МАЭ № 7630-2

Sungir Man

late 1960s

plaster cast with patina

During the excavations of the Upper Paleolithic site at Sungir near Vladimir, dating to ca. 30 thousand years before present, in 1956-77, O.N Bahder discovered several burials. The best preserved were those of a male aged 45-55 and of two children. The male’s costume was reconstructed as a fur or leather jumper similar to the Eskimo parka, trousers, knee-high boots, cloak or poncho, and hat. The entire costume was richly decorated with beads made of mammoth ivory. The man’s physical type was anatomically modern, but his racial features were indistinct—in the words of G.F. Debetz, he was an “average Homo sapiens.” Certain physical features of the Sungir people can be regarded as archaic. Specifically, judging by the huge clavicles, the man was extremely broad-shouldered, which is typical of Neanderthals. The Upper Paleolithic stone tools found at Sungir, too, are rather archaic and display Mousterian (i.e. Neanderthal) survivals. Evidently, anatomically modern humans and Neanderthals interbred to a small extent, as documented by genetic data.

Anthropological plastic reconstructions, lifetime masks. 19th - 20th centuries