MUSEUM OF NATURE

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33567, 22 June 1974, Page 11

MUSEUM OF NATURE

Portraits from the stone age

(Contributed by the

Canterbury Museum)

At present on display in the Hall of Biology at the Canterbury Museum is a collection of reconstructions of representative types Of stone age men. On loan from the K. A. Timiriazev State Biology Museum, U.S.S.R., they have been made available by the International Union for Quaternary Research. These plaster busts represent a technique which is claimed to solve the problem of reconstructing fossil man from the skull alone. Previous efforts in this field had either been Surely schematic or were ighly subjective interpretations by individual workers. However, the Russian archaeologist and anthropologist M. M. Gerasimov (b. 1907) has proved that certain features of the skull and the facial skin are interrelated. This theory was tested and proved on various skulls of contemporary people — presumably by comparing Gerasimov’s reconstruction with surviving illustrative material. As a result Gerasimov has produced a whole series of plaster busts based on excavated skulls of primeval people. The particular collection on display at the museum is restricted to palaeolithic

or stone age types dating from about 1 million years to 15,000 years ago. Sapient features Covering as they do such an expanse of time, these primitive types clearly portray the gradual development of so-called sapient features. However, they cannot be interpreted as representing the actual evolution of man. Apart from the Neanderthal types in the collection, the geographical distribution of the others has no doubt ensured that any links between different types would be extremely tenuous. In fact, each example is best regarded as a separate development. This Is true of Sinanthropus from Peking, Neanderthal, and modem man — all of whom represent different forms which are thought to have evolved from an anthropoid ape group some 2 million years ago. Despite the disparate nature of these reconstructions, a certain degree of development is exhibited by the Neanderthal group. For example, although the woman from Mt Carmel. Israel, datine from

40,000 8.C., still possesses a primitive skull, it is regarded as a hybrid between the classic Neanderthal and their more sapient contemporaries of southern and eastern origin. Illustrated is possibly the most dramatic of all the specimens — Sinanthropus, who existed in China some 450,000 years ago. Apart from the aggressive nature given him by the reconstruction, Sinanthropus’s most distinguishing feature was his knowledge o,f fire. This he used both for Coasting meat and keeping wild animals away from his cave dwellings. While the discovery of fire and the evolution of stone tools were important stages in Stone Age man’s development, the climax of palaeolithic art was undoubtably attained by the cave-painting of France and Spain in the Magdalenian period — about 15,000-8000 B.C, While we are unfortunately unable to appreciate such an achievement, aspects of magdalenani artstry are represented by a selection of stone tools and casts of bone engraving on display with Gerasimov’s reconstructed busts. — R J.W.