Urgeschichtliches Museum im Rathaus

The Urgeschichtliches Museum im Rathaus stands in the ground floor of Mauer’s town hall in the Karlsruhe region. It focuses on the Homo heidelbergensis, an early human species whose most important fossil was found nearby. The exhibition grew from Mauer’s unique prehistoric record, especially the 1907 discovery of a 609 000-year-old lower jaw in the Grafenrain sand pit. The find made Mauer world-famous in palaeoanthropology. The original jaw became the type specimen of Homo heidelbergensis and remains Germany’s oldest hominid remain. A 2004–2006 catalogue listed 13 004 fossils from Mauer sands, now searchable in an online database. Replicas of key specimens from Europe, Africa and Asia show how the species lived and spread. Tools, animal bones and environmental clues give a picture of the Ice Age landscape around Mauer. Visitors see a family tree of early humans and a large display case of skull replicas. Among them are the Mauer jaw, the Tautavel face, the Sima de los Huesos group and the Kabwe skull from Africa. The exhibition also explains how sand quarrying uncovered thousands of animal fossils while leaving human remains extremely rare. Outside, the Grafenrain pit lies in a nature reserve with a memorial stone and information boards along the local ‘Times Path’ that traces 600 000 years of human history.