History of modern man unravels as German scholar is exposed as fraud

[muriel_volestrangler]

It appeared to be one of archaeology's most sensational finds. The skull fragment discovered in a peat bog near Hamburg was more than 36,000 years old - and was the vital missing link between modern humans and Neanderthals.

This, at least, is what Professor Reiner Protsch von Zieten - a distinguished, cigar-smoking German anthropologist - told his scientific colleagues, to global acclaim, after being invited to date the extremely rare skull.

However, the professor's 30-year-old academic career has now ended in disgrace after the revelation that he systematically falsified the dates on this and numerous other "stone age" relics.
...
"Anthropology is going to have to completely revise its picture of modern man between 40,000 and 10,000 years ago," said Thomas Terberger, the archaeologist who discovered the hoax. "Prof Protsch's work appeared to prove that anatomically modern humans and Neanderthals had co-existed, and perhaps even had children together. This now appears to be rubbish."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,3604,1418025,00.html

[acmavm]

1. Maybe not. I think that neanderthals are still walking the earth today. I

watched one drool all over himself during a debate last October. And then there's all the others that voted for him. Face it, evolution just past some people by.

[Spinzonner]

4. That's highly insulting to the legacy of Neanderthals

[Orsino]

7. "Not cool, man!"

I love that Geico commercial.

[slutticus]

9. LOL!

"That is so condescending"

LOL! I love those too!

[gottaB]

2. fascinating

[imenja]

3. this came out a while back

I remember reading about it nearly two years ago. I guess they've finalized the testing now.

[0rganism]

5. Watch as creationists twist this into "yet another" disproof of evolution

Every time science does what it's supposed to do with respect to fossils, i.e. correct its explanations when additional evidence is discovered or existing evidence invalidated, the young earthers are quick to claim that science has failed us utterly and only The Revealed Word Of Whichever God Happens To Be Numero Uno At The Time remains unchallenged so please send $1000 to the good folks at TBN or your heathan soul will burn in hell forever.

Thank you and good night.
</tangent>

[Stunster]

6. What do people think of the theories

as spelled out here:

http://www.accessexcellence.org/BF/bf02/klein/bf02e2.html
http://www.accessexcellence.org/BF/bf02/klein/bf02e3.html ?

I think Klein is basically right. Something happened to the human brain around 50,000 years ago that was a quantum leap compared to the cognitive development of homo in the previous 2.5 million years. And though we may look anatomically indistinguishable from human beings of 200,000 years ago, I suspect something major happened to how our brains are organized much more recently.

The exposure of this fraudulent German professor seems to tie in quite well with Klein's theorizing.

[gottaB]

8. Klein's basic hypothesis is provocative

I sense that he knows what he's talking about, however, his account leaves a lot of things left unsaid. I would not accept his phylogeny or his hypothesis about the origins of fully modern humans solely on the basis of the evidence that has been presented.

Have you read Klein and Edgar's Dawn of Human Culture? I haven't, but I understand that it presents a list of possible rebutals to their interpretation of the Neanderthals. The Protsch scandal could have a bearing, but perhaps not much. I get the impression, as somebody posted above, that paleoanthropologists have had suspicions about Protsch's research for quite some time.

Klein's work is very interesting, though. I'm glad you brought it up.