The Museum of Prehistory in Les Eyzies-de-Tayac not only includes many fascinating artifacts of the discoveries made in the area (including the first identified Cro-Magnon man), but it also includes a few reconstructions of animals and man.
One of those reconstructions helped me understand something I have puzzled about for some time. The depictions of Neanderthals that were presented while I was growing up always showed them rather hulking and brutish. But with newer technology, scientists revised that view and said that a Neanderthal dressed in modern clothes could pass quite un-noticed on the street. I had trouble squaring that with the heavy brow and other characteristics they were supposed to exhibit. But based on the reconstruction of the Neanderthal man in the museum at Les Eyzies, made that quite apparent.
I know the photo is not good (taken through glass), but he doesn't look that different does he? That's good, because scientists have also recently discovered that those of us who are of European ancestry share three percent of our genes with Neanderthals. (And that strange uncle of yours probably has even more, right?)
Les Eyzies is a pretty town, too.
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