Forbidden Archeology_ The Full Unabridged Edition - Michael A. Cremo [436]
11.1 Reck’s skeleton
The first significant African discovery related to human origins and antiquity occurred in 1913. In that year, Professor Hans Reck, of Berlin University, conducted investigations at Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania, then German East Africa. During his stay at Olduvai Gorge, Reck found a human skeleton that would remain a source of controversy for decades.
11.1.1 The Discovery
While one of Reck’s African collectors was searching for fossils on the northern slope of Olduvai Gorge, he spotted a piece of bone sticking up from the earth near a bush (Wendt 1955, p. 418). After clearing away the surface rubble, the collector saw parts of a complete and fully human skeleton embedded in the rock. He summoned Reck, who then had the skeleton taken out in a solid block of hardened sediment. The human skeletal remains, including a complete skull (Figure 11.1), were strongly cemented in the surrounding matrix, which had to be chipped with hammers and chisels (MacCurdy 1924a, p. 423).
Figure 11.1. This skull is from a fully human skeleton found in 1913 by H. Reck at Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania (Reck 1933, plate 31).
Reck identified a sequence of five beds at Olduvai Gorge. The first four beds are water-laid volcanic tuffs of various colors. Bed I is grey and yellow. Bed II is generally of a buff color, although the upper portion has a reddish tint. Bed III is bright red, while Bed IV is grey, or brownish. Bed V, a loesslike deposit, is brownish (Hopwood 1932, p. 192).
At the top and base of Bed V are hard whitish layers of a limestonelike deposit of calcrete, or steppe-lime. The sequence of beds (Table 11.1) outlined by Reck is still in use today, except that upper Bed IV is now referred to as the Masek formation and Bed V has been divided into several distinct formations (M. Leakey 1978, p. 3). From oldest to youngest they are the Lower Ndutu, Upper Ndutu, and Naisiusiu formations (Oakley et al. 1977, p. 169).
The skeleton was from the upper part of Bed II. Just below the skeleton were fossils of Elephas antiquus recki (Hopwood 1932, p. 192). To Reck, the faunal evidence indicated the human skeleton was of Middle Pleistocene age, roughly contemporary with Dubois’s Java man, now thought to be about 800,000 years old. Modern dating methods, however, give the uppermost part of Bed II a late Early Pleistocene date of around 1.15 million years (Oakley et al. 1977, p. 166).
The overlying layers were not, however, intact. The skeleton had been found on the side of Olduvai Gorge, about 3 or 4 meters (10 to 13 feet) below the level of the plain (Protsch 1974, p. 379). Here (Figure 11.2) the overlying layers (Beds III, IV, and V) had been worn by erosion. Bed II was, however, still covered by rubble from bright red Bed III and from Bed V (Hopwood 1932, p. 194). It was clear to Louis Leakey (1932b) that perhaps as little as 50 years ago, the site would have been covered by “a small relic of Bed 3 overlain by Bed 5,” the latter containing hard layers of calcrete. Beds III and V were present on the slope just above the spot where the skeleton was found. Bed IV was missing in the immediate area, apparently removed by erosion before the deposition of Bed V.
Reck, understanding the significance of his find, carefully considered the possibility that the human skeleton had arrived in Bed II through burial or earth movements. He determined this was not the case. Reck (1914b) said: “The bed in which the human remains were found, without any accompanying cultural objects, showed no sign of disturbance. The spot appeared exactly like any other in the horizon. There was no evidence of any refilled hole or grave” (Hopwood 1932, p. 193).
Figure 11.2. This section of the northern slope of Olduvai Gorge (after Hopwood 1932, p. 192) shows the location where H. Reck found a fully human skeleton in 1913 in upper Bed II. Bed II is 1.15–1.7 million years old (Oakley et al. 1977, p. 166).