Skip to content. | Skip to navigation

Personal tools

You are here: Home / Projects / Neanderthal 3D

Introduction

This project aims to utilise the existing digital collection of Neandertal and AMH fossils which are housed at the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences and to showcase the reconstructed Spy skeleton to highlight Belgian scientific and cultural heritage as well the current state of the art research in Belgium. There are four aspects to the project:

1) improvement of existing 'lhpFusionBox' software to make this programme fully adapted to the needs of paleoanthropologists,

2)the creation of a serious game using the reconstructed Spy II skeleton and body,

3)to prepare the reconstructed 3D Spy II Neandertal and other Neandertal fossil specimens for 3D printing and then place these fossils online and freely available

4) to create an interactive website which will serve as an educational experience on Neandertals, who are often portrayed in the public as cavemen, stupid brutish and more ape like than modern humans.

Summary of Neandertal_3D

Human evolution is a “hot” research topic which fascinates both the media and the general public. The opening of the New gallery of Man and the Evolution of Man in RBINS in May 2015 showed the enormous interest that both scholars and families have for new and original presentations on this topic. Since the beginning of the 19th Century, Belgium has played an important role in the history of Paleoanthropology. The oldest discovery of a Neandertal fossil was made in the Engis Cave by P.-C. Schmerlinck in 1829. The particular taxonomic status of the cranium of this immature Neandertal was only recognized a century later. The jaw of la Naulette and the two skeletons from Spy are also masterpieces of Human Evolution History. A recent accurate radiocarbon dating showed that the fossils from Spy are currently the most recent Neanderthals that have been found. The analysis of the dental calculus of the Spy fossils and new analysis of the stable isotopes of bone collagen further shows that these last Neanderthals were not only carnivorous, as was expected, but that a vegetarian intake was also an important part of their diet. More recently, international studies have examined the Neandertals and anatomically modern human (AMH) remains from the Goyet Caves. The exceptional preservation of the ancient DNA of these fossils enabled complete genomes to be built for both populations, which is very unique. Several digitization programs have also recently produced an extensive collection of all the 3D models of Neandertal and Palaeolithic AMH fossils which have been discovered in Belgium and this has opened up new fields for scientific studies. 


This project aims to utilise the existing digital collection of Neandertal and AMH fossils which are housed at RBINS. The Spy Neandertals have been extensively studied by both national and international researchers since they were found in 1886. There is no complete Neandertal skeleton in the fossil record. In 2004, there was a reassessment of the human and faunal material from the Spy cave conducted by RBINS (Spy Cave, Belspo Action 1). This reassessment attributed many more fossil remains to the larger of the two skeletons (Spy II) which became one of the most complete Neandertal skeletons available. Based on this new study, a collaboration between ULB and RBINS (Reconstruction of Neandertal locomotion, Belspo Action 2) saw the reconstruction of the Spy II Neandertal based on the available digitised fossils. This project was undertaken in collaboration with leading Neandertal international experts from 15 different institutions in 6 different countries. The virtual reconstruction of the Spy II skeleton was used by the Dutch artists Adrie and Alfons Kennis to make a hyper-realistic reconstruction and was the subject of intensive media coverage. It was also used as the base for other Neandertal models in the National History Museum, London and others museums around the world. The full scale skeleton was also printed in 3D and used in RBINS and other Museums in Europe as a reference for the Neandertal Skeleton (Musée de l’Homme de Spy and Abri Cro-magnon in Les Eyzies).

 

Project & Network
This project aims to make accessible the existing digital collection of Neandertal and human specimens which are housed at RBINS and to showcase the reconstructed Spy skeleton to highlight Belgian scientific and cultural heritage as well the current state of the art research in Belgium. It will target very different audiences :
 

a) Scholars

LhpFusionBox is a state of the art musculoskeletal system developed by ULB with the aim of being used with patients in clinics. Several adaptations were made to the software program to enable fossils to be analysed although there still remains more work to do to make this programme fully adapted to the requirements of paleoanthropologists. The new development of the software will allow measurements to be taken more easily and allow the biomechanical comparison of fossils. The software is based on open source technologies and is freely available to use with a research agreement between the ULB and prospective researchers.

 

b) Medical patients

A key element in physical rehabilitation is motivation to continue to perform physical rehabilitation exercises. Serious games are used for the treatment of movement disorders and help to motivate patients to do their exercises. VUB and ULB have previously collaborated to produce ‘serious gaming’ applications. In this project, the reconstructed Spy II skeleton and body will be used as an avatar based on real scientific evidence in order to create educative games that can be used both for patients in their rehabilitation and for educational purposes.

 

c) Schools and museums

The project seeks to create a network so that 3D non-contact moulds can easily be made by schools and other museums using low cost 3D printers. This will replace the classical cast system where there are potential problems for the original fossils. The direct 3D printing also avoids another problem with classical casting in that reproductions can be 2-5% smaller than the original. This casting method can then be used with fossils (available from RBINS) and modern human bones (from ULB).

 

d) Electronic visitors

The project will create an interactive website which will serve as an educational experience on Neandertals, who are often portrayed in the public as cavemen, stupid brutish and more ape like than modern humans. The website will seek to redress this balance whilst also highlighting the state of the art research that is now being done by researchers in Belgium.

 

The network will be ULB, RBINS, VUB, ADIA:

  • The lhpFusionBox software will be adapted to palaeoanthropology by VUB and ULB. This will be overseen by RBINs who will act as a BETA tester for the new software. The creation of a user guide to lhpFusionBox will be created by RBINS so that steps will be shown on how to perform complex biomechanical operations to researchers without a biomechanical background.
  • The Spyrou skeleton created from the digitised 3D Neandertal skeletal models will also be incorporated into a ‘serious game’. This will be done by VUB and overseen by RBINS and ULB for respectively the paleoanthropological and rehabilitation aspects of the game.
  • RBINs will work to create a network which will enable moulds of the digitised fossils to be produced more easily.

The website will be created by ADIA and the research in Neandertals and modern humans being performed at RBINS and ULB will be incorporated into the website.