Babel News Network

Detail of a Paleolithic cave painting of a bison, at Altamira in Cantabria, northern Spain.

In 1879 a Spanish landowner named Marcelino Sanz de Sautuola was searching for prehistoric artifacts on the floor of a cave on his family property in northern Spain when his young daughter interrupted, calling out “Look, Papa, oxen” as she looked up at the cave’s ceiling and “saw vivid yet delicate paintings of bison, almost fully life-sized, that appear to be tumbling across the sky.” Her discovery swiftly brought ancient cave paintings to widespread public attention, and set off a complex history of dispute about their origin and meaning. Since then, thousands of similar paintings have been discovered in more than two hundred caves scattered through southwestern France and northeastern Spain on either side of the Pyrenees. Argument still rages about them and the contrasting viewpoints of the two books under review carry the controversy forward.

The New York Review of Books: Secrets of the Cave Paintings

Just four kilometres from the site of the discovery of Lucy, in Ethiopia’s Afar region, fossil hunters have found the remains of an A. afarensis child dubbed “Lucy’s Baby.” The skeleton, thought to be that of a three-year-old girl, is the oldest and most complete hominin fossil yet found.

It has taken researchers five years to separate much of the fossil from the sandstone block in which it was found. The skeleton consists of an almost complete skull, the entire torso and parts of the arms and legs. Her discoverers think she may have been killed in a flood 3.3 million years ago.

The new fossil reinforces the theory that Australopithecus afarensis lived at least part of its time in the trees, although the lower body is adapted for walking upright. She has long curved fingers, and slanting shoulder sockets similar to those of a climbing ape like a gorilla. The skull is complete enough that researchers have been able to identify the balance organs of the inner ear, which also seem more ape-like than human. The human sense of balance is adapted not just for walking upright, but also for running distances on two legs – something that apes can’t do.