Hoping to bolster his case, in 1897 Dubois allowed a respected anatomist from the University of Strasbourg, Gustav Schwalbe, to make a cast of the skullcap.
And there in 1891, Dubois-or rather his team, for Dubois himself seldom visited the sites-found a section of ancient human cranium now known as the Trinil skullcap.
We hadn't had a telephone for as long as I could remember, but the next day there it was, resting in a lime-green cradle, its glossy finish looking out of place next to the murky jars of cohosh and skullcap.