Forbidden Archeology: The Hidden History of the Human Race

Figure 11.4 The outlines of the mandibles shown here (not to scale) were traced from published photographs, except for (a) and (g), which were traced from a drawing. (a) Australopithecus, Omo, Ethiopia (Eckhardt 1972, p. 103); (b) Homo erectus, Heidelberg (Mauer), Germany (Osborn 1916, p. 98); (c) Early Homo sapiens, Arago, France (Stringer et al. 1984, p. 64); (d) Neanderthal, Shanidar, Iraq (Gowlett 1984, p. 104); (e) Homo sapiens rhodesiensis (“neanderthaloid” according to P. V. Tobias), Cave of Hearths, South Africa (Tobias 1971, p. 338); (f ) Homo sapiens sapiens, Border Cave, South Africa (Bräuer 1984, p. 381); (g) Homo sapiens sapiens, modern South African native (Zuckerman 1954, p. 308); (h) the Kanam mandible (Tobias 1962, p. 345).

But even if one were to accept Tobias’s view that the Kanam jaw was neanderthaloid, one would still not expect to discover Neanderthals in the Early Pleistocene, over 1.9 million years ago. Neanderthaloid hominids came into existence at most 400,000 years ago (Bräuer 1984, p. 394) and persisted until about 30,000 or 40,000 years ago, according to most accounts. We note that some workers (Bräuer 1984) confine the Neanderthal line to Eurasia and a small area of North Africa adjacent to Europe. These workers would not expect to find Neanderthals at Kanam in East Africa.

11.2.8 Chemical Testing Of the Kanam And Kanjera Fossils

To ascertain the age of the Kanam jaw and Kanjera skulls, K. P. Oakley of the British Museum performed fluorine, nitrogen, and uranium content tests.

The Kanam jaw and the Kanjera skulls had about the same fluorine content as other bones from the Early and Middle Pleistocene formations where they were found (Oakley 1974, p. 257; 1975, p. 151). But Oakley (1974, p. 257) pointed out that “in volcanic areas (particularly under tropical conditions) fluorine analysis does not provide a reliable method of relative dating.” If this is so, one wonders why he ran the tests. Nevertheless, the results he reported are consistent with the hypothesis that the human bones at Kanam and Kanjera are as old as the faunal remains at those sites. Of course, the agreement in fluorine content might, as Oakley suggested, be the result of uneven fluorine absorption in a volcanic, tropical environment. But then again, it might not.

Oakley (1974, p. 257) found that a Kanjera 4 skull fragment showed just a trace of nitrogen (0.01 percent), while a Kanjera 3 skull fragment showed none. Neither of the two animal fossils tested showed any nitrogen. The presence of “measurable traces” of nitrogen in the Kanjera 4 skull fragment meant, said Oakley (1974, p. 258), that all the human fossils were “considerably younger” than the Kanjeran fauna.

But certain deposits, such as clay, preserve nitrogen, sometimes for millions of years (Appendix 1.1.2). So perhaps the Kanjera 4 fragment was protected from nitrogen loss by clay. In any case, the Kanjera 3 fragment, like the animal samples, had no nitrogen. It is possible that this human bone was younger than the animal bones, and lost its nitrogen fairly quickly. But the test results do not dictate this interpretation—the bones could be the same age.

As shown in Table 11.2, the uranium content values for the Kanjera human fossils (8 – 47 parts per million) overlapped the values for the Kanjeran fauna (26–216 parts per million). This could mean they were of the same age.

But the human bones averaged 22 parts per million while the mammalian fauna averaged 136 parts per million. To Oakley (1974, p. 257), the substantial difference between the averages meant that “the Kanjera hominids, although fossilized (Upper Pleistocene?), are considerably younger than the Kanjeran faunal stage (Middle Pleistocene).” Similar uranium contents results were obtained at Kanam. The Kanam mandible had 4–12 parts per million eU O , while the Kanam fauna had 60–214 parts per million (Oakley 1975, p. 151). “The low radiometric values of the Kanam jaw fragment strongly suggest that it is younger than the Kanam fauna,” said Oakley (1975, p. 151).