Germany

We took a night train from Rome to Munich and then rode to Frankfurt where we met up with Tressa's college roommate Melanie Horst who is stationed in Wiesbaden Germany with the Army. Melanie, and her husband Joe, have been kind enough to let us crash at their place this week while I've worked in various Germany cities. On Thursday we traveled to Bonn where I studied the two Oberkassel crania and had a chance to see the Feldhofer skeleton. If you're not an anthropologist (i.e. big nerd), the Feldhofer skeleton was found in Germany's Neander Valley.The German word for valley is "thal". Thus, the Feldhofer skeleton is where we get the term Neanderthal man, or man from the Neander Valley. Unfortunately, Feldhofer has no face, so I didn't actually get to study the specimen up close...which kinda made me want to cry. On Friday, Tressa's mom and sister flew into Frankfurt, and they all hopped on a train bound for Florence for a week of all girls sight-seeing. I on the other hand, opted for something even better...traveling to Stuttgart to study the 250,000 year old Steinheim cranium.