Anthropology And Archaeology

South Africa 2006 Rock Art
Human Figures, San painting from a rock shelter on Linton Farm
Mountain Reedbuck, at South African Museum of Rock Art
Therianthropic Figure, San painting, at the Origins Centre, Witwatersrand
Rhinoceros, Wildebeest Kuil Public Rock Art Site
Eland and Man, Game Pass Shelter in the Kamberg Nature Reserve near Underberg

Tanzania 2014 Tanzania Heritage Sites
Laetoli is a prehistoric site located in Ngorongoro District in Arusha Region. It is well known for the 3.66 million years old hominin footprints preserved in volcanic ash. The location and tracks were discovered by archaeologist Mary Leakey (1913-1996) in 1976 and were excavated in 1978.

Groups of Homo erectus migrated to Western Europe. Tautavel Man (Homo erectus tautavelensis), is a proposed subspecies of the hominid Homo erectus, the 450,000-year-old fossil remains of whom were discovered in the Arago Cave in Tautavel, France.

Tautavel Man, issued by France on June 20, 1992:

FDC of the stamp with commemorative postmark:

Silk maximum card:

Tautavel Man visiting Israel:

Central African Republic 1967 VI Pan-African Congress on Prehistory
The stamp set shows Late Neolithic sites in the country.
30F: Rock Shelter, Toulou
50F: Perforated Stone, Kwé
100F: Megaliths, Bouar
130F: Rock Paintings, Toulou

Chad 1966 Chad National Museum
The stamp set depicts prehistoric tools: a hand ax, a pointed arrowhead, a bone harpoon, a grinding stone.

Niger 1976 Archaeology
40F: Giraffe stone carvings from the Aïr Mountains
50F: Neolithic sculptures

Gabon 1990 Prehistory of Gabon
The stamp set shows stone tools: an ax, a hatchet, an arrowhead, a biface.

"Taung child" or "Taung baby" is the first fossilized skull of Australopithecus africanus found. Stamp issued by South Africa on June 28, 1998:

The "Taung baby" was discovered in SA by Raymond Arthur Dart (1893 – 1988), an Australian anatomist and anthropologist. Here a stamp issued by Palau on March 15, 2000, shows Raymond Dart examining the "Taung baby":

Reconstruction of the A. africanus, issued by Cambodia on October 25, 2001:

South Africa 1998 Early South African History
Partial set
Florisbad skull, Paleolithic (ca. 260,000 BC)
Hand axe, Paleolithic
San rock engravings, Neolithic
San rock art, Neolithic

Botswana 1975 Rock Paintings from Tsodilo Hills
The stamp set depicts painted images of ostrich, rhinoceros, spotted hyena, scorpion. The minisheet shows a sketch of the west face of Female Hill, a large Neoproterozoic metaquartzite outcrop.

Tanzania 1991 Historical Craters and Caves
5sh: Kondoa Caves are located on the eastern slopes of the Maasai Escarpment. Over 400 rock shelters in this area are decorated with Mesolithic and Neolithic paintings.
12sh: Olduvai Gorge is a steep-sided ravine in the Great Rift Valley. The site holds the earliest evidence of the existence of human ancestors.

French Territory of Afar and Issas 1973 Archaeology
The stamp set depicts Stone Age tools: points, blades and spikes, biface, disk and ax.

Neanderthal man remains were found in the Island of Jersey. On October 12, 2010, Jersey issued a set entitled Jersey Archaeology, commemorating the centenary of the excavations began at the site La Cotte de St. Brelade in 1910. Among the findings, a Neanderthal man'n teeth and flint tools.

39p. - Neanderthal man's teeth
45p. - Woolly Rhinoceros fossilized skull
55p. - Woolly Mammoth fossilized tusks and tooth
60p. - Flint tools from the lower Paleolithic up to end of the Paleolithic epoch
80p. - Giant deer fossilized antlers:





FDC applied with commemorative postmark shows the Woolly Mammoth fossilized tusks:

The stamps were sold in a special presentation pack shows skulls of Homo erectus, Neanderthal man and Homo sapiens:

Back of the FDC with descriptions and technical details:

The Cave of Altamira is a cave in Northern Spain famous for its Upper Paleolithic paintings featuring drawings and polychrome rock paintings of wild mammals and human hands. Altamira is the first cave in the world in which prehistoric cave paintings were discovered. The cave of Altamira and Paleolithic cave art of Northern Spain were declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in year 1985.

Cave of Altamira heritage site, issued by Spain on December 5, 1989:

Maxicard with the same stamp and a commemorative postmark depicting the bison painting of Altamira:


Marcelino Sanz de Sautuola (1831-1888) was a Spanish amateur archaeologist who owned the land where the Altamira cave was found. Sautuola started exploring the cave in 1875. He did not become aware of the paintings until 1879, when his eight-year-old daughter María noticed that the ceiling was covered with images of bison. Sautuola, having seen similar images engraved on Paleolithic objects displayed at the World Exposition in Paris the year before, rightly assumed that the paintings might also date from the Stone Age. He therefore engaged an archaeologist from the University of Madrid to help him in his further work.

Marcelino Sanz de Sautuola, issued by Guinea on September 30, 2011:

The famous bison paintings of Altamira are depicted on several stamps. Here is a selection from Spain (1967), Cuba (1982), Mozambique (2010) and Venda (1982):




Maxicard of the Venda stamp:

One of the early and classic sets about anthropology was issued by Cuba on March 31, 1967. Stamps depicting different early man famous illustrations taken from book by the Czech painter and book illustrator Zdenek Michael Frantisek Burian (February 11, 1905, Koprivnice, Moravia, Austria-Hungary – July 1, 1981 Prague, Czechoslovakia). Although several of the stamps were already posted here, here is the complete set:

Homo habilis
Australopithecus
Homo erectus
Sinanthropus pekinensis
Homo neanderthalensis
Homo Cro-magnon





Two FDC's with commemorative postmark and a very attractive cachet:


The postmark probably shows the bison cave painting from Altamira cave in Spain. I scanned it with high contrast to make it clearer:

I am looking for used FDC's and commercial covers franked with these stamps. Thanks.