Chellean

Although the tear-shaped handaxes of the Chellean culture littered the gorge and were distributed across Africa, Asia, and Europe, very little was known about the people who had made them.

Ancestral Passions Virginia Morell 1995

She met his announcement that he had found Chellean Man with the suspicious reply, “What do you mean, you have Chellean man?”

Ancestral Passions Virginia Morell 1995

Louis attended this meeting and agreed to the changes, but somehow managed to persuade his colleagues to leave both Zinjanthropus and his Chellean Man in their own separate categories.

Ancestral Passions Virginia Morell 1995

The thinness of the skull fragments recalled the child as well, and two days into the dig, Louis sent Tobias an exultant note: Confidentially—but DO NOT TELL ANYONE AT PRESENT, ONLY THE FAMILY AND YOU KNOW—we have a new hominid lower in Bed II than the ‘Chellean’ skull.

Ancestral Passions Virginia Morell 1995

Then, in an effort to regain the upper hand, Louis once again reneged on his offer to Tobias to analyze the Chellean skull: “We will see after you have completed this study.”

Ancestral Passions Virginia Morell 1995

Most importantly, said Louis, they had been found alongside Chellean handaxes, and so showed “for the first time what the makers of this great and well known handaxe culture were like.”

Ancestral Passions Virginia Morell 1995

In the 1920s, archeologists believed that the oldest culture was that of the Chellean, a “handaxe culture.”

Ancestral Passions Virginia Morell 1995

But now, with this thick-browed skull in hand, he glossed over its resemblances to other fossils and claimed that he had uncovered “a direct Chellean ancestor of Homo.”

Ancestral Passions Virginia Morell 1995

“I have in my mind,” he wrote, “the possibility that the famous Oldoway skeleton may just conceivably represent a wandering Homo sapiens, who was caught, bound and drowned in the lake by the makers of the Chellean culture at Oldoway.”

Ancestral Passions Virginia Morell 1995

Although Louis had not yet found handaxes similar to the Chellean culture, he was optimistic about their discovery, and believed he was working in the right area.

Ancestral Passions Virginia Morell 1995