When I was a boy, Homo erectus was called Pithecanthropus (“Ape Man”) or “Java Man”–this head-to-toe furry guy with a brain about the size of a golf ball. The illustration above is about the most kind treatment he ever got.
Now we know he made stone tools, walked fully erect, and had a brain capacity which, at least in some examples, equaled ours. Not that that seems particularly hard to do, these days.
Ah! But was he fully human? Well, how can he be, if he can’t produce some kind of art?
But evidence is seeping in that he could and he did.
No, we haven’t found the first Mona Lisa. It’s just some clam shells with lines scratched into them, found in Java. When they were new, the shells would’ve been dark brown and the scratches vividly white. The shells have turned white with great age, but you can still see the scratchings–including what looks like a capital M.
Now don’t get into an uproar over the dates cited by scientists who are studying this. Whatever dates you assign to them, a) the shells are very old, b) they have clearly been engraved, and c) they’ve been found where traces of Homo erectus have been found.
Could it be that H. erectus was… us? Just people? with some superficial differences that set them apart from people today.
Sheesh. What if they liked to draw and paint on sheets of bark, or animal skins, or some other perishable material? We’d never know. It wouldn’t be Arnolfini’s Wedding, but it might be more impressive than doodlings on a clam shell. Navaho sand paintings are exquisite works of art requiring great skill; but they’d never show up in the archaeological record.
What if it really was a letter M?
