11. Juli 2000

New find of a human mandible at the Middle Pleistocene site of Bilzingsleben

by Ursula Mania, Friedrich-Schiller-University of Jena

The world-famous site of Bilzingsleben, since 1993 belonging to the Forschungsstelle Bilzingsleben of the Friedrich-Schiller-University of Jena, has been excavated and investigated for 30 years under the leadership of Dietrich Mania.
With the help of many disciplines, such as archaeology, geology, palaeontology and anthropology  a complex picture of a 400 000-year old camp site with its natural surrounding area, its climate, its life traces and culture from early man was reconstructed.
This is a unique scientific result.
In addition to the already uncovered 28 human skull fragments and eight teeth, the discovery of the right mandible of this late representative of Homo erectus also helped to complete the reconstruction.

Reconstruction of the Mandibula of Bilzingsleben in comparation with the Sinanthropus (E. Vlcek)

It was recovered on 11th November 1999. With the help of many comparative studies of all the human fragments of Bilzingsleben and of other well-known Homo erectus finds, an astonishing agreement with the forms of the African OH9 from Olduvai and some erectus finds from East-Asia was found (Pithecanthropus VIII, Sinanthropus III). As the preliminary studies have shown, the Bilzingsleben mandible, too, most resembles the jaws discovered from Sinanthropus H I and B I, as well as from Arago II and XIII.
The mandible fragment represents the right half of the corpus mandibularis. It is 81.5 mm long and 31 mm high. The jaw had been smashed before deposition. The ramus mandibulae is broken off above the trigonum retromolare. The chin region is broken off transversally near the foramina mentalia as well as the upper edge of the alveolar border. The teeth are missing.


The archaic features, which prove the great similarity to some well-known Homo erectus finds are the following:
The ramus ascentens rises vertically in a right angle to the mandible body (like Sinanthropus).
The height of the mandible body is constantly the same in its whole length (see Mauer, Ternifine, Arago and Sinanthropus). There are several foramina mentalia (similar to Ternifine and Sinanthropus).
The ramus mandibulae is markedly broad, about 50 mm (cf. Mauer). The distance between the last molar and the ramus mandibulae is small. These archaic features are in correspondance stated for those from the skull fragments of the two reconstructed individuals of Bilzingsleben.

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