The fragment of a hominid tooth from the holstein ii period from stuttgart-bad cannstatt, s-w germany

Abstract

Through systematic excavations in a loamy layer of a travertine quarry at Stuttgart-Bad Cannstatt in 1981, a crown and a root of a tooth were discovered. The stratigraphic and TL-dating give a geochronological age of Holstein II or nearly 300 Ky. In 1981 these two fragments were published and diagnosed by their mi- cromorphological structure by the present author as a lower left hominid canine. Adam (1986) and Schott (1989) pointed out that the two fragments must be of one tooth of Cervus elaphus ignoring the fragmentary preservation of the crown and the differences of the shape of the preserved cervical part of the crown in contrast to that of the isolated root. The overall morphology, including the micromorphology together with the metric evaluation and a comparison with the teeth of Cervus elaphus, determine the two fragments as a hypoplastic crown of a left lower human canine and a root which belongs possibly to an upper molar.