Mary Leakey Finds Zinjanthropus
Mary and Louis Leakey were two archaeologists who married and devoted their professional lives to searching for prehistoric remains in East Africa. Prehistoric archaeologists are scientists who study the remains of early humans, such as fossils and tools, in the field as well as in the laboratories of museums. Unlike many students of prehistory earlier in this century, the Leakeys believed that human beings came originally from Africa. They concentrated their search for evidence of early humans in East Africa, especially in a valley in what is now Tanzania [tan'za ne'a] called Olduvai [ol'du va'] Gorge. The most significant find they made was a hominid [hom'a nid] skull that has been variously dated at between 1.75 and 2 million years old. The Leakeys called the fossil species Zinjanthropus [zin jan'thra pas; from Arabic Zinj meaning "East Africa" and Greek anthropos meaning "human being"]. (Today this fossil species is referred to as Australopithecus boisei.) Although older examples of hominids have been found, "Zinj," as the Leakeys nicknamed their find, was important because it was found in situ [in si'tu; from Latin meaning "in its original
place"]. Applied to Zinjanthropus, this phrase means that the fossil was found among the remains of animals and evidence of tool-making that demonstrated how these early hominids lived. The following is an excerpt from Mary Leakey's account of how she discovered Zinjanthropus.
W
e returned to Olduvai [in 1959] for only a short stay, determined to turn our attention to the oldest levels there, those belonging to Bed 1. Butwhere, among all the many miles, should we make a start?
... Then Louis got an attack of 'flu and retired to bed, and so it came about that on the morning of 17 July I wentout by myself, with the two Dalmatians, Sally and Victoria, to see what I could find of interest at nearby Bed 1 exposures. I turned my steps towards a site not far west of the junction of the twogorges, where we knew that bones and stone artifacts were fairly common on the surface of Bed 1 sediments...
There was indeed plenty of material lying on the eroded surface [there],some no doubt as a result of the rains earlier that year. But one scrap of bone that caught and held my eye was not lying loose on the surface but projecting from beneath. It seemed to be part of a skull, including a mastoid process (the bony projection below the ear). It had a hominid look, but the bones seemed enormously thick—too thick, surely. I carefully brushed away a little of thedeposit, and then I could see parts of two large teeth in place in the upper jaw. They were hominid. It was a hominid skull, apparently in situ, and there was a lot of it there. I rushed back to camp to, tell Louis, who leaped out of bed, and then we were soon back at the site,looking at my find together.... Zinjanthropus had come into our lives....
We devoted the rest of our time at Olduvai in 1959 to extracting it, recovering every fragment we could find by sieving and washing the soil, and to demonstrating that it was indeed in situ on what was clearly part of an , extensive living floor with many stone artifacts and animal bones.... I ... devoted myself to the task of fitting the fragments of the skull back together.
Discussing the Reading
l.How "lucky" was Mary Leakey? How did her background as a prehistoric archaeologist and her belief in the African origins of early humans prepare her to make her discovery?
2. If the rains had washed Zinj out of the soil and carried the fossil to another spot where a tourist found it and presented it to a museum, would this have been a discovery as great as Mary Leakey's?
CRITICAL THINKING
Evaluating Sources of Information
Does this reading more properly belong in a science text than a history text? Why or why not?