Evening star., 1938-09-05
MANS ANCESTORS
HELD EIGHT RACES
Neandertha| Type No Longer
Believed to Be Single
Group, Savants Hear.
BY THOMAS r. HENRY,
Star Staff Correspondent.


ings on earth. were divided into at
least eight different races.
They no longer can be considered
as a single type of beast-men and
various groups approached quite close
from different directions to man OF
today.
Numerous discoveries Of fossil re-
mains during the last few years thus
were analyzed in reports before the
British Association for the Advance
ment of Science here last week. The
creatures, presumably never very nu-
nerous, lived from $4,000 to 100000
years ago and have been completely
extinct since the end of the Ice Age,
except for the possibility that some
of their blood Is represented in the
true human race which succeeded
them.
Probably the oldest of these newly
found races are the Ehringsdorfians
some of whose remains were unearthed
near the German city Of WeimaI
five years ago The type specimen
Is woman with very small head
very close to the Neanderthalers OF
Western Europe in the thickness OF
the bones and the bulging ridge over
the eyes,, but with various features
In the back of the skull, where the
brain centers of vision are located
pointing to considerable progress in
the direction Of modern man.
May BE Missing Link.
In YugoSlavia have been found re-
mains of a quite distinct ancient race,
the Krapinians. They were crea-
lures with exceptionally small brains
compared even with the Neander-
thalers of France and Spain. Their
faces and skulls were fashioned in a
similar manner. But they had much
slenderer limbs and arms, nodded
on modern lines.
Perhaps the most significant of all
these races were the ancient Palestin-
ians, who had become extinct long
before Biblical days and upon whose
elaborate faxed stone industries a
report was presented by DR.. Dorothy
Garrod, their discover. Extensive
studies of their bones have been made
by Sir Arthur Keith, foremost Euro
pean authority on the physical at
tributes of ancient man.
Hitherto they have been considered
. slightly divergent race Of Neander-
thalers, but more intensive study
shows that they were at least the
most progressive branch of these ogre
like creatures and may almost be
considered a missing link between
them and modern man. 1t is rather
difficult to distinguish them from
the more advanced branch of the
man family, the reports pointed out
Approach Caucasian Type.
They approach especially close to
man Of the Caucasian type, repre-
sented by present-day Europeans
They also are quite close to Cro-
magnon man, who dwelt in South
western Europe in the closing days
of the Ice Ages and who physically
greatly resembled the present-day
Eskimo, They were. according to
Prof. Keith's report, tall, robust and
big-headed. In the size of their
brains they compared favorably with
white men Of today. And yet there
Is no reason to believe, it was stressed,
that they are represented in the an
cestry Of present-day Europeans. What
became of them is mystery. They
seem to have disappeared quite sud-
denly and to have been succeeded
after long interval by human beings
entirely of the modern type, the di-
Rect predecessors Of the peoples Of
the Old Testament.
At about the same time still an
other race Of ancient man inhabited
Java, where the earliest of all human
like fossils have been found. They
are represented by IL fragmentary
skulls of remarkably small-headed
people. Although specifically they
looked like Neanderthalers, Prof
Keith concluded that they actually
were an entirely different species Of
humanoid creatures and probably were
direct descendants Of the very ancient
Pithecanthropus erectus, gigantic gib-
bon-man, who lived on the sam,
island almost million years earlier.
Two New Races Found.
that these beast-men probably wen
the direct ancestors of the present
day aborignes Of Australia, who diff
fer in several noteworthy character
from other extinct races OF men and
according to these theses, may have
had an entirely different pre-humar
ancestry.
At least two hitherto unknown an
cient races have been unearthed IL
Africa during the past three years
1t was reported. One is that of tn
so-called Eyassi man, found in Eas
Africa in 1885. Outwardly he re
sembles the Java man. but ma,
be directly ancestral to the Neander
thalerlike Rhodesian man, who hith
erto has been considered the type o
ancient man on the Dark Continent
Another new type is that of the Flor
isbad man, found in South Africa
He appears to have been somewha
more advanced than the Neander
thai race and is very likely the an
cestor of the somewhat divergen
Bushman and Hottentot.
All these races, it was pointed ou
IN the reports, had very simila
culture whose chief feature was tn
making of very crude instruments b,
taking stones. This in the past ha
been considered evidence that tn
whole Neanderthal man complex mus
have spread from some one cente
in the Old World through the thre
continents. This would mean tina
there must have been a single rae
migrating in various directions.
An even more logical ALTERNATIVE
explanation. Prof. Keith said, is that
while widely different in their origins
all had reached very similar menta
status.