The Washington times., 1923-09-11
MISSOURI CAVE
MAN 'SREL|CS
FOUND
Small Flint Specimen Chief
Evidence Now in Hands
of Researchists.
BY ROBERT s. THORNBURGH
International News Service


International News Service
ST. LOUIS, Sept. 11.-Discoverles
of traces Of the original "caveman"
in Stratman Cave, Maries county
Mo-, believed by anthropologists to
be the first actual evidence Of that
strange race of savages that lived
i'm America thousands Of years be.
fore history began, are to, be fol-
lowed up by intensive explorations
in the cave country.
| Anthropologists, headed by Ger
aid Fowke, working under the Oh
rection of the Smithsonian Institu-
ton of Washington, think they are
] on the way to remarkable discover
les, which eventually may pun
away the curtain that hides many
weird secrets Of antiquity.
The explorers have just q little
piece Of ebert or flint upon which
| to work. It was dug, up In deep
| stratum Of rock far beneath the
level in which Indian relics are
usually found.
The flint, carefully Clipped and
I evidently either a weapon OF war
or an implement Of agriculture,
may represent a specimen Of life
in the paleolithic or old-stone age
modern civilization has any knowl.
edge.
Believed Of Stone Age.
Practically no trace has been LETT
in America Of the archaic savage
who lived and fought and died in
the Western wilderness along the
Mississippi river back in the days
of the mastodon and the dinosaur.
TboSo almost llninternretab Is
traces that do exist are found
buried far beneath the surface OF
the earth in strata Of rock formed
by the infinite weight Of the ages
compressing forests, the civilization
and the bones Of antiquity into
petrified pages, from which science
is striving to read story of yes
terday.
Among the first tasks Of the an
thropologists will be to determine
the age Of the flint implement dis.
covered. This probably will be
done by close study OF the geo.
logical formations and petrified
relics found in the same stratum
of the arth.
with q fairly accurate estimate
of the age Of the flint the re-
searchers viii be able to determine
whether it's owner lived in the
old-stone age or the neolithic age
commonly called the polished stone
age.
A series of strata Of earth and
rock, considerably above the point
where the flint was discovered,
| contained ashes, other flints and
relics Of the earliest Indians.
These Indian trophies were OF q
prehistoric red man Of consider
ably lower physical type than the
Indians Of which survivals are now
living in many sections Of the
country-probably the link .be1
tween the high-type Indian and the
wild, savage, half-ape man who
lived before the discovery. Of fire
by the human race.
Fowke has examined hundreds
Of caves in the quaint Ozark noun
tains and has made numerous ex-
cavations A large number of
skeletons were found, believed by
| the experts to have antedated the
ancient Usage Indians who may
have occupied the Ozark caves at
one time.
The skulls were of the progna-
thous type, in which the jaws pro-
trude decidedly, a certain evidence
of the unusually primitive. Some
pottery, without handles or decora-
tons. also were found in the
Ozark explorations.
LOCO Years Old Rubbish.
In the Stratman cave discover
| les relics were picked up latter
dynamiting the rock. Many evil
dences of the Indian occupancy
of the vicinity. including human
bones, pottery and implements OF
war and agriculture, were dis
closed.
Rubbish buried and partly petri-
fled that would have taken more
than 1000 years to accumulate. &C.
cording to Fowke's. estimate, was
studied by the anthropologtsts.
| Fowke will soon resume an IN.
vestigatioH of the pre-glacial Pc
Rod of the Ohio river.
Government experts several years
ago made an investigation Of the
pre-glacial period eastward from
the mouth of the Scioto river,
which empties into the Ohio at
Portsmouth, Ohio.
Ohio River Different.
| The country between Ohio and
Kentucky, through West Virginia,
| in the historic Teays Valley and as
| Lot eoS| 90 Ate90o oN' "~
oughly examined.
Fowke made a study Of the land
below the Scito to the Mississippi
and along the banks Of the big
river for some distance. He has
| walked over a considerable por-
ton Of the ground.
Fowke explained that, unlike the
Gasconade, which is a river result
ing entirely from erosion of the
old elevated Ozark Plateau, the
Ohio river is of post-glacial origin.
InIIDNI AID IM uILIIrr nIINHe