i 5 o PHYSICAL ANTHROPOLOGY 



highly evolved human type at a time much more remote from the present than is the 

 middle Palaeolithic period, with which it has been noted the type of Homo primigenius 

 is almost exclusively associated. But it is possible that the skeleton lay in a grave 

 dug through the boulder clay, and extending (perhaps accidentally) just to the level of 

 the upper surface of the underlying sand. Two problems, one geological, and a second 

 which may be described as archaeological, are therefore presented by the discovery of 

 the Ipswich bones. 



On the geological side, it is believed that the crucial questions in dispute are, (i) 

 Whether the boulder clay of-the locality is identical with the widely-distributed stratum 

 thus designated by geologists, (2) Whether the boulder clay was deposited under 

 circumstances admitting of the preservation of the bones in close association and 

 contact during that process, and lastly (3) Whether the local clay may not have been 

 derived secondarily and comparatively recently from similar but adjacent material in 

 such a way as to conform to the conditions suggested under the heading No. 2. The 

 answers to the questions thus posed are conflicting, and the weight of authority is 

 divided with remarkable evenness. It is appropriate therefore to recall the comment 

 made in reference to such instances by Huxley, and to realise that on neither side is the 

 evidence of an absolutely conclusive nature. But the validity of the claims pressed 

 on behalf of the Ipswich bones will be affected also by the archaeological evidence. 

 And in particular it is necessary to exclude as far as possible the question of an inter- 

 ment. For the latter might own a comparatively recent date. Again the evidence 

 is not decisive in either sense, and it will thus be observed that if the claims to high 

 antiquity have not been established satisfactorily, neither has the refutation of those 

 claims been completely demonstrative. Consequently this instance, even if held in 

 reserve, must be reckoned with in any discussion of human antiquity in general. 



It is permissible to recall in this connection the claims now advanced in favour of 

 the greater antiquity of the higher types of mankind, and based upon observations in 

 another department of archaeology, viz. that which deals with the evidence provided 

 by flint or other imperishable implements. The flints discovered below the Red 

 Crag in Suffolk 1 supply evidence distinctly in favour of the possibility of man's existence 

 in the Miocene epoch if not even earlier. The suggestion is not novel, for Dr. Wallace - 

 advanced it distinctly more than fifty years ago. But however willing we may be to 

 entertain such views, our adoption of these must depend after all upon the evidence. 

 Unfortunately the palaeontological record is still imperfect, at any rate so far as our 

 museums are concerned. From Pliocene strata the only known specimens that possess 

 a claim to rank as a human form is Pithecanthropus, and both the antiquity and the 

 rank of this fossil have been disputed. With regard to the anthropoid apes it is other- 

 wise. Many years ago, remains of a fossil form of anthropoid ape (Dryopithecus) were 

 discovered in France. They occurred in strata considered then to be of Miocene age 

 but now referred by some geologists to the subsequent Pliocene epoch. Later dis- 

 coveries were made in India, and quite recently (1911) the officers of the Indian Geo- 

 logical Survey have added considerably to the number of anthropoid apes found in that 

 region. 3 No fewer than four kinds of these apes are recognised now as having existed in 

 the Pliocene epoch. They correspond, however, to the four existing kinds of anthropoid 

 apes, being nearly if not quite so highly developed as these. Consequently it is not 

 altogether reasonable to claim them as forms ancestral to the existing species, though 

 they may serve to indicate some of the characters of those ancestors. 



But a recent discovery of even greater interest is announced from Egypt. 4 There 

 have been found in the Oligocene strata of the Fayum district, remains of monkeys, 

 including a fossil remnant attributable to a gibbon-like anthropoid ape. This Oligocene 



1 Lankestcr, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, Series B., vol. 202, 1915. 



2 A. R. VVallace, Anthropological Review; Journal of the Anthropological Society, 

 1864, p. clxvi. 



3 Pilgrim, Records of the Indian Geological Survey, 1910. 



4 Fraas, Korrespondenzblatt, etc. (cf. under Klaatsch), s. 191, 1911; Schlosser, Beitrage 

 zur Paldontologie und Geologic Oesterreich-Ungarns und des Orients, xxiv, s. 51, 1911. 



