SECRETS OF HISTORY

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLV, Issue 286, 6 November 1925, Page 10

SECRETS OF HISTORY

THE MYSTERY QUARRIES. FINDS IN SOUTH AFRICA. CAPETOWN, Aug. 28. That South Africa presents a unique field for the anthropologist anxious to probe into tho secrets of the dawn of time is tho opinion of Dr Ales Hrdliclca, curator of the division of Physical anthropology in the United States National Museum, who returns to America this week at the conclusion of a world tour. He has visited prehistoric sights in tho Siwalik Hills of India, in Australia and in Java, and has spent some weeks in South Africa examining the Broken Hill and Taungs deposits, the latter place being where Professor Dart discovered the now famous Taungs skull.

In 'an interview Dr Hrdlicka was emphatic in giving tho highest possible credit to the men in charge of tho mining operations at Broken Hill, as well as those in charge of the quarry at Taungs. Had it not been for their broad-minded outlook, he said, neither of these finds would have been known to the scientific world. Very great credit was 'also due to Professor Dart, who, with infinite patience, had separated the specimen from the hard rock in which it was embedded. This rock, tho scientist pointed out, was so hard that it needed a cold chisel to make any impression on it. Tho circumstances of both the Broken Hill and Taungs finds were almost identical and it was not improbable that they were of a similar age. Both discoveries were made in limestono deposits honeycombed with channels, crevices and caves, which, for a time, served as habitations for men and apes. In these caves men and apes left their remains, which were covered in the course of time with sand and earth, which in turn were permeated by water sinking through lime or ores in solution until the whole became consolidated in ore, as at Broken Hill, or in hard sandstone rock, as at Taungs. TWO IMPORTANT FINDS. It was iii these secondary formations that tho precious specimens were preserved, and as in both instances much of the same secondary deposits remain, there was a great hope that more relics in the nature of tho two now so well-known finds would be forthcoming. The Rhodesian skull represented a mail of a totally different typo than the negro. It conformed in structure and possibly even in time, with the famous Neanderthal Man of Europe. How the skull came into the cave, and whether it formed part of a complete skeleton, or was brought along as found, were still moot questions. In the same cave parts of remains of other human individuals have been found together with remnants of the feasts of men who doubtless occupied tho cave for a considerable time.

“The Taungs skull,” Dr. Hrdlicka continued, “is the skull of an anthropoid ape, just how near or how far it may be from on the ono hand the chimpanzee and on the other hand from man, can only be ascertained by the discovery of adult specimens. It will bo remembered that tho Taungs skull is that of an infant just entering upon the second dentitions. As to its being the ‘missing link,’ as some European writers would have it, such a statement is somewhat premature and misleading. Between tho earliest man and his primitive ancestors there are still many gaps and almost every specimen bearing on tho history of primitive man may be regarded as one of tho ‘missing link.’ PRESERVATION OF FOSSILS. “Professor Dart deserves much additional credit for his really conservative attitude in this respect. Both the Broken Hill deposits and some of the Taungs skull urgently call for systematic scientific attention, as it is due to lack of funds- and it would take only very modcrato sums—that there is not only no scientific work boiug done at either place, but there is not even organised supervision. It is not only desirable, but it is a cultural necessity that stops bo taken at once to remedy these conditions. “The Government itself should take tho first step in each case by procuring all skeletal remains, that is fossil beings that still lie and may como to light in these two sites. They should be declared national cultural property, to bo saved for tho scientific institutions of this country. This will not in any way interfere with the working of Broken Hill mine and the Taungs quarry and would be hailed by all scientific men as a most praisworthy step. “That there are still discoveries to be made is shown by a few hours’ breaking into one of those known holes at Taungs in tho course of which I myself found no fewer that five small fossil monkeys in less than a cubic yard of secondary rock.” PROCESS OF EVOLUTION. Dr. Hrdlicka said there seemed) to be a pernicious impression that the truth concerning evolution struck at tho root of our belief and religion, and for centuries it had been suppressed. Darwin’s theories, in tho main, would last for as long as wo existed. Since his time over a hundred human skeletons of men who lived thousands of years ago had been unearthed, and our knowledge of primeval man was growing in proportion. __ To-day we know more about human evolution than wo did in the case of any animal, with the possible exception of tho horso. There was not the slightest danger that the precious things of our hearts would be destroyed by a knowledge of tho truth of human evolution. Tho child of tho future would come to no more harm when he know the real truth than the generation of to-day did in studying tho stars.

In Java, Dr Hrdlicka explained, remains had been found of a being lmlf way between primitive man and the earlier form from which mankind is believed to have sprung. Java, therefore, had a strong claim to be the home of the original man. Arfica came second in the claim to be the cradle of mankind.