ANCIENT MAN

Opunake Times, 16 August 1932, Page 3

ANCIENT MAN

A NEW RACE FOUND. PALESTINE DISCOVERY. A new race of fossil man is believed to have been found in the caves of Wady el-Mughara, which lie at the foot of the western slopes of Mount Carmel, forming one of the most remarkable groups of Stono Age sites discovered in recent years. The British School of Archaeology in Jerusalem and the Aremianc School of Prehistoric Research have collaborated in their excavation since 1929, writes Dorothy Garrod in the New York Times. When the skulls were first uncovered the heavy frontal forus, closely resembling that of the Galilee skull, suggested that they were of Neanderthal type, and the discovery was so announced on 3rd May. Later on, however, when the bones were more completely uncovered, Theodore McCown, of the American school, suspected that he was dealing with a new race of fossil man, and the photographs and measurements he has sent to London have enabled Sir Arthur Keith to confirm this diagnosis, and even to suggest a new species. The chief characteristics of this hitherto unknown fossil man (for whom Sir Arthur proposes' the name Pjal.eanthropus Palestinus) are as follows; — The supraorbital ridges are very powerfully developed, but the cranial vault rises higher thau in Neanderthal man, and the head appears to be somewhat rounder. The prognathism of the face and jaws is most striking, apparently even exceeding that of the most prognathous Neanderthel skulls, the general effect being decidedly ape-like. A surprising feature, however, is the lower jaw, which, although as heavy and squarely built as in Neanderthal man, shows a well-marked chin. DIFFERENT SKULL. The back of the skull have certain peculiar features; a Neanderthal skull seen from behind is roughly an oval, with its long axis horizontal, but in Paleanthropus Palestinus the broadest part of the skull is torvard the base, and the side walls, which are comparatively straight, converge slightly toward the top of the head. The limb bones are massive but are markedly longer than those of the dwarfish Neanderthaler; the curvature of the femur, however, suggests that the Mousterian people of Mont Carmel walked wdth the same sloching gait as their European cousins.

There can now be little question that the Galilee skull belings to an individual of the same type as the men of the Wady el-Mug-hara. By a curious chance, however, just that part of the skull was found which most resembles Neanderthal man, and it was therefore inevitably classed as Neanderthal, although Sir Arthur Keith in his description of the skull made certain reservations which are now shown to be fully justified. A new Mesolithic culture has been identified, dating back to 5000-6000 8.C., and distinguished by remarkable craftsmanship in the working of bone; the Mousterian industry, already known from Francis Turville-Petrie’s excavations in Galilee and my own work in Western Judaea, has again been found at the base of the cavedeposits; and between the two bridging the gap of some 15,000, 20,000 years which separates them was a series of Upper Palaeolithic hearths, containing an industry new to Palestine, though long since familiar in Europe—the Middle Aurignacian, which in the valleys of the Vezere and the Dordogne is associated with the men of the Cromagnon race.

The Mugharet es-Sukhul (Cave of the .Kids) is the smallest of the Wady el-Mughara group, and lies up the valley somewhat apart from the other three. In 1929 the entrance was almost hidden by a great fall of rock, the result of a trial blast made by the Department of Public Works. Toward the end of the season Mr McCown came on the skeleton of a very young child, lying embedded in breccia just outside the mouth of a cave, at a depth of three feet from the surface. This was taken to the Royal College of Surgeons, and a preliminary examination carried out by Sir Arthur Keith laud Mr McCown showed that it presented a puzzling problem. Early this year it was found

necessary to postpone the main part of the \\ r ork at the Wady eiMughara untiil the autumn, but at

the cud. of March Mr McCowi. went to Palestine to finish the ex cavation of the Mugharct es-Suk-hul. lie has been assisted by Mi H. J, Moving of Harvard Univcrs ity, and Mr T. P r O’Brien, £ member of Sir Flinders Petrie’s staff. By 20th May eight individuals had been identified, lying scattered over a comparatively small area. Some of the skeletons are fragmentary, and others are only partially uncovered, so the full extent of the; discovery is not yet known. L A L ..... _