In 1924, a South African named Josephine Salmons made a visit to the home of Pat Izod, a family friend. She noticed an odd, humanlike skull sitting on his mantelpiece. Curious, she asked him its origin and learned that it had been found by a miner working at the Buxton Limeworks. This miner wasn’t focusing on questions of human origin nor was he testing any particular hypothesis; rather, he was blasting through limestone in an effort to increase the output of the mine. He was no different than someone who goes out for a walk and notices an interesting tree or is taken by the shape and glimmer of a particular puddle. He noticed the skull and gave it to his employer, E. G. Izod, who was a visiting director of the Northern Lime Company, which managed the mine. E. G. Izod gave it to his son, who put it on his mantle. Josephine Salmons happened to be a young graduate student working in the laboratory of Dr. Raymond Dart at the University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg. Dr. Dart was an anthropologist of Australian origin who had taken the position of professor two years earlier.1