A rock collector's first prize
In 1925, a schoolteacher named Wilfred Eitzman was exploring a dolomite cave in South Africa's Makapan Valley. The cave was being mined for limestone, and the miners' waste dumps contained countless fossil bones. Among them, Eitzman found a peculiar, reddish-brown cobble weighing 260 grams. The water-worn jasperite stone, measuring about 8.3 cm long, had a startling feature: a pattern of natural pits and lines that look like a crude face.
The cobble was discovered in a layer of rock dated to between 2.5 and 3 million years ago. This same layer contained the fossil remains of Australopithecus africanus, an early hominin ancestor. Scientific analysis confirmed the face is entirely a product of natural geological processes, with no signs of artificial carving or modification. The stone is a manuport, a natural object moved by hominin activity. It was found miles from the nearest known source of jasperite. Some estimates placing the distance at 4.8 kilometers (3 miles) and others as far as 32 kilometers (20 miles). Its presence in the cave suggests an Australopithecus picked it up and carried it there.