Skeleton Service

‘WE wonder what our ancestors 160,000 years from now will make of us.

Scientists’ impression of the world’s first man

Chances are that if they are anything like us, they’ll find our bones and then stick them together like a three dimensional jigsaw.

That’s what an American-Ethiopian team of scientists has done to three skulls found in the region of Herto, Ethiopia. And the Times takes us though the jigsaw process.

You’ll need a strong adhesive – seek parental help and rubber gloves – six years of patience to clean, restore and date each and every fragment of head bone, and then the gentle caress of a frotter to assemble the finished orb.

But it will be worth the slog because once finished you can tell the world that you’ve pushed back the origins of the species by at least 30,000 years.

You can also say that the likelihood is high that anatomically modern human beings emerged first in Africa.

And if you’re really creative, you can mock up a picture of what the skull would have looked like wrapped in flesh and stuck atop a head.

And the result, as seen in the Guardian, carries more than a passing nod to Morgan Freeman – an actor who can say he is truly ahead of him time.

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Posted: 12th, June 2003 | In: Broadsheets Comment | TrackBack | Permalink