Canteen Kopje: A new look at an old skull

• Main Authors: Patricia Smith, Robert Nshimirimana, Frikkie de Beer, David Morris, Leon Jacobson, Michael Chazan, Liora K. Horwitz
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Academy of Science of South Africa 2012-01-01
• Series: South African Journal of Science
• Subjects: Canteen Kopje; Boskop; Robert Broom; X-ray tomography; Vaal Gravels
• Online Access: http://archive.sajs.co.za/index.php/SAJS/article/view/738

The Canteen Kopje (CK) skull was found by a diamond digger working the Vaal River gravels in 1929. It was hailed by Robert Broom as an exceptionally robust prehistoric individual that was ancestral to modern South African populations. Further exploration of the Vaal Gravels has confirmed the antiquity of the purported find locality, but the heavily restored CK cranium offers limited possibilities for morphometric re-examination or direct dating with which to test Broom’s assertion. We used X-ray tomography to create a computerised 3D image that would provide optimal visualisation of the morphometry of the bony surfaces. The results showed that the CK cranium falls within the range of variation of Holocene Khoesan and lacks archaic features. We propose that it was probably a Late Stone Age intrusion into the Vaal Gravels or the overlying Hutton Sands.