The Rhünda Skull
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| Common name | The Rhünda Skull |
|---|---|
| Species | homo sapiens sapiens |
| Age | 12000 ± 80 years BP |
| Place discovered | Rhünda in North Hesse, Germany |
| Date discovered | 19 July 1956 |
| Discovered by | Eitel Glatzer |
Coordinates: 51°06′56″N 9°24′25″E / 51.115488°N 9.406807°E
The Rhünda Skull is a fossil hominid skull that was found just outside the village of Rhünda in North Hesse, Germany.
On the night of 19 July 1956 there was a heavy storm in North Hessen. This caused the stream northwest of Rhünda, the Rhündabach, to strongly erode the field that is now the Rhünda sports ground. On the morning of 20 July, a villager found parts of a hominid skull in the newly-eroded stream bed, about 80 centimetres (31 in) below the ground surface. The skull pieces were covered in calcareous sinter and surrounded by lime-rich tuff, loess, and basalt fragments.
The find was passed on to Prof. Dr. Eduard Jacobshagen in the Department of Anatomy and Anthropology at the University of Marburg. On 26 August 1956, Prof. Jacobshagen present his research at the international congress 'Hundert Jahre Neanderthaler: 1856–1956 [a century of Neanderthals]' in Düsseldorf. From his reconstruction of the skull, he postulated it belonged to the species Homo neanderthalensis, i.e. a Neanderthal. This would mean the fossil was 30.000 years old. Furthermore, he thought the bones belonged to a female.
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