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outing the area for mineral prospects when he came across astretch of open ground littered with anomalous dark stones that had clearly been shaped byhuman hand。 he had found one of the great sites of acheulean tool manufacture that iantattersall had told me about。
unexpectedly in the autumn of 2002 i found myself a visitor to this extraordinary site。 iwas in kenya for another purpose altogether； visiting some projects run by the charity careinternational； but my hosts； knowing of my interest in humans for the present volume； hadinserted a visit to olorgesailie into the schedule。
after its discovery by gregory； olorgesailie lay undisturbed for over two decades beforethe famed husband…and…wife team of louis and mary leakey began an excavation that isn鈥檛pleted yet。 what the leakeys found was a site stretching to ten acres or so； where toolswere made in incalculable numbers for roughly a million years； from about 1。2 million yearsago to 200；000 years ago。 today the tool beds are sheltered from the worst of the elementsbeneath large tin lean…tos and fenced off with chicken wire to discourage opportunisticscavenging by visitors； but otherwise the tools are left just where their creators dropped themand where the leakeys found them。
jillani ngalli； a keen young man from the kenyan national museum who had beendispatched to act as guide； told me that the quartz and obsidian rocks from which the axeswere made were never found on the valley floor。 鈥渢hey had to carry the stones from there；鈥潯esaid； nodding at a pair of mountains in the hazy middle distance； in opposite directions fromthe site： olorgesailie and ol esakut。 each was about ten kilometers； or six miles； away鈥攁long way to carry an armload of stone。
why the early olorgesailie people went to such trouble we can only guess； of course。 notonly did they lug hefty stones considerable distances to the lakeside； but； perhaps even moreremarkably； they then organized the site。 the leakeys鈥櫋xcavations revealed that there wereareas where axes were fashioned and others where blunt axes were brought to be resharpened。
olorgesailie was； in short； a kind of factory； one that stayed in business for a million years。
various replications have shown that the axes were tricky and labor…intensive objects tomake鈥攅ven with practice； an axe would take hours to fashion鈥攁nd yet； curiously； they werenot particularly good for cutting or chopping or scraping or any of the other tasks to whichthey were presumably put。 so we are left with the position that for a million years鈥攆ar； farlonger than our own species has even been in existence； much less engaged in continuous cooperative efforts鈥攅arly people came in considerable numbers to this particular site to makeextravagantly large numbers of tools that appear to have been rather curiously pointless。
and who were these people？ we have no idea actually。 we assume they were homoerectus because there are no other known candidates； which means that at their peak鈥攖heirpeak 鈥攖he olorgesailie workers would have had the brains of a modern infant。 but there is nophysical evidence on which to base a conclusion。 despite over sixty years of searching； nohuman bone has ever been found in or around the vicinity of olorgesailie。 however muchtime they spent there shaping rocks； it appears they went elsewhere to die。
鈥渋t鈥檚 all a mystery；鈥潯illani ngalli told me； beaming happily。
the olorgesailie people disappeared from the scene about 200；000 years ago when the lakedried up and the rift valley started to bee the hot and challenging place it is today。 butby this time their days as a species were already numbered。 the world was about to get itsfirst real master race； homo sapiens 。 things would never be the same again。
ww锛枫��
Goodbye
in the early 1680s； at just about the time that edmond halley and his friends christopherwren and robert hooke were settling down in a london coffeehouse and embarking on thecasual wager that would result eventually in isaac newton鈥檚 principia ； henry cavendish鈥檚weighing of the earth； and many of the other inspired and mendable undertakings thathave occupied us for much of the past four hundred pages； a rather less desirable milestonewas being passed on the island of mauritius； far out in the indian ocean some eight hundredmiles off the east coast of madagascar。
there； some forgotten sailor or sailor鈥檚 pet was harrying to death the last of the dodos； thefamously flightless bird whose dim but trusting nature and lack of leggy zip made it a ratherirresistible target for bored young tars on shore leave。 millions of years of peaceful isolationhad not prepared it for the erratic and deeply unnerving behavior of human beings。
we don鈥檛 know precisely the circumstances； or even year； attending the last moments of thelast dodo； so we don鈥檛 know which arrived first； a world that contained a principia or one thathad no dodos； but we do know that they happened at more or less the same time。 you wouldbe hard pressed； i would submit； to find a better pairing of occurrences to illustrate the divineand felonious nature of the human being鈥攁 species of organism that is capable of unpickingthe deepest secrets of the heavens while at the same time pounding into extinction； for nopurpose at all； a creature that never did us any harm and wasn鈥檛 even remotely capable ofunderstanding what we were doing to it as we did it。 indeed； dodos were so spectacularlyshort on insight； it is reported； that if you wished to find all the dodos in a vicinity you hadonly to catch one and set it to squawking； and all the others would waddle along to see whatwas up。
the indignities to the poor dodo didn鈥檛 end quite there。 in 1755； some seventy years afterthe last dodo鈥檚 death； the director of the ashmolean museum in oxford decided that theinstitution鈥檚 stuffed dodo was being unpleasantly musty and ordered it tossed on abonfire。 this was a surprising decision as it was by this time the only dodo in existence；stuffed or otherwise。 a passing employee； aghast； tried to rescue the bird but could save onlyits head and part of one limb。
as a result of this and other departures fro