Forbidden Archeology: The Hidden History of the Human Race

Laing’s observations are significant in that they counter certain modern prejudices about the caliber of scientific work at that time. On first encountering reports like those concerning the cut bones of St. Prest, Monte Aperto, or Pouancé, one might think something like this: “How quaint these nineteenth-century scientists were, in those old days of the infancy of paleoanthropological investigation. How quick they were to accept questionable evidence upon cursory inspection.” But from Laing’s statements we can see that scientists like de Quatrefages, Desnoyers, and Capellini were carefully applying standards of investigation and evaluation comparable to those of the present day. In particular, they displayed a considerable grasp of the principles of the modern discipline of taphonomy. One might also postulate something like the following: “Well, perhaps in the nineteenth century, before there were many actual human fossils uncovered, these naturalists focused undue attention on these cut bones, reading too much into them, because they had nothing else to concern themselves with.” But even today, many researchers are investigating the presence of humans at certain sites solely on the basis of animal bones bearing signs of intentional workmanship. And, as we shall see in coming chapters, it is not true that nineteenth-century naturalists interested in human antiquity had nothing but cut bones to study. They also extensively investigated many finds of stone tools and human skeletal remains that have since slipped into near total obscurity.

2.13 San Valentino, Italy (Late Pliocene)

In 1876, at a meeting of the Geological Committee of Italy, M. A. Ferretti showed a fossil animal bone bearing “traces of work of the hand of man, so evident as to exclude all doubt to the contrary” (de Mortillet 1883, p. 73). This bone, of elephant or rhinoceros, was found firmly in place in Astian ( Late Pliocene) strata in San Valentino ( Reggio d’Emilie), Italy. The bone’s dimensions are 70 mm (2.8 inches) by 40 mm (1.6 inches). Of special interest is the fact that the fossil bone has an almost perfectly round hole at the place of its greatest width. According to Ferretti, the hole in the bone was not the work of molluscs or crustaceans. The next year Ferretti showed to the Committee another bone bearing traces of human work. It was found in blue Pliocene clay, of Astian age, at San Ruffino. This bone appeared to have been partially sawn through at one end, and then broken. De Mortillet, who included the above-mentioned information in his book, stated (1883, p. 77) that he had not seen the bones nor heard any further discussion about them. This indicated to him that they had not been (and thus should not be) taken seriously. It would perhaps have been more appropriate, and scientific, for de Mortillet to have inspected the bones before concluding they were of little scientific value. Many modern scientists react in a similar fashion when confronted with unfamiliar, little-discussed anomalous evidence. They assume it is not of any importance; otherwise they would have seen it discussed in the published works of scientists committed to the established views.

At a scientific conference held in 1880, G. Bellucci, of the Italian Society for Anthropology and Geography, called attention to recent discoveries in San Valentino and Castello delle Forme, near Perugia. Found there were bones of different animals bearing incisions, both straight and intersecting, and with imprints probably made with rocks employed for the purpose of breaking the bones. Bellucci said there were also two specimens of carbonized bones, and finally flint flakes. All were recovered from lacustrine Pliocene clays, characterized by a fauna like that of the classic Val d’Arno. According to Bellucci, these objects proved the existence of man in the Tertiary period in Umbria (Bellucci and Capellini 1884).

2.14 Clermont-Ferrand, France (Middle Miocene)