6g6 SCIENCE PROGRESS 



temooraneous with the oldest undisputed remains of true man in Europe-to wit, 

 he skeletons of the Aurignacian Age. These North American relics indicate 

 men of the same race as the existing Red Indians 



Now the Aurignacian skeletons are, as already stated, the most ancient 

 remains' of Homo sapiens that are generally accepted by scientists, though the 

 relics of the other species of the Hominidae found at Piltdown, Heidelberg, Java, 

 Neandertal and elsewhere are admitted by everybody to be much older. Prof. 

 Keith however, comes out in defence of certain other skeletons of the "modern * 

 type 'which are alleged to be older than the Aurignacian, and incidentally he 

 tries to push the Piltdown skull out of the Pleistocene back into the Pliocene. 

 These disputed remains are those found at Galley Hill, Ipswich, Abbeville, Clichy, 

 Crenelle, Denise and Olmo, all of which are supposed to be Early Pleistocene, 

 and all of which Prof. Keith defends, though not all with equal certitude. The 

 case of the remains found at Castenedolo, in Italy, is also discussed. At this 

 place remains of Homo sapiens weie found in a Pliocene deposit, but even Prof. 

 Keith is sceptical of this instance, >nd is nclined to accept the explanation (which 

 other authorities apply to the ' arly Pleistocene " specimens just mentioned) that 

 the bones merely represent bu als of much later date. 



With regard to the age of the Piltdown skull, Prof. Keith's arguments are not 

 convincing. Geologists date a stratum by means of the latest fossil found in it. 

 Now the beaver, which is Pleistocene, was unearthed in the same stratum with the 

 skull of Eoanthropus. Hence the humanoid skull is inferred by most scientists to 

 be Pleistocene also. It is true that Pliocene fossils were also found, but the 

 natural explanation of these is that they are " derived " fossils. Derived fossils are 

 quite a common geological phenomenon. Prof. Keith prefers to suppose that at 

 Piltdown a beaver was discovered in a Pliocene stratum for the first time. The 

 primitive character of the Piltdown skull does not give us its date. There can, we 

 think, be little doubt that the genus Eoantht opus was in existence in the Pliocene, 

 but the particular specimen found appears to have been a late survivor of an 

 ancient type, just as Prof. Keith thinks that the Javan ape-man represented an 

 unprogressive remnant of a still more ancient humanoid genus. 



Whatever we may think ot the Galley Hill, Ipswich, and Olmo finds, there is 

 this much to be said. The Aurignacian races were as fully human as we are. 

 True man must therefore have had some history somewhere before the Aurignacian 

 Age. It is one of the half-dozen greatest problems of science to discover what 

 that history was. 



Prof. Keith thinks that the Australian aboriginals closely resemble anatomically 

 the common ancestor of all the races of Homo sapiens, and he speculates that that 

 common ancestor was already in existence before the close of the Pliocene. As 

 for the Hominidae, the humanoid family, he calculates that it arose in the 

 Obligocene period. 



A. G. Thacker. 



An Introduction to the Study of Prehistoric Art. By Ernest A. Parkyn, 

 M.A. [Pp. xviii + 349, with 16 plates and 318 illustrations in the text.] 

 (London : Longmans, Green & Co. Price \os. 6d. net.) 

 This is an excellent work, and supplies a want, for there exists no other adequate 

 and up-to-date treatise dealing with prehistoric art in general. Three chapters 

 are given up to the wonderful work of paleolithic artists, one chapter to the 



thlT £ Pen °u ' and Ae tCn remainin S chapters-constituting, however, only half 

 book-to the artistic products of the prehistoric Metal Ages. The illustrations 



