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East [?] 16.1.47
PREHISTORY CONGRESS : 
EARLY MAN IN AFRICA
Union Expert's Lecture
The background of events in the Southern part of the African Continent during the period of man's development were described by Dr. H. B. S. Cooke of the University of Johannesburg in the course of his address at the Pan-African Congress on Prehistory at Nairobi yesterday.
Dr. Cooke remarked that the beds in South Africa which belonged to this period were scanty and very thin by comparison with the great deposits of East Africa. The fauna, too, was not nearly so well known, nor as rich as that of Kenya and Tanganyika, but it was a singularly interesting one, since ancient caves had yielded remains of the now famous ape-men of Taungs, Sterkfontein and Kromdraai.
While the evidence for dating these proto-human skulls was not conclusive. Dr. Cooke continued, it seeemed probable that the Sterkfontein and Kromdraai men lived in the lower Pleistocene times, and were survivors from the stock from which man had sprung. 
The Taungs skull was a great deal older and probably lived during the later Pliocene, perhaps 2,000,000 years ago.
Dr. Cooke stated that humans made tools in South Africa at much the same time as they did in East Africa, in Europe and elsewhere, and that the occupation of the southern end of the Continent stretched back almost to the beginning of the Pleistocene. 
Climate Changes
Changes of climate had occurred in South Africa during the past million years, but they were relatively slight, and did not have the same marked effects on the migrations of animals of which there was evidence in Europe durind Ice Ages.
(Continued on page 4.)
"South Africa," conclued Dr. Cooke, "has much to contribute to the study of the period of human evolution but we are sadly handicapped by lack of funds and facilities for properly-conducted research."
Dr. E. Nilssen (Sweden), who, also spoke yersterday, compared the Pleistocene climatic changes in East Africa. India, Egypt and Nothern Europe.
"The Pluvials in East Africa," he said, "are registered by systems of moraine-ridges of former glaciers going down very much lower on the slopes of its highest mountains than the present glaciers do. The Pluvials are also registered by lake-sediments and wave-cut terraces, indicating former lakes which more or less filled-up the basins of the Rift Valley. The Interpluvials are traced by discordances in the lake-sediments and by aeolian sediment. 
"Similar traces of climatic changes are recorded from the Kashmir area of north west India, the Faiyum depression in Egypt and the depression of the Dead Sea in Palestine. These ancient climatic changes in the different countries seem to correspond very well to each other, but also to those changes of climate which caused the glacial and interglacial epochs of Europe. 
"Smaller climatic changes during the post-pluvial time up to our days," he continued, "also seem to have affected all these regions contemporaneously. The present changes of climate, which are - especially in the Equatorial belt - characterised by a very pronounced desiccation, are a link in the sequance of former climatic changes, contemporaneous the world over."
Changes Programme
Several amendments have been made to the original programme of Congress as already published. The programme for today remains unchanged, with the exception that from 11.30 a.m. to 12.15 p.m. Mr. J. D. Clarke will speak on "The Climatic Sequence of Somaliland."
The following alterations have been made in tomorrow's programme: 
The paper at 9-30 to 10-15 a.m. by Dr. M. Bequaert is cancelled and will be replaced by "The Quarternary Periods of S. Mozambique," by Mr. L. Barradas; the paper at 10-15 to 11-00 a.m. will be entitled "The Stone Age Sequence of Somaliland," by Mr. J. D. Clarke; the paper at 11-30 a.m. to 12-15 p.m. will be "New Discoveries of Stone Age Sites in Angola," by Engineer Mouta.
The papers scheduled for the afternoon session on Saturday are canceled, and in their place there will be an excursion to the Obsidian Mines at Hell's Gate.

Revision: Congrès de Nairobi 56 (#56)

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