Neandertals are the first of the human population that can be truly recognised as a pan-European phenomenon and traces of the remains are found in most European countries. iNEAL (Integrating Neandertal Legacy: From Past to Present), a COST Action, chaired by Prof. Ivor Janković from the Institute for Anthropological Research in Zagreb, Croatia, was spearheaded in 2020 to specifically deal with this area of research.
Up to twenty-seven different European countries have since joined this COST Action. Johann Galdies, from the Department of Geosciences at the University of Malta is the iNEAL Management Committee Member representative for Malta, and has participated at two training schools organised by iNEAL. The training schools, hosted by the Gallery of the Archaeological Museum Zagreb (Croatia) and Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen (Germany), were held in September and October this year.
Up to twenty-seven different European countries have since joined this COST Action. Johann Galdies, from the Department of Geosciences at the University of Malta is the iNEAL Management Committee Member representative for Malta, and has participated at two training schools organised by iNEAL. The training schools, hosted by the Gallery of the Archaeological Museum Zagreb (Croatia) and Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen (Germany), were held in September and October this year.
The training school held in Zagreb dealt with the valorisation of Neandertal heritage through the creation of cultural routes, and involved brainstorming sessions, discussions on the various tools museums and learning centres can exploit, and site visits to the two most important Neandertal cave sites in Croatia: Krapina and Vindija.
The second training school, delivered by the Palaeoanthropology Working Group in Tübingen, served as an introduction to 3D geometric morphometrics and the Tübingen University Validated Entheses-based Reconstruction of Activity (VERA) method for reconstructing physical activity, where participants learnt how to use various tools and software, such as R and MeshLab, to analyse bones.
"The main aim of the iNEAL COST Action is to bridge the geographic, language, disciplinary-and-data specific gap, as well as the gap created by traditions of various disciplines in different European countries across Neandertal research in Europe through a combined, scientifically-based and geographically inclusive approach. This would be achieved by developing an inclusive database and promoting dialogue among scientists to be able to create guidelines for research," said Johann Galdies.
"This COST Action is serving as a base to bring the Neandertal legacy into the present, through scientifically-based guidelines for public presentation and further actions to promote their heritage by means of inclusion for non-scientific stakeholders, such as administrators, museum and cultural workers, people in the touristic sector, small and medium enterprises and other interested parties. After all, the Neandertal legacy is especially present with all people of European origin carrying a significant amount of Neandertal genes", highlighted Mr Galdies.
