Here's a few bits of research and inspiration for my
Lucy & Andy Neanderthal series. The Geno 2.0 box is from National Geographic's
Genographic project, which I used to learn that I have 2.2% Neanderthal DNA. The Neanderthals Art & Science Kit included a skeleton (which I assembled and set on the bookshelf in my studio office) and a plaster mold to cast a Neanderthal face (which is still in the box). There's a fossil of an echinoderm - which is a plant - but I like to think of it as some kind of strange, alien being. I got the souvenir woolly mammoth tusk and hair set, but also have a woolly mammoth card (with an actual piece of mammoth tusk) from
Upper Deck's Champs Hockey Cards. From the same set I got the Neanderthal base card and a Neanderthal flint stone knife artifact. From Gibraltar, a one pound coin that commemorated the discovery of Neanderthal bones. A birthday card I got last year, and the prehistoric themed story cubes. And of course, an actual stone knife found in France (not by me) from circa 25,000-30,000 years ago. At that age it may have been used by early humans and not Neanderthals, but still makes for a great connection to the past.
