• Choose a category
• All
• Classic-Fiction

By Root 1378 0

would not have searched for and thereby recovered evidence for Pleistocene man on that continent. . . . It was realized that the only ‘diagnostic’ artifact categories may be simple flakes and cores. It was realized that simple retouched flakes are adequate to demonstrate the presence of early man, if they are recovered from datable stratigraphic contexts. . . . It is illogical to require the presence of diagnostic shaped tools in America and not to require their presence in Australia in order to prove that that continent was populated at least 40,000 years ago.” But if simple retouched flakes are adequate to prove the existence of humans 40,000 years ago in Australia, and 200,000 years ago in America, why are they not adequate to prove the existence of toolmaking hominids 2 million years ago in England and even earlier elsewhere?

Obviously, the great mass of evidence for a human presence in the Pliocene and earlier, as presented in this book, does not fit within the narrow limits of current ideas on human evolution. Many will therefore hesitate to even consider such evidence. This being the case, it can be said that evolutionary preconceptions impose unreasonable constraints on what evidence may be introduced into discussions of human origins and antiquity. Evidence is excluded for no other reason than that it violates evolutionary expectations. If one were, however, to give even-handed treatment to all of the available evidence, then it would become impossible to coherently set forth any temporally sequential and physiologically progressive path of hominid development. Only a ruthlessly selective editing of the totality of paleoanthropological evidence allows an evolutionary picture of human origins to be sustained.

3.9 A Recent Eolithic Discovery from India (Miocene)

We shall conclude our discussion of very crude stone tools, from as far back as the Eocene, with a recent example that shows the relevance of the issues raised in this chapter to modern paleoanthropological research.

K. N. Prasad (1982, p. 101) of the Geological Survey of India wrote in an abstract of his report: “A crude unifacial hand-axe pebble tool recovered from the late Mio-Pliocene (9–10 m.y. b.p.) at Haritalyangar, Himachal Pradesh, India is described. This crude flaked tool is assigned to Ramapithecus. The occurrence of this pebble tool in such ancient sediments indicates that early hominids such as Ramapithecus fashioned tools, were bipedal with erect posture, and probably utilized the implements for hunting.” Prasad (1982, p. 102) added: “The implement was recovered in situ, during remeasuring of the geological succession to assess the thickness of the beds. Care was taken to confirm the exact provenance of the material, in order to rule out any possibility of its derivation from younger horizons.” He also pointed out that Ramapithecus jaw fragments and teeth were found in the same horizon, the Nagri formation of the Middle Siwaliks.

Describing the tool itself, Prasad (1982, p. 102) stated: “The quartz artefact, heart-shaped (90 mm × 70 mm) [3.6 inches × 2.8 inches] was obviously fabricated from a rolled pebble, the dorsal side of which shows signs of rough flaking. . . . On the ventral side much of the marginal cortex is present at the distal end. Crude flaking has been attempted for fashioning a cutting edge. Marginal flaking at the lateral edge on the ventral side is visible.” Prasad reminded his readers that another Indian scientist had recovered stone tools from the lower part of the Pinjor formation, corresponding to the Villafranchian stage of the European Late Pliocene. He then stated: “It is not improbable that fashioning tools commenced even as early as the later Miocene and evolved in a time-stratigraphic period embracing the Astian-Villafranchian” (Prasad 1982, p. 103). We agree, but the real question the identity of the toolmaker. As we shall see, Ramapithecus has not remained a viable candidate.

Ramapithecus first came to the attention of scientists in the 1930s. This creature, initially regarded as a fossil ape, was named