| Description | The Anatomy Fossil Hominid Cast Collection contains about 150 casts of skulls and post-cranial material of fossil hominids, primates and various type fossils for the study of human evolution. It also includes casts of artefacts such as handaxes and flint blades. As well as casts of Piltdown man, there are those of Neanderthals from Krapina, Spy, Gibraltar and La Moustier; of Homo Sapiens Aurignacensis, Rhodeniensis, Pithecanthropus and Sinanthropus; of Homo Erectus from Chou-kou-tien; Australopithecus Africanus and Proconsul Africanus. The casts were almost all originally purchased from merchants F Krantz and R F Damon, and carry numbers that relate to sales brochures. Although these sales catalogues are not found in the Anatomy archives, they are presumably available elsewhere. According to Richard Sabin (2005: 3), the human evolution series of casts “are of particular value, as [they] would appear to be a collection gathered form institutions across Europe and Africa. A more detailed catalogue of this part of the collection alone would be of use to many UK museums and universities”. |
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