326 paleoanthropology The Ephebic Oath was designed to produce wellrounded guardians of the Athenian culture, belief system, and philosophical thought process Note the emphasis on use of skill at arms to defend the laws, the religion, and the sacred Other examples of Greek society’s lasting attention on paideia abound, particularly in the principles that were inscribed on their most sacred places For example, inscribed on the temple at Delphi, to which even the wisest of the Greeks journeyed to seek the advice of the god Phoebus Apollo, are such phrases as “know thyself” and “nothing in excess.” The Greek city-states were alike in many respects, and yet they fought with one another for many generations It was not atypical for one Greek city to annihilate or completely enslave another city as a result of this internecine warfare Perhaps the most powerful Greek city-state was Sparta, renowned for its powerful military, to which all male children were carefully indoctrinated from an early age Many ancient authors note the number of nations that were saved from destruction by a single Spartan warrior An endangered nation that appealed to Sparta for help would receive a single Spartan commander, who would successfully organize the defense into a victorious army Paideia was instrumental in the success of this city over many generations during which a variety of powerful rivals were unable to overcome Sparta This conclusion is supported by the eventual conquest of Sparta by Argos, another Greek city Argos did not destroy the town of Sparta, slaughter its citizens after the battle, or enslave its population Argos compelled the Spartans to replace their own paideia with the paideia used in Argos Never again was Sparta at the forefront of Greek military powers Roman units, having heard of Sparta’s reputation, eagerly sought a battle with the city but instead found a humble village inhabited by mostly elderly people, unable to mount a noteworthy defense This points to the difference— between being a superpower and being an anonymous agrarian village—that paideia made to the Greeks See also Athenian predemocracy; Greek mythology and pantheon; Hellenization; Herodotus, Thucydides, and Xenophon Further reading: Plutarch Lives of the Noble Grecians and Romans New York: Modern Library, 1932; ——— On Sparta New York: Penguin Classics, 2005; Swift, Fletcher Harper The Athenian Ephebic Oath of Allegiance in American Schools and Colleges University of California Publications in Education 11, no (1947) Joseph R Gerber paleoanthropology For three generations the Leakey family has been pioneers in the field of paleoanthropology, seeking to uncover the origins of human beings Louis Leakey (1903–72), who was born in Kenya, started exploring remains of human ancestors in East Africa in the 1930s Experts, according to conventional wisdom, believed that Asia had been the source of human evolution and greeted him with initial skepticism By the late 1940s Leakey and his wife, Mary Leakey (1913–96), had found the skull of a Miocene hominoid and went on to find fossil bones of other human ancestors Although many of Leakey’s conclusions regarding the age and classifications of his discoveries remain highly controversial, his works led the way for important new interpretations and work into the origins of hominids In the Olduvai Gorge in northern Tanzania, Mary excavated remains of Zinjanthropus boisei, now known as Australopithecus boisei, in 1959 In 1979 she found a line of early human footprints dating back 3.6 million years, thereby showing that early human ancestors were bipedal These and other ongoing explorations have led most experts to conclude that Africa was the evolutionary source of humankind Their son, Richard E Leakey (b 1944) and his wife, Meave G Leakey (b 1942), carried on work in northern Kenya on Lake Turkana where they found important skulls of Homo habilis and Homo erectus and a nearly complete skeleton of “Turkana Boy,” a youngster that lived some 1.6 million years ago In 2001 Meave found a skull of Kenyanthropus platyopsa, a new genus and species Their daughter, Louise N Leakey (b 1972), continues the family tradition and heads the Koobi Fora Research Project along Lake Turkana searching and excavating for fossils; Louise’s research focuses on the evolution of early human ancestors, seeking answers to the origins of Homo, humankind’s genus New generations of paleoanthropologists, including Donald Johanson, Yohannes Haile-Selassie, and others, have expanded fieldwork into Ethiopia, as well as central Africa In 1974 Johanson discovered “Lucy” an early human ancestor Scientists now believe that human evolution dates back or million years with about a dozen different species of human ancestors The Leakeys were also ardent environmentalists and supporters of animal conservation Louis mentored a new generation of young scholars such as Jane Goodall, Dian Fossey, and Biruté Galdikas Brindamour, who conducted groundbreaking field studies of chimpanzees, mountain gorillas, and orangutans Similarly, Richard