which came up through basaltic rock, and over that had blown the red earth of the present desert. Such geological changes as these had, of course, taken untold thousands of years.
When freed from their rocky matrix, the petrified bones proved that the individual had been a large man with great brain-capacity, long nose, strong jaw, but proportionately small teeth. Near the skeleton was the limb-bone of the extinct giant buffalo. Furthermore, at Hagenstad in the Orange Free State a culture very similar to the European Aurignacian is found with the remains of this animal. The European Aurignacian culture is that of Cro-Magnon Man.
Nor is this all the evidence. When L. Leakey graduated in anthropology in 1926 from Cambridge, he decided to go back to the country he knew from childhood, namely the Great African Rift Valley, and explore its extinct beach levels for vestiges of prehistory. (What he lacked in money he made up for in enthusiastic student volunteers.)
Geologists tell us that the three land-locked lakes of this giant earth-crack were once one sheet of water. Leakey found three old beaches, one at .300 ft. above the present water-line, one at 600 and one at 800. He was of the opinion that these correspond to the pluvial cycles of Europe, and many geological observers agree.[1]
On the 393 ft. level of the Nakuru Basin, Leakey found some ancient burials which had been disturbed by the valley being twice filled and twice drained since they were placed there. Altogther twenty six individuals were found, and all were of the same racial type. They were tall disharmonies with long heads and wide high cheekbones, while the chins were firm and the noses thin and hawked. The skull-capacity was excellent. Certainly not a negroid type.
Yet most amazing of all was that they were surrounded with beads, implements worked in flint and stone mortars for crushing grain, showing that they had a cereal food! Must one go back through the pluvials (world-floods) of the glacials to find the time when—untold millenniums ago, this village grew its grain and buried its dead beside this lake? Beautiful bits of finely-decorated pottery reminded the young excavators that these were, like the old pre-Egyptians, a people with an ancient culture.
Leakey, and his men now climbed to the 600 ft. beach. Here they found a large cave and once more began their careful work, keeping a map of the soil, cultures, etc. When after digging through several levels, the investigators found typical Mousterian culture, they thought that at last Neanderthal man would be uncovered. They were disappointed.
When they returned in 1928 and coniinued, they fully expected to find the skeleton of the type always connected with this culture. The bones of the animals which he had tossed away from his feasts were those of his period. Yet the skeleton of the Neanderthals still eluded him, as he passed the level and came to an earlier level. With amazement, the young investigators saw that this culture was Aurignacian! Had Cro-Magnon man preceded Neanderthal—in Africa? They came to a burial. This seemed to be the answer to their questions. With trembling hands they uncovered the skull. It was the skull of a tall disharmonic. The cheekbones had been wide. The nose had been thin and hawked. The skull capacity was the exceptional one of The Old Red Race! And then as if in confirmation, were found a few pottery fragments.
Leakey does not attempt to answer the question which he has uncovered. He does not suggest what the strip of Neanderthal culture may mean above that of The Old Red Race. Yet we find ourselves wondering if when Neanderthal man entered Africa, he already found his European conqueror in possession? And then the inevitable question—was Neanderthal man again exterminated, or did he spare some of the Cro-Magnon women?
There are no other possibilities in this racial clash. The modern negro is neither, but has he some of the blood of each? It is a daring thought because the negro has a skull of Modern man. Yet we are emboldened by the realization that a Neanderthal skull was found in Syria, that of a young woman, which might have been a cross.
For a moment, let us review the points of the typical skuli which mark it as either Neanderthal or Modern. First, the greater thickness of the Neanderthal; second, the unusual teeth; third, the huge bony eye-ridges; fourth, the thick neck; and last, the protruding mouth. The negro seems to have two of these points though not by any means strong enough to mark him as a descendant.
He has a thicker skull than other subdivisions of Modern man.
Perhaps the sun is responsible for that. It may be only the reaction of the living type to protection for the brain from unusual heat. But those protruding teeth? It is true that the ancient specimens had slightly protruding mouths, but their teeth were no larger than those of the other modern races, and the effect was no more noticeable than it is in the other subdivisions. Yet the negro race has such large teeth that the effect is at once a racial characteristic.
There is of course, the possibility that the negro is of the blood of some third invading race, such as the later "strandlooper" invasion which some scientists, in postulating a homeland, have called "Australoid." Yet if this is the case, what are we to say about the Bushman?
Truly the Bushman is the greatest anthropo-
- ↑ African Pluvial Periods and Prehistoric Man—J. Reid Moir also—Report on Quaternary Geol. of Rift Valley—Dr. Erik Nilsson.
