FOSSIL HUMAN REMAINS FOUND NEAR LANSING, 



KANSAS." 



By W. H. Holmes. 



The fo.ssil remains of two hunian being's were discovered while 

 diogino- a cellar tunnel for the storage of fruit on the farm of Mr. 

 Martin Concannon, near Lansing, Kansas, in February, 1902. During 

 the past summer the site was visited b>' a number of geologists, arche- 

 ologists, and others interested in the history and antiquity of man in 

 America, and alread}' several more or less elaljorate accounts of the 

 discovery have been published in our scientific joui'nals. The last and 

 by far the most critical study is that of Prof. T. C. Chamberlin, which 

 appeared in the Journal of Geology for October and November, 1902. 

 Other papers are b}^ Prof. S. W. Williston (Science, AugUf,t 1), Mr. 

 Warren Upham (Science, August 29; also American Geologist, Sep- 

 tember), and Prof. N. H. Winchell (American Geologist, Septem])er). 



1 had the good fortune to accompany Professor Chamberlin on his 

 first visit to the site, and to meet there also Prof. R. D. Salisbury, 

 Prof. Samuel Calvin, Dr. Erasnms Haworth, Dr. George A. Dorsey, 

 and Mr. M. C. Long. Careful examinations were made of the tunnel 

 and of the geological formations in the vicinity, as well as of the 

 cranium preserved in the Kansas C-ity Museum, and it was found that 

 the accounts of the discovery previously published were essentially 

 correct in every important particular. The human remains consist of 

 a skull and a number of the larger bones of an adult man and the 

 lower jaw of a child of some ten years. 



Owing to the difficulty of studjnng the formations in the tunnel, 

 already well tilled with farm [)roducts at the time of our visit, tiic idea 

 of making additional excavations was suggested, and through the kind 

 offices of Mr. Long it was arranged with Mr. Concannon that the 

 Bureau of American Ethnology should undertake this work. Mr. 

 Gerard Fowke, who, under my supervision, had been conducting 

 researches in the well-known fossil bone beds of Kinnnswick, Missouri, 

 was called in. and during the month of October a trench was opened 

 into the relic-bearing deposits from the west at right angles to the 



« Reprinted by permission from the American Anthropologist (N. S.), \o\. i, 

 October-DecemlK-r, U)OL\ 



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