PREHISTORIC REMAINS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22713, 28 October 1935, Page 16

PREHISTORIC REMAINS

EARLIEST EUROPEAN MAN FOUND IN THAMES GRAVEL PIT (From Our Own Correspondent) (By Air Mail) LONDON, October 5. The first remains ever found of a Thames-side dweller comparable iu antiquity with Peking man, have been discovered in a gravel pit between Greenhithe and Gravesend. It is probable (says the Morning Post) that the new “ Thames man ” will take precedence over all other early European men, with the possible exception of “ Piltdown man ” from Sussex. The find consists of a complete and well-preserved occipital bone (the bone at the back of the head beneath the skull) together with a stone axe head found near it. The discovery of further remains is being eagerly awaited by anthropologists. Both bone and axe head were found, undisturbed by the normal working of the pit, in the famous “ 100fect terrace ” of the lower Thames valley. There can thus be little possibility of later controversy as to their geological age. The finds were made by Mr Alvan T. Marston, a South London dentist, whose hobby it has been to study the ancient life preserved in this Thames terrace. The remains are regarded as probably .the most important discovery made in this country since that of Piltdown man 30 years ago. This early Thames-sider, an officer of the Geological Survey stated, lived in company with such warm-climate animals as the “ straight-tusked ” elephant, rhinoceros, and a species of large ox, all of which are represented in the same layer of the terrace. In terms of dawning civilisation he lived at the time when stone “hand axes ” were just beginning to be well made.