Forbidden Archeology_ The Full Unabridged Edition - Michael A. Cremo [240]
It should also be noted that Louis Leakey (1960a, p. 1051) claimed to have found “a genuine bone tool” in the same level as the bola stones. Leakey (1960a, p. 1051) said, “This would appear to be some sort of a ‘lissoir’ for working leather. It postulates a more evolved way of life for the makers of the Oldowan culture than most of us would have expected.”
The complex behavior required for making and using bolas seems clearly out of character for either Australopithecus or Homo habilis, both of which were quite apelike. As far as Homo erectus is concerned, this creature is not generally portrayed using bolas. If use of bolas were to be attributed to Homo erectus, this would require a substantial redefinition of his technological capabilities. It thus appears that the bola stones may point to the existence in the African Early Pleistocene of a being with the intellectual and physical abilities of Homo sapiens. This, of course, would do severe damage to the whole picture of human evolution. The sling stone discovered below the Red Crag, with its possible age of 2.5 million years, could also be damaging to the evolutionary hypothesis.
5.4 Relatively Advanced North American Paleolithic Finds
We shall now examine some relatively advanced anomalous Paleolithic implements from North America, beginning with those found at Sheguiandah, Canada, on Manitoulin Island in northern Lake Huron. Many of these North American discoveries are not particularly old, but they are nonetheless significant because they give insight into the inner workings of archeology and paleoanthropology. We have already seen how the scientific community suppresses data with uncomfortable implications for the currently dominant picture of human evolution. And now we shall encounter revelations of another aspect of this—the personal distress and bitterness experienced by scientists unfortunate enough to make anomalous discoveries.
5.4.1 Sheguiandah: Archeology as a Vendetta
The excavations at Sheguiandah were carried out between 1951 and 1955 by Thomas E. Lee, an anthropologist at the National Museum of Canada. The upper layers of the site contained, at a depth of approximately 6 inches (Level III), a variety of projectile points (Figure 5.5).
Figure 5.5. Projectile point from Level III of the Sheguiandah site, Manitoulin Island, Ontario, Canada (T. E. Lee 1983, p. 61).
According to Lee, excavation exposed an implement-bearing layer of unsorted sediments, apparently a glacial till. Ordinary sediments deposited by water tend to be sorted into distinct layers of sand and gravel.
Deposits laid down by receding glaciers are generally not sorted in this fashion. Since at Sheguiandah stone tools were found in an unsorted till, the implication was that human beings had lived in the area during or before the time of the last glaciation. Further study showed that there was a second layer of till, which also contained artifacts.
Among the stone implements found in the upper section of glacial till, Level IV, were several large, thin, bifacial implements (Figure 5.6). T. E. Lee (1983, pp. 64–65) said about the bifaces: “Many retain some portion of a large bulb of percussion at one end. . . . Secondary chipping is prominent. . . . An interesting feature of several bifaces is the curious shoulder produced at one end. . . . Some of the double-shouldered tools show unmistakable evidence of use as scrapers, presumably hafted.” In addition, Lee (1983, p. 65) stated: “A few cutting and scraping tools have been found in Level IV. Two examples show fine cutting edges resulting from removal