Diggers

One of the most interesting sites in the history of early man is the Makapan Valley in South Africa (TIME, Jan. 17). As the Makapan River cut its valley during a million years, it formed a series of limestone caves that were inhabited successively by all manner of men and beasts. In some of the lowest layers, C. K. Brain of the Transvaal Museum found smallish stones that had been chipped into crude tools. Geological studies hinted that this primitive "pebble culture" might date from as much as 750,000 years ago.

Most likely candidate as proprietor of the pebble culture was Australopithecus prometheus, a smallish, erect-walking creature whose brain was just big enough to equip him intellectually as a maker of tools. Prometheus was plentiful in the Makapan region, but his remains had never been found with pebble tools.

Last week New York's Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research, one of the backers of the search, heard from Dr. Raymond A. Dart of Witwatersrand University. Deep in the same stony layer where Digger Brain had found the tools, Alun R. Hughes and Revill Mason found two teeth of prometheus. Dr. Dart considered the find good evidence that prometheus "was actually coexistent with, and in all probability responsible for, that very primitive stone pebble culture."

Anthropologists define man as "the toolmaking animal." Therefore the Makapan find gives pebble-chipping prometheus a claim to being the most primitive creature that can be called definitely human.

Hannibal's Pass. Much archaeological work is done not by digging, but by patiently assembling data in a quiet study. Twenty-five years ago, Sir Gavin de Beer, now director of London's British Museum of Natural History, set himself the task of finding out how the army of Hannibal the Carthaginian crossed the Alps to invade Italy in 218 B.C.

Sir Gavin gathered all the accounts, and soon came to doubt the usual theory that Hannibal and his 37 elephants-of-war tramped up the Rhone tributary that is now called the Isere. Old historians stated clearly that at that time (October), the river was in flood. The Isere does not flood in October, but another tributary, the Durance, does. Another clue in favor of the Durance is that Hannibal was reported to have passed three Gallic tribes. Old records show that their territories became modern dioceses on the Durance.

Next problem for Sir Gavin was to decide which pass was crossed by Hannibal. Old accounts say that from its summit, the invading Carthaginians could see the plains of Piedmont. This ruled out all except three passes. To pick the one that Hannibal took, Sir Gavin used ancient evidence that the army found new snow in the pass and also old snow from the preceding year. Climatological data, based on pollen grains found in ocean-bottom mud, prove that the climate of Europe in Hannibal's time was slightly warmer than it is today. This being the case, only the pass of Traversette, 10,000 feet high, could have plagued Hannibal's elephants with old snow. Sir Gavin investigated the Col de la Traversette and found that it contained, in just the right spot, a large, flat rock like the one where Hannibal camped near the top of his climb.

While tracing Hannibal through the Alps, Sir Gavin got interested in those elephants: Were they the African, he asked, or the Indian species? A coin-collecting friend gave the answer by showing him Carthaginian coins with big-eared elephants on them. Sir Gavin's conclusion: Hannibal's "tanks" came from Mauritania (Morocco), where elephants were plentiful in his day.

Big Saxon. The Teutonic barbarians who crumpled the remains of the decaying Roman Empire were often reported to have been big men. Last week a group of British amateur diggers found the bones of a fifth-century Saxon who was big indeed, if not monstrous.

For four years, enthusiastic members of the Manshead Archaeological Society had been digging in Puddle Hill, 33 miles from London. They had not found much, but were still hopeful. In 1928, the skeletons of about 100 youths were found not far away. They had all been killed with their hands tied behind their backs. Experts decided that they were Britons of the fifth century, and that they had been liquidated by invading Saxons.

Last week the diggers found a shallow grave containing the skeleton of a young man close to seven feet tall. His shield, spear and knife identified him as a Saxon of the early fifth century. All his limbs were broken, according to the pagan burial custom (perhaps to cripple the ghost), and the back of his skull had been bashed in. The diggers hoped that one of the Britons of Puddle Hill had liquidated at least one of the monstrous Saxons.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.