28 page Press Dosier (pdf, in French)
Source: SotiraParis [March 12, 2018]
