Forbidden Archeology: The Hidden History of the Human Race

In this chapter, we survey the history of paleoanthropological discoveries in Africa. The finds from the early part of the twentieth century, such as Reck’s skeleton (Section 11.1) and the Kanjera skulls and Kanam jaw (Section 11.2), were controversial. According to their discoverers, these fossils represented evidence for anatomically modern humans in the Early Pleistocene. Anomalous finds continued to occur even in the latter part of the twentieth century. Among these we may number the Kanapoi humerus (Section 11.5.1), the ER 1481 femur from Lake Turkana (Section 11.6.3), and the Laetoli footprints (Section 11.10). Scientists have said all of them are morphologically within the modern human range. But instead of taking these fossils as evidence for anatomically modern humans in unexpectedly ancient times, scientists have generally said they show that protohuman creatures such as Australopithecus and Homo habilis had skeletal features resembling those of modern humans. Indeed, most scientists have consistently depicted Australopithecus and Homo habilis as essentially human below their apelike heads. They also say that these creatures were exclusively terrestrial and bipedal in the human fashion. But there is much evidence that this view is mistaken, and that the australopithecines and habilines were very well adapted for life in the trees (Section 11.8).

11.1 Reck’s skeleton

The first significant African discovery related to human origins and antiquity occurred in 1913. In that year, Professor Hans Reck, of Berlin University, conducted investigations at Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania, then German East Africa. During his stay at Olduvai Gorge, Reck found a human skeleton that would remain a source of controversy for decades.

11.1.1 The Discovery

While one of Reck’s African collectors was searching for fossils on the northern slope of Olduvai Gorge, he spotted a piece of bone sticking up from the earth near a bush (Wendt 1955, p. 418). After clearing away the surface rubble, the collector saw parts of a complete and fully human skeleton embedded in the rock. He summoned Reck, who then had the skeleton taken out in a solid block of hardened sediment. The human skeletal remains, including a complete skull (Figure 11.1), were strongly cemented in the surrounding matrix, which had to be chipped with hammers and chisels (MacCurdy 1924a, p. 423).

 

Figure 11.1. This skull is from a fully human skeleton found in 1913 by H. Reck at Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania (Reck 1933, plate 31).

Reck identified a sequence of five beds at Olduvai Gorge. The first four beds are water-laid volcanic tuffs of various colors. Bed I is grey and yellow. Bed II is generally of a buff color, although the upper portion has a reddish tint. Bed III is bright red, while Bed IV is grey, or brownish. Bed V, a loesslike deposit, is brownish (Hopwood 1932, p. 192).

At the top and base of Bed V are hard whitish layers of a limestonelike deposit of calcrete, or steppe-lime. The sequence of beds (Table 11.1) outlined by Reck is still in use today, except that upper Bed IV is now referred to as the Masek formation and Bed V has been divided into several distinct formations (M. Leakey 1978, p. 3). From oldest to youngest they are the Lower Ndutu, Upper Ndutu, and Naisiusiu formations (Oakley et al. 1977, p. 169).

The skeleton was from the upper part of Bed II. Just below the skeleton were fossils of Elephas antiquus recki (Hopwood 1932, p. 192). To Reck, the faunal evidence indicated the human skeleton was of Middle Pleistocene age, roughly contemporary with Dubois’s Java man, now thought to be about 800,000 years old. Modern dating methods, however, give the uppermost part of Bed II a late Early Pleistocene date of around 1.15 million years (Oakley et al. 1977, p. 166).

The overlying layers were not, however, intact. The skeleton had been found on the side of Olduvai Gorge, about 3 or 4 meters (10 to 13 feet) below the level of the plain (Protsch 1974, p. 379). Here (Figure 11.2) the overlying layers (Beds III, IV, and V) had been worn by erosion. Bed II was, however, still covered by rubble from bright red Bed III and from Bed V (Hopwood 1932, p. 194). It was clear to Louis Leakey (1932b) that perhaps as little as 50 years ago, the site would have been covered by “a small relic of Bed 3 overlain by Bed 5,” the latter containing hard layers of calcrete. Beds III and V were present on the slope just above the spot where the skeleton was found. Bed IV was missing in the immediate area, apparently removed by erosion before the deposition of Bed V.