Museum complex

Portrait sculpture of HOMO SAPIENS SAPIENS

Workshop of M.M. Gerasimov (1907-1970)
Moscow
The middle of the 20th century
Gypsum
Height – 49 cm
From: gift from M.M. Gerasimov
Open storage

HOMO SAPIENS SAPIENS or Neoanthrop. Appeared about 100 thousand years ago and still is existing. Portrait sculptures of ancient human ancestors presented in the hall were made after the method of scientific human appearance reconstruction based on skull bone remains. This method was developed by famous soviet archaeologist and anthropologist, member of the Academy of Sciences Mikhail Mikhaylovich Gerasimov. This is a reconstruction based on skull of an neoanthrop from the Cro-Magnon cave (France). Cro-Magnon Men are European neoanthrops, they appeared in Europe about 40 thousand years ago. They lived in conditions of rigorous climate of the Ice Age, hunting, fishing and gathering, building dwellings of different types. With their appearance the beginning and rapid development of prehistoric art is connected: parietal art as cave paintings, mobiliary art, crafting and different types of personal ornaments. Burials of Cro-Magnon Men are characterized by complicated rituals. All these facts witness how rich mental world of the earliest anatomically modern humans was.

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