THE FIRST MEN

Greymouth Evening Star, 3 January 1938, Page 9

THE FIRST MEN

LOST RACE OF AMERICA | Skeletons of a lost race far older than the ancient Indian, and possibly the first man to inhabit Western America, have been found in thick alluvial deposits in the Sacramento Valiev. near Lodi. California. Tire Department of Anthropology at the University of California has announced that the fossil remains may represent a previously unidentified human type or culture. The skeleons were found in depressed mounds, and some were so mineralised that none of the bone structure remained. There were enough traces, however, to reconstruct a type of man of massive brows and jaws, primitive ape-like features, and more than ordinarily sturdy frame. The race was so old that villages and mounds were covered over completely, and in one instance a burial site was built upon by a later race which itself is now virtually extinct, but from which sprang the Maidu and Midwok Indian tribes of the Sacramento Valley. Mr. Robert Heizer, who has prepared a report on the discovery, said that it may disclose the growth of human cultures and topography changes for thousands of years. Between the newly-discovered race and the later race which, until now, had been first known to exist on the Pacific Coast, there was a profound geological change which occupied a great period. During this period all evidences of the earlier culture had been submerged and were found by accident during deep ditch-digging operations. The bow and arrow did not seem to have been known then. The skeletons were found in a red clay substratum, and they had a heavy encrustation. Skulls were crushed, but the burials had been made with great care and ceremony. Articles found, consisted of perforated charm stones, disc ornaments, an abundance of quartz, mineral and asphaltum objects, curved disc beads, and large, heavy, chipped points. The facts contained in the message are a remarkable confirmation of an incident in John Galsworthy’s “The Modern Comedy,” where the author de- . scribed interesting mounds near Columbia, in the Sacramento Valley, as the burial grounds of a lost tribe, i i which lived perhaps 1,000,000 years lago.