Anthropology: Shelf One

On Shelf #1: The first three shelves of this display case are devoted to more recent members of the human family. On this shelf, you will find a specimen known as The Broken Hill Skull or Kabwe 1 [found by Arthur Smith Woodward in Kabwe, Zambia known in 1921 as Broken Hill, Northern Rhodesia; 125 – 300 kya] is a representative of a species that is classified as Homo heidelbergensis, descendants of populations of Homo ergaster that had moved away from their original habitat in East Africa. Next to Kabwe 1, you will find a replica of a set of bones unfortunately known as The Old Man of La Chapelle-aux-Saints (Homo neanderthalensis [found in 1908 in La Chapelle-aux-Saints, France; ~40 kya]). The “Old Man” was actually at the time of his death only 35 to 40 years old, but suffered from severe osteoarthritis, which left him stooped in his posture. Study of his remains in the early 20th century led many to imagine that the Neanderthals did not stand fully upright, had a shuffling gait and a bent-over posture. His osteoarthritis also affected his feet, which made it look as if his big toe projected to the side, which led some to believe that Neanderthals were more ape-like than human. More recent research based on individuals (such as La Ferrassie, see the shelf below, and others) has shown that Neanderthals were fully human in posture and gait.

•  The period between the movement of the first humans into the world outside of Africa, starting probably around 2 Mya until the time that modern humans (that is, members of our own species Homo sapiens) was very likely a time in which various groups were adapting to very different sorts of habitats leading to a wide variation in physical types. Though some anthropologists see species-level differences among human groups living in different parts of the world, others are more willing to entertain the idea that one species can exhibit a wide range of physical variation. The human groups of this period, from about 800 kya to the point in time when we became the only human species left on the planet, are often loosely collected under the label “archaic humans”.

•  The willingness with which people were willing to imagine that Neanderthals were ape-like brutes, like the hoax the Piltdown Man, once again shows how much the imagination and prejudice can get in the way of properly interpreting anthropological evidence. The “Old Man” reminds us to be vigilant in examining our biases as we look through these remains into the past.