I02 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 83 



accounts of the circumstances of the discovery, and these have already 

 materially affected important conclusions. 



What one learns definitely from the early notices of Broken Hill, 

 by one of the chief officials of the mine (Engineer Franklin White), 

 is that about 1907 the bone cave was found accidentally in tunneling 

 operations ; that it was not known to have any outward opening ; that 

 it was nearly filled with large quantities — many tons — of more or less 

 mineralized bones, clay, debris, and ore ; and that with the bones were 

 fairly numerous quartz and chert implements, resembling in general 

 those of Bushmen and perhaps other African natives of protohistoric 

 and prehistoric times. 



Some of the implements and bones were saved through the in- 

 strumentality of Mr. White and donated to the Bulawayo Museum. 

 They were later studied by Mennell and Chubb. Still later the bones 

 came to the British Museum and were examined by Andrews. They 

 were diagnosed, with one probable exception, as belonging to recent 

 forms of Rhodesian mammals. There were no human bones in the 

 collection. The archeological objects were noted but the find was not 

 followed up. 



Then came the accidental great discovery of 1921. Again there was 

 no scientific expert on the spot and none came after. The details 

 were not noted in writing. The news circulated in the South African 

 papers, but there was no authoritative account ; the reports differed 

 among themselves and included inaccuracies. 



Five months after the discovery, the skull and a nimiber of human 

 as well as other bones were brought to England by Mr. Macartney, 

 the manager of the mine, and were generously donated by the com- 

 pany to the British Museum (Natural History). No written state- 

 men accompanied the donation. But from the oral account of Mr. 

 Macartney, and above all from the good illustrated article by William 

 E. Harris, an official of the mine, in " The Illustrated London News," 

 November 19, 1921, there became established a notion of the details 

 of the find which was gradually adopted by all writers on the skull 

 and which is responsible for serious uncertainties. Above all it 

 became an accepted idea that several human bones brought to England 

 with the skull were found with the cranium and belong to the same 

 individual or the same people, and fron;i the characteristics of these 

 bones deductions were made as to the morphological and even chrono- 

 logical status of the Rhodesian man. Some measurements of the 

 skull and bones were published, also a few observations and thoughts 

 on the endocranial cast which represents the brain ; a tacit expectation 



