The Earliest Man.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XLVII, Issue 15, 10 April 1912, Page 54

The Earliest Man.

A correspondent of the "Times" de scribes an important discovery mada near Ipswich by Mr. J. Reid Moir. Mr. Moir excavated a human skeleton which, if all the evidence holds good, represents not only the earliest remains of man yet, found in England, but, with the exception of the Heidelberg jaw. the earliest yet found in Europe. The remains may be lQo.i>» years old. , The skeleton was excavated last October from t-ehearh an undisturbed layer ot chalky boulder eiay. which far antedates the period of Neandertal man. whose remains have lately been found so abundantly in France. The writer is of the" opinion that the remains belong to a race of men who lived in East Anglia before theTmast severe of the various episodes of the Glacial period. the skele ton rested on the right s; la with the iegs folded up on the body, and was apparently that of a man of about oft lOin. in height. The skull ea< small. The thigh bones and the bones of Gio forearms and hands were absolutely taj same as in modern Englishmen. Thu bones were so fragile that it was foun I impossible to remove them. The stratum containing them was. cut out in blocks and forwarded to Professor Keith. Ha impregnated them with gelatine and then cleaned away the surrounding matrix, leaving each bone embedded on the sur face of its block. Growing evidence supports the opinions of those antiirojiologists who have supposed tha.t the modern type of mm was evolved at an extremely early date, and that long after his appearance a n primitive man a’-;> per-i-te I in type we now name Nea.idertal. The modern trpe of man was apparently evolved before the commencement of the Glacial priod.