Time Sifters Archaeology Society Newsletter August 2022

AUGUST-2022 PRESERVATION  EDUCATION  RESEARCH  INSPIRE Dear Member: We are so excided … Our Calendar is complete (see page two) and all the lectures will be in person at the Selby Library in Sarasota. We are working on the logistics of a simulcast via ZOOM also. Stay tuned. We start the season with Dr. Davide Tanasi of USF who is returning from Malta after a summer of excavating a Roman Villa. He is going to tell us all about it. He has been sharing photos and the story on Facebook all summer. It should be really interesting. Thank you for being a Time Sifters member. Darwin “Smitty” Smith, President [email protected] Paleoanthropologist - Archaeologists You Should Know Louis Seymour Bazett Leakey Paleoanthropologist and Archaeologist By Smitty, Time Sifters Board Member. Sources: Wikipedia, Encyclopedia Britannica, New World Encyclopedia, & Turkana Basin Institute. Louis Seymour Olduvai Gorge Bazett Leakey, also called Louis S.B. Leakey, was born August 7, 1903, at Kabete Mission, nine miles from Nairobi, Kenya. His parents, Harry (1868– 1940) and Mary (May) Bazett Leakey (1866 - 1948), were Church of England missionaries to the Kikuyu tribe, and despite brief stays in England during his childhood, Louis grew up more Proconsul africanus, Paranthropus boisei & Homo Habilis. African than English. He played Photos: Wikipedia & eFossels with Africans, learned to hunt, spoke Kikuyu fluently, and was studies at Cambridge. From that Cambridge sent him to East initiated as a member of the 1925 on Louis lectured and Africa to study prehistoric African Kikuyu tribe. Louis had a younger wrote on African archaeological humans. He excavated dozens of brother, Douglas, and two older and paleontological topics. In sites, undertaking for the first time a sisters, Gladys and Julia. 1926 he graduated with high systematic study of the artifacts. honors in anthropology and While in Britain, the Leakey archaeology. Upon graduation In 1936 he married children attended school; in Africa, he was such a respected figure they had a tutor. In 1922 he started Continued on page 3 ...



Continued from page 1 ... Louis Seymour Bazett Leakey … Mary Douglas During his Leakey, who final years, Louis would become wasn’t able to a renowned excavate any Paleoanthropol- longer, as he ogist in her own was crippled right. with arthritis, for which he had In 1951 a hip replacement Leakey began in 1968. Instead, his research at he raised funds Olduvai Gorge, and directed his located within family and what is now the associates. In famous Kenya he was a Serengeti Park facilitator for hun- in Tanzania. A dreds of scientists trial trench in exploring the Bed II at BK in East African Rift 1951 was system for fossils. followed by a Homo erectus georgicus Louis' health more extensive excavation in began to fail 1952. They more seriously. found what Photos: Wikipedia He had his first Louis termed an Oldowan \"slaughter-house\", an than the first. Louis heart attack and ancient bog where animals had spent six months in been trapped and butchered. believed he had found the hospital. Excavations stopped in 1953 but the makers of Olduvai’s were briefly resumed in 1955. stone tools and Richard began to assume more and In 1959, excavations at Bed I named this individual more of his father's were opened. Mary discovered Homo habilis, meaning the fossilized skull OH 5 at FLK, “man with skill.” responsibilities, Paranthropus boisei, famously which Louis resisted, identified as \"Zinjanthropus\" or Homo habilis represented an but in the end he was forced to \"Zinj.\" (now generally regarded as evolutionary step between the a form of Paranthropus, similar to australopiths (who eventually accept Richard’s promotion. Australopithecus) and was believed to Leakey’s discoveries formed the be about 1.7 million years old. became extinct) and Homo erectus, basis for the most important who may have been a direct subsequent research into the Not long afterwards, in 1960, ancestor of modern man. Louis, his son Philip and Ray Among the other important earliest origins of human life. Pickering discovered a fossil he Mary Leakey continued to work termed \"Chellean Man\", (Olduvai finds made by Leakey’s teams at Olduvai, while their son Hominid 9), in context with were the discovery in 1948 at Oldowan tools. After reconstruction Richard and his wife Meave Louis and Mary called it \"Pinhead.\" It Rusinga Island in Lake Victoria, started illustrious careers at their was subsequently identified as Kenya, of the remains of own location, Koobi Fora, located Homo erectus, contemporaneous Proconsul africanus, a common with Paranthropus at 1.4 million ancestor of both humans and in Northern Kenya in the deposits years old. surrounding Lake Turkana. Their apes that lived about 25 million daughter Louise, who recently Louis’ son Jonathan in 1960–63, years ago. Also at Fort Ternan found a second type of hominid, (east of Lake Victoria) in 1962, earned her PhD, has assumed her larger-brained and less robust place in the family business, and Leakey’s team discovered the represents a new generation of Lea- remains of Kenyapithecus, another link between apes and key exploration. On 1 October 1972, Louis had a early man that lived about 14 million years ago. Continued on page 4 ...

Continued from page 3 ... Leakey fostered field research of primates in their natural habitats, Leaky ... which he saw as key to under- standing human evolution. He heart attack in Jane Goodall's The Trimates: Birutė Galdikas, Jane personally focused on three apartment in London. Jane sat up Goodall, and Dian Fossey. female researchers, Birutė all night with him in St. Stephen's Galdikas, Jane Goodall, and Hospital and left at 9:00 a.m. He Photo: everyday is special blogspot. Dian Fossey, calling them The died 30 minutes later at the age of Trimates. Each went on to 69. Louis was flown home to fellow paleontologist Mary Leakey. become an important scholar in Kenya and interred at Limuru, Having established a program the field of primatology. Leakey near the graves of his parents. also encouraged and supported of paleoanthropological inquiry many other PhD. candidates, most Legacies … Louis was a in eastern Africa, he also motivated notably from the University of pioneering British paleoanthropol- many future generations to Cambridge. Leakey also played a ogist and archaeologist whose continue this scholarly work. major role in creating organiza- work was important in Several members of Leakey's tions for future research in Africa demonstrating that humans family have become prominent and for protecting wildlife there. evolved in Africa, particularly scholars themselves. through discoveries made at Olduvai Gorge with his wife, Time Sifters Book Review Lost Cities, Ancient Tombs: 100 Discoveries That Changed the World By Ann R. Williams - National Geographic … 512 pages; Publisher: National Geographic; ISBN-10:1426221983. Review by: GoodReads Blending high adventure with ology as a scientific discipline in • King Tut's history, this chronicle of 100 the 19th century, everything tomb of astonishing discoveries from the changed. treasure Dead Sea Scrolls to the fabulous \"Lost City of the Monkey God\" Illustrated with dazzling photo- • Terracotta tells incredible stories of how graphs, this enlightening narrative warriors escorting China's explorers and archaeologists have tells the story of human civilization first emperor into the afterlife uncovered the clues that illuminate through 100 key expeditions, our past. spanning six continents and more • The glorious Anglo-Saxon than three million years of history. treasure of Sutton-Hoo Archaeology is the key that unlocks our deepest history. Ruined cities, Each account relies on firsthand • Graves of the Scythians, the golden treasures, cryptic inscriptions, reports from explorers, antiquarians, real Amazon warrior women and ornate tombs have been and scientists as they crack secret found across the world, and yet codes, evade looters and political • New findings on the grim fate these artifacts of ages past often suppression, fall in love, commit of the colonists of Jamestown raised more questions than answers. a litany of blunders, and uncover But with the emergence of archae- ancient curses. With a foreword from bestselling Pivotal discoveries include: author Douglas Preston, Lost Cities, Ancient Tombs is an expertly curated and breath-taking panorama of the human journey. Board of Officers: Lifetime: $350 Pay online at: Directors Darwin \"Smitty\" Smith, President Individual: $25 WWW.TimeSifters.org Sherry Svekis, Vice President Family: $35 Or mail checks to: Mary S. Maisel, Secretary Student: $10 Time Sifters, Inc. Laura Harrison, Treasurer Supporting $50 PO Box 5283 Karen Jensen, Membership Sarasota, FL. 34277 Marion Almy Jean Louise Lammie Evelyn Mangie Copyright © 2022 Time SiftersArchaeology Society,Inc., All rights reserved.