08032018 Flashcards
Turkana Boy
- Turkana Boy frm Lake Turkana, northern Kenya - Homo dragster (homo erectus) 1.5 mya
- High value, like “Lucy” as a nearly complete skeleton
- Narrowing pelvis - increased bipedalism
- Narrower birth canal - more brain growth post birth
- “Barrel” chest due to narrower waist, need for
*P.60 in text
- Diagram: development of genus Homo with stone tools
Big change btw Oldowan choppers and Acheulian hand axes
- Acheulian hand axes: Levallois technique
- Homo ergaster, Homo erectus, Homo heidelbergensis
> Pre-determined idea: plan
> Increased cutting edge: abt 2x cutting edge of previous tool - Differences: NOT functional differences
> Manufacture (identify groups of ppl), increased mate chance (?)
Broad trends in early Hominin evolution toward the human line
- Increase in Cranial capacity and related gradual “loss’ of receding forehead
- Decrease in brow ridge
- Decrease in tooth size (Homo erectus: cooking > easy to chew than eating raw meat)
- Recession of prognostic face
- Decrease in sexual dimorphism
- Increase in body size overall (success in hunting, reproducing etc.)
- Development of “external” protruding nose
- Loss of body hair
Possible routine of expansion for early Homo (mainly ergaster/erectus) from Africa eastward to China and westward to Europe
- Peking Man @Zhoukoudan, China
- Trinil
Homo erectus
- In Southeast Asia, from Java - “Java Man”
Trinil and Mokojerto, H. Erectus ca. 1 mya. When sea levels were lower, Java was connected to the mainland - H. Erectus in China between 1.6-1.3 mya, from Zhoukoudian. “Peking Man” H. Erectus between 500,000 and 250,000 ya
- In Georgia, H. Erectus from Dmansi, 1.7 mya - 700,000
- In Europe, Sierra the Ata…
Geographical tool distribution
- Acheulean tradition
———————————Movius line———————————— - Various non-Acheulean
- East Asian chopper-chopping tool complex
Site “Modification” by early Homo
- Terra Amaya, France, 427,000 - 364,000 B.P., Homo heidelbergensis
- Modification of space: work space > defined area activities
> Ability to stay at a place longer
Terra Amaya, Nice, France
- Pre-Neanderthals living on the beach
- And hunting: deer, pig
- Also evidence of scavenging elephant, rhino, bear
Lazaret cave, France
- 170,000 B.P., Homo neanderthalensis
- ? Doorway, shells from seaweed bedding found, charcoal concentrations (hearths)
- Stratigraphy: show occupation occurred during period where there was a greater accumulation of spalling from cave ceiling - freeze/thawing is a WINTER process.
> Seasonal estimate corroborated by faunal remains including juvenile lbex bones suggesting cave used in early to mid November
Shanidar cave, Zagros Mtns, Iraq
- Originally excavated in the 1950s, archaeologists returned to Shanidar cave in 2016 after ISIS pushed out of Iraq
- Location of human remains (plinth excavation)
- 60-80,000 B.P.
> Arguable: do as much as excavation for preservation?
Mousterian tools
- Associated with H. Neandethalensis
Klasies Rive Mouth, South Africa
- Fully modern humans ca. 100,000-12,000 B.P.
- Hunting: eland, Cape buffalo, bush pig
> Time: (more @early) (half-half) (more @later)
> Hunting technology: Cape buffalo = more dangerous, bush pig = more dangerous + solitary
Stone tools from the MSA Howiesons Poort levels @Klasies River (South Africa) dated to ca. 65,000 B.P.
- With anatomically modern humans see increase in the types of tools and an increase in standardization
Daoxian site, China
- Relatively new site for archaeological work (~5 y)
- Dating with : U*Th
- Daoxian human teeth: dated flowstone coating teeth with Uranium Thorium) to btw 80-100,000 Ka
Human dispersal
- Arabia > Eastern Mediterranean > Southern China > Northern China > Europe
Modern human behavior after ca. 100,000 B.P.
- Increased types and standardization of artifacts (mainly stone tools because of easy preservation)
- Greater frequencies of technological change over time (evolution of style and tech.)
- Shaping of organic materials; carving to make finer implements like needles, harpoons
- Jewelry of perforated shells and carved organics
- Figurative and non-figurative ART
- Clear organization of Hoe Spaces - dwellings hearths
- Long distance transport of lithics (trade/exchange?)
- Broad spectrum diet/economy. Hunting large and small mammals; harvesting plants; plant processing
- Storage
- Selective hunting
- Occupation of more challenging environments (especially including cold climates of North Europe
- Growth in population density
Homo floresiensis
- Small bodied hominin from Indonesia ca. 38,000-12,000 B.P.
- Associated tools suggest floresiensis was a modern human
- Small stature, microencephaly - small brain - long feet
> ?Dwarfism, ?product from small gene pool, ?adaptation - Modern population > great range of variation
Chauvet, France, Upper Paleolithic
- Ca. 36,000 B.P.
- Document artist expression, mammals, human predation
Lascaux cave, France, Upper Paleolithic
- Ca. 17,000 B.P.
- Cave art
- Spiritual nature of their life
- Techniques, mineral pigment, charcoal for painting