Neander valley

The Neander Valley ([neˈandɐtaːl] in German, Neanderthal) is a stretch of the Düssel river valley, in Monte County (Bergisches Land), between Erkrath and Mettmann, about 10 kilometers east of Düsseldorf, in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia. He gained worldwide fame with the discovery of Neanderthal 1, a Pleistocene fossil of the species Homo neanderthalensis, which forged the beginning of paleoanthropology.

Name

Portrait of Joachim Neander.

The Neander valley (the German word Tal or — until the spelling reform of 1901 — Thal means "valley", so the compound voice Neandertal means "Neander valley") was known until the 19th century as "Das Gestein" ("The rock" or "The crag") or also as Das Hundsklipp ("Cliff of the dog"). This last name is sometimes written without the letter d (Hunsklipp). For this reason, its origin is not very clear, although attempts have been made to associate the name with the Huns (in German, Hunnen) or with Honnschaft (an administrative division of the Lower Rhine in the Middle Ages). The name of this landform changed to Neandertal (Neander Valley) in the early 19th century in honor of the pastor and composer of sacred music Joachim Neander.