Under the African Sun: Forty-Eight Years of Hunting the African Continent

by Frank C. Hibben

These hunts and many more are described in his last book, which contains the best from his earlier title Hunting In Africa as well as seventeen previously unpublished stories of African big-game hunting and adventure. You will not want to miss this well-written and exciting account! Illustrated with dozens of color photos.

305 pages, Hardcover

First published April 1, 1999

About the author

Frank Cumming Hibben (December 5, 1910 – June 11, 2002) was a well-known archaeologist whose research focused on the U.S. Southwest. As a professor at the University of New Mexico (UNM) and writer of popular books and articles, he inspired many people to study archaeology. He was also controversial, being suspected of scientific fraud during his studies of Paleo-Indian cultures.
The primary source of the controversies was Hibben's claim to have found a deposit with pre-Clovis artifacts (including projectile points, which he termed "Sandia points") in Sandia Cave (in the Sandia Mountains near Albuquerque, New Mexico). Hibben believed the layers to be about 25,000 years old, much older than the Paleo-Indian cultures previously documented in the U.S. Southwest. The layers also included the bones of Pleistocene species such as camels, mastodons, and horses.
The 25,000 year age for the "Sandia Man" deposits was a best guess based on the strata in the cave, and was later called into question, in part through radiocarbon dating. Also, research notes by Wesley Bliss (who had excavated in the cave in 1936) and others indicate that animal burrowing led to a mixing of deposits. The notion of a "Sandia Man" occupation of the U.S. Southwest is no longer accepted by professional archaeologists, but that in itself is not the source of controversy. Instead, some researchers believe that artifacts were "salted" (fraudulently placed) in the cave deposits to support the notion of the "Sandia Man" occupation.

Reviews

[Mark Smiley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic book.
Hunting in Africa in the 1950's and thereabouts. Tales of lions and buffalo, impala, crocs, elephants, and rare antelope species. Quicksand and swamps and malaria and mosquitoes and cobras. All of the adventure with none of the bug bites for the reader!

Here is Africa portrayed as she never will be again. The hundred pound tuskers are gone now, a thing relegated to books like this.