Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1903-01-17
EARLIEST OF MANKIND
Remains of Human Beings
Found in an Austrian Cave.
WHAT THEY PROVE
AS FAR REMOVED FROM Us AS
WE ARE FROM APES.
These Ancestors Of Ours Were Pretty
Crude Specimens-Could Not
Talk Much.
WHAT THEY PROVE

Written for The Evening star py Andre" 'oiS'' AS'
A discovery of the remnants OF ten skeie-
tons In 6 cave In Croatia, Austria mas given
the world new and wonderful kno"leuse VI
the creature that was man or nearly man
I'm the lost ages between the glacial periods.
More than two hundred thousand years
old were these bones. according to the lat
est calculation Of science. Yet shattered
and crumbled as they were. they have ena-
bled psychologists to form a picture that
is supposed to be somewhat like that
strange, wild creature that roamed the
primeyal world then-a man-animal.
How did this creature look? Science an
swers that 1t was a being far beyond the
greatest of the man-like apes OF today IN
Intelligence and appearance. yet divided by
q still greater chasm from the man OF to-
day. So far below man as we know MIN
was this thing that lived In the inter-gla-
cial period that some specialists VINO nave
examined the bones declare that this carry
man was not merely dtnerent from the
present man in kind, but actually different
in species.
markably long head. 1t was large IN cir
cumference far beyond the size of the
apes skull. His face was fiat and broad.
and his nose was wide and fiat like that OF
an ape, but he had burrows between his
eyes above his nose which the ape has not.
No Forehead Or Chin.
That fat face had neither forehead nor
chin. In both Of these features the man
animal Of the Croatian cave was behind the
ape His jaw shot back abruptly as 90 tne
laws of lean-muzzled animals. Over his
deep-set eyes lay immense bony Jumps. that
accentuated the lack of a forehead
The back of this ugly half-human ana
half-animal head did not meet the neck
with the gentle. beautiful curve with which
the skull of the present human being meets
the neck. 1t stuck out beyond the neck
and Joined 1t at sharp angle.
Immense teeth were set in the mouth of
the creature. The teeth in the back OF the
mouth were even larger than those IN
front. All the teeth were set deep In
mighty jaws.
The body of this primitive man was long
and the legs were short-a form directly
contrary to the form of the present adult
man. The arms were longer than those Of
man today. But they were not nearly so
long the arms of the ape.
Could this creature speak? From facts
that will be detailed in this article the de-
duction is drawn that the Croatian man
had only a very slight knowledge of speech.
He possessed the power of language, but
his vocabulary and his use of language
We're both limited.
He Knew Fire.
He knew fire and used It. Nothing re-
mains to show how he produced 1t. Per-
haps he did not produce it. Perhaps he
simply knew how to feed it when he
found one that had been set to burning by
such natural agencies as lightning and sun
heat.
1t requires no great stretch of magma
ton to believe that the Croatian cave man
was not intelligent enough, or at least edu-
Gated enough, to produce his own fire, for
the remnants of his household goods that
were found in the cave with his bones fail
TO show that he was capable of much INTEL
llgent productiveness. His weapons We're
as primitive as the club that the gorilla
uses when he tears huge branch from a
tree and lays about him in wrath No
sign Of fashioning or attempted fashioning
Is to be seen in the bone and wood mauIs
and cudgels that the man of Croatia used.
He had arrowheads made of stone but
they were practically the stones in their
original form.
The man of the Croatian cave had gone
! Tar beyond the ape in his diet He was no
| longer a herbivorous animal He had be-
come carnivorous Indeed he had become
eannibal, II the signs have been read
Alright.
When Professor virchow discussed the
Neanderthal skull. the famous skull dis
covered in the Neander valley cave near
Dusseldorf in Germany that was hailed at
once as the skull Of genuine missing link
the long-Sought ape-man the professors
objection to accepting 1t as anything of tae
Kind was reinforced with the demand that
science produce similar skulls and remains
before any deductions be made.
The discovery In Croatia has done It.
It has done more. 1t has absolutely es-
taolished the antiquity Of this primitive
man. The conditions of the excavation in
the Croatian cave were so favorable that
1t was possible to take every step with mi
mute and painful observance of all the rules
OF archaeological and geological research
There is no possibility that one epoch has
been mistaken for another.
Site Of the Discovery.
The find was made in a cave on the top
OF the steep banks Of Krapinica brook near
Krapina. in Croatia. The cave was seven
ty-fve feet above the present bed Of the
stream. In the glacial period that cave
had been level with the water, and an in
conceivable stretch of time had been needed
TIL the slow course of erosion had cut down
the channel to its present level
The cave was a cavity in sandstone The
moor OF II was covered with boulders and
sediment left there by the brook in the
/ days, perhaps 100000 years ago. when it's
waters washed the cave
After the water receded and left the cave
DRY DUST and debris. moldering rocks and
90 on. began to fill the cave, until at last.
after age had piled age and epoch on
epoch. the rubbish reached to the very top
! OF the place.
| used the cave for sheltering. First of all
! came this creature that was so far as
knowledge Of today can tell. the first man.
Band and dust and the products of slow de-
! composition fell on his remains. Then
came other creatures. farther advanced in
! the slow progress to being human. and dust
and decomposition settled on their bodies
and their tracks. too.
I SO when Prof. Gorjanovic- Kramberger Of
Agram began to dig he uncovered epoch
, after epoch. He found ashes. charcoal
burned sand. roughly hewn fints and al
! most two thousand bones Of rhinoceros
vn
! moth stays, horses aurochs beavers and
wild bears. These bones were as easy to
read as the hands of a clock. They pointed
| straight and true to the period in which
they had been deposited.
A Catacomb Of zoo, 900 Years Ago.
! At last the excavators got down to the
bower stratum. Until then they had found
no human bones. Now they came upon q
catacomb That lower stratum appeared
TO be one immense fireplace In it lay the
bones Of none but human beings Almost
all were broken and splintered. evidently
by violence. Most Of them showed signs OF
! burning. The bones were found to belong
to ten individuals, adults and children
! The only theory that the scientists have
| been able to formulate as yet Is that these
! ten persons met violent deaths. and that
the slayers then cooked them and ate them