How did the Neanderthals live in NRW? What tools did they make? And what did they eat? The Neanderthal Museum has the answers to these questions. The development of mankind is the focus of the museum's permanent exhibition.
Visitors to the Neanderthal Museum in Mettmann embark on a journey through time into the history of human development. The human fossil of a Neanderthal man was found in 1856 not far from the site in the Neander Valley where the museum now stands. According to the latest findings, this prehistoric man is believed to have lived in the Neander Valley around 42,000 years ago.
The Neanderthal Museum, which was rebuilt in 1996, exhibits not only the eponymous skeleton from 1856, but also finds from more recent excavations at the site in the Neandertal. An oversized "workbench of inventions" shows milestones of human ingenuity from the flintstone to the fuel cell.
Making tools in the Stone Age workshop
The interactive permanent exhibition also features five themed areas that provide a chronological outline of human history and delimit this complex topic: "Life and Survival", "Tools and Knowledge", "Myth and Religion", "Environment and Nutrition" and "Communication and Society" vividly explain basic things in the development of mankind to visitors.
The Stone Age workshop is particularly exciting for children, where young craftsmen can try out for themselves how prehistoric man made his tools. Here they can sew with bone needles, make knives with flint blades, make bows and arrows and take a close look at casts of human bones and famous fossil finds.
The "Human Traces" art trail is probably of more interest to adult visitors, who can view ten sculptures by various artists on the trail, which starts directly at the museum and leads around the Düssel. Meanwhile, children can visit prehistoric animals in the wildlife enclosure adjacent to the art trail. Here you can see bison, aurochs and wild tarpan horses - descendants of animals from the Ice Age that died out hundreds of years ago.
There is also plenty to discover outside the museum building: not far from the museum is the world-famous site of the Neanderthal man found in 1856 and named after the Neander Valley. The "Höhlenblick" adventure tower was built here in the fall of 2022. The open steel structure stands on the exact site of the Feldhofer Grotte Neanderthal cave, which was destroyed by limestone mining in the 19th century. Inner and outer ramps allow barrier-free access to over 360 meters of the tower, which can also be quickly exited via an inner spiral staircase.
The 22-metre high, multimedia adventure tower is crowned by a fifty-fold enlarged skull replica of the original find, which creates a "cave feeling" on the top platform. Below, visitors can travel back to the Stone Age using state-of-the-art augmented reality technology and experience the Neanderthals in their everyday lives. Guests with a head for heights can get a feel for the once deep ravines of the valley on a large climbing net inside the tower at a height of 20 meters.
Together with blind and visually impaired testers, NMsee has developed a new tour of the Neanderthal Museum. A floor guidance system and the central balustrade guide visitors to a total of 17 new tactile stations with Braille and profiled lettering. In addition to real Stone Age hunting weapons, Neanderthal heads and a 3D print of the skeleton found in 1856, the inclusive mobile game "Neanderthal: Memories" awaits them here. In this game, guests discover memories of Nami's long-gone life in the Stone Age together with the hunter Nami. The game can be played with or without sight and can be downloaded free of charge for Android and Apple.
