Gorillas in the mist
Watching this film reminds me of an anectode of my uncle Phil. Phil is a jeweller who works for a particularly swanky firm in Picadilly, London (Armour and Winston, a firm posh enough to feature during the BBC's coverage of Royal Ascot). Phil is a unprepossessing Welshman with a talent for finding all sorts of objects that lie on the ground. My family before my grandmother died always went to my grandparents for Sunday lunch, and then we would all go out into the countryside to walk the calories off. Phil has this unbelievable ability to spot a potential find. He can wander off the footpath all of a sudden and then appear with a flint in his hand. This flint he would crack open and lo and behold there would be some sort of fossil - usually a trilobite. He's also found pieces of archaeology as well as paeleontology, from Roman coins to memorably a neolithic granite axe head found in the flower bed of a pub in the Chilterns - an area known for its chalk and flint - there's no granite in our hills. The axe head had come all the way from Cornwall which is a good two hundred miles away from Buckinghamshire, which suggests a trade network extending across southern England during this time.
Back to the film in question - one of Phil's finds was a flint tool that was rather unusual. It was clearly worked by a man's hand, but didn't have a clear purpose - it was neither obviously one tool or another. It just so happened one day that Phil had taken this piece to work with him in hope that he might get it looked at by an expert at one of the major mueseums in London during his lunch hour. However, he was luckier than that and had a prominent anthropologist walk into the shop to buy a piece for a family member. Phil of course took the opportunity to ask this man to take a look at this curious piece to see what he made of it. The man was most impressed and told Phil to take it to the British Mueseum to get it placed among its finds.
So Phil did take it to the BM, and met up with a specialist who wasn't all that impressed.
"So what have we here?", asked the specialist.
"A neolithic tool" answered Phil.
"Oh?" said the specialist, "and what do you suppose it to be?"
"A tool to practice different methods of knapping", said my uncle.
"Oh yeah?", sneered the expert, "and why do you suppose that to be?"
"I had it verified..."
"By whom?, the town 'expert'?"
"No, by an anthropologist".
"Who?"
"Dr Richard Leakey".
"..."
Needless to say that the tool in question is in the keeping of the BM and apparently is significant due to its rarity and importance. Not a bad find for an amateur paeleontologist.
Back to the film in question - one of Phil's finds was a flint tool that was rather unusual. It was clearly worked by a man's hand, but didn't have a clear purpose - it was neither obviously one tool or another. It just so happened one day that Phil had taken this piece to work with him in hope that he might get it looked at by an expert at one of the major mueseums in London during his lunch hour. However, he was luckier than that and had a prominent anthropologist walk into the shop to buy a piece for a family member. Phil of course took the opportunity to ask this man to take a look at this curious piece to see what he made of it. The man was most impressed and told Phil to take it to the British Mueseum to get it placed among its finds.
So Phil did take it to the BM, and met up with a specialist who wasn't all that impressed.
"So what have we here?", asked the specialist.
"A neolithic tool" answered Phil.
"Oh?" said the specialist, "and what do you suppose it to be?"
"A tool to practice different methods of knapping", said my uncle.
"Oh yeah?", sneered the expert, "and why do you suppose that to be?"
"I had it verified..."
"By whom?, the town 'expert'?"
"No, by an anthropologist".
"Who?"
"Dr Richard Leakey".
"..."
Needless to say that the tool in question is in the keeping of the BM and apparently is significant due to its rarity and importance. Not a bad find for an amateur paeleontologist.