Abstract
EVERY year brings to light evidence which implies a far greater ambiguity for man than that given to him in the book of Genesis. The caves of Mount Carmel, for example, have quite recently been found to contain deposits, fully sixty feet in thickness and laden with fossil bones of man and beast, to say nothing of a succession of stone implements. The ancient Palestinians represent a breed of the extinct Neanderthal species; the stone tools are of the kind used in Europe long before the onset of the last glaciation. Even more revolutionary are the contributions which Africa is now making to the solution of the problem of man's origin. East Africa is proving to be particularly rich in deposits laid down during Post-Pliocene times. In the oldest of these deposits, Dr. L. S. B. Leakey has discovered crudely worked hand-axes; on the overlying beds he has traced a gradual refinement of this type of tool. He has also found fragments of the East African tool-makers. Yet the oldest of these deposits were laid down at least half a million of years ago. So it has been with every part of the Old World: China, Java, Australia, Italy, Spain, France, Germany, Belgium and England, each has contributed its quota of evidence.
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References
Daily Telegraph, Jan. 18, 1935. “Evolution and the Human Race.”
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Evolution and Human Origins. Nature 135, 125–127 (1935). https://doi.org/10.1038/135125a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/135125a0