PDF The Old World Paleolithic and the Development of a National Collection

Our work presents a historical overview of the development of the Old World Paleolithic collections curated at the Smithsonian Institution (Table 1). Map of the Old World, showing the number of Palaeolithic sites represented in the NMNH col-.

Figure 1.—Example of an incoming letter of correspondence, from George Grant

21 ments and objects of the prehistoric man used in most parts of the world. (Wil-

I have recommended the purchase of a large number of objects recommended by the Museum authorities, mostly Dr. It appears that there was a misunderstanding regarding this matter, and that some of the descendants were entered not as deposits, but as deposits. as gifts.

SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION

25 points about archaeological sites and hominid anatomical fea-
February 1926, the American School of Prehistoric Research was incorporated in Washington, D.C, with both
37 An Abrupt End to a Promising Career
39 The Human Origins Program

It's unworthy of the school and I don't want anything to do with it. The discovery of the Mount Carmel hominins provided support for Hrdlicka's (1927) earlier contention that the Neanderthal phenotype was characterized by an expression of morphological variation (Spencer and Smith, 1981).

FIGURE 16.—Portrait of Ales Hrdlicka seated at his desk, ca. 1930s. [National Anthropological Archives, NMNH.]

July 1869, Henry responded to Lartet, acknowledging receipt of the valuable artifact collection

The large, solid slab you offer from the Eyzies breccia will also be very acceptable. In 1870, Blackmore donated stone artefacts from the Thetford Deposit in the Little Ouse Valley, England (ace. 1846). The new museum was of interest to the Smithsonian, as stated in the publication "Notice of the Blackmore Museum, Salisbury, England.

The Blackmore artifacts represented some of the first archaeological material acquired from Europe, in addition to Lartet's contributions.

FIGURE 37.—Worked and incised bones, decorated sagaies [catalog numbers for a-e, respectively, 8157, 8162, 8160, 8159, 8959 (cast)] from La Madeleine, France

October 1870, Baird requested additional copies of publications and inquired again about what could be sent to the

As you have been informed, we have sent the entire set of Smithsonian publications to the Blackmore Museum, which is the least we can do for the valuable donations on your part. In exchange for the North American material, Wyman indicated in a letter dated December 19, 1872 to Henry that the trustees of the Peabody Museum would donate archaeological objects from various sites in Europe to the Smithsonian Museum. Wyman noted that the Peabody Museum acquired some of the items from the original collections of French prehistorians Gabriel de Mortillet and Edouard Lartet.

The great archaeological knowledge of this gentleman makes the collection especially valuable in authentically stating the character of the various works."

FIGURE 49.—Handaxes [catalog numbers 35095 (left), 35094 (right)] from St.

69 tion I may say that it will give me pleasure if at any time I can

Of course, the objects from the caves of the south of France will be very interesting. I have sent you a sketch of the most beautiful ones to give you an idea of what we have. It's often nicer when you can be absolutely sure of the provenance.

Finally, in the upper part of the case we find objects from the Magdalene station of Laugerie Basse.

FIGURE 50.—Stone tools from Laugerie Haute, France, [(a) Solutrean points (catalog nos

81 pleased to have the series of specimens to which you refer, par-

National Museum exchanged specimens with Henry Balfour, Curator of the Ethnographic Department, Pitt Rivers Collection, University Museum, Oxford, England. I am sending you with this letter the lists of the specimens sent under the two headings 'Ethnological and Archaeological'; and I hope that you and both prof. In return, we will gladly receive some of your Paleolithic implements." In a letter dated November 17, Powell responded by listing the objects to be forwarded, including Paleolithic implements from England and one from France.

In 1895 an exchange took place for ethnological and archaeological material from the collections of Richard Quick, curator of the Horniman Museum in London.

FIGURE 59.—Cave bear canines (top) and mandible (bottom) [catalog number 149419]

85 specimens (Grayson, 1986). The purchase included crudely

After another field visit to the same area, Seton-Karr wrote a letter on June 28, 1897, offering additional materials: "I have returned from E.[ast]. A few years later, Seton-Karr sent labels for artifacts from Somaliland , which were then on display at the National Museum. Assistant Secretary Rathbun acknowledged their receipt in a letter to Seton-Karr dated October 17. I am informed by Mr.

Holmes, chief curator of the Anthropology Department, that the labels have now been applied as requested to the stone tools from Africa that you have been so kind to offer to the museum.' In the 1930s, the Seton-Karr expeditions were described.

FIGURE 60.—Handaxes [catalog numbers from left to right, 195405, 195374, 195415] from Somaliland [Soma- [Soma-lia]

87 tools are found in certain spots where Palaeolithic Man seems to have lived, and

I request you to send my offers to the authorities of the Smithsonian Institution for important collections of flints and fossils from the best deposits in France. A few years earlier, McGuire had published "A Study of the Primitive Methods of Drilling" in the report of the U.S.A. Most of the material was from a cave near Schaffhausen, Switzerland, although a few items were from Dordogne, France.

The name of the deposits from which the samples were taken 1 can give you as they were packed will be found in the British Association Reports 1865 to 1880.

December, Else provided a list of objects from Kent's Cavern that he described as flint scrapers, worked flakes, and

We are right on the edge of the swamp, and the neighboring provinces are Bar (bear) ton, Ox (of wild oxen) county.” I should have sent them to you long ago in exchange for the two fine humeri of bison you sent me, but I have always procrastinated - because I was very busy with many patients. Holmes on June 13 about the Smithsonian's interest in receiving a donation of La Quina material: "May I trouble you to ask if the National Museum has any 'Mousterien' flints and labeled animal bones from La Quina (Charente, France). ).

Henri Martin presented three series (partly excavated by Mrs. Peabody & myself) and is anxious (I believe) that one of these should be presented in his name to the United States Government." On June 18, Assistant Secretary Rathbun replied to Peabody : "We shall be very glad to receive one of the series of the above specimens which you think Dr.

91 La Quina specimens. Like Hrdlicka, Martin thought that the

Upham indicated that the collection had been evaluated and found to be "adequate." It was also noted that the material came from "localities not hitherto represented in the Museum," and was therefore considered "a fair exchange." On February 17, Ravenel thanked Coulon for the prehistoric flints, noting that they "constitute a satisfactory equivalent" for the exchange for biological specimens. I have selected them with the greatest care." The material from Critot (Seine-Inferieure), France, was Mousterian in age. Coulon, is perfectly satisfactory, and with the previous mission (No. 49696), makes an instructive exhibit from the prehistoric stations." In a letter to Coulon, dated 19 July.

34; These specimens are very interesting and form a most welcome addition to the collection of archaeological objects from the Holy Land." On May 15, 1909, Herbert Clark wrote from Jerusalem, describing his finds.

FIGURE 63.—Handaxes [catalog numbers from left to right, 255082, 255078, 255090] from Rephaim, Palestine

93 I had the pleasure during the latter part of July to visit your museum, though

Rehlen was anxious to obtain, not only some of these specimens, but a few representative pieces of the various classes of American stone implements. In addition to the Piney Branch material, which comprises 60 of the specimens in this shipment, there are also included two blades and two spearheads, partly in accordance with your request for examples of the various classes of American stone implements." 1912, wrote that he appreciated on the information about Piney Branch quarrying technology and expressed the need for a better understanding of the work being done in America.

If you wish to exhibit the Taubach in your museum, I offer my services to complete the series." In a letter dated 12 May 1913 to Assistant Secretary of State Rathbun, Holmes noted that he wished to exchange the material, and in a footnote at the bottom of the letter, Rathbun approved the exchange.

95 stock of the Piney Branch material. We have so little to repre-

About the explorations in the Jersey caves and the nature of the material sent, Marett wrote to Hrdlicka on May 5. I asked permission from the Societe Jersiaise before sending them (although they are all my own personal find), and apart from a handful of about the same quality that I gave to the Pitt Rivers Museum, you will be the only museum to have one at all possess copies of these locations; although later we may have more – and better ones – to hand out to the leading museums, including yours, of course. Owen (which I take to be the older site of the two - see Archaeology, 1913) is extremely rugged throughout, and if not supported by the evidence from the other cave, it may well prove indeterminate; Due to the inclusion there are only a few well-defined Mousterian points, and also a tool that works on both sides and resembles one of the Acheulean (Carmont's (?) Mousterian avec coup-de-poing).

But the Little Museum (and Library) of the Societe Jersiaise would welcome all sorts of thoughtless trifles, and the most common thing from America would be the education there.

FIGURE 66.—Handaxes [catalog number 284883] from Caraminco, Italy. [Naturhistoriska Riksmuseum, Stock- Stock-holm, accession (accession 57262).]

97 tions of stone and pottery antiquities (84 American Archeolog-

The implementiferous layer is indicated by the shelf on the left side of the photo. MacCurdy also noted that the site was briefly described in the Bulletin of the American School of Prehistoric Research, Nos. 7 and 8. Labeled: "View toward the Mediterranean from the mouth of Mugharet et-Tabun (Cave of the Oven) ).

The photograph was published in Garrod, 1935, Bulletin of the American School of Prehistoric Research, plate 8.].

FIGURE 68.—The label on the photograph, written by J. Reid Moir in 1924, reads "View showing excavation at Foxhall pit near Ipswich

109 face. In places they occur in the alluvium of the rivers and occasionally in the

Through Rai Bahadur Ramaprasad Chanda, Chief Inspector of the Archaeological Department, an exchange took place with the Indian Museum in Calcutta for a collection of stone tools from India. Assistant Secretary Abbott wrote to Sir John Robert Marshall, Director of the Archaeological Survey of India, on June 25, 1925, requesting an exchange: 'Dr. He advised me of the very interesting work being done by the Archaeological Survey of India and I have asked you to favor this Museum with a small collection of representative duplicates of Indian 'palaeoliths' from the large collection now in your care at the Museum of Calcutta.

Please keep me informed about the results of the work, and especially about the means of additional skeletal remains.

111 Russell and Old World Archaeology Fund (ace. 112339,

Townsend Russell of Count Henri Begouen of the Univer- graves of Paleolithic sites and of fossils obtained from the origin of Toulouse. Perez de Barradas to be "Precapsian, synchronous with a final phase of the Acheulian." Serrano y Sanz wrote that the. In a letter to Judd, dated February 6, 1938, Abbott describes camping in the "Witsands," or white sand dunes of Criqualand West, Cape Province, on the border of the Kalahari Desert, and at the foot of the Langeberg Hills.

Your description of the White Sands country reminds me very much of our own western Texas and southern New Mexico where I enjoyed experiences very similar to yours.

FIGURE 80.—Handaxes [catalog number 363413] from Chambe, France. [Russell and Old World Archaeology Fund accession (accession 116916).]

115 Leach (ace. 134860,134861)

We hope that these illustrations of the Barnfield Pit (called 'Milton Street pit' in old accounts of this district) will be of some service. In a letter to Wilman dated October 24, 1936, Associate Director Graf acknowledged receipt of the collection. In 1952, a collection from Jordan was donated to the museum by the Bruce Hughes Fund of the Smithsonian Institution.

I understand that they would be of the Mesolithic period for that particular area.

FIGURE 85.—Handaxes (left and middle) [catalog number 377982] and discoid (right) [catalog number 377981]

119 Director Kellogg acknowledged the gift in a letter dated 26

Part of the animal remains from the site was loaned to the University of Chicago as part of a multidisciplinary study. The 1985 survey of the Kanjera site on the Homa Peninsula (western Kenya) led to Smithsonian excavations in 1987 and 1988 led by Potts in collaboration with NMK (Figure 30). All collections summarized here are on loan to the Smithsonian from the National Museums of Zaire.

A representative set of Palaeolithic artifacts (n=15) from the Hunsgi-Baichbal Valley and the Malaprabha Valley, and duplicate bifaces and debitages by Michael Noll (NMNH, postdoctoral fellow), are housed in the Paleoanthropology Laboratory of the Human Origins Program. .

FIGURE 89.—Cross section of Shanidar excavations, on line 00-0W4 (north face, upper half section) showing complex stratigraphy and charcoal concentrations for radiocarbon dating

133 has helped to encourage human origins research by scholars in

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