l62 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL.83 



The history of the specimen is, regrettably, somewhat defective. 

 The first mention of it occurs in Falconer's Paleontological Memoirs/ 

 in 1868, where, on page 561 of Volume 2, speaking of various anthro- 

 pological and other finds at Gibraltar, the author says : 



One of the human skulls yielded by the rocks many years since appears to us 

 to point to a time of very high antiquity. In fact, it is the most remarkable and 

 perfect example of its kind now extant. In the absence of a properly organized 

 museum no record exists of the precise circumstances under which this inter- 

 esting relic was found, and that it has been preserved at all may be considered a 

 happy accident ; it has cost us much labor, and with but partial success, to 

 endeavor to trace its history on the spot where it turned up. 



Besides this, Falconer remarks in a letter to a relative," referring 

 to the skull : " It is a case of a very low type of humanity — very low 

 and savage and of extreme antiquity — but still man " 



Taking all the available data into consideration,^ it appears that the 

 skull was accidentally discovered as early as 1848, therefore eight years 

 before the Neanderthal cranium made its appearance, in the " Forbes 

 Quarry, situated on the north base of the Rock of Gibraltar." Ac- 

 cording to Keith,* it was " quarried out of the terrace under the north 

 face of the rock," a terrace formed of solidified breccia, consisting of 

 the debris of weathering of the limestone cliff and fine wind-blown 

 sand. The part of the terrace where the cranium lay was possibly 

 in former times the floor of a cave. Part of a cave still exists behind 

 the site of the discovery, and this was explored in 191 1 by Duckworth, 

 but without results. It is certain that the skull showed, and to some 

 extent presents to this day. a hard stony matrix adhering to its surface 

 and filling its cavities. Broca, to whom we owe the first descriptive 

 account of the specimen,' says that it was taken out of a " very com- 

 pact and adherent gangue," from which it was disengaged with much 

 difficulty. The photographs published with Broca's account show still 

 very noticeable remnants of the stony matrix (see also pi. 34). 



The skull was presented to the Gibraltar Scientific Society by Lieut. 

 Flint, then its secretary, but for many years received no scientific 

 attention. In 1862 it came to England, with the collections from the 



^ Falconer, Hugh, Paleontological Memoirs and Notes, 2 vols., London, 

 1868; also Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. London, Vol. 21, p. 369, 1865. 



* Op. cit., p. 561, footnote. 



' Compare Keith, A., The early history of the Gibraltar cranium. Nature, 

 PP- 313-314, 1911- 



'Ancient Types of Man, p. 121, 191 1. 



" Broca, P., Cranes et ossements humains des cavernes de Gibraltar. Bull. 

 Soc. d'Anthropol. Paris, 2d series. Vol. 4, p. 154, 1869. 



