The Belgian Royal Institute of Natural Sciences in Brussels has a very important collection of Neanderthaler remains.
The Homo Neanderthalensis lived here from 230.000 BC to around 40.000 BC.
Complete skeletons have not been found but the cave of Spy is one of the most important finding places in Europe.
In 2004 the EU started a project called 'The Neanderthal Tools' or 'TNT' to collect all the knowledge that is available on the Homo Neanderthalensis.

For Belgium, the antropologist Patrick Semal is responsable for the digitalisation of the Neanderthal findings.
All the specimen (bones, teeth, jaws,..) will be digitalised and put together in one big database. This database, together with publications of researchers, is available on the internet as the 'Neanderthal Studies Professional Online Service' (NESPOS).
In NESPOS the scientists can publicise their findings with the data that were used. Their colleagues can then study these findings and react at NESPOS.
Because the virtual images of the bones are available and it is much easier to verify the findings.

An important step in the digitalisation is the scanning of the specimen.
For Belgium this is done by our research group.

RECENT PUBLICATION :

Patrick SEMAL, Michel TOUSSAINT, Bruno MAUREILLE, Helene ROUGIER, Isabelle CREVECOEUR, Antoine BALZEAU, Linda BOUCHNEB, Stephane LOURYAN, Nora DE CLERCK et Leon RAUSIN
Numerisation des restes humains néanderthaliens belges. Préservation patrimoniale et exploitation scientifique.
Notae Praehistoricae 25, 25-38, 2005 (Download pdf)

LINKS :

• The Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences
  
  
• National Geographic (dutch edition) had an article on 'The Neanderthal Tools' in their december 2005 edition.