Forbidden Archeology: The Hidden History of the Human Race

“On one of the fragments of cubitus,” said Capellini (1877, p. 53), “I left intact a portion of the gypsum incrustation that covered a deep incision, a section of which is visible. If one removed the gypsum one would see that the entire mark had been made on the bone while it was fresh, and then conserved by fossilization and incrustation.” This was good proof that the cut marks were not made in recent times.

Capellini (1877, pp. 53–54) also found similar cut marks on the apophyses of vertebrae he saw in the whale bone collection of Lawley. “The fragment of the dorsal apophysis of a lumbar vertebra, in the space of a few centimeters,” stated Capellini (1877, p. 54), “presents on the right side nine different incisions oriented in different directions. In examining the original with the aid of a lens, one can assure oneself that these marks, and the other marks that you will see, were made when the bone was fresh. One may also note that one side of the cut is smooth while the other is rippled, as occurs when one, with a knife or other instrument, marks a bone, either by a direct blow or by manipulation of the instrument in the manner of ordinary cutting [Figure 2.1]. It is to be remarked that the side of the bone opposite that bearing the marks is intact, and whatever incisions have been inflicted on the bone are so profound as to have been able to break it off. Two fragments of the apophyses of vertebrae broken at the place where they were cut or grooved are represented . . . in my memoir.” The marks on the spine of the lumbar vertebra are in a location that according to Binford typically displays cut marks from butchering operations.

Figure 2.1. Magnified cross section of a cut on a fossil whale bone from a Pliocene for mation at Monte Aperto, Italy (de Quatrefages 1887, p. 97).

Capellini then returned to geological considerations, describing the location at which several of his specimens were found. “The pieces . . . come from San Murino, near Pieve Santa Luce on the coast of the ancient Pliocene island of Monte Vaso, on La Collinella, in the valley of the Fine. Some meters from where M. Paco, a fossil hunter, found bone fragments of small whales, the ancient limestone rocks, which formed the shore of the Pliocene sea, are regularly pierced by lithophages. Because the depth at which these creatures establish their residences and leave their traces is well known, it is, in the valley of the Fine near Santa Luce, quite easy to establish the ancient level of the sea frequented by the small whales that human beings came upon in the Pliocene period, just as in our own day we come upon small whales beached on the shores of the Mediterranean.” Here is more evidence that the whale bones were most probably deposited in shallows by the shore. It is surprising that de Mortillet neglected to mention this in his review, where he gave the impression that scientific opinion is decidely in favor of a deep water interpretation.

Returning to the question of the age of the strata in which the fossil whale bones were found, Capellini, himself a professor of geology, then stated (1877, pp. 55–56): “Among those who recognize without difficulty the work of humans in the markings on the whale bones, are some who are not persuaded that they are ancient, and who have demanded to know if there is perhaps not some doubt about the judgement that the beds bearing the bones of Balaenotus are really Pliocene in age. This question has been discussed by me in my memoir presented to the Rome Society of Lynxes in the presence of eminent geologists and paleontogists from Central Italy, such as Messrs. Sella, Meneghini, Ponzi, and others, who confirmed all that I had said. Their exact knowledge of the locality sufficed to allow them to appreciate the geological drawings by which I sought to decipher and record the stratigraphic series of the ancient fjord (presently the valley of the Fine) where the cetaceans perished in the Pliocene. After the publication of my memoir, complete with geological notices, I believe it useless to here repeat all the facts about the age of the strata of the small whales and the circumstances favoring the opinion that the whales were captured by human beings.”