Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology RAS, 32a Leninsky Av., Moscow, 119334, Russia
[vasbor1@yandex.ru; gerasimova.margarita@gmail.com]
Abstract. The paper presents the results of the study of the famous skull KNM-ER 1470 from the Koobi Fora site in Kenya. A brief historiographical overview is followed by the description and analysis of craniometric data obtained in the course of working with the copy of the skull stored at the American Museum of Natural History in New York. This evidence is compared with metrical characteristics of some other early Homo skulls from the Lake Turkana region taken from the copies stored at Musee de l’Homme in Paris. In the authors’ view, KNM-ER 1470 should be classified to erectoid forms like Homo erectus и Homo ergaste) rather than to Homo habilis.
Keywords: skull KNM-ER 1470, KBS tuff, craniology, Pithecanthropus rudolfensis, Homo erectus rudolfensis, Homo rudolfensis, Homo habilis.
Received 07.10.2024, accepted 09.05.2025
DOI: 10.31600/2658-3925-2025-1-61-71
For citation: Vasil’ev S. V., Gerasimova M. M. Skull KNM-ER 1470: morphology and metrical characteristics (in Russ.). Prehistoric Archaeology. Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies. 2025 (1), 61–71, DOI: 10.31600/2658-3925-2025-1-61-71
References:
Alekseev V. P. 1978. Antropologiya Zemnogo shara i formirovanie chelovecheskih ras. Paleolit [Anthropology of the Globe and the formation of human races. Paleolithic]. Moscow: ≪Nauka≫ Publ. (in Russian).
Astahov S. N., Gerasimova M. M. Vasil’ev S. V., Haldeeva N. I., Harlamova N. V, Boruckaya S. B. 2022. Iskhod iz Afriki i pervye evropejcy. Illyustrirovannyj atlas erektoidnyh form Afriki i Evropy [African exodus and the first Europeans. Pictorial atlas of the erectoid forms of Africa and Europe]. Moscow: ≪Pero≫ Publ. (in Russian).
Brock A., Isaac G. 1974. Paleomagnetic stratigraphy end chronology of hominid-bearing sediments east of lake Rudolf, Kenya. Nature 247, 344–348.
Day M., Leakey R., Walker A., Wood B. 1975. New hominids from East Rudolf, Kenya. American Journal of Physical Anthropology 42, 461–475.
Fitch F. J., Miller J. A. 1970. New hominid remains and early artefacts from Northern Kenya: Radioisotopic age determinations of Lake Rudolf artefact site. Nature 226, 226–228.
Fitch F. J., Miller J. A., Mitchell J. G. 1996. Current events: dating of the KBS tuff and Homo rudolfensis. Journal of Human Evolution 30, 277–286.
Haldeeva N. I., Zubov A. A. 2012. Odontologiya o differenciacii roda Homo v period drevnejshej mezhkontinental’noj migracii [Odontology on the differentiation of the genus Homo in the period of the oldest intercontinental migration]. Doistoricheskij chelovek. Morfologiya i taksonomiya Nariokotome III. Moscow: Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology RAS, 135–166 (in Russian).
Leakey R. E. F. 1973a. Skull 1470. National Geographic 143, 818–829.
Leakey R. E. F. 1973b. Evidence for advanced Plio-Pleistocene hominid from East Rudolf, Keniya. Nature 242, 447–450.
Liberman D. E., Pilbeam D. R., Wood B. A. 1988. A probabilistic approach to the problem of sexual dimorphism in Homo habilis: a comparison of KNM-ER 1470 and KNM-ER 1813. Journal of Human Evolution 17, 503–512.
Liberman D. E., Pilbeam D. R., Wood B. A. 1996. Homoplasy and early Homo. Analysis of evolutionary relationships of H. habilis sensu stricto and H. rudolfensis. Journal of Human Evolution 30, 97–120.
McDougall I., Davies T., Maier R., Roudowki R. 1985. Age of the Okote Tuff Complex at Koobi Fora, Kenya. Nature 316, 792–794.
Rightmire Ph. G. 1993. Variation among early Homo crania from Olduvai George and the Koobi Fora region. American Journal of Physical Anthropology 90, 1–33.
Uryson M. I. 1974. Neuzheli cheloveku 3 milliona let? [Is man, indeed, 3 million years old?]. Priroda 6, 11–14 (in Russian).
Vasil’ev S. V. 1997. Morfologicheskie osobennosti nizhnepaleoliticheskih nahodok Koobi-Fora KNM-ER3733 i Sangiran 17 Pitekantrop VIII [Morphological characteristics of the Lower Paleolithic finds Koobi-Fora KNM-ER3733 and Sangiran 17 Pithecanthropus VIII]. Vestnik antropologii 3, 35–47 (in Russian).
Vasil’ev S. V. 1999. Differenciaciya plejstocenovyh gominid [Differentiation of the Pleistocene hominids]. Moscow: University of the Russian Academy of Education (in Russian).
Zubov A. A. 2004. Paleoantropologicheskaya rodoslovnaya cheloveka [Paleoanthropological genealogy of man]. Moscow: Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology RAS (in Russian).
Zubov A. A. 2011. Stanovlenie I pervonachalnoe rasselenie roda Homo. St. Petersburg: ≪Aleteja≫ Publ. (in Russian).
Zubov A. A. 2019. Paleoantropologicheskaya rodoslovnaya cheloveka [Paleoanthropological genealogy of man]. 2nd ed. Moscow: ≪ITRK≫ Publ. (in Russian).