Mary Leakey

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Chapter 1

Biography Activity

Many of the most exciting discoveries about the origins of humankind have been made by members of one family of Britishanthropologists—the Leakeys. Working in the 1960s at Olduvai Gorge in Tanganyika (now Tanzania), Mary Leakey and her husband Louis S. B. Leakey (1903–1972) found fossils of both highly developed apes and early forms ofhumans. x As you read, think about how archaeologists and anthropologists put together evidence that tells us about prehistoric life. Then, on a separate sheet of paper, answer the questions thatfollow.

Part 1.1 MODERN ERA EDITION

Mary Leakey

(1913– )

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evidence such as stone tools and fragments of bone, rowing up in England, young Mary Douglas especially skulls and teeth, hefound how early Nicol preferred drawing pictures to concentrathumans and hominids (not-quite-humans) lived ing in school. Her father was a well-known painter and what they could do. and regularly tookhis family through Europe on One of the richest sites, where they often painting trips. From him, Mary also became interreturned, was Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania. It was there, ested in archaeology,especially the cave drawings in 1959, that Mary Leakey found a large portion of and Stone Age sites in southern France. hominid skull, which they called Zinjanthropus Though she had little formaleducation, she (nicknamed “Zinj”). This find was a major went to scientific lectures and volunteered to turning point in her life. Tests dated the work at “digs,” or excavations, in Britain. skull at 1.75million years old—much Soon she had met a number of earlier than people thought that important people in the field of early humans had lived. As Mary archaeology. Because she was very Leakey put it,“Zinj made good talented in drawing stone tools and television.” The discovery made other objects from a dig—a the Leakeys world famous. valuable skill—she began to The Leakeys made several draw...