Re: Savannah Runner Found Dead in Lake


deowll wrote:
> <richardparker01@xxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
> news:1124105759.078720.119020@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> > >Lee Olsen wrote, about Olorgesailie:
> >>So Isaac and Potts have proven the
> >> impossible, Homo was running around in the open at Olorgesailie.
> >
> > Pity that Lee chose Olorgesailie as the place where "Isaac and Potts
> > proved the impossible, Homo was running around in the open at
> > Olorgesailie". The level where the human mandible (and most of the
> > tools) were found is directly above a fossil lake bed.
>
> You mean it wasn't actually in a fossil lake bed? That would be what Lee
> said.


Since I last posted, I've read all of Rick Potts' field dispatches
on line at:

1999 Season
http://www.mnh.si.edu/anthro/humanorigins/aop/olorg1999/index.htm

http://tinyurl.com/8gpbm


2004 Season
http://www.mnh.si.edu/anthro/humanorigins/aop/olorg2004/index.htm

http://tinyurl.com/b93wr

They're a bloody good read (if you're interested in that sort of
stuff).

"28 Jun 04
The hominin, for example, was found on the boundary between Members 5
and 6, the same layer in which the stone tools were found near the Site
Museum. Also, as you can see in the photo, the hominin was found just
to one side of a large lava hump that led from the lowlands of the
basin up onto the highlands of Mt. Olorgesailie."


"30 June 04
This is why Jenny, with the help of Lynn, Amanda and Jessica, has spent
the past few days examining the sediment from the hominin fossil site,
AD5/7-1.

Jenny's examination of the sediments from AD5/7-1 has so far found
mostly fish bones, probably from catfish from ponds that once existed
near the site, and also frog bones and small rodent bones. One of the
rodent teeth is from the genus Otomys, which is the group of species
known as African swamp rats. Jenny's finds imply that there was a pond
or marsh near the lava ridge along which the hominin died before it was
buried by natural sediment and turned into a fossil."

Potts has a theory, published some time ago, that hominins
hunted/scavenged by lake and river sides, and then returned to the
highlands to sleep in safety and get more rocks, and thus 'lived'
there.

He also thinks the hominin died on the volcanic ridge on the way home,
then rolled off it and got embedded in the pond/marsh environment (he
can't quite bring himself to say lake margin).

A more parsimonious explanation would be that he died where he was
found - in a lake margin.

Another more parsimonious theory would be that these hominins (a
million years later than Olduvai etc) were spending their active,
waking, living hours by the lakeside catching catfish, frogs, etc (not
periwinkles, Lee, but perhaps freshwater Natica spp - very common in
African lakes, and freshwater clams, that are somewhat larger), and
very, very occasionally butchering scavenged or hunted large animal
corpses.

- Sleeping somewhere safer than an open lake shore - perhaps in reed
beds, rocky outcrop caves, trees? but not necessarily in the highlands

- And going up to the highlands with his wife once a month, where he
loaded the baby sling he'd probably invented a million years earlier,
with new rocks, and getting her to carry the lot back down again.
(That's not parsimonious, I know, but perhaps a bit more so than
inventing a prehistoric lake-to-mountain commuter).

regards

Richard

.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Savannah Runner Found Dead in Lake
    ... I've read all of Rick Potts' field dispatches ... Also, as you can see in the photo, the hominin was found just ... lake says Isaac. ... > Since the lions share of the rocks and tools are away from the lakes ...
    (sci.anthropology.paleo)
  • Re: Savannah Runner Found Dead in Lake
    ... >> I am quoting from Potts' own writings - you are quoting from a TV ... Willaim Calvin on Lake Ologesailie: ... it contained Lake Olorgesailie (a ... Because you prefer to believe the reports of 3 Western archaeologists ...
    (sci.anthropology.paleo)
  • Re: Savannah Runner Found Dead in Lake
    ... I've read all of Rick Potts' field dispatches ... Also, as you can see in the photo, the hominin was found just ... >> Since the lions share of the rocks and tools are away from the lakes ... >>> He also thinks the hominin died on the volcanic ridge on the way home, ...
    (sci.anthropology.paleo)
  • Re: Savannah Runner Found Dead in Lake
    ... >>> tools) were found is directly above a fossil lake bed. ... What made me think Rick Potts himself was writing ... >> when the hominid was killed. ... >> many that have been excavated in Member 7 where the majority of tools ...
    (sci.anthropology.paleo)
  • Re: Savannah Runner Found Dead in Lake
    ... Potts seems to do a very good job with his diaries. ... >>> who write impeccable site reports simply fall apart under the pressure ... African-Pleistocene lake, I will be sure to read it. ... Wonder why all archaeologists don't just skip site reports ...
    (sci.anthropology.paleo)