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Original Articles

THE FIRST FOSSIL HUMAN SKELETON FROM SOUTH WEST AFRICA

Pages 187-196 | Published online: 26 Mar 2010
 

Summary

In 1964 fragments of a fossilized human skeleton were found near Windhoek, South West Africa. The secondary calcium carbonate deposited on the bones indicates that they are older than 3 000 years B.P.

The remains are essentially Khoisanoid in character but show a blend of the small-headed, short-statured Bush variety and of the large robust variety. If the skeleton is old enough, it may represent a type of proto-Khoisanoid, or even a type of proto-negriform, from which the Khoisan and Negro people diverged. Or, if the remains are more recent than the date at which the proto-Khoisanoids dichotomized into derivative Bushman and Hottentot populations, they may represent a little-changed survivor of the ancestral population.

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