PREFACE TO VOLUMES 1 AND 2
These books began in an attempt to understand sys-
tematic diversity among later Pleistocene hominids,
specifically the Neanderthals. Almost immediately,
however, it became evident that it is impractical to
limit systematic study to one specific group of hominid
fossils or to one particular period of human evolution;
reference to outgroups is invariably necessary. Yet we
were unable to find any single source to which we
could turn to provide material for the broader compar-
isons that it proved necessary to make. Of course, the
literature of paleoanthropology is replete with descrip-
tions of hominid fossils; but, as we soon realized, most
of these descriptions of individual fossils or fossil
assemblages are not amenable to direct or at least
complete comparison with others. This is, ironically,
precisely because the tradition in paleoanthropology
has been to describe fossils not as isolated entities, but
comparatively. For, although providing a sense of how
one fossil differs from another in the group being
compared, the comparative descriptive approach often
makes it difficult or impossible for the reader to extract
the morphological information necessary for making
comparisons with fossils not under immediate consid-
eration. There is thus a clear need for a resource in
which hominid fossils are described in detail on their
own individual terms, using a consistent protocol from
one fossil to the next.
We have attempted to supply such a resource
here. The volumes in this series present uniform
descriptions and illustrations, almost all based on the
examination and photography of original specimens,
of the most significant among the major fossils
comprising the human fossil record. To these descrip-
tions are added ancillary information on dating,
archaeological context, and so forth. We also clearly
define the anatomical terminology we use, adapting
this terminology to make it applicable not simply to
the extant species, Homo sapiens, but to fossil
hominids as a whole. The first two volumes of the
series are devoted to fossils that have been allocated to
the genus Homo (whether or not it is likely that they
will ultimately be found to warrant the appellation),
and focus on skull and dental morphology. Volume 1
presents our descriptive protocol and the craniodental
fossils from Europe; Volume 2 covers the African
and Asian hominid fossil records and concludes with
a brief overview of questions raised by morphological
diversity in the genus Homo. We regret the absence of
Australia, but circumstances beyond our control or
that of our colleagues have made this inevitable for
the time being. Volume 3 will cover the record of the
earliest homonids, and will conclude with a discussion
of homonid morphological nomenclature and system-
atics. Description will remain paramount, however.ix