The circle of Gánovce. Natural history of an endocast

The natural endocranial cast of Gánovce was found in Slovakia in 1926, and then stored in the National Museum (Národní Muzeum) of Prague. The endocast was extensively studied by Emanuel Vlček (1925-2006), mostly during the 50s and 60s of the past century (e.g., Vlček, 1949, 1953, 1955, 1969), with a large set of analytical tools including radiographic and biochemical sur- veys, and outline shape analysis. He recognized the Neanderthal morphology of the cast, which was dated to 105 ka and which has an estimated volume of 1320cc. In particular, Vlček noticed a similarity with specimens such as Krapina 3, Gibraltar 1 and Saccopastore 1. In fact, these three specimens all display a similar overall cra- nial anatomy, being possibly representatives of an “early and small-brained” Neanderthal morpho- type (Bruner & Manzi, 2006, 2008).