Paléontologie / Palaeontology (Paléontologie humaine / Human Palaeontology) Découverte d’un Homo sapiens archaïque à Oranjemund, Namibie Brigitte Senut a *, Martin Pickford a,b , José Braga c , Daan Marais d , Yves Coppens b a Laboratoire de paléontologie du Muséum national d’histoire naturelle, UMR 8569 et GDR 983 CNRS, 8, rue Buffon, 75005 Paris, France b Chaire de paléoanthropologie et de préhistoire, Collège de France, 11, place Marcellin-Berthelot, 75005 Paris, France c Laboratoire d’anthropologie, université Bordeaux-1, UMR 5809 CNRS, av. des Facultés, 33405 Talence cedex, France d Namdeb, Auchas Mine, P.O. Box 9, Oranjemund, Namibie Reçu le 17 janvier 2000 ; accepté le 3 avril 2000 Présenté par Yves Coppens Abstract – Discovery of an archaic Homo sapiens in Oranjemund, Namibia. The transition between Homo erectus and Homo sapiens in Africa is still a matter of debate due to the paucity of fossils and to the difficulty of estimating their chronologic age. The discovery of a well preserved skull-cap of archaic Homo sapiens (OMD 1’98) in Namibia on the banks of the Orange River enlarges the distribution of these archaic populations to southwestern Africa. © 2000 Académie des sciences / Éditions scientifiques et médi- cales Elsevier SAS archaic Homo sapiens / skull-cap / Namibia / Upper Pleistocene Résumé – Le passage des Homo erectus aux Homo sapiens en Afrique est encore mal connu, en raison du faible nombre de spécimens fossiles connus, mais aussi à cause de la difficulté qu’il y a à estimer leur âge chronologique. La découverte d’une calotte crâ- nienne (OMD 1’98) très bien conservée d’un Homo sapiens archaïque en Namibie, sur les rives du fleuve Orange, élargit l’aire de répartition géographique de ces populations archaïques à l’Afrique du Sud-Ouest. © 2000 Académie des sciences / Éditions scientifi- ques et médicales Elsevier SAS Homo sapiens archaïque / calotte crânienne / Namibie / Pléistocène supérieur Abridged version 1. Introduction In 1988, after an exceptional flood of the Orange River, one of us (DM), Pit Superintendent at Auchas Mine, Sperrgebiet (Namibia), discovered a human skull cap (OMD 1’98) on the beach between the Orange River and the Atlantic Ocean. The morphology of the specimen suggests that it belongs to Homo sapiens which is characterized by a voluminous neurocranium. Certain specimens of fossil H. sapiens present a strong develop- ment of the neurocranium but retain well developed cranial superstructures which recall Homo erectus: these are primitive forms of humans, commonly known as archaic Homo sapiens. Many of the African fossils assigned to this group are fragmentary or poorly pre- served. 2. Geological age of the specimen The Oranjemund calotte is difficult to date, having been found out of its geological context. The excellent state of preservation suggests that it was buried in very fine sediments, and because of its colour, we consider that it may have been eroded out of a compact black clay horizon which crops out along the banks of the Orange River about 100 m from the discovery locus. These clays contain footprints of hippopotami, large ruminants and ostrich as well as several carbonised * Correspondance et tirés à part : bsenut@mnhn.fr 813 C. R. Acad. Sci. Paris, Sciences de la Terre et des planètes / Earth and Planetary Sciences 330 (2000) 813–819 © 2000 Académie des sciences / Éditions scientifiques et médicales Elsevier SAS. Tous droits réservés S1251805000002305/FLA