Early man found by academician on embankment? (4)
I believe the answer is:
adam
'early man' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'academician on embankment?' is the wordplay.
'academician' becomes 'a' (this could be a standard abbreviation I've not previously seen).
'on' means one lot of letters go next to another (in a down clue, letters appear on others).
'embankment?' becomes 'dam' (I've seen this before).
'a'+'dam'='ADAM'
'found by' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for adam that I've seen before include "The first known ancestor" , "God's first son" , "First Christian ancestor" , "Robert-, eighteenth century Scots architect" , "First fruit-eater" .)