Kanam Hides an Old Archaeology Riddle

Kanam Hides an Old Archaeology Riddle : The first remains of what the famous archaeologist Louis Leakey thought were Australopithecus were found at the Kanam Prehistoric Site in 1932. The site is on the Homa Peninsular in Homa Bay, right next to Lake Victoria.

The scientific community quickly cast doubt on this discovery by questioning Leakey’s credibility and skills. Because of the stress, he had to change the name of the skull to Homo Kanamensis.

At Kanam West, a team led by Leakey had just found what they thought was a fossil of a human mandible from an australopithecine species. They also found Pleistocene animals and pebble tools. But the scientists, led by the late British geologist PGH Boswell, didn’t agree.

At Kanam West, near Homa Mountain, a team led by Leakey had just found what they thought was an australopithecine fossil of a human mandible. They also found Pleistocene animals and pebble tools.

Leakey asked Boswell to check out the sites for himself, but when Boswell got to Kanam in 1935, he found that the iron signs Leakey had used to mark the sites had been taken down by locals to be used as fishing harpoons, so the sites could no longer be found. It just so happened that all of Leakey’s shots from his first safari were ruined by a camera flaw that let light in.

Boswell left for England after two months of unsuccessfully looking for the spot. Leakey says that he told her he wouldn’t print anything. He always broke his word. The shocking piece came out on March 9, 1935, in the Nature International Journal of Science. It made people question Leakey’s skills and the date of the find. It was the start of the Kanam dispute.

In the end, Sir Arthur Keith (5 February 1866–7 January 1955) seemed to agree with Leakey. The Scottish scientist and anatomist agreed with the first grouping of australopithecines. Since then, more fossils from the last 1 to 6 million years have been found at Kanam. In general, most of them are Neanderthalaloid, which means they are more like modern humans than Australopithecus.

People are still upset about what Leakey found at Kanam, even though it happened a long time ago. How could so many bad things happen on a single historical dig? Boswell insisted in his piece that the sites of the discoveries were not marked on the ground or on a map. Whatever happened at Kanam is buried deep inside it, waiting to be found again one day.