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Across
6 Large knife often found among Anglo-Saxon grave goods (9)
8 Fertility goddess worshipped at Carthage (5)
10 ___ Wall, Roman fortification in Scotland (8)
11 Extinct Tibeto-Burman language (6)
12 Opponent of Greece at the battles of Thermopylae and Salamis (6)
13 US state, location of the Plum Bayou Mounds (formerly ‘Toltec Mounds’) archaeological site (8)
15 Beautiful youth of Greek mythology (6)
17 Plant domesticated in the Indian subcontinent approximately 5,500 years ago (6)
20 Maya settlement in Petén province, Guatemala (8)
22 Sumerian goddess of love and war (6)
23 Vegetable domesticated c.8000 BC (6)
25 People of south-eastern Spain in the 1st millennium BC (8)
26 Greek epic poem ascribed to Homer (5)
27 Historical word for a clerk (9)
Down
1 ___ Way, ancient track linking Wiltshire and Norfolk (8)
2 Series of Pleistocene sites in Minas Gerais, Brazil (5,5)
3 ___ Phase, farming cultures of Amazonia characterised by pottery belonging
to the Incised Rim Tradition (7)
4 Mesolithic culture of flint industries of Northern Ireland and the Isle of Man (4)
5 Animal whose wool was highly prized by the Incas (6)
7 Japanese porcelain manufactured from the early 17th century (5)
9 Margaret ___, Irish archaeologist, author of The High Crosses of Ireland (6)
14 Area of geoglyphs in southern Peru (5,5)
16 ___ Hoo, ship burial site in Suffolk, England (6)
18 Athenian comic dramatist and poet (8)
19 City, now in Turkey, founded by Seleucus I Nicator in 300 BC (7)
21 God of the sun in Greek mythology (6)
22 Boudicca’s tribe (5)
24 Member of a nomadic people of south-eastern Russia (4)
25 ___ Township Mounds, archaeological site in Ohio (4)
For answers to #125, see next issue.
Answers to Crossword #124
Across: 6 Quechua, 8 Catalan, 10 Druids, 11 Etruscan, 12 Emmanuel, 13 Seshat, 15 Cree, 16 Koroa, 18 Arma, 20 Strabo, 23 Palatine, 24 Karanovo, 26 Vicuña, 27 Kassite, 28 Munster.
Down: 1 Outremer, 2 Hunsruck, 3 Zakros, 4 Naas, 5 Oaxaca, 7 Cuidadela, 9 Bellerophon, 14 Spartacus, 17 Alluvium, 19 Menander, 21 Trajan, 22 Oporto, 25 Apse.
100 years ago…
‘Taung Child’, the first fossil belonging to the ancient hominin species Australopithecus africanus, was discovered in Taung, South Africa. The skull was found by local workmen at a limestone quarry and brought to the attention of anthropologist Raymond Dart in 1924. It is believed to date to c.2.8 million years ago and belonged to a child of around 3 years old, thought to have been killed by an eagle attack, due to talon marks on the eye sockets. The location of the foramen magnum – towards the front of the skull – is evidence that this individual was bipedal. ‘Taung Child’ was one of the first early human fossils to be found in Africa and played a significant role in drawing attention to the region as a place of importance in human evolution. However, Dart’s interpretation of Australopithecus africanus as a member of the human family tree initially met with scepticism from the scientific community. The discovery of other adult Australopithecus africanus fossils over the next few decades gave credence to his claims, and the species was eventually widely acknowledged in 1947 as an important transitional ancestor between apes and humans.
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