Louis Leakey
Discovering the Secrets of Humankind's Past
was born to be an archaeologist, for his childhood in Africa truly prepared him for the field life he would later lead. The son of missionaries Harry and Mary Leakey, Louis grew up in Kenya near Nairobi, among the Kikuyu African tribe who the elder Leakeys were trying to convert. Despite intervening periods in which the Leakeys moved back to England, Louis grew up practically as a Kikuyu tribe member, and at the age of eleven he not only built his own traditional hut in which to live but was also initiated as a member of the Kikuyu tribe. It was within this hut that the beginnings of Leakey’s archaelogical aspirations took place. In one ...
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expert that these were truly stone tools of ancient Africans, truly links to the past, Leakey knew that the rest of his life would be devoted towards discovering the secrets of the prehistoric ancestors of humankind.
Despite not being accustomed to the school structure back in England and the accompanying problems he had in public school, Leakey was accepted into Cambridge in 1922. However, blows to the head sustained during rugby games resulted in epilepsy and headaches for Leakey, and he had to leave school in 1923. This, however, was a blessing in disguise, for Leakey landed a job as an African expert on an archaeological mission to Tendaguru in what is now Tanzania. He was to accompany the archaeologist and dinosaur bone expert William E. Cutler. With his fluency in Swahili, Leakey soon orgainized an entire safari to the site. Working with and observing Cutler, Leakey learned "more about the technical side of the search for and preservation of fossil bones than [he] ...
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dug at many sites, finding many stone tools, animal bones, and other artifacts. His search, however, was for proof of the use of a specific Chellean hand-axe style found in other parts of the world. This he found in 1929, and its discovery pushed back the age of the Great Rift Valley in Africa a great deal. Further, it provided critical evidence for a level of sophistication in East Africa equal to that of European cultures at the time. By this time Leakey’s work at caught the attention of the archaeological community and he began to receive much acclaim. In November 1929 he returned to England with a two-year fellowship at St. John’s College, and a wife, Frida, as well, whom ...
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Louis Leakey. (2006, July 20). Retrieved April 16, 2024, from http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Louis-Leakey/49404
"Louis Leakey." Essayworld.com. Essayworld.com, 20 Jul. 2006. Web. 16 Apr. 2024. <http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Louis-Leakey/49404>
"Louis Leakey." Essayworld.com. July 20, 2006. Accessed April 16, 2024. http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Louis-Leakey/49404.
"Louis Leakey." Essayworld.com. July 20, 2006. Accessed April 16, 2024. http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Louis-Leakey/49404.
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