SAPIENS MEN OF THE MIDDLE PLEISTOCENE

The first appearance of fully or incipiently sapiens men in the Old World can now be definitely placed in the Middle Pleistocene, in Europe the time of the second, or great, interglacial. The specimen which has made this allocation possible is Swanscombe man.

Other remains comparable to Swanscombe and also associated with the Acheulean cultural horizon have been found in Western and Southern Europe. The best known of these is the famous Galley Hill skeleton. Others include the Moulin Quignon mandible, the Clichy skeleton and the Olmo skullcap. Although the nearly complete Galley Hill skeleton was removed from near the bottom of an undisturbed gravel layer, most modern writers of the pre-Swanscombe era have refused to accept its authenticity even though the chances of its being later than the gravel from which it was taken were at most extremely slight.

The Galley Hill man was of short stature, 160cm. His long bones, although robust, were not heavy. The length of the tibia is 77 percent of the fermur -- and this proportion is modern and European, unlike those of many of the later peoples of the Upper Paleolithic and Neolithic. From muscular markings, it is apparent that he was of considerable bodily strength but at the same time of a fairly light build. We also know that he had a life in the open country and had a habit of squatting.

The skull, which is reminiscent in a general way of some living European men, is extremely dolichocephalic with an index of 69. The length of the vault is long, 204mm, the breadth narrow. The vault height, known only from the auricular projection since the basal portion is missing, is on the low side of medium. This skull has an extremely protuberant occiput with greatest length well to the bottom, a well developed frontal region and a moderately sloping forehead. At the same time the forehead is very broad, making the parietal walls near parallel. The browridges are moderately strong. The face is missing, yet the temporal segment of the right zygomatic arches remain and is thin and as a whole, well curved.

More than half the mandible was preserved and there was no prognathism. The body is narrow and of moderate symphyscial height. The chin of medium prominence by modern standards. The ascending ramus is wide and the sigmoid notch shallow. The teeth, while fully human, retain some primitive features in the development of the pulp cavities, in the length-breadth proportions of the molars and in their relative size -- the third molar is the largest.

Besides these dental peculiarities and the absence of a marked sigmoid notch, the skull itself has certain primitive features. It is thick, and the browridges, although no greater than many modern examples, form a continuous ridge. The mastoids are small and the area of temporal muscle attachment large.

Galley Hill man was, without reasonable doubt, an extremely generalized form of ancestral white man. His skull and body bones preserve just the degree of generalization needed to make him the logical ancestor of the Mediterranean race and all the subraces related to it.

Although more specimens of this type have been found in Europe than elsewhere, it is not possible to suppose that his type evolved in Europe. He must have been transient in Europe, coming in with the retreat of one glacier, and going out with the advance of the next. When his descendants next appear in Europe, it will be from some other source to which their ancestors had retreated.

Outside of Europe, the earliest known human anatomically is the Kanam mandible from East Africa. This was attributed to the lower Pleistocene which would make it older than any of the known fossil men of Africa, Asia, or Europe.

The Kanam mandible is definitely human although primitive in a number of ways like those of Galley Hill. It lacked prognathism and is modern in shape an size.

Younger than the Kanam mandible and apparently belonging to the Middle Pleistocene are four fragmentary skull caps found at Kanjera. These four caps are in such poor condition, it is impossible to give accurate measurements, though general estimates can be made. Kanjera man was extremely dolichocephalic with an index less than 70; the skull walls, although thick in 3 out of 4 cases, are not covered with heavy muscular markings as in the case of non-sapiens fossil men.

The foreheads are prominent, the frontal lobes well developed, the whole occiputal region is extremely protruding and the occiputal lobes strongly developed and very symmetrical. This and the study of the endocranial casts leads to the conclusion that these belong to a very long-headed form of Homo sapiens very similar to Galley Hill and could without difficulty have been ancestral to at least one part of the present white racial stock. Only one small piece of malar bone remains. It includes a well-developed canine fossa, which is certain proof of its human character. A small piece of fermur is also fully human.

NON-SAPIENS PLEISTOCENE FOSSIL MEN

Not demonstrably older than the Pleistocene fossil men discussed above are the remains of an increasingly large number of non-sapiens from all three continents of the Old World. These include two separate genera, Pithecanthropus and Sinanthropus and four species of Homo -- soloensis, heidelbergensis, neanderthalensis, and rhodesiensis. It is apparent that they may be grouped in at least two evolutionary levels with Pithcanthropus and Sinanthropus in the lower bracket. Despite their allocation to separate genera, these two are in many respects, very much alike. Furthermore, Rhodesiensis and Soloensis resemble each other and together are not very different from the numerous and variable Neanderthaloid group.

These fossils, may be considered a separate class of highly evolved humanoid primitives. Within this class there are differences of evolutionary states and differences in types of specialization. As a whole, however, they differ from both early and modern sapiens man in the possession of a flattened gorilloid skull vault, with strong supraorbital torus, an extremely sloping forehead associated with a low vault height and a strong girded brain case, in which, in the more primitive species, the maximum cranial length passes glabella to an occiputal torus, while the maximum breadth lies between the mastoid crests. Even in the more evolved species in which the brain size equals or exceeds that of modern men, the same gorilloid structure to a lrage extent persists. The faces of the few specimens which still possess them are of extreme length and the subnasal portions excessively large in comparison to the brain case; these faces are flat, and that distinctive human feature, the canine fossa, is lacking.

NEADERTHALOID HYBRIDS OF PALESTINE

In Western Europe, Neanderthaloid skeletal material begins to appear in the second interglacial with the Heidelberg jaw (Some German scientists place Heidelberg in the first interglacial), and is followed during the first part of the Riss retreat by Steinheim and Ehringsdorf crania. The whole of the third interglacial and the advance of Wurm I, belong to Neanderthal men, and not a single sapiens skull has been found in Europe, dating from this long time expanse.

The Neanderthal group was extremely variable and showed within its range clear evidence of evolutionary change in a human direction. The Western European specimen formed a marginal, and relatively primitive, geographical sub-group of the species.

In Palestine, which falls on a peripheral of the Mousterian flake culture range, excavations reveal a number of Neanderthal skeletons which are different from those in Europe and others which are only part Neanderthaloid.

In one cave was found the skeleton of a woman, fully Neanderthaloid, and associated with it was a male mandible equal in size to Heidelberg but possessed a chin. Nearby, three male crania were found sufficiently complete for reconstruction and measurement. They are fully human but preserve a number of Neanderthaloid characteristics.

The leg bones of the Skhul people are long and slender, the femora heavily pilastered, in contrast to the Neanderthaloid form. The feet are fully human, but lack a reduction found in the middle phalange of modern races, while the heels are short. The humeri are likewise long and slender, the radii and ulnae straight, instead of being bowed as with Neanderthal man, including the Tabun female. The hands of Skhul men were broad and large.

In the Skhul pelves, definite Neanderthaloid features appear; the entire structure is lower and narrower than those of modern men. The Tabun's woman's pelvis, on the other hand, is quite different from other Neanderthaloid, in the possession of a long, plate-like pubis, which is an ape-like character. The vertebral column of the Skhul men, while human, and possessing a lumbar curve of sapiens character, is short in the cervical region. The total height of the cervical vertebrae is only 55.7mm, as contrasted with a mean 68.4mm for modern man. Thus Skhul men were short-necked, and in this respect possessed a Neanderthaloid trait. In comparison with Neanderthal man, the Skhul thorax was flat while that of the Tabun woman retained the barrel-like earlier form. The ribs of the Skhul men are variable in cross-section; some are flat and ribbon-like as in modern man, others are thick and rounded as with Neanderthal. The latter form is also associated with Upper Paleolithic European men. The stature of the Skhul males was tall, 173 to 179cm, while that of the females was short, 158cm.

In the skull, Skhul man is definitely intermediate between Neanderthal and sapiens but much closer to the latter. The skulls of the 3 males are extremely large. In length, they equal Galley Hill but far exceed it in breadth. The vault height of the 2 specimens, measured from the ear hole, is equal to that of Galley Hill but the third is low as with Neanderthals -- while the extreme breadth of this specimen acts as a compensation permitting a greater capacity than the other two.

In the vault form, two (#5,#9) are mainly sapiens while one (#4) appears Neanderthaloid. The capacity of the 3 skulls are 1,588, 1,600, and 1,616cc respectively -- much greater than those of Galley Hill or others of his type and greater than most living men. At the same time, they exceed most Neanderthal figures. #5 is a heavy, thick skull with heavy brow ridges which do not attain a maximum Neanderthal development. Although the occiput is protruding, it is not conical in form as with many Neanderthal. The vault is well arched, the lambdoid region slightly flattened, and the forehead no more sloping than in modern sapiens.

The face, while large, fails to attain the gorilla like proportions of Neanderthal and falls within the modern range of height and breadth. The interorbital distance is great, the upper borders of the orbits straight. Both the maxillae and mandible are of great size and robusticity exceeding most modern specimens and the alveolar prognathism is excessive. The mandible has a fully human chin and the teeth like those of Tabun types, are not tourodent. The palate is large and its length is greater than its breadth, unlike Neanderthal in which the breadth exceeds the length. The foramen magnum is long and narrow like Neanderthal.

The anthropometric position of the #5 Skhul crania falls between Homo sapiens as exemplified by Galley Hill and Neanderthal.

UPPER PALAEOLITHIC MAN IN EUROPE, THE EVIDENCE AS A WHOLE

The first Upper Palaeolithic (UP) people, the bearers of the earliest phase of the Aurignacian culture, arrived in Europe during the middle of the Laufen interglacial, between the retreat of Wurm I and the advance of Wurm II. It is possible to set the end of the UP in Western Europe with more accuracy; 11,800 seems to mark a turning point, with the migration of the reindeer northward, and the first introduction of Mesolithic culture.

We must not place too much importance on fine differences in stature as a means of determining genetic affinity or distance, especially over periods of tens of thousands of years. Head form, too, although it changes with much less speed than stature, for it is not directly concerned with gross size, nevertheless responds to the stimuli which control it.

In study remains of Pleistocene and of post-Pleistocene man, we must be careful not to confuse characters which are of racial importance with progressive modifications which may occur in response to cultural change within any group. Such modifications are especially concerned with the jaws and teeth. Among primitive white people, such as Berbers and Albanian mountaineers, the incisors of the two jaws meet edge to edge, as they did among most of the medieval inhabitants of western Europe. Under modern conditions this changes rapidly to an overbite and is frequently accompanied by a narrowing of the palate and crowding of the teeth. This shift of the bite affects also the position of the lips and changes the entire facial expression.

Another modification which seems to proceed with some rapidity is the enlargement of the masticatory muscles under sub-arctic conditions. As the muscles enlarge, the angles of the lower jaw become everted, the zygomatic arches expand laterally, and after the brain case becomes keeled in response to an increase in the temporal muscular attachments. At the same time both mandible and the palate develop tori. These correlated changes act without regard to race since they are apparently functional adaptations. They also act with some rapidity, for the medieval Icelanders acquired them in less than four centuries. These occur in varying degrees among some of the later UP Europeans skulls, as well as many Eskimos and modern Siberians.

We must be particularly careful in studying the remains of UP man -- that his true time span was unquestionably greater than the totality of time which has elapsed since it ended. The men who conquered the cold lived under new and rigorous climatic and dietary conditions. Therefore, metrical and morphological differences in physical type which appear over the millennium may imply, in some instances, a response to environmental rather than a diversity of origin.

It is amazing to find that the UP men were less variable, on the whole, than the inhabitants of London who were buried in plague pits during the seventeenth century. They were less variable than the modern rural population of a small section of Carinthia, and only a little more so than the skulls of the extremely isolated Greenland Eskimo, whose time span covered at most a few centuries, or the Egyptians who were buried at Gizeh between the 26th and 13th dynasties.

The great complexity of race in modern Europe is largely due to post-Pleistocene migrations from other continents, and the retention of local types in modern populations reflect the greater isolatability in small regions of farmers rather than hunters. But the Upper Pleistocene people were by no means completely homogeneous.

This total UP group is unified enough to be considered an interbreeding unit and forming a geographical and social unit. Such a population may have multiple origins. In any event, it is possible to generalize about common traits. The first and most notable is the extremely large size of the brain case, larger in most cases than Galley Hill or most modern men, and comparable in size to Skhul. This is found in all but a few of the skulls, whatever, the actual dimensions and form. The cranial indices, however, are very variable, ranging from 65 to 85, and this variability is too great to imply a single homogeneous type.

The male skulls are easily distinguished from the females, for there is a greater difference between sexes than is usual among more recent groups of men. The same is true of long bones and stature. This implies a strong development of secondary sexual characteristics. In the male skulls the bony markings are all pronounced, the brow ridges are as a rule heavy, the faces are excessively broad with flaring zygomata. The upper facial height is variable -- medium to short in most individuals but in others quite long.

One of the most distinctive characteristics of most (but not all) of these skulls is that the orbits are very broad and very low. The nasal skeleton is almost always prominent. (The Grimaldi "negroid" form an exception). The nasal root, although deeply overhung by glabella, is still high, and the osseous nasal profile is as a rule straight or convex. The nasal spine is sharp and the lower border well marked. The nose, on the whole, is leptorrhine to mesorrhine.

The lower jaw presents just as marked an individuality as does the cranium. This bone is deep, wide and heavy with flaring gonial angles and a prominent chin. The palate is rather wider than those of most living men, although the teeth are not of excessive size. If one judges the face form from the calvarium alone, the great breadth of the face, coupled with a variable length, yields in most cases a low upper facial index, placing these skulls in the euryene category. If, however, one calculates a total facial index, many of these skulls are leptoprospic, for the great height of the mandibular symphysics compensate for the shortness from nasion to alveolar point. This condition, in which the lower part of the face is exaggerated, is one of the chief diagnostic features of this type of man and can still be seen among some of the living people of northern Europe.

In the totality of facial features, with a few exceptions, the UP people may be said to have resembled modern white men. Some, however, probably looked like a certain type of American Indian, notably that of the North American Plains, and of the Onas and Tehuelche of southernmost South America. This comparison is wholly morphological since we do not know UP man's pigmentation, hair form, or hair distribution. [In more recent DNA studies, at least one of the sites in South America shows a correlation to Europe and none to Asia. Also, there are some Indians in the Plains with blood type A -- common in parts of western Europe but rare in Asia. In addition, there are some flint cultures in Early America similar to the Solutrean culture of Europe. -- cosmocreator]

The skeletons of the UP people vary in size by sub periods but as a whole the group was tall, long-limbed, and slender, with narrow hips, broad shoulders, and large hands and feet. The limb bones were not excessively robust, and the limb ratios, determining the relative lengths of arms and leg segments and the arm to legs were unstable.

The mean stature of males was about 173cm, of females 155cm. The men were taller than the means of any modern European countries, with the exceptions of Iceland and Montenegro, but not taller than modern Americans. The women, on the other hand, were actually small.

The UP people, despite their generalized European facial appearance, were separate in many metrical characters from most living, or for that matter, pre-Aurignacian, sapiens men. UP European man was at one end of the scale and the rest of humanity, white or otherwise, all of lesser antiquity, at the other end.