The Mauer 1 mandible is the oldest-known specimen of the genus Homo in Germany. It was found in 1907 in a sand quarry in the community of Mauer, around 10 km (6.2 mi) south-east of Heidelberg. The Mauer 1 mandible is the type specimen of the species Homo heidelbergensis. Some European researchers have classified the find as Homo erectus heidelbergensis, regarding it as a subspecies of Homo erectus. In 2010 the mandible's age was for the first time exactly determined to be 609,000 ± 40,000 years. Previously, specialist literature had referred to an age of either 600,000 or 500,000 years on the basis of less accurate dating methods.
Discovery
On October 21, 1907, Daniel Hartmann, a worker at a sand mine in the Grafenrain open-field system of the Mauer community unearthed a mandible at a depth of 24.63 m (80.81 ft), which he recognized as of human origin, saying that he found Adam. He was aware of the likelihood of finds, as for 20 years the Heidelberg scholar Otto Schoetensack had asked that the workers at the sand mine be encouraged to look out for fossils, after the well-preserved skull of a straight-tusked elephant had come to light there in 1887. Schoetensack had the workers taught the characteristics of human bones based on recent examples on his regular visits to the sand mine in search for "traces of mankind". As it was dug out, the mandible was flung in the air and only discovered after it had broken into two parts. A piece of the left side of the mandible broke off in the process and was never found. A thick cemented crust of coarse sand stuck on and around the canines and molars—a characteristic of many of the Mauer fossils. The cementing had been caused by carbonation of calcium. A chunk of limestone, probably Muschelkalk, 6 cm (2.4 in) long and about 4 cm (1.6 in) wide was firmly stuck to the sand crust on top of the bicuspids and the two frontal molars on the left side of the mandible. The contractor at the sand mine immediately reported the discovery to Schoetensack, who examined and documented the site and the fossil. He presented the results of his studies in autumn the following year in a monograph titled: "The lower jaw of Homo heidelbergensis from the sands of Mauer near Heidelberg". On November 19, 1907, Schoetensack stated in a legal document that mine contractor Josef Rösch had given the specimen to the Heidelberg University as a gift. The mandible remains in the university's Geological-Palaeontological Institute to this day as "the most valuable object in the natural history collections of the University of Heidelberg". Further finds from the Mauer sand mine are the Hornstein artefacts, unearthed in 1924 by Karl Friedrich Hormuth, which scholars interpreted as tools of Homo heidelbergensis. In 1933 Wilhelm Freudenberg discovered a frontal bone fragment which has also been associated with Homo heidelbergensis.
Description of the fossil
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