Mark A. Hall alerts Cryptomundo to a new dispatch out of Russia, “Moscow Hominologist gives bone sample to the USA for investigation”. It appears to be from the skull of an alleged Almas’ relative, Khwit.
Click the Richard Klyver’s Almas drawings, above, for a larger view.
According to the Russian newspaper Komsomolskaja Pravda, Igor Burtsev was invited to the USA(1). There, he will deliver a bone sample of a skull to a “laboratory for the Genetics of the Neanderthals of the New York University” for analysis. Burtsev found this skull in the 70s during an excavation while he was looking for the grave of Zana in Abkazia, Caucasus. This is alleged to have been a female “Snowman”. Zana was captured and tamed in the 19th century in Abkazia. It is claimed that the skull that was found comes from one of Zana’s grandchildren (2). Burtsev: “American and German scientists want to decode the genetic makeup of the Neanderthal.” Burtsev would like to know if the scientists can prove there is DNA from a Neanderthal in the sample.
Komsomolskaja Pravda quotes him with the following words: “If that is so, then I could claim that this is the descendant of a ‘Snowman.’ And the ‘Snowman’ itself is a Neanderthal.” Igor Burtsev, one of the Moscow Hominologists, is a leading member of the Russian Society of Cryptozoologists. A photograph of this skull was published by Dmitri Bayanov (1996) (2). According to Bayanov the skull is “a combination of modern and ancient features, which aroused great interest among anthropologists” (3).
Notes:
1. Lagovskij, Vladimir. 2006. A Caucasian Prisoner. Komsomolskaja Pravda , August 11 ( in Russian).
2. Bayanov, Dmitri. 1996. In the footsteps of the Russian Snowman. Moscow: Crypto-Logos.
3. op. cit. ( note 2) p. 50.
DNA would be helpful. I hadn’t heard of this story before I read this post. I did some quick reading up, and find it a fascinating story. I also read an article where Grover Krantz pronounced the skull of Zana’s son Khwit as “modern”, and another saying that there may be indications of a Neandertal influence and that it may be recessive to Homo sapiens. Whatever the determination, it’s sure to keep the pot of scientific debate stirred.
At least this is something testable. I always wondered why no DNA testing had been done on Khwit’s skull earlier.
I do remember too that based on morphology, Grover Krantz dismissed the idea that Khwit’s mother could have been a Neanderthal.
The story of Zana, or Zanya, is one I’ve found to be particularly interesting.
This is some of the most exciting news I have heard in a very long time. I surely hope we get to hear the results of the testing and it doesn’t get lost out there in cyber space somewhere! I have seen an image of Khvit’s skull somewhere so I will try and find it and post the source.
Okay, I found it, however, I don’t know that it is on the Internet anywhere and I don’t have a scanner. It is not a very clear image, but it is in Grover Krantz’s “Bigfoot Sasquatch Evidence” on page 336.