Biography of Richard G. Klein BIOGRAPHY s long as 160,000 years ago, and the Cold War was a very real thing. people who looked like mod- There wasn’t much exchange between ern humans roamed Africa. Russian scientists and those in the A For more than 100,000 years, United States or France.’’ these populations remained small in Howell advised Klein to prepare for number and were confined largely to working in Russia by studying Neander- Africa. Approximately 50,000 years ago, thal artifacts in France. After complet- despite no apparent physical change, a ing his master’s degree in 1964, Klein subset of these people dramatically al- went to the University of Bordeaux to tered their behavior, producing the first study with Franc¸oisBordes, a renowned artifacts unequivocally deemed to be professor of prehistory. Bordes had jewelry and inventing new technologies, worked out a system of 62 categories for such as projectile weapons, that allowed classifying Neanderthal tools (2). ‘‘His them to fish and to hunt dangerous work had an enormous influence on prey. Over the next 15,000 years, these me,’’ Klein said. Stone Age hunter–gatherers spread Bordes took Klein to see sites that from Africa to Europe, and, wherever had been occupied first by the Neander- they appeared, the Neanderthals, who thals and then by the Cro-Magnons, in- previously inhabited Europe, rapidly cluding La Quina and La Ferrassie disappeared. caves in southwest France. The Cro- For the last 35 years, Stanford paleo- Richard G. Klein Magnon layers lay directly on top of the anthropologist Richard G. Klein has Neanderthal layers, and Klein became intensively investigated the artifacts and convinced that the shift from Neander- animal bones that he and others have I’ve been interested in the Neanderthals thals to Cro-Magnons 40,000 to 35,000 ANTHROPOLOGY excavated at South African Stone Age and what happened to them, but I never years ago had been a sudden change sites, helping to illuminate the behav- thought I could study that profession- rather than a gradual evolution. ioral leap that led to the modern hu- ally. I didn’t think it was something an Looking at Neanderthal and Cro- man’s expansion out of Africa. He has adult could do,’’ he said. Magnon artifacts was an eye-opening pioneered the analysis of animal bones Klein went to college at the Univer- experience, Klein says. Cro-Magnon ar- in understanding human culture. His sity of Michigan (Ann Arbor) in 1958, tifacts were clearly more sophisticated research has painted a detailed portrait the year after the Soviets put Sputnik 1 than those of the Neanderthals. For in- of the behavior and ecology of the more into orbit. He originally decided to study stance, only the Cro-Magnons had made primitive hunter–gatherers who lived the Russian language and physics, think- ornamental objects out of bone and more than 50,000 years ago during the ing them more practical fields than hu- ivory. When he tried to classify stone Middle Stone Age (MSA) and of the man evolution. However, a course on more sophisticated people who suc- human evolution and prehistory reig- ceeded them in the Later Stone Age nited his interest in the Neanderthals, ‘‘From childhood I’ve (LSA). and he approached his professor, biolog- Klein takes pride in being an integral ical anthropologist Frank Livingstone, been interested in the part of the archaeological community in about the feasibility of pursuing gradu- South Africa. In July 2002 he was ate work in paleoanthropology. At Liv- Neanderthals and what elected president of the South Africa ingstone’s suggestion, Klein entered Archaeological Society. In 2003 Klein graduate school in 1962 at the Univer- happened to them.’’ was elected to membership in the Na- sity of Chicago to study with F. Clark tional Academy of Sciences. His Inaugu- Howell, a Neanderthal expert. At the ral Article, published in this issue of time, Klein says, anthropologists were artifacts, Klein was struck by the differ- PNAS, describes animal remains and divided into two camps: those who be- ence between the two peoples. He stone artifacts that date from the MSA lieved the Neanderthals had evolved found that he could easily sort the Cro- in a South African rockshelter (1). Klein into the Cro-Magnons, the earliest fully Magnon artifacts into many different and his colleagues suggest that the peo- modern Europeans, and those who be- categories, such as projectile points, en- lieved the Neanderthals had become ple who lived in the shelter exploited graving tools, knife blades, and drilling extinct when the Cro-Magnons migrated coastal resources much less effectively and piercing tools. The Neanderthal ar- to Europe and replaced them. ‘‘I fa- than later people, providing further evi- tifacts, by contrast, were often difficult vored the replacement theory, but there dence that a major advance in hunting or impossible to classify. wasn’t a whole lot of evidence,’’ Klein and gathering took place approximately ‘‘With the Cro-Magnons, it was as if 50,000 years ago in Africa. said. they went to a hardware store to get Because Klein knew Russian, Howell special-purpose tools,’’ he said. ‘‘The Inferring an Ancient Mindset suggested that he study Neanderthal ar- boundaries between different kinds of Klein was born in 1941 in Chicago, tifacts discovered in Russia. At the time, where he has fond memories of going to Neanderthal artifacts in France were the the Field Museum of Natural History as ones best known to Western researchers, This is a Biography of a recently elected member of the a child. The museum’s dioramas of Ne- Klein recalls. ‘‘We knew almost nothing National Academy of Sciences to accompany the member’s anderthals and other prehistoric people about the artifacts in Russia,’’ Klein Inaugural Article on page 5708. always fascinated him. ‘‘From childhood said. ‘‘There was the language barrier, © 2004 by The National Academy of Sciences of the USA www.pnas.org͞cgi͞doi͞10.1073͞pnas.0402190101 PNAS ͉ April 20, 2004 ͉ vol. 101 ͉ no. 16 ͉ 5705–5707 Downloaded by guest on September 28, 2021 Neanderthal tools were much fuzzier, and I often couldn’t figure out which category a tool belonged to.’’ When Klein went to Moscow and Leningrad in 1965 to study artifacts excavated in Rus- sia, he found the same contrast. ‘‘It was depressing how hard the Neanderthal artifacts were to sort, because I wanted to get a Ph.D., and I didn’t think I was getting useful results.’’ Eventually Klein decided that some- thing profound lay beneath these nega- tive findings. In his Ph.D. work, he said, ‘‘I came to the conclusion that the Ne- anderthals had a very different mindset from mine or Bordes—that they had very different cognition from modern humans’’ (3, 4). This conviction strengthened Klein’s belief that the Ne- anderthals and Cro-Magnons were too Richard G. Klein (wearing a white hat in the second row) and his field crew at the Duinefontein site just different to make it plausible that Cro- north of Cape Town, South Africa. Magnons evolved from Neanderthals in a short time span. Today, most paleoan- thropologists agree that the Cro- Brett Hendey, a paleontologist at the Although Klein is presently focused Magnons came from Africa (5). DNA South African Museum in Cape Town, on the transition that happened between evidence suggests that the Neanderthals to identify the bones. Instead, Hendey the Middle and Late Stone Age, he has contributed few if any genes to modern offered Klein a table in the museum. also investigated much older Stone Age humans (6, 7). ‘‘He said I should identify them myself,’’ people. In the 1990s, he published the Klein said. ‘‘Since that time, that’s what results of his research at the Elandsfon- Analyzing Bones, Not Stones I do.’’ tein site (11), located approximately 100 By the time Klein earned his Ph.D. Klein was pleased to find that classify- km north of Cape Town, and the Duine- from the University of Chicago in 1966, ing bones was easier and less subjective fontein site (12), approximately 50 km he had become frustrated with working than classifying artifacts. ‘‘There’sno north of the city. People and animals in Russia. Because of travel restrictions problem deciding if something is an arm were attracted to both sites by the pres- on foreigners in the Soviet Union, Klein bone or a leg bone,’’ he said. ence of water holes approximately was permitted only to look at artifacts, He rapidly became a leader in the 500,000 years ago at Elandsfontein and not to do excavations or visit archaeo- field of bone identification. In 1984 300,000 years ago at Duinefontein. At logical sites. On the advice of J. Des- Klein coauthored The Analysis of Ani- mond Clark, an eminent University of mal Bones from Archaeological Sites (9), California (Berkeley) archaeologist who a book that archaeologists now often Klein concluded that was a reader of Klein’s dissertation, he use to teach their students how to inter- decided to go where most researchers pret animal remains. He has become a Neanderthals had ‘‘very now believe fully modern humans origi- ‘‘central repository’’ for excavated bones nated: Africa. in South Africa, he says, with other re- different cognition from Klein briefly held positions at the searchers passing on the bones from University of Wisconsin (Milwaukee), their digs to him. modern humans.’’ Northwestern University (Evanston, IL), and the University of Washington (Seat- Animal Bones and Archaeology tle), before becoming a professor at the As an example of the kind of evidence both sites, people left hand axes and University of Chicago in 1973.