The Rhünda Skull

The human skulls of Rhünda, also wife of Rhünda, or man of Rhünda, is a paleontological discovery of a human skull from northern Hesse Schwalm- Eder-Kreis.

Fund data

The fossil skull excluding the mandible is a rare paleontological finds from around 10,000 BC It is one of the few well-preserved skeletal remains of glacial origin in Germany.

The skull of an Ice Age man was found after a storm on the night of 19th to 20th June, 1956 to a newly created banks of the Rhünda near their village when Rhünda (situated at Felsberg ) estuary in the Schwalm. He was about 80 cm below the ground. The skull is believed to have been washed down from the nearby woods above the village Rhünda and decayed over time, lapse, and then kalkversintert. The Fund layers consisted of a marly calcareous tufa on alluvial loess and basalt rubble. Through the local teacher E. Glatzer, who recognized the value of the discovery, the discovery came on July 22, 1956 Prof. Dr. Eduard Jacob Hagen of the University of Marburg.

Dating attempts

It has been several attempts to date the skull. On August 26, 1956 Jacob Hagen presented the skull designated fund at the international congress 100 years Neanderthals in Dusseldorf as a new find of Homo sapiens neanderthalensis type; He was therefore of the view of the skull of a Neanderthal was the Rhünda, the so-called "Woman of Rhünda ", which he finished at the gracefulness of the bone, after cleaning and reassembly. According to this assignment of the skull would have to be 30,000 years old.

But already at the Congress itself had sparked a fierce debate as to whether the Fund was really a Neanderthal. 1962 published anthropologists Heberer and Kurth from Göttingen, that if it were at the Rhünda Skull is a representative of modern man (Homo sapiens). Their assignment was based on studies of a recomposition of the skull. As 1962 Kalktuffproben from the Fund layer with the C14 method as a post-glacial 8365 / -100 years BP were dated, the scientific discussion about the wife of Rhünda fell silent for years.

The findings were considered to be secured and scientifically proven. The general view of the skull was no longer classified within the circle of the rare finds of Upper Paleolithic Ice Age hunters and collectors. A direct dating on bone of the skull was not made. Then again in 1990 determined by an analysis of the Fund layers an age of 8,300 years. Since the skull is the Rhündabach driven down, this age was, however, to doubt and just refer to the Kalkversinterung.

Final date

Paleontologist Wilfried Rosendahl dated 2002 the skull after his investigations with the latest and most advanced methods to an age of 12,000 years. He was the first who performed direct studies of the skull. For precise dating with the AMS 14C method he sent a skull sample to Groningen in the Netherlands. There was a sensational result that the skull / geological age of 10,000 years - has to have 80 BC and is thus assigned to the Late Glacial or the late Upper Paleolithic.

Sex determination of the object

Presumably, the ice age man of Ründa in the area located above Rhünda has (now forested ) lived, but it was no proof of residence are found from this period. Whether it is a man or a woman is not clear, on the basis of bone density, it could be a woman, but also a man who could scarce find longer time food. Now it is assumed that it is a man.

Now the skull with paleo- DNA analysis is investigated, which could give clues about how humans have genetically altered in 12,000 years. In addition, the teeth on the upper jaw may give insight into the diet of the people of glacial Rhünda. From the enamel could prove infectious diseases policy.

Is kept of the Archaeological the Hesse State Museum in Kassel.