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(1926, pp. 358–361) said the source of the human fossils was a layer of sediment deposited in a lake that formed after a Pliocene volcanic eruption and before the resumption of volcanic activity in the Pleistocene. According to Deperet, river deposits over the basalt from the last eruptions contained an Aurignacian fauna—horses, rhinoceroses, mammoths, hyenas, etc. This meant the last eruptions at La Denise occurred not later than the Late Pleistocene. Deperet’s report thus suggests the presence of humans of the modern type at La Denise at some time during the Pleistocene, between 30,000 years ago (the latest time for the last eruptions) and 2 million years ago (the earliest time for the first eruptions). We would like to obtain more detailed stratigraphic evidence for the age of the argillaceous limonite layer from which the La Denise jaw was taken. Over a century after the La Denise fossils were discovered, they were tested chemically by K. P. Oakley. We shall discuss these test results, said to confirm a recent age for the fossils, in Appendix 1.

6.1.3 The Ipswich Skeleton (Middle Middle Pleistocene)

In 1911, J. Reid Moir discovered an anatomically modern human skeleton beneath a layer of glacial boulder clay near the town of Ipswich, East Anglia, in England. Reading through various secondary accounts, we learned that J. Reid Moir later changed his mind about the skeleton, declaring it recent. We thus did not consider the Ipswich skeleton for inclusion in this book. But after further investigation, we determined that the Ipswich skeleton could be genuinely old.

The key fact reported by Moir was that the Ipswich skeleton was found below a layer of boulder clay. The boulder clay of East Anglia overlies the Middle Pleistocene Cromer Forest Bed formation, which in turn overlies the Late Pliocene Red Crag. According to modern opinion, the boulder clay (a glacial deposit) could be as much as .4 million years old (Table 2.1, p. 78).

The Ipswich skeleton was discovered in a pit located at a brick field overlooking the valley of the river Gipping. Sir Arthur Keith (1928, p. 293) stated: “Passing northwards through Ipswich the traveller soon leaves the town and valley and finds himself on a plateau, about 150 feet above the level of the sea, and covered everywhere by a thick stratum of chalky boulder clay, varying in depth from 15 to 25 feet. . . . At the brick-field the chalky boulder clay has become reduced to a stratum of about 4 feet in thickness. . . . That the stratum at the brickfield represents a direct extension of the great sheet of boulder clay, Mr. Moir proved by sinking a series of pits from the brick-field to the crown of the plateau. In the map prepared by the officers of the Geological Survey the chalky boulder clay is shown to extend to the pit.”

The skeleton was found at a depth of 1.38 meters (about 4.5 feet), between the boulder clay and some underlying glacial sands. Moir was aware of the possibility that the skeleton might represent a recent burial. Therefore, according to Keith (1928, pp. 294–295), Moir “took every means of verifying the unbroken and undisturbed nature of the stratum in and under which the skeleton lay.”

Keith supervised the removal of the skeleton from its matrix at the Royal College of Surgeons. Keith (1928, p. 295) stated that “a whole skeleton was represented, and that it was placed on the right side in the ultra-contracted posture.” To Keith the evidence suggested a burial from an ancient land surface. “At least it was not made from the present land surface,” he said, “for the overlying stratum was intact” (Keith 1928, p. 295).

As for the condition of the bones, Keith said it was similar to that of Pleistocene animal fossils found elsewhere in the glacial sands. He noted: “The substance of the bones is grey and chalky in appearance, crumbling to white dry dust on pressure. The bones, when dissolved in hydrochloric acid, leave no animal matrix behind” (Keith 1928, p. 296).

The Ipswich skeleton was that of a man about 5 feet 10 inches tall. The brain capacity was 1430 cc, about