ANCIENT KEMAINS OF MAN HRDLICKA. 513 



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 vei'y high antiquity. In fact, it is the most remark- 

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

 organized museum no record exists of the precise circumstances imder which 

 this interesting 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 discovered, accidentall3% as early as 1818, therefore 

 eight years before the Neanderthal cranium made its appearance in 

 the " Forbes Quarry, situated on the north front of the Eock of Gi- 

 braltar." According 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 cra- 

 nium lay was possibly in former times the floor of a cave. Part of a 

 ca^'e still exists behind the site of the discovery and was explored in 

 1011 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 from a " very compact and adherent gangue " out of 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. 12). 



The skull was presented to the Gibraltar Scientific Society by its 

 that time secretary, Lieut. Flint, but for many years received no sci- 

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

 from the Gibraltar caves, and was studied to some extent by Busk 

 and Falconer. The latter, perceiving how much it differed from 

 recent human skulls, proposed to refer it to a distinct variety of man, 

 the Homo colpicus^ after Calfe, the old name of Gibraltar. In 1868 

 finally Busk presented the cranium to the Museum of the Royal Col- 

 lege of Surgeons of England, where it is still preserved. 



The first descriptive account of the specimen .was published, as 

 mentioned above, by Broca, but the adhering stony matrix pre- 



1 Op. cit, p. 561, footnote. 



-Compare Keith, A. The early history of the Gibraltar cranium. (Nature, 1911, pp. 

 313-314.) 



3 Ancient Types of Man, 1911, p. 121. 



* Broca, P. Cranes et ossements humalns des cavernes de Gibraltar. ( Bull. Soc. 

 d'Anthropol. Paris, 2d series, vol. 4, 1869, p. 154.) 



44863°— SM 1913 33 



