Forbidden Archeology_ The Full Unabridged Edition - Michael A. Cremo [452]
Upon returning to England, Boswell (1935) submitted to Nature a negative report on Kanam and Kanjera: “Unfortunately, it has not proved possible to find the exact site of either discovery, since the earlier expedition (of
1931–32) neither marked the localities on the ground nor recorded the sites on a map. Moreover, the photograph of the site where the mandible was found, exhibited with the jaw fragment at the Royal College of Surgeons, was, through some error, that of a different locality.” Having examined Leakey’s original field notes, Boswell (1935) said “it is regrettable that the records are not more precise.”
Boswell found the geological conditions at the sites confused. He said that “the clayey beds found there had frequently suffered much disturbance by slumping.” From this Boswell (1935) concluded: “The date of entombment of human remains found in such beds would be inherently doubtful.”
But what about the committee that had given Leakey its endorsement? “It seems likely,” said Boswell (1935) “that if the facts now brought forward had been available to the Committee, a different report would have been submitted.” Boswell concluded that the “uncertain conditions of discovery . . . force me to place Kanam and Kanjera man in a ‘suspense account.’”
11.2.5 Leakey Responds
Replying to Boswell’s charge that he had not properly marked the sites, Leakey (1936) stated in a letter to Nature that he had in fact done so. Unfortunately, the iron pegs he used had disappeared, perhaps taken by natives for spearheads or fishhooks. He had not marked the sites on a map, but only because no maps of sufficient detail existed. He had considered hiring a surveyor to make maps, but had not done so because of lack of money. Instead, he had taken photographs to identify the sites, but these had been spoiled by a malfunction in his camera.
His own photographs of Kanam and Kanjera ruined, Leakey had selected some by Miss Kendrick, a member of his expedition, to display with his fossils in England. In his letter to Nature, Leakey explained he had misinterpreted the label on one of Kendrick’s photographs and had mistakenly used it to show the site where the Kanam jaw had been found. But he pointed out: “I carefully refrained from using any photographs as evidence in connexion with my claim for the antiquity of the Kanam mandible, and only used them to show the general nature of the sites” (L. Leakey 1936).
Furthermore, Leakey felt he had been able to show Boswell the locations where he had found his fossils. Leakey (1936) wrote: “At Kanjera I showed him the exact spot where the residual mound of deposits had stood which yielded the Kanjera No. 3 skull in situ. . . . the fact that I did show Prof. Boswell the site is proved by a small fragment of bone picked up there in 1935 which fits one of the 1932 pieces.”
Regarding the Kanam jaw, Leakey stated in his memoirs: “It had been found in direct association with Lower Pleistocene fossils such as Deinotherium and Mastodon, and the matrix adhering to it was entirely similar to that which Boswell had now seen in the Kanam West gullies” (L. Leakey 1972, p. 35). Boswell did not mention the matrix adhering to the jaw in his letter to Nature.
Leakey (1972, p. 35) added: “Boswell, however, remained doubtful because no scientist had seen the jaw in situ. He would not agree to accept Juma’s statement that it had been dug out while he was working on the Deinotherium tooth.” Of course, if this standard were to be applied across the board, then many thoroughly accepted discoveries would also have to be thrown out. The Heidelberg (Mauer) jaw, for example, was discovered by a German sand pit worker. And almost all of the Java man discoveries reported by von Koenigswald were found by native collectors.
Regarding the location of the Kanam jaw, Leakey (1972, p. 35) said: “we had originally taken a level section right across the