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PREHISTORIC MAN.

FURTHER LIGHT ON THE RHODESIAN SKULL, PROBABLY 100,000 YEARS OLD. F——~—• London, Nov. 30. Members of the Zoological Society have met to discuss matters relating to the prehistoric akull which was found by the New Zealander, Mr. W. E. Barron, at the Broken Hill Mine, Rhodesia. Professor M‘Bride, F.R.S., a vice-presi-dent of the society, was in the chair, and said that a deep debt was owing to the directors of the Rhodesia Broken Hill Mine for the public spirit with which they had responded to Dr. Smith Woodward’s request and made a. free gift of this invaluable and unique specimen to the great Natural History Museum.

Dr. Smith Woodward, keeper of the geological section of the British Museum, gave an account of the skull and the circumstances in which it was discovered. He said that its most striking feature at first sight was the incongruous combination of the brain-case and the face. The arrangement gave the skull the appearance of an ape when one looked at it in front. The braincase, however, indicated a brain of about the average size of the human brain, and the case itself was only of z about normal thickness. The bony ridge of the brows were very big compared with anything that had previously been seen in early man, and their extension to the side was very marked, though the width was not as great as in the case of the gorilla. The Pithecanthropus from Java could not, he thought, be regarded as very close to the Rhodesian skull. The latter was much nearer to the Neanderthal skull. AN EXPLODED THEORY. By means of photographic lantern slides, Dr. Woodward enabled the company to compare the Rhodesian and other skulls. Referring to the immense size of the palate in the Rhodesian skull, he said that nevertheless it was entirely human and beautifully domed—comparable with what we had in modern men, even singers. The teeth were very much decayed. There was undoubted caries, which had been attended with complications, such as abscesses, showing that this man had had a very bad time. Hitherto it had been the custom to associate caries with civilisation. Here it existed in an extremely

old skull, yet the symmetry was beautiful, and the nature of the bones perfect; there was nothing to suggest abnormality. This impression was confirmed by a piece of upper jaw of a second individual found with the skull, with teeth and palate exactly like the first. There was no trace, however, of disease. As to the relation of this race to fossil men already known, it was impossible to say anything definite. He thought, as far as he could judge at present, that the Rhodesian skull was that of a later man thani the Neanderthal man. There was a perfect brain case and a perfectly erect skeleton, though certain features were such as were at present exclusively associated with apes. They had confirmation of Professor Elliot Smith’s theory that the last phase of man was the refining of the face. REMARKABLE PARADOXES.

Professor Elliott Smith said it would be wrong to imagine that anyone had anticipated that exactly such human remains as these would ever turn up. The specimens presented some very remarkable paradoxes. In the Rhodesian skull they had the m’ost primitive type of human face ever found, revealing a number of unmistakable resemblances to the gorilla. They had human characters associated with more ape-like characters than had ever been revealed before in any member of, the human family. The limb bones of the Neanderthal man apparently indicated a primitive type of man who walked with a crouch 1 , but in the present instance they had limb bones which were apparently very much straighter and longer, and altogether much more like the modern type. Judging by the face, they would imagine they were dealing with a much more primitive type than the Neanderthal. The great discussion oh the skull would be whether they had in it a more primitive type or a. more specialised type than the Neanderthal man. The matter could only be settled when they had all the evidence before them. Turning to the question of the sex of the owner of the Rhodesian skull, he said the sacrum was found with the other bones, and there was a suggestion that the skull was that of a woman in the prime of life. The sutures suggested that she was probably less than 30 years of age. As the skull was a primitive one, the age might be even lower. When the face was clothed with flesh he thought it might nave had widely-splay-ed nostrils, such as the gorilla had, and in thi§ respect have been less like a modern human being than might appear from the skull. PRESENT KNOWLEDGE AND OPINION. It may be of interest to recapitulate the present position of knowledge and opinion or the prehistoric predecessors of existing mankind. The oldest remains are the fragments of a skull and skeleton found in Java, by Dr. Dubois,

upon whjch the genus Pithecanthropus, with a single species, P. erectus, has been found. This creature dates from the late Pliocene, that is to say, from a period at least half a million years before the Christian era. It was manlike, but certainly neither man nor ape in the modern sense. Then comes a. gap of 400,000 years, at present only possibly broken by the Heidelberg lower jaw, of uncertain affinity and geological horizon. Next, in the warm interval before the last wave of the glacial epoch, comes Piltdown “man’’ —Eoanthropus dawsoni, more human than the Javan creature, but still so different from modern man, especially in the configuration of the lower jaw, that it has been placed in a distinct genus. After another interval, estimated at about 50,000 years, and mid-way between Piltdown man and the historic period, comes the Neanderthal type, in existence when the last phase of the glacial epoch was fading. Skulls and fragments of bones representing this have been found in Belgium, France, and at Gibraltar, and are believed to justify the existence of a true species—Homo neanderthalensis. Next, much later, but of uncertain age, comes the new Homo Rhodesiensis. All later remains, prehistoric or modern, are placed with ourselves as varieties of Hmoo sapiens. Experts place the age of the Rhodesian skull at 100,000 I a ears.

Permanent link to this item
Hononga pūmau ki tēnei tūemi

https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/TDN19220311.2.86

Bibliographic details
Ngā taipitopito pukapuka

Taranaki Daily News, 11 March 1922, Page 9

Word count
Tapeke kupu
1,060

PREHISTORIC MAN. Taranaki Daily News, 11 March 1922, Page 9

PREHISTORIC MAN. Taranaki Daily News, 11 March 1922, Page 9

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