Talgai Skull
{{Short description|Hominin fossil}}
{{Use Australian English|date=June 2020}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2019}}
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| caption2 = Front and side view of the Talgai Skull.{{cite journal|first=Stewart Arthur|last=Smith|year=1918|title=The fossil human skull found at Talgai, Queensland|journal=Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London B|pages=351–387|volume=208|issue=348–359|doi=10.1098/rstb.1918.0010|doi-access=free}}
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The Talgai Skull is a human fossil found on the Talgai Station, near Allora, Southern Downs Region, Queensland, Australia. It has been dated indirectly, based on the radiocarbon date of a carbonate nodule found in stratigraphic proximity, at 13,500 years old."A radiocarbon date on a carbonate nodule at 3.4 m provided a date of 11,650±100 BP (Elkin 1978: 116) which now calibrates to 13,539±157 calBP". {{cite journal|last1=Allen|first1=Jim|title=The Curious History of the Talgai Skull|journal=Bulletin of the History of Archaeology|date=2010|volume=20|issue=2|pages=4–12|doi=10.5334/bha.20202|url=https://www.archaeologybulletin.org/jms/article/download/bha.20202/22|doi-access=free|access-date=5 September 2019|archive-date=20 July 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180720053254/https://www.archaeologybulletin.org/jms/article/download/bha.20202/22|url-status=live}}
History
The Talgai Skull was discovered in 1886 on Talgai Homestead, as the first fossil evidence of early human occupation in the area. It was found by fencing contractor, William Naish. It had been embedded in the wall of Dalrymple Creek, which had been scoured out by heavy rain. In 1896 the skull was sent to Sydney where it was examined by the trustees of the Australian Museum. The museum was interested in purchasing the fossil but could not agree on an acceptable price. Eventually the skull was returned to its owner.Allen (2010)
It remained at the homestead until 1914 when Professor Edgeworth David, Professor of Archaeology at Sydney University visited Talgai and presented a theory that the skull was 20,000 years old and provided a "missing link" in the evolutionary chain. This sudden change in attitude towards the skull was motivated in part by the recent "discovery" of the Piltdown Man fossils in England. Although later proven to be hoax, the Piltdown find encouraged others to search for similar evidence of early man. CSIRO and the Queensland Museum conducted archaeological surveys at the site.{{cite QHR|14781|Talgai Homestead|600006|accessdate=1 August 2014}}
Severe cracks in the skull led some observers to conclude that a blow to the head had been the cause of death. However, later investigation showed that the cracks were produced by expansion and contraction of the clay soil where the skull was found.{{cite journal|last1=Gill|first1=Edmund D.|title=Geology of the Late Pleistocene Talgai Cranium from S. E. Queensland, Australia|journal=Archaeology & Physical Anthropology in Oceania|date=1978|volume=13|issue=2/3|pages=177–197|jstor=40386319}}
The original skull is housed at the Sydney Museum.
In 1968 the Australian Broadcasting Commission made an award-winning documentary about the skull called The Talgai Skull.{{Citation | title=The talgai skull: an investigation into the origin of the Australian Aborigines | date=1968 | publisher=Australian Broadcasting Commission | url=http://trove.nla.gov.au/work/22042565 | access-date=11 September 2015 | archive-date=24 December 2020 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201224052803/https://trove.nla.gov.au/work/22042565 | url-status=live }}