Science: Midland Man

The most famous “oldest American” is Folsom man, known by his peculiar, fluted spearheads. These “points” have turned up in many parts of the U.S., and since they have been found with the bones of extinct animals, they are supposed to be about 10,000 years old. But Folsom man himself is an anthropological ghost; his own bones have not been found.

About a year ago, Keith Glasscock, a pipeline welder and amateur archaeologist, spent a Sunday afternoon poking around the Scharbauer Ranch near Midland, Texas. In a “blowout” (a hollow scooped by wind), he found some Folsom points. When he returned a few days later, the wind had dug the hollow deeper. On the surface of the blowing sand were fragments that looked like broken human bones. Glasscock picked them up, but was wise enough not to dig without expert advice.

Extinct Animals. On vacation a few days later, he went to Santa Fe and told Anthropologist Fred Wendorf of the Museum of New Mexico about his bones and points. Dr. Wendorf was so enthusiastic that Glasscock gave him the whole collection. Soon Wendorf and a group of learned colleagues were digging a trench at the Midland site. They found a few more bone fragments, and six months later, in a full-dress expedition, found a selection of ice-age animals, most of which were probably extinct before the period of Folsom man. It looked as if both human and animal bones had come from a stratum of grey sand that lay considerably below the reddish sand containing the Folsom points.

The diggers made no announcement. Like most anthropologists, they had been intimidated by the recent British proof that the remains of Piltdown man, reputedly 950,000 years old, were a deliberate fake. They did not want to say anything until the bones, which had been sent to Anthropologist T. Dale Stewart of the U.S. National Museum at Washington, had been scientifically authenticated.

Fluorine Proof. Last week they got the news. Dr. Stewart had fitted about 60 of the fragments into part of a skull, and he was convinced that it is extremely old for a relic of New World man. Dr. F. J. McClure of the National Institute of Health analyzed both animal and human bones for their fluorine content, which increases with age. He decided that their age is about the same. Since the animals lived in the Pleistocene (glacial) era, “Midland man” must be Pleistocene too. He may have lived anywhere from 2,000 to 10,000 years before Folsom man, who therefore remains a ghost, but is no longer the oldest American.

Midland man, according to Dr. Stewart, had a long, narrow skull and probably looked like a modern Indian. The bones found were probably those of a male who had serious trouble with his teeth. At the time of his death, when the glaciers still covered much of the U.S., one of his teeth was growing up toward his nose.

While the Midland diggers were proceeding with commendable caution, the relics found at Piltdown (and accepted for years without sufficient tests) had a second and more thorough exposing by Brit ish scientists. Not only the human remains but the animal ones, too, were proved to be fakes. The flint implements found with “Piltdown man” had been stained, and the bone implement had been shaped with a steel knife. The perpetrator of the erudite hoax is still unknown.