Canteen Kopje: A new look at an old skull
Keywords:
Canteen Kopje, Boskop, Robert Broom, X-ray tomography, Vaal Gravels
Abstract
The Canteen Kopje (CK) skull was found by a diamond digger working the Vaal River gravels in 1929. It was hailed by Robert Broom as an exceptionally robust prehistoric individual that was ancestral to modern South African populations. Further exploration of the Vaal Gravels has confirmed the antiquity of the purported find locality, but the heavily restored CK cranium offers limited possibilities for morphometric re-examination or direct dating with which to test Broom’s assertion. We used X-ray tomography to create a computerised 3D image that would provide optimal visualisation of the morphometry of the bony surfaces. The results showed that the CK cranium falls within the range of variation of Holocene Khoesan and lacks archaic features. We propose that it was probably a Late Stone Age intrusion into the Vaal Gravels or the overlying Hutton Sands.References
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41. Morris AG. The skeletons of contact: A study of protohistoric burials from the Lower Orange River Valley, South Africa. Johannesburg: University of Witwatersrand Press; 1992.
42. Drennan MR. Some evidence of a trepanation cult in the Bushman race. S Afr Med J. 1937;11:183–190.
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47. Dreyer TF. A human skull from Florisbad, Orange Free State, with a note on the endocranial cast by C. U. Ariens Kappers. Proc Koninklijke Akad Wetenschappen te Amsterdam. 1935;38:3–12.
48. Galloway A. The characteristics of the skull of the Boskop physical type. Am J Phys Anthropol. 1937;23:31–47. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ajpa.1330230105
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51. Dreyer TE. The archaeology of the Matjes River Rock Shelter. Trans Royal Soc S Afr. 1933;21:187–209. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00359193309519320
52. Singer R. Mythical African ‘Australoids’ and triangular bricks: The Cape Flats skull in retrospect. S Afr Archaeol Bull. 1993;48:105–112. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/3888950
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56. Sharon G, Beaumont P. Victoria West – A highly standardized prepared core technology. In: Goren-Inbar N, Sharon G, editors. Axe age: Acheulian toolmaking from Quarry to Discard. London: Equinox, 2006; p. 181–200.
57. Forssman TR, Kuman K, Leader GM, Gibbon RJ. A Later Stone Age assemblage from Canteen Kopje, Northern Cape. S Afr Archaeol Bull. 2010;65:204–214.
58. Chazan M, Porat N, Sumner A, Horwitz LK. The use of OSL dating in unstructured sands: The archaeology and chronology of the Hutton Sands at Canteen Kopje (Northern Cape Province, South Africa). In press 2011.
59. Klein RG. The archaeological significance of animal bones from Acheulean sites in southern Africa. Afr Archaeol Rev. 1988;6:3–25. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/BF01117110
60. Grün R, Brink JS, Spooner NA, et al. Direct dating of Florisbad hominid. Nature. 1996;382:500–501. http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/382500a0, PMid:8700221
61. Nielsen-Marsh CM, Hedges REM. Patterns of diagenesis in bone I: The effects of site environments. J Archaeol Sci. 2000;27:1139–1150. http://dx.doi.org/10.1006/jasc.1999.0537
62. Fernández-Jalvo Y, Andrews P. Experimental effects of water abrasion on bone fragments. J Taph. 2003;1:147–163.
2. Péringuey L. The Stone Ages of South Africa. Ann S Afr Mus. 1911;8:1–218.
3. De Wit MCJ. Canteen Kopje at Barkly West: South Africa’s first diamond mine. S Afr J Geol. 2008;111:53–66. http://dx.doi.org/10.2113/gssajg.111.1.53
4. FitzSimons FW. Paleolithic man in South Africa. Nature. 1915;95:615–616. http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/095615c0
5. Haughton SH. Preliminary note on the ancient human skull remains from the Transvaal. Trans Royal Soc S Afr. 1917;6:1–14. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00359191709520168
6. Broom R. The Boskop skull (Homo capensis). Anthropol Papers Am Mus Nat Hist. 1918;23:63–79.
7. Pycraft WP. On the calvaria found at Boskop, Transvaal, in 1913, and its relationship to Cromagnard and Negroid skulls. J Roy Anthropol Inst Great Brit Ireland. 1925;55:179–198. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/2843700
8. Broom R. The Transvaal fossil human skeleton. Nature. 1929;123:415–416. http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/123415a0
9. Elphick R. Kraal and castle: Khoikhoi and the founding of White South Africa. New Haven: Yale University Press; 1977.
10. Shillington K. The colonisation of the Southern Tswana. Johannesburg: Ravan Press; 1985.
11. Broom R. Australoid element in the Koranas. Nature. 1929;124:507. http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/124507a0
12. Obituary of J.G. van Alphen. Diamond Fields Advertiser 1944 Oct 21.
13. Eddie Fortune, interviewed by D. Morris and P.B. Beaumont, 1999. Note held in the archive of the McGregor Museum, Kimberley.
14. Helgren DM. Geological context of the Vaal River faunas. S Afr J Sci. 1977;73:303–307.
15. McNabb J, Beaumont P. A report on the archaeological assemblages from excavations by Peter Beaumont at Canteen Koppie, Northern Cape, South Africa. Southampton Series in Archaeology 4. Oxford: Archaeopress; 2011.
16. Beaumont P. Canteen Kopje. In: Morris D, Beaumont P, editors. Archaeology in the Northern Cape: Some key sites [field guide]. Kimberley: McGregor Museum, 2004; p. 26–30.
17. Gibbon RJ, Granger DE, Kuman K, Partridge TC. Early Acheulean technology in the Rietputs Formation, South Africa, dated with cosmogenic nuclides. J Hum Evol. 2009;56:152–160. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jhevol.2008.09.006, PMid:19101709
18. Fitzsimons FW. Cliff dwellers of Zitzikama. S Afr J Sci. 1923;20:541–544.
19. Drennan MR. An Australoid skull from the Cape Flats. J Royal Anthropol Inst. 1929;59:417–427.
20. Drennan MR. Early man in southern Africa. S Afr Med J. 1929;3:631–634.
21. Broom R. Bushmen, Koranas and Hottentots. Ann Trans Mus. 1941;20:217–251.
22. Dart RA. Boskop remains from the south-east African coast. Nature. 1923;112:623–625. http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/112623a0
23. Dart RA. Recent discoveries bearing on human history in southern Africa. J Royal Anthropol Inst. 1940;70:13–27.
24. Galloway A. The nature and status of the Florisbad skull as revealed by its non-metric features. Am J Phys Anthropol. 1937;23:1–17. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ajpa.1330230103
25. Wells LH. The Canteen Koppie skull. S Afr J Sci. 1948;1:156–157.
26. Van Riet Lowe C. An artifact recovered with the Boskop calvaria. S Afr Arch Bull. 1953;9:135. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/3886824
27. Wells LH. The problem of Middle Stone Age man in southern Africa. Man. 1959;244:1–2.
28. Wells LH. Late Stone Age and Middle Stone Age tool-makers. S Afr Archaeol Bull. 1972;27:5–9. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/3888812
29. Tobias PV. History of physical anthropology in southern Africa. Am J Phys Anthropol. 1985;28(suppl S6):l–52. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ajpa.1330280503
30. Singer R. The Boskop ‘race’ problem. Man. 1958;232:173–178. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/2795854
31. Dubow S. Scientific racism in modern South Africa. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press; 1995.
32. Morris AG. Measure by measure: The history of race and typology in South African physical anthropology. Voyages in Science: Papers in honour of the 80th birthday of Phillip Valentine Tobias. Johannesburg: Witwatersrand University Press, 2005; p. 121–140.
33. Morris AG. Biological anthropology at the southern tip of Africa: Carrying European baggage in an African context. Current Anthropology Supplement. Wenner-Gren International Symposium Series. In press 2011.
34. Pike AWG, Eggins S, Grün R, Thackeray F. U-series dating of TP1, an almost complete human skeleton from Tuinplaas (Springbok Flats), South Africa. S Afr J Sci. 2004;100:381–383.
35. Sealy J, Ludwig B, Henderson Z. New radiocarbon dates for Matjes River Rock Shelter. S Afr Archaeol Bull. 2006;61:98–101.
36. Grine FE, Bailey RM, Harvati K, et al. Late Pleistocene human skull from Hofmeyr, South Africa, and modern human origins. Science. 2007;315:226–229. http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.1136294, PMid:17218524
37. Stynder D, Brock F, Sealy JC, Wurz S, Morris AG, Volman TP. A mid-Holocene AMS 14C date for the presumed upper Pleistocene human skeleton from Peers Cave, South Africa. J Hum Evol. 2009;56:431–434. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jhevol.2008.11.004, PMid:19349065
38. Stynder D, Ackermann R, Sealy J. Craniofacial variation and population continuity during the South African Holocene. Am J Phys Anthropol. 2007;134:489–500. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ajpa.20696, PMid:17786993
39. Humphreys AJB. The remains from Koffiefontein burials excavated by W. Fowler and preserved in the McGregor Museum, Kimberley. S Afr Archaeol Bull. 1970;25:104–115. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/3888134
40. Humphreys AJB, O’C Maggs TM. Further graves and cultural material from the banks of the Riet River. S Afr Archaeol Bull. 1970;25:116–126. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/3888135
41. Morris AG. The skeletons of contact: A study of protohistoric burials from the Lower Orange River Valley, South Africa. Johannesburg: University of Witwatersrand Press; 1992.
42. Drennan MR. Some evidence of a trepanation cult in the Bushman race. S Afr Med J. 1937;11:183–190.
43. De Beer FC. Characteristics of the neutron/X-ray tomography system at the SANRAD facility in South Africa. Nucl Inst Meth Phy Res. 2005;A542:1–8.
44. Image-ProPlus (IPPLUS) Software. Version 6.0.0.260 for Windows 2000/XP Professional. Bethesda, MD: Media Cybernetics Inc.; 1996–2006.
45. VG Studio Max 3D visualisation software. Version 4.0.0. Heidelberg, Germany: Volume Graphics GmbH; 2011.
46. Broom R. A contribution to the craniology of the yellow-skinned races of South Africa. J Royal Anthropol Inst. 1923;53:132–149.
47. Dreyer TF. A human skull from Florisbad, Orange Free State, with a note on the endocranial cast by C. U. Ariens Kappers. Proc Koninklijke Akad Wetenschappen te Amsterdam. 1935;38:3–12.
48. Galloway A. The characteristics of the skull of the Boskop physical type. Am J Phys Anthropol. 1937;23:31–47. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ajpa.1330230105
49. Howells WW. Skull shapes and the map. Craniometric analyses in the dispersion of modern Homo. Papers of the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology vol. 79. Cambridge, MA: Peabody Museum; 1989.
50. Louw JT. Prehistory of the Matjes River Rock Shelter. National Museum of Bloemfontein Memoir No 1. Bloemfontein: National Museum of Bloemfontein; 1960.
51. Dreyer TE. The archaeology of the Matjes River Rock Shelter. Trans Royal Soc S Afr. 1933;21:187–209. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00359193309519320
52. Singer R. Mythical African ‘Australoids’ and triangular bricks: The Cape Flats skull in retrospect. S Afr Archaeol Bull. 1993;48:105–112. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/3888950
53. Beaumont PB. Canteen Kopje (Klipdrif). In: Beaumont P, Morris D, editors. Guide to archaeological sites in the Northern Cape. Kimberley: McGregor Museum, 1990; p. 14–16.
54. Beaumont P, McNabb J. Canteen Kopje: The recent excavations. The Digging Stick. 2001;17(2):3–7.
55. McNabb J. The shape of things to come: A speculative essay on the role of the Victoria West phenomenon at Canteen Koppie during the South African Earlier Stone Age. In: Milliken S, Cook J, editors. A very remote period indeed: Papers on the Palaeolithic presented to Derek Roe. Oxford: Oxbow Books, 2001; p. 37–46.
56. Sharon G, Beaumont P. Victoria West – A highly standardized prepared core technology. In: Goren-Inbar N, Sharon G, editors. Axe age: Acheulian toolmaking from Quarry to Discard. London: Equinox, 2006; p. 181–200.
57. Forssman TR, Kuman K, Leader GM, Gibbon RJ. A Later Stone Age assemblage from Canteen Kopje, Northern Cape. S Afr Archaeol Bull. 2010;65:204–214.
58. Chazan M, Porat N, Sumner A, Horwitz LK. The use of OSL dating in unstructured sands: The archaeology and chronology of the Hutton Sands at Canteen Kopje (Northern Cape Province, South Africa). In press 2011.
59. Klein RG. The archaeological significance of animal bones from Acheulean sites in southern Africa. Afr Archaeol Rev. 1988;6:3–25. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/BF01117110
60. Grün R, Brink JS, Spooner NA, et al. Direct dating of Florisbad hominid. Nature. 1996;382:500–501. http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/382500a0, PMid:8700221
61. Nielsen-Marsh CM, Hedges REM. Patterns of diagenesis in bone I: The effects of site environments. J Archaeol Sci. 2000;27:1139–1150. http://dx.doi.org/10.1006/jasc.1999.0537
62. Fernández-Jalvo Y, Andrews P. Experimental effects of water abrasion on bone fragments. J Taph. 2003;1:147–163.