PRIESTS UNCOVER THE 'OLD MAN OF LA CHAPELLE-AUX-SAINTS

摘要

A century ago, three Catholic priests unearthed a nearly complete Neanderthal skeleton in a cave near the village of La Chapelle-aux-Saints in France. They turned the remains over to Marcellin Boule, the director of the paleontology laboratory at the prestigious Museum d'Histoire Naturelle in Paris. After extensive analysis, Boule declared Neanderthals to be hunchbacked dimwits - hairy bestial creatures with large brains but small intellect. Although a re-examination of the skeleton in the 1950s showed he was wrong, the damage had been done. The term Neanderthal is still synonymous for someone who is boorish, ill-mannered and uncouth.