SWANSCOMBE SKULL

human fossil remnants, consisting of two fossil parietals and the occipital of a young female, found in well-stratified gravels of the River Thames, Swanscombe, Kent, Eng., in 1935, 1936, and 1955. Chemical tests and associated faunal remains and Acheulian hand axes date the human bones accurately to the Second (Mindel-Riss) Interglacial Period (about 200,000 years ago). Detailed study of the bones has failed to justify a specific distinction from the corresponding bones of modern human skulls, even though those of the Swanscombe skull show minor differences from those of modern manparticularly in the occipital bone. The Swanscombe skull predates Neanderthal man and is usually classified as an early subspecies of Homo sapiens, called Homo sapiens heidelbergensis.