(11) _The Rhodesian Man_: In 1921 a human skull was found by miners
in the “Bone Cave” of the Broken Hill Mine in southern Rhodesia. It
was associated with human and animal bones, as well as very crude
instruments (knives and scrapers) in flint and quartz. It was found
at a depth of 60 feet below the surface. The lower jaw was missing,
and has not been recovered. It was sent to the British Museum, South
Kensington, where it is now preserved. Doctor Smith-Woodward has
examined and described it. “The skull is in some features the most
primitive one that has ever been found; at the same time it has many
points of resemblance to (or even identity with) that of modern man.”
(_Science_, Feb. 3, 1922, p. 129.) The face is intact. The forehead is
low, and the brow ridges are more pronounced than in any known fossil
human skull. The prognathism of the upper jaw is very accentuated.
The cranium is very flat on top and broad in the back. “Its total
capacity is surprisingly large. At least one prominent authority
thinks that this man had quite as much gray matter as the average
modern man.” (_Loc. cit._, pp. 129, 130.) Woodward, however, estimates
the cranial capacity of this skull as 1280 c.cm. The neck must have
had powerful muscles. The nasal bone is prominent and Neanderthaloid
in character. “The wisdom tooth is reduced in size—another point in
common with modern man and never found before in a fossil skull.”
(_Ibidem._) The palate and the teeth in general are like those of
existing men. The femur is not curved like that of the Neanderthal
man—“In contrast to the Neanderthal man who is supposed to have walked
in a crouching position (because of the rather curved femur and other
bits of evidence), this man is believed to have maintained the upright
position, because the femur is relatively straight and when fitted to
the tibia (which was also found) presents a perfectly good, straight
leg.” (_Ibidem._) According to the writer we have quoted, Dr. Elliot
Smith entertained hopes that the Rhodesian man might represent the
“missing link” in man’s ancestry, leaving the Neanderthal man as an
offshoot from the main ancestral trunk. No comment is necessary. The
skull may be a pathological specimen, but, in any case, it is evidently
human as regards its cranial capacity. The remains, moreover, serve
to emphasize the _fluctuational_ character of the so-called _Homo
primigenius_ type, being a mixture of modern and Neanderthaloid
features. They are not fossilized and present a recent appearance.
Hence, as B. Windle suggests, they may have fallen into the cave
through a crack, and may be modern rather than prehistoric.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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