%0 Journal Article
%T Canteen Kopje: A new look at an old skull
%A Patricia Smith
%A Robert Nshimirimana
%A Frikkie de Beer
%A David Morris
%J South African Journal of Science
%D 2012
%I Academy of Science of South Africa
%R 10.4102/sajs.v108i1/2.738
%X The Canteen Kopje (CK) skull was found by a diamond digger working the Vaal River gravels in 1929. It was hailed by Robert Broom as an exceptionally robust prehistoric individual that was ancestral to modern South African populations. Further exploration of the Vaal Gravels has confirmed the antiquity of the purported find locality, but the heavily restored CK cranium offers limited possibilities for morphometric re-examination or direct dating with which to test BroomĄ¯s assertion. We used X-ray tomography to create a computerised 3D image that would provide optimal visualisation of the morphometry of the bony surfaces. The results showed that the CK cranium falls within the range of variation of Holocene Khoesan and lacks archaic features. We propose that it was probably a Late Stone Age intrusion into the Vaal Gravels or the overlying Hutton Sands.
%K Canteen Kopje
%K Boskop
%K Robert Broom
%K X-ray tomography
%K Vaal Gravels
%U http://www.sajs.co.za/index.php/SAJS/article/view/738