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Hokitika Guardian, 24 April 1925, Page 2

■‘Recent discoveries of fossil man in France and Germany” was the subject of a lecture delivered recently at the Royal College of Surgeons, by Professor Sir Arthur Keith, Conservator of the. College Museum. Sir Arthur dealt with four recent discoveries of human remains in Germany, Franco and Cxeeho-Slovakia. One was at Obercassel, opposite Bonn, in Germany, the. remains belonging to the ice age, and these were estimated as belonging to a race which lived about 12.000 BC. The discovery was made in February. 101-1, in a hank of stratified sand and two skeletons, those of a man and a woman, were found. This discovery

was of great importance, as it was th first time that the remains of a man ol this hind had been found north of the Rhine. The formation of the skull, in the opinion cl Sir Arthur, showed that this man was of the Nordic or Scandinavian type. Ihe jowl ol the skull resembled that of .Robert the Uruco. There was clear evidence that men of the Scandinavian tyre were in the valleys of the Rhine at the end ol the Ice Age, 10,000 or 12.000 years before Christ. The woman’s skull was similar to that of a modern Nordic woman, fl’he best- o! the Nordic races were the Celts especially those in the West Highlands. Sir Arthur was of opinion that these skulls showed that at no time was Kurope peopled by Eskimos or Mongolians. Sir Arthur then dealt with the discovery of ihe remains known as “The Chaneeiade .Man,” near Pcrigueux. in France, the remains being of the same period as those discovered at Ohcreassel. and again in this ease the skull in no way resembled the Eskimo <r Mongolian skull. 'I he formation of the m -e was similar to that of the. Basque race of Spain today. Then' was no ovideu'e that -Middle or Southern Europe was at anytime inhabited by people ol the Eskimo type. The remains known as ‘’'.lhe Solutre Man” were next dealt with. These were found in the Rhone A alley and wore front Io.IHID to 20,000 years old. Sir Arthur mentioned the curious fact that above the human re-

mains was a stratum of horses' remains, ICO,BOO carcases of horses hav

jug gone towards the making of this

stratum. The remains were the* ■ a man and a woman and two babies. Two upright vloiii-- wore lound projecting above the ground near the bodies ; mark the grave, and this custom v.-r found rni'-n-j; -erne piimitive tribes today. This discovery showed that the round-headed man had come into Europe much earlier than load been anticipated. Sir Arthur also gave a brief description of the dis-overies at Predtunsl. in Cxeeho-Slovakia, where some forty individuals, men. women and children were buried in a common grave. These remains dated back to 15, 0i1i) nr 20.000 years ago. The general conclusion arrived at was that tho“r discoveries showed that the ancient races of Europe assimilated to the modern North-Western inhabitants of Europe.