The Kabwe Skull: Zambia's Ancient Ancestor in London

The Kabwe skull, also known as Kabwe 1 or the Broken Hill skull, is one of the most important human fossils ever found in Africa. Miners dug it out of a lead and zinc mine at Broken Hill in what was then Northern Rhodesia, now the town of Kabwe in central Zambia, in 1921. A study published in 2020 dated it to roughly 299,000 years old, with a likely range of about 274,000 to 324,000 years.

Within months of its discovery the skull was shipped to Britain, and it has been held at the Natural History Museum in London ever since. That raises two questions this article tries to answer plainly: who was this person, and who should their remains belong to now?

How the Kabwe skull was found

Broken Hill took its name from the Australian mining town of Broken Hill, which prospectors thought the ridge of ore resembled. Mining began there early in the twentieth century. In June 1921, workers cutting into a cave filled with mineral deposits came across a remarkably complete human cranium. The find is usually credited to a Swiss miner, Tom Zwiglaar. As with many colonial-era discoveries, the African workers who did much of the digging are barely recorded.

The cave itself no longer exists: it was quarried away as the mine expanded. Other bones and stone tools from the site were collected, but because the deposits were removed by mining rather than excavated by archaeologists, much of the context that would normally help scientists understand a fossil was lost. That is one reason the skull's age was argued over for nearly a century.

What the skull tells us

The skull belonged to an adult with a large face, heavy brow ridges and a braincase close to the size of many living people's. In 1921 the British palaeontologist Arthur Smith Woodward described it as a new species, Homo rhodesiensis, after the colonial name of the territory. It also has some of the worst tooth decay known in any ancient human, with cavities in most of the upper teeth, which has made it a long-running subject of study in its own right.

For decades, many researchers assumed the skull was perhaps half a million years old or more, and saw it as a much earlier stage of human evolution. The 2020 re-dating, carried out by an international team using several methods on the skull and surrounding material, changed that picture. At around 300,000 years old, the person from Kabwe lived at roughly the same time as Homo naledi in South Africa and the earliest fossils linked to our own species, such as those from Jebel Irhoud in Morocco.

In other words, Africa at that time was home to several different kinds of humans living in different regions. The Kabwe skull is a strong piece of evidence for the idea that human evolution looks less like a ladder and more like a branching bush, with overlapping populations rather than one neat line leading to us. If you are interested in that wider picture, our article on the Cradle of Humankind explores it further.

Which species? A naming debate

Scientists still disagree about what to call the person from Kabwe. Many place the skull within Homo heidelbergensis, a species name used for a range of Middle Pleistocene fossils in Africa and Europe. Others prefer to keep Homo rhodesiensis for the African material, arguing that the European and African fossils should not be lumped together. In 2021 some researchers proposed a new name, Homo bodoensis, partly to avoid both the confusing European label and a name tied to Cecil Rhodes. That proposal has itself been debated and is not universally accepted.

The disagreement is not just about labels. It reflects real uncertainty about how these populations were related to one another and to Homo sapiens. The expedition uses "Kabwe skull" as its main name, explains "Broken Hill" as the colonial name, and treats the species labels as scientists' working tools rather than settled facts.

Should the Kabwe skull return to Zambia?

The skull left Northern Rhodesia under colonial rule, without any meaningful say from the people of the territory. In the decades since independence in 1964, Zambian officials, academics and campaigners have called for its return, and the centenary of the discovery in 2021 brought renewed attention to the request. The museum in London has cared for and studied the skull for a century, and the case for return is about more than care: it is about consent, ownership and who gets to tell the story of an ancient African person.

There is also a particular question that sets the Kabwe skull apart from many museum objects. These are human remains. Many people feel that remains should be treated differently from pottery or sculpture, and that the community of the place they came from has a special claim. The walk wants to hear Zambian voices on this first, rather than settling it from outside. The same theme reappears, at far larger scale, in Egypt, as explored in should the Rosetta Stone be returned.

Wealth travels, contamination stays

Kabwe's mine produced lead and zinc for most of the twentieth century until it closed in 1994. The skull was not the only thing that left. The metals left too, while lead dust settled into the soil and homes of the surrounding neighbourhoods. Kabwe has repeatedly been described by environmental organisations as one of the most polluted places on Earth, and studies have found high levels of lead exposure among residents, with young children the most vulnerable.

Remediation work has been carried out, including a clean-up programme supported by the World Bank, and legal efforts have been made to hold former mine operators responsible. Much remains unresolved. The expedition's interest here is in residents, health workers and remediation specialists as the people who understand this best, not in using anyone's suffering as an image. The question it carries is simple: why does the wealth travel while the contamination stays?

Why this matters on foot

Kabwe lies on the planned walking line, roughly 135 to 150 km north of Lusaka along the main road to the north. Walking into a town changes how you meet it. You arrive through its outskirts, its markets and its residential streets, the places where people actually live with the mine's legacy, rather than through a museum label.

The walk ends at Windsor, not far from London, where the skull sits today. The expedition hopes, after reaching Britain, to close this thread where the skull is now held, so that the journey connects the place a person was taken from with the place they ended up. You can follow the full line on the route page, learn who Leon is, and see each act of kindness paid for along the way on the kindness ledger. If this story matters to you, please consider backing the walk.

Frequently asked questions

How old is the Kabwe skull?

A 2020 study dated it to roughly 299,000 years old, with a likely range of about 274,000 to 324,000 years. Earlier estimates had placed it much older.

Where is the Kabwe skull now?

It is held at the Natural History Museum in London, where it has been since shortly after its discovery in 1921.

What species is the Kabwe skull?

It is usually assigned to Homo heidelbergensis or Homo rhodesiensis, and scientists continue to debate the naming. Its exact relationship to our own species is still uncertain.

Why is it called the Broken Hill skull?

Kabwe was called Broken Hill under colonial rule, after a mining town in Australia. The town took the name Kabwe after Zambian independence.