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Date: | Thu, 1 May 1997 11:29:01 -0400 |
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African Exodus Chris Stringer & Robin McKie. 1996 London Jonathan Cape p4-5
(Zaire) In the neglected western branch of the African Rift Valley
....sediments are being exposed which were laid down 90 000 years ago,
just as Homo Sapiens was making its mark across Africa.
At the town of Katanda this erosion has produce an archaeological
treasure trove;thousands of artefacts, mostly stone tools, plus a few
bone implements........Among the wonders they have uncovered are
sophisticated bone Harpoons and knives. Previously it was thought that
the Cro-Magnons were the first humans to develop such delicate carving
skills-50 000 years later.......There were other surprises for
researchers, however. Apart from the finely carved implements, they
found fish bones, including some from two metre long catfish. It seems
that the Katanda people were efficiently and repeatedly catching catfish
during their spawning season, indicating that systematic fishing is
quite an ancient human skill and not some relatively recently acquired
expertise, as many archaeologists had previously thought.
(The archaeologists were John Yellen of the National Science foundation,
Washington and Allison Brooks of George Washington University)
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