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Spartacus:

 

Even those who aren’t familiar with history have probably heard the name. It’s a name that has been passed down 2 millenia, over two thousand years the ultimate underdog story has capitulated in the minds of men. It has given some hope, it has assailed others with fear. What does the name Spartacus mean to you if anything?

 

today I want to change things up a bit. Usually i focus the narrative on pretty much just facts and I hope that it is as interesting to you as it is to me.

 

For those of you that do not know me personally which I assume is most of you something that I do in my spare time is Dungeons and Dragons, I know huge nerd. Beyond that as probably would surprise nobody listening to this podcast is I am a dungeon master (How can something sound so cool, so terrible and so utterly silly at the same time) Nevermind that’s for a different time.

 

I am going to try and tell his story, Spartacus’ story as just that a narrative. Yes, it will hopefully have all of the facts within it but it might also contain the excitement and I will not refrain my tongue from the narrative as I normally do. If I did that Normally each episode would be at least two hours and I would never subject you guys to that.

 

So here we go!

 

Welcome to History Uncensored as always I am your host Seth Michels and today history can go “uck itself.

 

Spartacus was born in Thrace and if you don’t know where that is I forgive you because “Thrace” is not a real fucking place anymore. Just as in a lot of cases with these old stories some of these places have gone through different names and 2000 years can be hard on historical accuracy. Also, I suck with names deal with it.

 

Where was I… Oh yeah Thrace! That place geographically it is to the north and east of what we can think of as traditional Greece. 

 

Thrace was still very rural during the times of the Roman’s and during the 2nd and 3rd century BC were enemies of Rome. That was a long time ago in the story of Spartacus though. Our hero, our underdog was born sometime around 109bc when Thrace was firmly under the rule and “subjugation” of Rome.

 

Interesting Cultural note on Thrace: They like to “uck

 

The Thracians were polygamous as Menander puts it: "All Thracians, especially us and the Getae, are not much abstaining, because no one takes less than ten, eleven, twelve wives, some even more. If one dies and has only four or five wives he is called ill-fated, unhappy and unmarried."[59] According to Herodotus virginity among women was not valued, and unmarried Thracian women could have sex with any man they wished to.

 

Also of interesting note, Thracians were often depicted as having red or auburn hair. The gingers of the ancient world. I am not sure if that makes Spartacus more or less terrifying than what I envisioned him as. Thanks, Kubrick ya Prick.

 

Thracians were a warrior people and valued bravery in battle, especially on horseback. They made excellent light cavalry units and were proficient with javelins and spears. Perhaps it was this early warfare training that brought out what would eventually be Spartacus the Gladiator and Spartacus the General.

 

We don’t know shit about Spartacus’ upbringing I mean literal Dogshit about it. I know Fuckall- he was born and then suddenly we pick up history as an auxiliary unit within the Roman army- probably fighting Mithridates.

 

Mithridates is important to Spartacus, probably not as a person or a friend or anything but Mithridates war on Rome really assisted in making Spartacus’ uprising the most successful Slave Revolt in history to that point.

 

Also while we are talking about slave revolts, don’t worry guys ill get to Spartacus ginger big dick in a little bit. I want to talk about the two slave revolts that took place in the recent history in Spartacus’ time that contributed to the decisions that Rome made and the Decisions that Spartacus made.

 

Important Revolt number 1 in Rom

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Gladiators part 2

 

Last week we Learned about who the gladiators were, as people. This week I want to Focus on the fights and who the gladiators were as combatants. 

 

Let the Games begin!

Gladiators were not an undifferentiated group of sword fighters; they were divided up into categories based on different styles of armour, weapons and fighting. Sometimes it is hard to determine with certainty the type a gladiator depicted in surviving ancient representations. We must accept the possibility that occasionally variety in armour and weapons was allowed within a given gladiator category.166 For the most part, however, gladiators conformed generally to type. During the Republic, there were five known gladiator types: samnis (Samnite), gallus (Gaul), thraex (Thracian), provocator (‘challenger’) and eques (‘horseman’). 

 

The first three types are ethnic in origin, that is, their armour, weapons and style of fighting were derived from peoples who had engaged in war with the Romans: the Samnites, Gauls and Thracians. As noted earlier, these gladiator types must have developed from the practice of forcing prisoners of war from the same region to fight each other wearing their characteristic armour and employing their distinctive fighting styles. In time, the names of these three ethnic gladiatorial types no longer indicated warriors native to these regions, but merely a gladiatorial style. These ethnic gladiatorial types throughout the Republic kept the memory of Rome’s past military successes alive by re-enacting them in the arena. The Samnite and the Gaul, the earliest gladiator types we know of, did not survive much beyond the Republic; only the thraex survived into the imperial period and remained popular into late antiquity.

 

Eques One type of gladiator easy to identify is the eques (‘horseman’), a lightly armed fighter who fought both on horseback and on the ground. It is clear that the equites were real horsemen. Cicero reports that the crowd’s hissing of an unpopular politician startled ‘the gladiators and their horses’.171 These gladiators with horses could only be the equites. An eques always fought an opponent of the same category.172 The only detailed description we have of the equites in a munus comes from a medieval author Isidore of Seville (seventh century AD), but his overall knowledge of gladiators accords well with the ancient sources, thus giving credence to the evidence he provides:

 

“Of the several types of gladiators, the first contest involves the equestrians. Two equites, preceded by military standards, entered the arena, one from the west, the other from the east, riding on white horses, wearing smallish golden helmets and carrying light weapons.”

 

Provocator The provocator(‘challenger’) was another gladiatorial type that originated in theRepublicandsurvivedintoimperialtimes.Ciceromentionstheprovocator in the same speech along with the equites and the Samnites.178 The provocator looked much more like a standard gladiator than did the eques. His visored helmet was not brimmed and had a neck guard in the back. He wore a loincloth (subligaculum), standard attire for all gladiators except for the eques, and a greave on his left leg. The shield of the provocateur was concave and rectangular. Perhaps his most identifiable feature was the breastplate he wore, held on the body by straps that met at the back, which protected the upper chest.179 No other type of gladiator wore any protective armour on the chest.

 

Thraex The thraex was the sole survivor into the imperial period of the ethnic-based gladiators of the Republic. It is uncertain when the thraex became a gladiatorial type at Rome. There are two possibilities: (1) when Rome took Thracian mercenaries captive in the war against Perseus (171–167 BC), or (2) when many Thracians were taken as prisoners in the Mithdridatic wars in the 80s BC

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Are you not Entertained?

 

“What gladiator, when he has lain down in defeat and was ordered to receive the deathblow, drawn back his neck? So effective is the force of practice, preparation, and habit.”

 

A history of gladiatorial Combat in ancient Rome, the people the places and the events.

 

Gladiatorial combat was not unlike that depicted in ridley Scotts Gladiator. For this episode, I had to go back and rewatch it, one of my absolute favorites.

 

This episode is mostly brought to you from one source with a few others mixed in, which to be honest made my life way (e) easier. The title of the book is Gladiators: violence and spectacle in Ancient Rome by Roger Dunkle.

 

 gladiator games from the very beginning of their history at Rome were closely associated with funerals. The connection between a gladiator show and honouring the memory of a dead wife might be hard for us to fathom. The presentation of gladiatorial combat was called by the Romans a munus, a Latin word that meant ‘duty’or ‘gift’ and by extension ‘funeral honours’, an obligation performed for, or a gift given to, the dead. Georges Ville says that throughout the Republic the word munus had the general meaning of ‘spectacle’, a show given as a gift to the people by Roman magistrates or even private citizens. Therefore, the word munus could also refer to the spectacles called ludi in honour of the gods, consisting of entertainments such as theatrical presentations and chariot racing, or to a gladiatorial spectacle, which until the late first century BC was given only in honour of the dead. By the early empire, the primary meaning of munus had become ‘gladiatorial combat’, driving out the general meaning of ‘spectacle’. The reason for this was the immense popularity of gladiator games. All spectacles were ‘gifts’ to the Roman people, but as Ville points out, gladiatorial combat was ‘the gift par excellence to the people’

 

The ancients thought that performing this spectacle was a duty to the dead, after they tempered it with a more humane atrocity. For, once upon a time, since it had been believed that the souls of the dead were propitiated by human blood, having purchased captives or slaves of bad character, they sacrificed them as part of funeral ritual. Later they decided to mask the impiety as entertainment. And so those they had purchased and trained in what arms and in whatever way they could, only that they might learn to be killed, they soon exposed to death on the appointed day of the funeral. Thus, they sought consolation for death in homicide. This was the origin of the munus.

 

however, categorically disassociates human sacrifice from Roman funerals: ‘there is no evidence at all that the Romans at any period thought that any such human sacrifices were appropriate in connection with funerals’. Gladiators with their intense desire for victory and readiness to accept death only as a last resort did not make good sacrificial victims. One essential requirement of an effective sacrifice was the complicity, either real or fictional, of the victim. Moreover, not every gladiatorial match ended in death; in fact, as we shall see, many did not

 

 One cannot help but think, especially during the Republic when there were constant wars, that spectators at a munus were reminded of Roman military success as they watched gladiatorial combat in the amphitheater, particularly with the appearance of gladiator types called the Samnite, Gaul, and Thracian, all recalling one-time enemies of Rome

 

One thing to remember always, these were people captured or enslaved by Rome's quest for power, land, and domination. Always remember that these were people, slaves some of them ex-military but some civilians. They did not all, deserve this type of death.

 

There is little doubt, however, that gladiatorial games, even if they were not strictly speaking human sacrifice, were in origin funeral offerings in honour of

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A few things before we start.

 

Trouble with sources

 

Digging deep

 

It’s no fun being a slave. And it’s not just the work 

But knowing that you’re a slave and that nothing can change it. 

Slave character in Plautus, Amphitryo c. 200 B.C.1

 

I also want to really emphasize slavery as a theory and practice, these will be important concepts to understanding slavery as we continue down the path. Some of these concepts will probably be hard to listen to, I get that. These concepts the difficult, the morbid, the disgusting facts are a part of history and life today. I will be getting to modern slavery at a much later time, but this stroll down history lane has an endpoint. We will finish the history of slavery and talk about slave theory in modern times and I want every listener to be prepared for the bombs I will drop and how they might affect your life and the way you think about how modern society is run. The topics that are on this show I have tried to pick because I want you as well as myself to better understand the incessant problems we face today. Such as Slavery, Climate crisis, the Constitution, Male privilege, Western Ideological Privilege etc. 

 

Slavery is an economic and social problem, it is often written by the slaver. It is sometimes very difficult to get proper evidence on what it may have been like to be a slave or part of the slave system because of this. 

 

The one thing to remember is that slaves were people, I will be discussing them as property quite frequently. Know that in my heart of hearts I do not mean this an injustice and only do it for historical decorum. Slaves were people and they had dreams and aspirations. They felt, betrayal, love, spite, hatred, happiness and every other emotion. There are still slaves today, there are still people with no visceral rights within their own society. That is the reason I do this, so we can remember their stories and try and understand the gruesome nature of human consciousness and it’s needed for power and subversion. The same story has played out millions of times in history, to better understand today we need a realistic comprehension of the atrocities committed yesterday.

 

When I say one slave society was better than another because of x, understand that no slave society was good. The literal owning of human property is appalling to a degree that should require no explanation. I hope that you as a listener follow me down this path of knowledge and understand that I do so out of as pure of heart and mind as possible. What I say hurts me sometimes, it hurts to talk about this shit. 

 

Know I will also be talking quite extensively in an episode of women's rights in Rome and what that meant for the future of women in western society. That talk is for a future date, for now, let us instead focus on the brutal reality that was ancient Rome for a non-manumitted slave.

 

Roman Slavery: A Study of Roman Society and Its Dependence on 

Slaves

 

Andrew Burks

 

Little is known about the origins of slavery in Rome. However, it was common in ancient societies to keep slaves.  The likely origin of Rome as a small village, or collection of villages, lends itself easily to early slavery. It would not have been uncommon for even a small village to maintain a few slaves; captured from another local village or perhaps bought through trade.  However, there are a few references to slavery before the third century BC, and those speak of small-scale slavery. Only the extremely rich could afford these slaves, and even then, they could only afford a few slaves.  

 

In 225 B.C., there were an estimated 600,000 slaves in Roman Italy, but only 194 years later that number grew to approximately two million.  This included growth from 15% to 

35% of the total population.3  These numbers reveal the extent of the institution of slavery in Roman society.  In a study of Roman tombstones, nearly three times

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Welcome to history Uncensored, the best place to dig into the history nobody wanted to tell you. This is an uncensored show, I will probably share some things that will upset you. My opinions on things will probably upset you.

I don’t really care, history shouldn’t be censored, we shouldn’t be taught just the “rosey” parts. Rome is a great example of how a civilization built upon the backs of slaves and farmers is remembered as one of the greatest in history. 

I bet if you ask anyone what civilization had the greatest impact on the western world I am very certain they would unequivocally say that it was the Roman Empire.

The briefest chronological overview of the Roman Empire coming your way

The history of the Roman Empire can be divided into three distinct periods: The Period of Kings (625-510 BC), Republican Rome (510-31 BC), and Imperial Rome (31 BC – AD 476).

Founding (c. 625 BC)

Rome was founded around 625 BC in the areas of ancient Italy known as Etruria and Latium. It is thought that the city-state of Rome was initially formed by Latium villagers joining together with settlers from the surrounding hills in response to an Etruscan invasion. It is unclear whether they came together in defense or as a result of being brought under Etruscan rule. Archaeological evidence indicates that a great deal of change and unification took place around 600 BC which likely led to the establishment of Rome as a true city.

Period of Kings (625-510 BC)

The first period in Roman history is known as the Period of Kings, and it lasted from Rome’s founding until 510 BC. During this brief time Rome, led by no fewer than six kings, advanced both militaristically and economically with increases in physical boundaries, military might, and production and trade of goods including oil lamps. Politically, this period saw the early formation of the Roman constitution. The end of the Period of Kings came with the decline of Etruscan power, thus ushering in Rome’s Republican Period.

Republican Rome (510-31 BC)

Rome entered its Republican Period in 510 BC. No longer ruled by kings, the Romans established a new form of government whereby the upper classes ruled, namely the senators and the equestrians, or knights. However, a dictator could be nominated in times of crisis. In 451 BC, the Romans established the “Twelve Tables,” a standardized code of laws meant for public, private, and political matters.

Rome continued to expand through the Republican Period and gained control over the entire Italian peninsula by 338 BC. It was the Punic Wars from 264-146 BC, along with some conflicts with Greece, that allowed Rome to take control of Carthage and Corinth and thus become the dominant maritime power in the Mediterranean.

Soon after, Rome’s political atmosphere pushed the Republic into a period of chaos and civil war. This led to the election of a dictator, L. Cornelius Sulla, who served from 82-80 BC. Following Sulla’s resignation in 79 BC, the Republic returned to a state of unrest. While Rome continued to be governed as a Republic for another 50 years, the shift to Imperialism began to materialize in 60 BC when Julius Caesar rose to power.

By 51 BC, Julius Caesar had conquered Celtic Gaul and, for the first time, Rome’s borders had spread beyond the Mediterranean region. Although the Senate was still Rome’s governing body, its power was weakening. Julius Caesar was assassinated in 44 BC and replaced by his heir, Gaius Julius Caesar Octavianus (Octavian) who ruled alongside Mark Antony. In 31 BC Rome overtook Egypt which resulted in the death of Mark Antony and left Octavian as the unchallenged ruler of Rome. Octavian assumed the title of Augustus and thus became the first emperor of Rome.

Imperial Rome (31 BC-AD 476)

Rome’s Imperial Period was its last, beginning with the rise of Rome’s first emperor in 31 BC and lasting until the fall of Rome in AD 476. During this period, Rome saw several decad

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President Ronald Fudging Reagan

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The President who fucked America, Yet left it wanting more.

 

Recap Quotes and other skullduggery from this podcast's favorite president.

 

"I am not worried about the deficit. It is big enough to take care of itself."

—President Ronald Reagan

 

"Well, I learned a lot...I went down to (Latin America) to find out from them and (learn) their views. You'd be surprised. They're all individual countries."

—President Ronald Reagan

"Facts are stupid things."

—Ronald Reagan, at the 1988 Republican National Convention, attempting to quote John Adams, who said, "Facts are stubborn things"

We were told four years ago that 17 million people went to bed hungry every night. Well, that was probably true. They were all on a diet.

 

Every morning Nancy and I turn to see what he has to say about people of our respective birth signs.

Regarding his friend Hollywood astrologer Carroll Righter, in Where's the Rest of Me? (1965)

I would have voted against the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

As quoted in Los Angeles Times (17 June 1966)

I favor the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and it must be enforced at the point of a bayonet, if necessary.

As quoted in The Los Angeles Times (20 October 1965)

Government is like a baby. An alimentary canal with a big appetite at one end and no responsibility at the other.

We must reject the idea that every time a law's broken, society is guilty rather than the lawbreaker. It is time to restore the American precept that each individual is accountable for his actions.

If it's to be a bloodbath, let it be now. Appeasement is not the answer.

 

On what to do about student disruptions at UC Berkeley, quoted in the Los Angeles Times (8 April 1970); shortly thereafter, Reagan said: "I certainly don't think there should be a bloodbath on campus or anywhere else. It was just a figure of speech." as quoted by United Press International

 

Politics is supposed to be the second oldest profession. I have come to realize that it bears a very close resemblance to the first

And I have to point out that government doesn't tax to get the money it needs, government always needs the money it gets

 

[Evolution] has in recent years been challenged in the world of science and is not yet believed in the scientific community to be as infallible as it once was believed. But if it was going to be taught in the schools, then I think that also the biblical theory of creation, which is not a theory but the biblical story of creation, should also be taught.

 

Approximately 80 percent of our air pollution stems from hydrocarbons released by vegetation. So let's not go overboard in setting and enforcing tough emission standards for man-made sources.

 

I have flown twice over Mount St. Helens. I'm not a scientist and I don't know the figures, but I have a suspicion that one little mountain out there, in these last several months, has probably released more sulfur dioxide into the atmosphere than has been released in the last ten years of automobile driving or things of that kind

 

I believe with all my heart that our first priority must be world peace, and that use of force is always and only a last resort, when everything else has failed, and then only with regard to our national security

 

Thomas Jefferson made a comment about the Presidency and age. He said that one should not worry about one's exact chronological age in reference to his ability to perform one's task. And ever since he told me that, I stopped worrying.

 

I have left orders to be awakened at any time in case of national emergency, even if I'm in a cabinet meeting

 

You'd be surprised how much being a good actor pays off.

 

Responding to a question from students at Shanghai's University of Fudan as to which experiences best prepared him for the presidency (30 April 1984), cited by Paul Slansky, The Clothes Have No Emperor

 

The simple truth is, 'I don't remember — period.

If a tax hik

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"By the end of his term, 138 Reagan administration officials had been convicted, had been indicted, or had been the subject of official investigations for official misconduct and/or criminal violations.  In terms of number of officials involved, the record of his administration was the worst ever." 

 first, public office definitions specify corruption as deviation from legal and public duty norms for the purposes of private gain. Second, market system definitions define corruption as part of the rational utility maximizing behavior of public officials. Third, public interest definitions view corruption as the betrayal of some broad "public interest

       from p. 184,Sleep-Walking Through History: America in the Reagan Years, by Haynes 

Johnson, (1991, Doubleday),

During his time as president, he presided over significant scandals and debacles.

 

The Iran Contra Affair

Department of housing and urban development grant rigging

Lobbying Scandals

EPA scandal

Debategate

Wedtech 

Operation Ill wind

The Big Sleep

The savings and loans crisis

The Nuclear War Scare!

Iran–Contra affair[edit]

Main article: Iran–Contra affair

 

The lasting memory I have of this research are just a few of reagan’s words- “I don’t recall that” or “Sorry, i can’t recall”

“The common ingredients of the Iran and Contra policies were secrecy, deception, and disdain for the law...the United States simultaneously pursued two contradictory foreign policies — a public one and a secret one” (Report of the Congressional Committees Investigating the IranContra Affair)(3)

The most well-known and politically damaging of the scandals came to light in November 1986, when Ronald Reagan conceded that the United States had sold weapons to the Islamic Republic of Iran, as part of a largely unsuccessful effort to secure the release of six U.S. citizens being held hostage in Lebanon. It was also disclosed that some of the money from the arms deal with Iran had been covertly and illegally funneled into a fund to aid the right-wing Contras counter-revolutionary groups seeking to overthrow the socialist Sandinista government of Nicaragua. The Iran–Contra affair, as it became known, did serious damage to the Reagan presidency. The investigations were effectively halted when President George H. W. Bush (Reagan's vice president) pardoned Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger before his trial began.[2]

Caspar Weinberger, United States Secretary of Defense, was pardoned before trial produced by George H. W. Bush

Elliott Abrams agreed to cooperate with investigators and in return was allowed to plead guilty to two misdemeanor charges instead of facing possible felony indictments. He was sentenced to two years probation and one hundred hours of community service. He was also pardoned by Bush on December 24, 1992 along with five other former Reagan Administration officials who had been implicated in connection with Iran–Contra.[3]

National Security Adviser Robert C. McFarlane, pleaded guilty to four misdemeanors and was sentenced to two years probation and 200 hours of community service and was ordered to pay a $20,000 fine.[3] He was also pardoned by Bush.

Alan D. Fiers was the Chief of the Central Intelligence Agency's Central American Task Force. He pleaded guilty in 1991 to two counts of withholding information from Congress and was sentenced to one year of probation and one hundred hours of community service. He was also pardoned by Bush.[3][4]

Richard R. Miller – Partner with Oliver North in IBC, an Office of Public Diplomacy front group, convicted of conspiracy to defraud the United States.[3][5]

Clair George was Chief of the Central Intelligence Agency's Division of Covert Operations under President Reagan. George was convicted of lying to two congressional committees in 1986. He was pardoned by Bush.[3][4][6]

Richard Secord was indicted on nine felony counts of lying to Congress and pleaded guilty to a felony charge of lying to Congress.[3][7]

Thomas G. Clines was convicted of

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hat was a clickbait title, any time we find new pieces of a skeleton from pre-human history it really is a missing link.

Terminology to know

Hominin– Any species of early human that is more closely related to humans than chimpanzees, including modern humans themselves. (At this point, this includes the genus homo, Australopithecus, Ardipithecus, and Paranthropus. These genus’ can and do change as various new fossils are found, which either add new genus’, or cast doubt on existing ones. Homo and australopithecus are the two most definite)

Hominid– All modern AND extinct GREAT apes. Gorillas, chimps, orangs and humans, and their immediate ancestors. Not gibbons.

Evolution– The process by which different kinds of living organisms are thought to have developed and diversified from earlier forms during the history of the earth. (really basic, click the link to get more info)

The fossil in question was a male hominin found in Ethiopia. There are some claims that this is the oldest known ancestor and well that isn’t true. We can’t say for sure that this is even a direct ancestor of ours.

What is a Missing Link?

A thing that is needed in order to complete a series, provide continuity, or gain complete knowledge.” they are the missing link between prog rock and punk rock”

a hypothetical fossil form intermediate between two living forms, especially between humans and apes.

Every fossil we find from pre-human bipedal remains is a missing link. It provides a record of how we as humans possibly evolved.

Wait, what?

That is right, these fossils are amazing and provide a unique glimpse into the life of our early ancestors or so we believe. Here is the thing, because DNA has such a short half-life there is no way to prove that these particularly ancient hominins are our ancestors.

You see now that every piece of the fossil record is important to understanding our past. Each piece gives us a clue to the final puzzle, which to be honest is probably unlikely that we ever truly know. That does not make their discovery any less exciting though.

Here is what we do know, they are among the first primates to walk on two feet across great distances. This is both an advantage (carrying things, bigger brain, tool use etc.)

it is also a disadvantage too, do your knees and ankles hurt frequently? How about your hips or your back? Our weight and weight distribution put a lot of pressure on certain parts of our body. Especially in the lower back, hips, and knees. That is a lot to ask of any part f the body. These would be parts that traditionally seen in Apes and Great Ape species that would be supported by the arms and shoulders as well.

This is because pieces of bone from that long ago are really rare and difficult to find and once we find them they are difficult to classify. This skull though is a very interesting find as it is mostly intact. (which is incredibly rare) Most bones from more than a million years or so ago are usually only fragments of the whole.

This was nearly an entire skull, and the skull can tell us so much about how this bi-ped lived. Bipedal, Hominin, Ancient human; I guess I don’t really care too much about how you say it.

There is a very rich history dating from several million years ago all the up to when humans first presented themselves in the archaeological record.

Here is the abstract from the study, Don’t worry about the big words I promise to break it down for you.

The cranial morphology of the earliest known hominins in the genus Australopithecus remains unclear. The oldest species in this genus (Australopithecus Anamensis, specimens of which have been dated to 4.2–3.9 million years ago) is known primarily from jaws and teeth, whereas younger species (dated to 3.5–2.0 million years ago) are typically represented by multiple skulls. Here we describe a nearly complete hominin cranium from Woranso-Mille (Ethiopia) that we date to 3.8 million years ago. We assign this cranium to A. Anamensis on the basis of the taxonomically a

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