Walking with Neanderthals

Only true nerds plan an entire holiday around their daughter's desire to go to a Neanderthal museum (and then blog about it), but that's why we ended up in the Krapina region in December. And since it's over two hours from Koper and we weren't going to be popping back, we also booked a guided tour. Mysteriously, our elder daughter didn't feel well enough to come. In her defense, she went back to bed and didn't get up until we got back mid afternoon. Or so she said.

Krapina Neanderthal Museum: Reconstruction Atelier Daynes. Photo by Davorin Vujčić.

The museum is built on the site of a famous paleoanthropological (early human) excavation. As with many of our adventures at museums and tourist attractions around here, we were the only visitors this day, and got a personal tour from Professor Uvodić, the senior educator at the museum.
Apparently, this is Croatia's most visited museum, and, after we went to some of Zagreb's  museums the next day (more in the next blog post!), I can see why. It's modern and interpretative, modelling its approach on prominent institutions like London's Natural History museum. We began with a big-screen film that recreated the lives of the Neanderthals found on the site. It aimed for realism, so much so that there were a couple of points at which I turned away and/or covered the three year-old's eyes. The first was when a male got his hand bitten off by a bear and the amputation treated. The other was a very long full-frontal waterfall shower scene featuring a female whose remains were discovered at the site. Proof, I suppose, that an open attitude to nudity is not only limited to human Europeans.

Krapina Neanderthal Museum. Photo by Tomislav Veić.

I am pretty sure that the professor has never had  - and may never again have - a teenager the likes of Beatrice visit the museum. She has probably already learned enough about paleoanthropology to get a degree in the subject. Ted and I threw in a question or comment occasionally, just to show we were listening, but mostly we took it in turns to mind Alcuin and let her nerd out.

KNM: The Origin of the World. Photo by Damir Fabijanic.

The museum is designed as an interactive experience, leading you through a story. The first part is about the locality and the first, amateur paleontologists who explored the site, plus historical theories on our place in creation and evolution. Then you wind up a slope that depicts the earth's history as a 'day', beginning with the big bang, and leading through to the rise of hominids, illustrated with a cool set of models. The last part presents discoveries on the site, including a tableau of Neanderthal life, complete, of course, with full-frontal naked neanderthal lady in the shower.

KNM: The habitat of the Krapina Neanderthals, reconstruction Atelier Daynes. Photo by Elisabeth Daynes

Alcuin was pretty stellar. He wanted to leave about half way through, but we stalled him until almost the end, when he started to weep in despair at ever escaping the museum, and I had to take him outside and feed him snack bars.

KNM: Rise of Life. Photo by Damir Fabijanic

The museum shop was pretty small, and disappointingly for Beatrice, didn't have English language textbooks. But you can buy a poster of... you guessed it :) However our stunned appreciative guide gave her a glossy catalogue of the collection, plus contact information. It's a small world in these parts, so we hope she has found a mentor. Professor Udović certainly has her parents' undying gratitude (and extra thanks for kindly sending me these beautiful photos of the museum).

Even after that marathon tour, we had to visit the excavation site. There is not much to see, as the original cave has collapsed, but the trail is dotted with various models of Neanderthals and animals. Our usually camera-shy toddler insisted I take a photo of him with every one of them. Here are some examples.

Throwing stones and hitting stuff - these guys have class.

"Mum, take a photo of the gorillas." Erm...

For lunch, we ventured a little out of town for a local restaurant I had scouted out online, thinking our more discerning eldest child would be with us. They served the best mushroom gnocchi I have tasted thus far in this region (and it's a standard vegetarian option on otherwise meat-laden menus, so I've had several). I took leftovers home for the sick gourmet. Ted was served twice as much meat as he could manage, and we all shot for the post-lunch slump by adding two potato dishes and wine to the mix.

A week later, Alcuin was still discussing the bear episode ad infinitum with me. What was the bear doing? Why did he bite off the neanderthal's arm? Did he eat people? "Maybe some bears just attack people," I said. "No, Neanderthals," he corrected. His sister should be proud of him.

Touristy stuff: If Neanderthals and paleontology are your thing, then you'll want to put this on your bucket list: this is the museum site. Again, it's Croatia, so it seems ridiculously cheap to British and American visitors. (I'm sort of hoping they never join the euro.) The town looked worth exploring, and had several restaurants, but we didn't have the time. This is the restaurant where we had lunch. It's only a few minutes' drive from the museum.