DOCSLIB.ORG

Discovering When the First Early Modern Humans Left Africa

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Discovering When the First Early Modern Humans Left Africa Mina Weinstein-Evron & Israel Hershkovitz Figure 4. The left hemi- Biology / Human Evolution︱ Figure 1. Location of early modern human fossils in Africa and the maxilla with teeth Middle East. Image modified from [http://visibleearth.nasa.gov/ view_rec.php?vev1id=11656 “Blue Marble”] Discovering when the first early modern humans left Africa Previous evidence suggested t is accepted that Homo sapiens deserts, the Levantine corridor is the ideal that early modern humans (humans) originated in Africa, as did location to search for evidence of early left Africa 90,000 to 120,000 Iall other hominins. Hominins are the human movement due to the restricted years ago, but new evidence group containing humans and human-like area. There are several archaeological dig has shown this event may species, including Neanderthals and other sites of importance in the corridor, and have occurred much earlier. relatives of Homo sapiens. Humans are many interesting finds with significance Professor Mina Weinstein-Evron the only extant member of the group of for human evolution. Professor Weinstein- (University of Haifa, Israel) and hominins. This is a subsection of hominids, Evron and Professor Hershkovitz and their Professor Israel Hershkovitz (Tel which are all the great apes including colleagues, have been investigating a site Aviv University, Israel), together chimpanzees, gorillas and orangutans, known as Misliya cave on the slopes of with their colleagues, have as well as humans. Humans left Africa Mount Carmel, Israel. They believe they found a modern human fossil to settle all across the world, probably may have found evidence of the earliest Figure 3. The excavated area where Misliya 1 at Misliya cave in Israel, which multiple times, and to do this they would modern humans outside of Africa. Figure 2. Misliya cave was found Figure 5. The left hemimaxilla dates to between 177,000 and have travelled the Levantine corridor. This 194,000 years ago. These might makes the Mount Carmel - Galilee area HUMAN FOSSILS determined by the physical characteristics. from Misliya cave suggest that this event ago changes our understanding of the be the first modern humans of Israel one of the richest in the world for The most significant find at the Misliya Ancestors of modern humans (earlier occurred at least 100,000 years earlier than time-span of Homo sapiens evolution, outside of Africa. They have Middle Pleistocene Homo fossils. cave site was the discovery of half a members of the Homo genus, such as previously thought. This finding turns our which must have occurred much earlier. also discovered a collection of human upper jaw (maxilla) with attached Homo erectus) If modern humans shells, a variety of stone tools, teeth. Three different dating methods left Africa before started traveling abundant remains of hunted THE LEVANTINE CORRIDOR The Levantine corridor is the narrow were used at three different laboratories Homo sapiens’ The most significant find at the Misliya out of Africa around animals, and evidence for stretch of land in the Eastern to determine the age of the fossil. The appearance. 200-250,000 years repeatedly used hearths. Mediterranean region, at the crossroads first was uranium-thorium dating (also However, the cave site was the discovery of half a ago, they must have of Africa, Asia and Europe, which would called U-series dating), which uses the morphology of the human jawbone with attached teeth. originated in Africa have been the route taken by early rate of radioactive decay of uranium to Misliya upper jaw much earlier than modern humans when they left Africa calculate the age of calcium carbonate and the attached teeth is consistent with current understanding – of modern human previously appreciated – somewhere to disperse across Eurasia. Constrained materials such as bone. The second belonging to an anatomically modern dispersal and the history of modern human between 500,000 and 700,000 years ago. between the Mediterranean Sea and method was combined U-series and human. There are features present that evolution – on its head. electron spin resonance dating, which can occasionally be found in members of It is very likely that the spread of humans calculates the age of tooth enamel earlier or even contemporaneous (such as PIECING TOGETHER THE PUZZLE in this area varied considerably, as by the level of radiation uptake in the Neanderthals) hominin species, but the Importantly, the finding that the Misliya reconstructions of the environmental material. The final method used was combination of features exhibited by the fossil dates back 177,000 to 194,000 years conditions at the time suggest that while thermoluminescence dating, which dates Misliya Homo is specific toHomo sapiens. there were some humid phases that burnt flints by the amount of radiation would have been favourable, there were they have absorbed since they were last This discovery is therefore evidence that also dry phases that would discourage heated. All three methods gave consistent early modern humans left Africa at least human dispersal. Therefore, it is possible results, dating the jaw as being between 177,000 to 194,000 years ago (probably as that this early human fossil is evidence of 177,000 and 194,000 years old. early as 250,000 years). This is considerably one of Homo sapiens early attempts at earlier than any other finds indicative of passing into Asia. Additionally, this earlier Analysis of the physical features of the modern humans outside of Africa. Up until movement of modern humans is in line jawbone and teeth confirmed that this the Misliya fossil discovery it was estimated with recent genetic evidence that dates fossil belonged to an anatomically modern from fossils found at the nearby Skhul the interbreeding of Homo sapiens and human. Using the term anatomically and Qafzeh caves, that early anatomically Neanderthals (which occurred outside of modern humans distinguishes Homo modern humans left Africa 90,000 to Africa) to between 219,000 and 460,000 sapiens from earlier human species as 120,000 years ago. Notably, these dates Figure 6. Reconstruced maxilla years ago. Significantly, together with www.researchoutreach.org www.researchoutreach.org projectiles (spearheads), which also form this site by early humans, compared to the earliest example in the region. There the apparent short-term occupation of have been finds of similar technologies other locations. across Africa, which could suggest that Behind the Research the spread of these more sophisticated Microscopic analysis revealed evidence tools across Eurasia could be linked to of plant material inside Misliya cave human dispersal. dated from the same period as the early human habitation. The laying of the plant Mina Israel There were many tools found at Misliya material is very similar to finds from later cave, some of which appear to be sites, which have been suggested to be Weinstein-Evron Hershkovitz suited for different tasks but many were evidence of bedding or matting. It is multifunctional. This is an important difficult to determine with certainty that [email protected] +972 543213907 [email protected] +972 509967677 technological shift as it indicates the this was the use of the assemblage, but E: T: E: T: W: ddc.tau.ac.il W: sfai.tau.ac.il development of curated tool-kits. if it is bedding then this would be the Figure 7. Typical Use-wear analysis (close examination earliest example to date. Early Middle Paleolithic flint of the wear patterns on the surfaces Research Objectives Detail points found of tools) suggests that these tools A collection of shells was also found at together with The research of Mina Weinstein-Evron and Israel Hershkovitz centres on were used for a variety of activities the Misliya cave site. There is evidence of Bio Misliya 1 the prehistory of the Levant and Old World. Mina Weinstein-Evron: Professor (emerita) of archaeology; including the processing of both meat shell collecting throughout modern human former Head, Zinman Institute of Archaeology, University of and plant foods, hide processing, and history, and many theories for why early Haifa; former Head of ‘Ofakim’: University of Haifa honours woodworking. Surface analysis also humans would gather and store them References program; excavation director, Mount Carmel caves. Research interests: prehistory, human evolution, palaeoenvironments, found significant evidence of a variety - ranging from signalling an individual’s • Hershkovitz, I., et al. (2018). The earliest modern humans outside Africa. technological innovation, symbolism, archive and heritage of handling arrangements. Various tools place in social networks to the possibility Science 359:456–45. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aap8369 studies, history of archaeology. Recipient, Atapuerca were wrapped in a material such as that they believed they acted as a kind of • Stringer, C., and Galway-Witham, J. (2018). When did modern humans Foundation (Burgos, Spain), Evolution Award, Scientific hide, to ensure handling without risk good luck charm. Particularly interesting leave Africa? Science 359(6374):389-390. https://doi.org/10.1126/ Values (2017). science.aas8954 of injury on the sharp edges. Others about the shells found at Misliya cave is Israel Hershkovitz: Professor (emeritus) of Anatomy and • Weissbrod, L. and Weinstein-Evron, M. (2021). Early modern human Physical Anthropology at the Department of Anatomy and exhibit clear signs of hafting, i.e., when that they are not perforated. At sites that dispersal into southwest Asia occurred in variable climates: A reply Anthropology, Sackler Faculty of Medicine; Head, The Dan an artifact such as a blade or a point is have been determined as later habitations to Frumkin and Comay (2019). J Hum Evol, 102833. https://doi. David Center for Human Evolution and Biohistory Research; org/10.1016/j.jhevol.2020.102833 attached to a handle or shaft to facilitate of anatomically modern humans the Head, The Shmunis Family Anthropology Institute; Head, • Zaidner, Y.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • An Early Modern Human from the Pes¸Tera Cu Oase, Romania
    An early modern human from the Pes¸tera cu Oase, Romania Erik Trinkaus*†, Oana Moldovan‡,S¸ tefan Milota§, Adrian Bıˆlga˘r¶, Laurent¸iu Sarcina§, Sheela Athreyaʈ, Shara E. Bailey**, Ricardo Rodrigo††, Gherase Mircea§, Thomas Higham‡‡, Christopher Bronk Ramsey‡‡, and Johannes van der Plicht§§ *Department of Anthropology, Campus Box 1114, Washington University, St. Louis, MO 63130; ‡Institutul de Speologie ‘‘Emil Racovit¸a˘ ,’’ Clinicilor 5, P.O. Box 58, 3400 Cluj, Romania; §Pro Acva Grup, Strada˘Surduc 1, 1900 Timis¸oara, Romania; ¶Strada˘Decebal 1, 1500 Drobeta Turnu Severin, Romania; ʈDepartment of Anthropology, Texas A&M University, College Station TX 77843; **Department of Anthropology, George Washington University, 2110 G Street, Washington, DC 20052; ††Centro Nacional da Arqueologia Na´utica e Subaqua´tica, Instituto Portugueˆs de Arqueologia, Avenida da India 136, 1300 Lisboa, Portugal; ‡‡Research Laboratory for Archaeology and the History of Art, University of Oxford, 6 Keble Road, Oxford OX1 3QJ, United Kingdom; and §§Centrum voor Isotopen Onderzoek, Rijksuniversiteit Groningen, Nijenborgh 4, 9747 AG Groningen, The Netherlands Contributed by Erik Trinkaus, August 8, 2003 The 2002 discovery of a robust modern human mandible in the Pes¸tera cu Oase, southwestern Romania, provides evidence of early modern humans in the lower Danubian Corridor. Directly accelerator mass spectrometry radiocarbon (14C)-dated to 34,000– 36,000 14C years B.P., the Oase 1 mandible is the oldest definite early modern human specimen in Europe and provides perspec- tives on the emergence and evolution of early modern humans in the northwestern Old World. The moderately long Oase 1 mandi- ble exhibits a prominent tuber symphyseos and overall proportions that place it close to earlier Upper Paleolithic European specimens.
    [Show full text]
  • Raqefet Cave: the 2006 Excavation Season
    JournalTHE LATE of The NATUFIAN Israel Prehistoric AT RAQEFET Society CAVE 38 (2008), 59-131 59 The Late Natufian at Raqefet Cave: The 2006 Excavation Season DANI NADEL1 GYORGY LENGYEL1,2 FANNY BOCQUENTIN3 ALEXANDER TSATSKIN1 DANNY ROSENBERG1 REUVEN YESHURUN1 GUY BAR-OZ1 DANIELLA E. BAR-YOSEF MAYER4 RON BEERI1 LAURENCE CONYERS5 SAGI FILIN6 ISRAEL HERSHKOVITZ7 ALDONA KURZAWSKA8 LIOR WEISSBROD1 1 Zinman Institute of Archaeology, the University of Haifa, 31905 Mt. Carmel, Israel 2 Faculty of Arts, Institute of Historical Sciences, Department of Prehistory and Ancient History. University of Miskolc, 3515 Miskolc, Miskolc-Egyetemvros, Hungary 3 UMR 7041 du CNRS, Ethnologie Préhistorique, 21 Allée de l’Université, F-92023 Nanterre Cedex, France 4 Department of Maritime Civilizations and The Leon Recanati Institute for Maritime Studies, University of Haifa, Israel 5 Department of Anthropology, University of Denver, Denver, Colorado, USA 6 Department of Transportation and Geo-Information Engineering, Technion – Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa 32000, Israel 7 Sackler School of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Israel 8 Institute of Archaeology and Ethnology, Polish Academy of Sciences, Poznan Branch, Poland 59 60 NADEL D. et al. ABSTRACT A long season of excavation took place at Raqefet cave during the summer of 2006. In the first chamber we exposed an area rich with Natufian human burials (Locus 1), a large bedrock basin with a burial and two boulder mortars (Locus 2), an in situ Natufian layer (Locus 3), and two areas with rich cemented sediments (tufa) covering the cave floor (Loci 4, 5). The latter indicate that at the time of occupation the Natufian layers covered the entire floor of the first chamber.
    [Show full text]
  • Human Evolution: a Paleoanthropological Perspective - F.H
    PHYSICAL (BIOLOGICAL) ANTHROPOLOGY - Human Evolution: A Paleoanthropological Perspective - F.H. Smith HUMAN EVOLUTION: A PALEOANTHROPOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE F.H. Smith Department of Anthropology, Loyola University Chicago, USA Keywords: Human evolution, Miocene apes, Sahelanthropus, australopithecines, Australopithecus afarensis, cladogenesis, robust australopithecines, early Homo, Homo erectus, Homo heidelbergensis, Australopithecus africanus/Australopithecus garhi, mitochondrial DNA, homology, Neandertals, modern human origins, African Transitional Group. Contents 1. Introduction 2. Reconstructing Biological History: The Relationship of Humans and Apes 3. The Human Fossil Record: Basal Hominins 4. The Earliest Definite Hominins: The Australopithecines 5. Early Australopithecines as Primitive Humans 6. The Australopithecine Radiation 7. Origin and Evolution of the Genus Homo 8. Explaining Early Hominin Evolution: Controversy and the Documentation- Explanation Controversy 9. Early Homo erectus in East Africa and the Initial Radiation of Homo 10. After Homo erectus: The Middle Range of the Evolution of the Genus Homo 11. Neandertals and Late Archaics from Africa and Asia: The Hominin World before Modernity 12. The Origin of Modern Humans 13. Closing Perspective Glossary Bibliography Biographical Sketch Summary UNESCO – EOLSS The basic course of human biological history is well represented by the existing fossil record, although there is considerable debate on the details of that history. This review details both what is firmly understood (first echelon issues) and what is contentious concerning humanSAMPLE evolution. Most of the coCHAPTERSntention actually concerns the details (second echelon issues) of human evolution rather than the fundamental issues. For example, both anatomical and molecular evidence on living (extant) hominoids (apes and humans) suggests the close relationship of African great apes and humans (hominins). That relationship is demonstrated by the existing hominoid fossil record, including that of early hominins.
    [Show full text]
  • Denisovans, Neanderthals Or Sapiens?
    Could There Have Been Human Families... 8(2)/2020 ISSN 2300-7648 (print) / ISSN 2353-5636 (online) Received: March 31, 2020. Accepted: September 2, 2020 DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.12775/SetF.2020.019 Could There Have Been Human Families Where Parents Came from Different Populations: Denisovans, Neanderthals or Sapiens? MARCIN EDWARD UHLIK Independent Scholar e-mail: [email protected] ORCID: 0000-0001-8518-0255 Abstract. No later than ~500kya the population of Homo sapiens split into three lin- eages of independently evolving human populations: Sapiens, Neanderthals and Den- isovans. After several hundred thousands years, they met several times and interbred with low frequency. Evidence of coupling between them is found in fossil records of Neanderthal – Sapiens offspring (Oase 1) and Neanderthal – Denisovans (Denisova 11) offspring. Moreover, the analysis of ancient and present-day population DNA shows that there were several significant gene flows between populations. Many introgressed sequences from Denisovans and Neanderthals were identified in genomes of currently living populations. All these data, according to biological species definition, may in- dicate that populations of H. sapiens sapiens and two extinct populations H. sapiens neanderthalensis and H. sapiens denisovensis are one species. Ontological transitions from pre-human beings to humans might have happened before the initial splitting of the Homo sapiens population or after the splitting during evolution of H. sapiens sapiens lineage in Africa. If the ensoulment of the first homo occurred in the evolving populations of H. sapiens sapiens, then occasionally mixed couples (Neanderthals – Sa- piens or Denisovans – Sapiens) created relations that functioned as a family, in which children could have matured.
    [Show full text]
  • There Is Very Little Evidence of Either Artwork Or Ritual Behavior in Lower Paleolithic Contexts with Two Exceptions
    There is very little evidence of either artwork or ritual behavior in Lower Paleolithic contexts with two exceptions: – A small pebble of volcanic rock with evidence of human work on it found at Berekhat Ram, Golan Heights – It appears to be a representation of a human female – At over 230,000 years old, perhaps the earliest representation of a human female – Evidence for special treatment of the dead found in a cave at Atapuerca – The complete remains of 27 individuals recovered from this inaccessible cave – The excavators argue that the individuals were placed in the cave as part of a funerary ritual 300,000 years ago • Found on Golan Heights, near Syrian border • Acheulean, either H. erectus or archaic H. sapiens? • Dated to ca. 250,000 years b.p.! • neanderthal adj 1: ill-mannered and coarse and contemptible in behavior or appearance; "was boorish and insensitive"; "the loutish manners of a bully"; "her stupid oafish husband"; "aristocratic contempt for the swinish multitude" [syn: boorish, loutish, oafish, swinish] Dictionary.com 130,000 – 35/30,000 years ago Large cranial capacity Large browridge Receding chin Short, robust stature Cold adaptations Diorama of Neanderthals, American Museum (1930s) Cro-Magnon (1) La Chappelle (1) braincase in modern humans is supraorbital torus present relatively shorter, occipital bun present forehead rounder and higher prognathism 1. Neanderthals and modern humans evolved separately from populations of Homo erectus, possibly through local intermediate species 2. The common ancestor of modern humans and Neanderthals was a distinct species that itself evolved from Homo erectus and lived 700,000-300,000 years ago 3.
    [Show full text]
  • Paleoanthropology Society Meeting Abstracts, St. Louis, Mo, 13-14 April 2010
    PALEOANTHROPOLOGY SOCIETY MEETING ABSTRACTS, ST. LOUIS, MO, 13-14 APRIL 2010 New Data on the Transition from the Gravettian to the Solutrean in Portuguese Estremadura Francisco Almeida , DIED DEPA, Igespar, IP, PORTUGAL Henrique Matias, Department of Geology, Faculdade de Ciências da Universidade de Lisboa, PORTUGAL Rui Carvalho, Department of Geology, Faculdade de Ciências da Universidade de Lisboa, PORTUGAL Telmo Pereira, FCHS - Departamento de História, Arqueologia e Património, Universidade do Algarve, PORTUGAL Adelaide Pinto, Crivarque. Lda., PORTUGAL From an anthropological perspective, the passage from the Gravettian to the Solutrean is one of the most interesting transition peri- ods in Old World Prehistory. Between 22 kyr BP and 21 kyr BP, during the beginning stages of the Last Glacial Maximum, Iberia and Southwest France witness a process of substitution of a Pan-European Technocomplex—the Gravettian—to one of the first examples of regionalism by Anatomically Modern Humans in the European continent—the Solutrean. While the question of the origins of the Solutrean is almost as old as its first definition, the process under which it substituted the Gravettian started to be readdressed, both in Portugal and in France, after the mid 1990’s. Two chronological models for the transition have been advanced, but until very recently the lack of new archaeological contexts of the period, and the fact that the many of the sequences have been drastically affected by post depositional disturbances during the Lascaux event, prevented their systematic evaluation. Between 2007 and 2009, and in the scope of mitigation projects, archaeological fieldwork has been carried in three open air sites—Terra do Manuel (Rio Maior), Portela 2 (Leiria), and Calvaria 2 (Porto de Mós) whose stratigraphic sequences date precisely to the beginning stages of the LGM.
    [Show full text]
  • The Context of Human Genetic Evolution Robert Foley1
    Downloaded from genome.cshlp.org on October 3, 2021 - Published by Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press PERSPECTIVE The Context of Human Genetic Evolution Robert Foley1 Human Evolutionary Biology Research Group, Department of Biological Anthropology, and King’s College Research Centre Human Diversity Project University of Cambridge, Cambridge, CB2 3DZ, UK The debate on modern human origins has often focused on the relationship between genes and fossils. Although more and more genetic evidence has been accumulating in favor of a recent African origin for modern humans, it has been assumed by many that the fossil evidence remains ambiguous. On the contrary, it has been clear for some time that the fossil evidence does not support the multiregional model: Fossils and archeology indicate a pattern of multiple dispersals from and beyond Africa, against which the genetic data can be compared. The continuing value of paleobiology is in complementing genetic information by revealing the context of human evolution: locating the dispersals and extinctions of populations in time and space, correlating these events with the environmental forces that shaped them, and providing an increasingly detailed understanding of the morphology and technology of early humans. Molecular biology has revolutionized the study of relatively small population (effective population human evolution. The importance of fossils as the size between 5000 and 50,000 individuals) (Rogers primary source of information about our past has and Harpending 1992; Harpending et al. 1993; Nei been steadily undermined as it has become possible and Takahata 1993; Harpending 1994). That size to infer detailed aspects of recent human history represents a bottleneck in the hominid lineage dat- from the distribution and frequency of genes found ing back no more than 200,000 years (Cann et al.
    [Show full text]
  • [2019.10.10] Mina Weinstein Evron / the Mount Carmel Caves
    The Mount Carmel Caves at the Crossroads of Prehistoric Human Dispersals Mina Weinstein-Evron A UNESCO World Heritage Site (2012) Courtesy the Israel Antiquities Authority Outstanding Universal Values (OUV): • Long cultural (and paleo-environmental) continuum and changes in life-ways • Human evolution various MP human types (H. sapiens & Neanderthal); early burial site • The Natufian culture – on the threshold of agriculture • History of archaeological research Mount Carmel: a unique overlap of the Neanderthal and early modern humans ranges, within the same Middle Paleolithic cultural framework Did they meet ? When? Who was there before? What was the results? Levantine MP sites 250,000-45,000 YBP Amud Hayonim Human remains Qafzeh 140/120-50,000 YBP Misliya Tabun Skhul Kebara H. sapiens – 120/90,000 YBP Neanderthals – 70/45,000 BP 50,000 B Tabun Cave: A long sequence with important Cultural Developments/ C Revolutions MP D 250,000 E F LP G 400,000 Tabun 1 Upper part of Layer C (or Layer B) 100/120 (150/160 ky) Tabun 2 Lower part of Layer C Harvati and Nickolson Lopez 2017 Skhul Early modern humans 100-135,000 ky IV V Skhul early modern human burials D’Ericco et al. 2010 McCown 1937 Nassarius gibbosulus shell beads (Vanhaeren et al. 2006) from Skhul V Isotope Ky TL-based Entities stage BP chronology Hominides Ksar Akil Ahmarian UP 3 Qafzeh 50 - Tabun B Amud, Kebara Dederiyeh type T. Faraj, Quneitra Kebara, Amud 4 Dederiyeh Tabun 1 ? 100 - Qafzeh Qafzeh Skhul 5 Skhul Skhul Hayonim E TABUN 1 ? Tabun C type Tabun 1 150 - 6 Tabun II (jaw) Tabun 2 200 - Negev sites Tabun D 7 type Hayonim E Misliya ? Misliya 250 - Are the cultural/technological 8 Important implications for understanding the changesAcheuloorigins– ofrelated early modernto changes humans and their 300 - Yabrudianin humanrelationshipspopulations with the? Neanderthals 9 Zuttiyeh Qesem 350 - 10 Tabun E Bar-Yosef 1998 Dispersal of modern humans 2016 Modern humans reach First modern humans in Europe Americas 15 ka 45 ka Willendorf Kent’s Cavern 43 5 ka.
    [Show full text]
  • Human Origin Sites and the World Heritage Convention in Eurasia
    World Heritage papers41 HEADWORLD HERITAGES 4 Human Origin Sites and the World Heritage Convention in Eurasia VOLUME I In support of UNESCO’s 70th Anniversary Celebrations United Nations [ Cultural Organization Human Origin Sites and the World Heritage Convention in Eurasia Nuria Sanz, Editor General Coordinator of HEADS Programme on Human Evolution HEADS 4 VOLUME I Published in 2015 by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, 7, place de Fontenoy, 75352 Paris 07 SP, France and the UNESCO Office in Mexico, Presidente Masaryk 526, Polanco, Miguel Hidalgo, 11550 Ciudad de Mexico, D.F., Mexico. © UNESCO 2015 ISBN 978-92-3-100107-9 This publication is available in Open Access under the Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 IGO (CC-BY-SA 3.0 IGO) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/igo/). By using the content of this publication, the users accept to be bound by the terms of use of the UNESCO Open Access Repository (http://www.unesco.org/open-access/terms-use-ccbysa-en). The designations employed and the presentation of material throughout this publication do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of UNESCO concerning the legal status of any country, territory, city or area or of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries. The ideas and opinions expressed in this publication are those of the authors; they are not necessarily those of UNESCO and do not commit the Organization. Cover Photos: Top: Hohle Fels excavation. © Harry Vetter bottom (from left to right): Petroglyphs from Sikachi-Alyan rock art site.
    [Show full text]
  • Similarities and Differences in the Lifestyles of Populations Using Mode
    Quaternary International 515 (2019) 66–79 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Quaternary International journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/quaint Similarities and differences in the lifestyles of populations using mode 3 technology in North Africa and the south of the Iberian Peninsula T ∗ José Ramos-Muñoza, , Antonio Barrena-Tocinoa, Juan Jesús Cantillo Duartea, Eduardo Vijande-Vilaa, Pablo Ramos-Garcíab a Departamento de Historia, Geografía y Filosofia. Universidad de Cádiz, Avda. Gómez Ulla s.n. 11010, Cádiz, Spain b School of Dentistry, University of Granada, Colegio Máximo, Campus Universitario de Cartuja. 18071 Granada, Spain ARTICLE INFO ABSTRACT Keywords: In the geohistorical region of the Strait of Gibraltar, which includes the south of the Iberian Peninsula and North Strait of Gibraltar Africa, important research has been carried out in recent years. This research has allowed us to document the Pleistocene presence of human groups as early as the Middle Pleistocene. Neanderthal Classical anthropology refers to these groups using various terms Homo Neanderthalensis in the south of Modern humans Europe and Homo sapiens sapiens in North Africa). The current records exhibit important similarities concerning Mode 3 lithic technology (the so-called ‘Mode 3’, ‘Mousterian’ or ‘Middle Stone Age’), and the exploitation of marine Mousterian Middle stone age resources. From an anthropological or cultural perspective, both groups were hunter-gatherers with similar lifestyles. Bearing these similarities in mind, three hypotheses are here presented. 1. Introduction (McBrearty and Brooks, 2000; McBrearty, 2007; Stringer, 2002). Recent data from Misliya Cave have pushed back the dispersion of the Homo The ‘Out of Africa’ traditional perspective maintained that mankind sapiens through the Levant around 220 Ky (Hershkovitz et al., 2018).
    [Show full text]
  • Arguments That Prehistorical and Modern Humans Belong to the Same Species
    Preprints (www.preprints.org) | NOT PEER-REVIEWED | Posted: 6 May 2019 doi:10.20944/preprints201905.0038.v1 Arguments that Prehistorical and Modern Humans Belong to the Same Species Rainer W. Kühne Tuckermannstr. 35, 38118 Braunschweig, Germany e-mail: [email protected] May 2, 2019 Abstract called either progressive Homo erectus or archaic Homo sapiens. I argue that the evidence of the Out-of-Africa A more primitive group of prehistorical hu- hypothesis and the evidence of multiregional mans is sometimes classified as Homo erec- evolution of prehistorical humans can be un- tus, but mostly classified as belonging to dif- derstood if there has been interbreeding be- ferent species. These include Homo anteces- tween Homo erectus, Homo neanderthalensis, sor, Homo cepranensis, Homo erectus, Homo and Homo sapiens at least during the preced- ergaster, Homo georgicus, Homo heidelbergen- ing 700,000 years. These interbreedings require sis, Homo mauretanicus, and Homo rhodesien- descendants who are capable of reproduction sis. Sometimes the more primitive Homo habilis and therefore parents who belong to the same is regarded as belonging to the same species as species. I suggest that a number of prehistori- Homo ergaster. cal humans who are at present regarded as be- A further species is Homo floresiensis, a dwarf longing to different species belong in fact to one form known from Flores, Indonesia. This species single species. shows some anatomical characteristics which are similar to those of the more primitive humans Keywords Homo ergaster and Homo georgicus and other Homo sapiens, Homo neanderthalensis, Homo anatomical characteristics which are similar to erectus, Homo floresiensis, Neandertals, Deniso- those of Homo sapiens [1][2][3].
    [Show full text]
  • The Genome of the Offspring of a Neanderthal Mother and A
    LETTER https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-018-0455-x The genome of the offspring of a Neanderthal mother and a Denisovan father Viviane Slon1,7*, Fabrizio Mafessoni1,7, Benjamin Vernot1,7, Cesare de Filippo1, Steffi Grote1, Bence Viola2,3, Mateja Hajdinjak1, Stéphane Peyrégne1, Sarah Nagel1, Samantha Brown4, Katerina Douka4,5, Tom Higham5, Maxim B. Kozlikin3, Michael V. Shunkov3,6, Anatoly P. Derevianko3, Janet Kelso1, Matthias Meyer1, Kay Prüfer1 & Svante Pääbo1* Neanderthals and Denisovans are extinct groups of hominins present-day human DNA fragments constitute at most 1.7% of the data that separated from each other more than 390,000 years ago1,2. (Supplementary Information 2). Here we present the genome of ‘Denisova 11’, a bone fragment To determine from which hominin group Denisova 11 originated, from Denisova Cave (Russia)3 and show that it comes from an we compared the proportions of DNA fragments that match derived individual who had a Neanderthal mother and a Denisovan father. alleles from a Neanderthal genome (‘Altai Neanderthal’, also known as The father, whose genome bears traces of Neanderthal ancestry, ‘Denisova 5’) or a Denisovan genome (Denisova 3), both determined came from a population related to a later Denisovan found in the from bones discovered in Denisova Cave6,8, as well as from a present- cave4–6. The mother came from a population more closely related day African genome (Mbuti)6 (Supplementary Information 4). At to Neanderthals who lived later in Europe2,7 than to an earlier informative sites1, 38.6% of fragments from Denisova 11 carried alleles Neanderthal found in Denisova Cave8, suggesting that migrations matching the Neanderthal genome and 42.3% carried alleles matching of Neanderthals between eastern and western Eurasia occurred the Denisovan genome (Fig.
    [Show full text]