Neanderthal

From Srafopedia

When Lyra escapes from the investigators who have cornered her at Mary Malone's lab and accepts a ride from Sir Charles Latrom, he mentions in passing that he heard that the Pitt-Rivers Museum, in addition to its collection of trepanned skulls, also has some Neanderthal skulls she might be interested in seeing.

The Neanderthal (Homo neanderthalensis), precursors to modern Homo sapiens, was believed to have lived in Europe and Western Asia from about 230,000 to 29,000 years ago, or the early and middle Stone Age. Stanislaus Grumman, Mary Malone, and the alethiometer place the development of human consciousness at 30,000 to 35,000 years ago, in other words, when the Neanderthals gave way to the Cro-Magnon of the upper Stone Age. [1]