copertina2 12-12-2000 12:55 Seite 1 “Humanity from African Naissance to Coming Millennia” arises out of the world’s first J. A. Moggi-Cecchi Doyle G. A. Raath M. Tobias V. P. Dual Congress that was held at Sun City, South Africa, from 28th June to 4th July 1998. “Dual Congress” refers to a conjoint, integrated meeting of two international scientific Humanity associations, the International Association for the Study of Human Palaeontology - IV Congress - and the International Association of Human Biologists. As part of the Dual Congress, 18 Colloquia were arranged, comprising invited speakers on human evolu- from African Naissance tionary aspects and on the living populations. This volume includes 39 refereed papers from these 18 colloquia. The contributions have been classified in eight parts covering to Coming Millennia a wide range of topics, from Human Biology, Human Evolution (Emerging Homo, Evolving Homo, Early Modern Humans), Dating, Taxonomy and Systematics, Diet, Brain Evolution. The book offers the most recent analyses and interpretations in diff rent areas of evolutionary anthropology, and will serve well both students and specia- lists in human evolution and human biology. Editors Humanity from African Humanity Naissance from to Coming Millennia Phillip V. Tobias Phillip V. Tobias is Professor Emeritus at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, where he Michael A. Raath obtained his medical doctorate, PhD and DSc and where he served as Chair of the Department of Anatomy for 32 years. He has carried out researches on mammalian chromosomes, human biology of the peoples of Jacopo Moggi-Cecchi Southern Africa, secular trends, somatotypes, hominin evolution, the history of anatomy and anthropology. He is Director of the Sterkfontein Research Unit and has conducted researches at this famous hominid site Gerald A. Doyle since 1966. His published works exceed 1000 items including 40 books and monographs and over 90 chap- ters in books. Michael Raath is a vertebrate palaeontologist whose research interests focus on archosaurian and therapsid reptiles, rather than on hominids. But, as with most people, he is also inquisitive about human origins. He is a former director of the Bernard Price Institute for Palaeontological Research at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. Jacopo Moggi-Cecchi is Researcher at the Istituto di Antropologia, University of Florence. He obtained his Doctorate in 1989 and since then he has been intermittently working at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg to study the collections of South African fossil hominids. His main research interest is the study of the dentition, with special reference to aspects of dental development of juvenile specimens. Gerald A. Doyle joined the staff of the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg shortly after com- pleting hid PhD at Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio, and is now Professor Emeritus of Comparative Psychology and Honorary Professorial Research Fellow at the same university. A former Director of the Primate Behaviour Research Group, Professor Doyle is author/editor of a number of books on prosimian biology and is the founding editor of the International Journal of Primatology. Currently he is engaged on a book on the behaviour of the early hominids. Firenze University Press • Firenze University Press Witwatersrand Universsity Press Witwatersrand University Press ATTI – 1 – Chiarelli25/07/00+indiceIV/Com2 12-12-2000 12:47 Seite 1 Humanity from African Naissance to Coming Millennia Colloquia in Human Biology and Palaeoanthropology Editors Phillip V. Tobias, Michael A. Raath, Jacopo Moggi-Cecchi and Gerald A. Doyle assisted by Kevin L. Kuykendall and Himla Soodyall Firenze University Press - 2001 Witwatersrand University Press - 2001 Chiarelli25/07/00+indiceIV/Com2 8-12-2000 17:06 Seite 2 Humanity from African Naissance to Coming Millennia : Colloquia in Human biology and Palaeonthropology / editors Phillip V. Tobias, Michael A. Raath, Jacopo Moggi-Cecchi and Gerald A. Doyle. – Firenze : Firenze University Press, 2001. (Atti ; 1). ISBN 88-8453-003-2 (print) ISBN 88-8453-003-2 (online PDF) © 2001 Firenze University Press Printed in Italy The Dual Congress '98 symbol (by Nils Burwitz) is shown on the cover and its meaning is explained by the Artist: “In order to illustrate succinctly the motivations of a unique combined congress of palaeo- anthropology and human biology, indeed to bring under one hat the opposites of ‘making the Dead speak and the Living lecture’, I made a skull face its vibrant mirror image: i.e. the profile of Sterkfontein specimen Sts 5 mirrors a set of chromosomes in the anaphase of mitosis, the last energetic burst of cell division, twisted into a three-dimensional shape. Both are gently wrapped up in strands of a section of the DNA double-helix, thus indirectly doffing our hat to Watson and Crick.” Chiarelli25/07/00+indiceIV/Com2 8-12-2000 17:06 Seite 3 HUMANITY FROM AFRICAN NAISSANCE TO COMING MILLENNIA 3 Foreword There was an air of excitement at Sun City, South Africa, in late June of 1998, as delegates started to arrive for the Dual Congress of the International Association of Human Biologists and the International Association for the Study of Human Palaeontology. For the conference organisers, under chairmanship of Professor Phillip V. Tobias, this was the culmination of four years of hard work and planning and, as Phillip remarked at the opening ceremony, it was also a symbolic homecoming to the continent of humanity’s birth for people from all parts of the world. The delegates did indeed come from far and wide: they travelled from 70 countries and the registration list ran to 745 people, making this the most representative gathering of its kind ever held in Africa. As a venue for the exchange of new information on the biology and ancestry of humankind, the Dual Congress provided ample scope. The programme was built around 18 Colloquia, in which 95 invited papers were delivered, and 11 Open Scientific Sections, covering a wide range of topics, discussed in 103 papers, as well as in 79 poster presentations. Nor were the contributions of South African pioneers in the field forgotten: the Raymond Dart Memorial Lecture was given by Sir Walter Bodmer while Professor Tobias delivered the Robert Broom Memorial Lecture, the text of which is reproduced in this volume, together with those of 38 invited papers presented in the Colloquia of the Dual Congress. In addition to all this however, I believe that the occasion was a celebration for another important reason: it was a demonstration of South Africa’s re-acceptance into the wide world of international science with respect to human biology and palaeontology. During the apartheid era, science in this country passed through a bleak period when people like myself had difficulty in travelling to many African countries on a South African passport and when the focus of public interest, with respect to human origins, shifted from this country, where the initial critical finds had been made, to East Africa, where spectacular fossils were coming to light. Such discoveries in lake-side and alluvial deposits certainly have the advantage of precise radiometric dating from associated volcanic ashbeds. But the palaeontological and cultural treasures from our South African caves should never be underestimated. They have yielded vital insights into human origins during the dark times of recent years and will continue to do so into a brighter future. In all respects, the Dual Congress reflected in this volume, was a milestone occasion for South Africa and for international science at large. It was a privilege for me to have been associated with it C. K. Brain Honorary President, The Dual Congress Pretoria 1999 Chiarelli25/07/00+indiceIV/Com2 8-12-2000 17:06 Seite 4 Chiarelli25/07/00+indiceIV/Com2 8-12-2000 17:06 Seite 5 HUMANITY FROM AFRICAN NAISSANCE TO COMING MILLENNIA 5 Humanity from African Naissance to Coming Millennia Preface Humanity from African Naissance to Coming Millennia arises out of the Dual Congress that was held at Sun City, South Africa, from 28th June to 4th July 1998. As the idea of a “Dual Congress” is a new one, a word of explanation is needed. Two international bodies, with partially overlapping spheres of interest, chose South Africa as the host country for their respective meetings. One of the bodies is the International Association for the Study of Human Palaeontology, which Professor Henry de Lumley had set up at an inaugural congress in Nice, France, in 1981. At the III International Congress of IASHP in Jerusalem in 1992, Dr. Francis Thackeray of the Transvaal Museum, Pretoria, extended an invitation on behalf of human palaeontologists of South Africa for the IV Congress to be held in South Africa. This was accepted by the Permanent Council and General Assembly of IASHP. Originally the meeting was intended to be held in 1997, but for various reasons it was necessary to defer it to 1998. Independently, the Executive Committee and Council of the International Association of Human Biologists (IAHB) had invited me to organise a meeting in South Africa within my term of office as its President. It would have been difficult to organise two major international meetings in the same area within a short time of each other. Moreover, it seemed to me that there would be great intellectual benefits if the two bodies were to meet in a single integrated congress: such a Dual Congress would stimulate a healthy cross-fertilisation of ideas between those whose work is predominantly in the field of human evolution and investigators of recent and living mankind. The idea was put to the two organisations and their governing bodies welcomed the proposal. The Dual Congress was held in a lavish conference centre at Sun City about 200 km north-west of Johannesburg. Approximately 600 participants from 70 countries attended and 300 papers were presented, 100 as invited addresses in colloquia and 200 as free or contributed papers.