THE EARLIEST MAN

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 227, 23 March 1912, Page 7

THE EARLIEST MAN

SKELETON POSSIBLY 100,000 YEARS OLD. A correspondent of the London Times describes an important discovery made near Ispwich by Mr. J. Reid Moir. Mr. Moir excavated a human skeleton which, if all the evidence holds good, represents not only the earliest remains of man yet found in England, but, with the exception of the .Heidelberg jaw, the earliest yet found in Europe. The remains may be 100,000 years old. The skeleton was excavated last October from beneath an undisturbed layer of chalky boulder clav, which' far antedates the period of Xeandertal man, whose remains have lately been found so abundantly in France. The writer is of the opinion that the remains belong to a race of men who lived in East Anglia before the most severe of the various episodes of the Glacial period. The skeleton rested on the right side, with the legs folded up on the body, and was Apparently that of a man of about sft lOin in height. The skull was small, and the thigh bones and the bones of the forearms and hands were absolutely the same as in modern Englishmen. The bones were so fragile that it was found impossible to remove them. The stratum containing them was cut in blocks and forwarded to Professor Keith. He impregnated them with gelatine and then cleaned away the surrounding matrix, leaving each bone embedded on the surface of its block.'

Growing evidence supports the opinions- of those anthropoligisis who have supposed that the modern typo of man was evolved at an extremely early date, and that long after his appearance a much more primitive man also existed in Europe —the type we now name Neandertal. The modern type of man was apparently evolved before the commencement of the Glacial period.