Homo neanderthalensis: Hominin #12 - 1/88 Limited Edition

Format: 2160 x 2160 px - MP4 Looping video - 150 dpi

This Hominin bust by the Smithsonian paleoartist John Gurche is built with clay over a cast or 3D print of an ancient skull, from which a silicone mold is taken and the face painted into the mold. Acrylic eyes, and bear or human hair implanted manually and individually.

Materials: clay, casting, 3D printing, silicone, acrylic, paint, bear hair, human hair.

Medium: digital photography, post-production coloring, animation.

This robust superhominin had a larger brain than any previous hominin and a sophisticated culture that allowed them to survive in cold climates. Physically powerful, they were capable hunters who became top predators within their ecosystems for over 200,000 years. Since their discovery in the mid-1800s, Neanderthals have fascinated us as a mysterious “other,” an alternative kind of human being who lived during a long-past time that overlapped with ours. How different were they from us, and what do those differences mean? The other key question is: What happened to them? Why did our kind survive while theirs became extinct? Did we play a role in their extinction?

Neanderthals overlapped with modern humans for thousands of years, which suggests we did not have a clear competitive advantage. Instead, some researchers say the estimated world population numbers for moderns were much larger than for Neanderthals during the overlap. In other words, the Neanderthal gene pool was swamped by modern human genes. “Their stream braided back into our own,” as one expert put it.

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