Chapter 12 Flashcards
Irhoud 10
Morrocan cranium found in Morocco
What important conclusion were anthropologists able to draw about humans after finding Irhoud 10
Our key evolutionary changes from the archaic Homo sapiens of the previous chapter to our species today
happened 100,000 years earlier than what we had thought. In addition, the new information suggests that our home
region covered more of the vast African continent instead of being concentrated in the east.
Mosaic
gradually and out of sync with
one another
How did modern traits in humans evolve?
it appeared gradually
Gracile
the modern skeleton structures are thinner and smoother.
How have human skeletons changed over time?
less robust
Globular
rounder
Supraorbital torus
the brow ridge
Mental eminence
The chin on the mandible of modern H. sapiens.
Why did the mental eminence (chin) develop in modern humans?
our mandibles have pulled back so far from the prognathism of earlier hominins that we gained
an extra structure at the most anterior point,
In a few words, describe the “trend” human skeletons have undergone.
The trend of shrinking face size across hominins reaches its extreme with our species as well.
How does the rest of the human modern skeleton compare to the skeletons of archaic people? Site some specific parts of the skeleton that are notably different.
Overall, a modern Homo sapiens
post-cranial skeleton has thinner cortical bone, smoother features, and more slender shapes when compared to archaic
Homo sapiens. For example, the modern pelvis has gracile features along its surface and is narrower in overall width. Our elbow and knee joint surfaces are also narrower. Even the individual fingers and toes are more slender
in modern humans. Comparing whole skeletons, modern humans have longer limb proportions relative to the length and width of the torso, giving us lankier outlines.
What might people have developed a more gracile skeleton?
A slender frame is adapted for
the efficient long-distance running ability that started with Homo erectus. Furthermore, slenderness is a genetic adaptation for cooling an active body in hotter climates,
which aligns with the ample evidence that Africa was the home continent of our species.
Generalist-specialist niche
Our species is an expert at living in a wide array of environments, with populations culturally specializing in their own particular surroundings
Why is it difficult to determine how archaic peoples perceived culture?
How do we determine how early peoples likely lived?
Archaeology tells us much about the behavioral complexity of past humans by interpreting the significance of material
culture. In terms of evolved advanced culture, items created with an artistic flair, or as a decorative piece, speak
of some abstract thought process
What is a good way to measure the complexity of earlier cultures?
one way to track the complexity of past behavior
through artifacts is by measuring the variety of tools found together.
What do archaic and modern brain cases say about how human ability to think has changed over the years?
modern human braincases mean that we can do more complex thinking regarding memory and
social ability than the Neanderthals could. In contrast, the Neanderthal brain prioritized
the visual regions where the occipital bun was located, with fewer neurons in the frontal
area for complex thinking.
Why are people able to live in many different types of environments?
Our species is an expert at living in a wide array of environments, with populations culturally specializing in their own particular surroundings
Middle Stone Age
Time period known for Mousterian lithics that connects African archaic to modern Homo sapiens.
Later Stone Age
Time period following the Middle Stone Age with a diversification in tool types, starting around 50,000 years ago.
Where is it likely modern humans originated?
Africa
Early Modern Homo sapiens
the presence of some modern traits means that they illustrate the origin of the modern type.
Terms used to refer to transitional fossils between archaic and modern Homo sapiens that have a mosaic of traits. Humans like ourselves, who mostly lack archaic traits, are referred to as Late Modern Homo sapiens and simply Anatomically Modern Humans.
What does it mean that early fossils show that some humans had both archaic and modern traits?
That early modern humans had a combination of old and new traits and new humans with completely new traits didn’t just appear
Below are the names of places where human remains were found. After the name of each place, describe what kind of remains were found there and what conclusions about early humans anthropologists were able to draw.
Omo Kibish in Ethiopia-
These Omo Kibish hominins were represented by braincases and fragmented postcranial bones of three individuals found kilometers apart, dating back to 195,000 years ago. ne interesting finding was the variation in braincase size between the two more-complete specimens
Herto in Ethiopia-
There were fossilized crania of two adults and a child, along with
fragments of more individuals. The dates ranged between 160,000 and structure is within the modern human range,154,000 years ago.
African multiregionalism
The idea that modern Homo sapiens evolved as a complex web of small regional populations with sporadic gene flow among them.
How were traits of modern humans and archaic humans represented in fossils throughout Africa?
fossils have different mosaics of archaic and modern traits in different places and even within the same area.
What do we know about tool use among these early peoples?
Middle Stone Age tools of the same flaked style as archaic assemblages, even though they were separated by almost 150,000 years. The apparent stability in technology may be evidence that behavioral modernity was not so developed back then, though there was a high variety of tool types used throughout that time
What do we know about art? Since we haven’t found evidence of art or religion in early peoples, can we conclude they did not create art or have a religion? Why or why not?
As for the lack of art, maybe works from that time were made with media that deteriorated or perhaps such
works were removed by later humans.
Levant
eastern Mediterranean
Southern Dispersal Model
Theory that modern Homo sapiens expanded from Africa to cover the rest of the world without interacting with archaic humans.
Describe the two ways humans likely entered the Middle East.
- From North Africa, they could have crossed the Sinai Peninsula and moved north to the Levant, or eastern Mediterranean
- the Southern Dispersal model, with a crossing from East Africa to the southern Arabian Peninsula through the Straits of Bab-el-Mandeb.
Humans likely didn’t move all at one time. How is it most likely that they moved?
In reality, there were likely multiple waves of movement producing gene flow back and forth across these regions.
Caves of Mount Carmel
have preserved
skeletal remains in Israel and artifacts of modern Homo sapiens, the first-known
group living outside Africa
Misliya Cave
The skeletal presence at Misliya Cave is
represented by just part of the left upper jaw of one individual, but it is
notable for being dated to a very early time, between 194,000 and
177,000yearsag
Ochre
mineral-based pigment
Es-Skuhl and Qafzeh, Israel-
The
skeletons had many modern Homo sapiens traits, such as globular crania
and more gracile postcranial bones when compared to Neanderthals.
Still, there were some archaic traits. The high level of preservation is due to the intentional burial of some of
these people. Besides skeletal material, there are signs of artistic or symbolic behavior.
Al Wusta, Saudi Arabia-
one finger bone, but it greatly enhanced our view of modern Homo sapiens just outside Africa. Dating methods converged on a range between 130,000 and 90,000 years ago, overlapping the Skhul and Qafzeh range. The AW-1 bone and its associated stone tools added to evidence of many sites dotted throughout the Arabian Peninsula that contained stone tools but not skeletal remains.
What are theories about what happened to these early people?
Competition with Neanderthals may have accounted for the disappearance of modern human occupation since the Neanderthal presence in the Levant lasted longer than the dates of the early modern Homo sapiens. Perhaps they could not succeed due to competition with the Neanderthals who had been there longer and had both cultural and biological adaptations to that environment.
Fuyan
paleoanthropologists found 47 adult teeth associated with cave formations dated to between 120,000 and 80,000 years ago. It is currently the oldest-known modern human site in China, though other researchers question the validity of the date range. The teeth have the small size and gracile features of modern Homo sapiens dentition. No lithics have been found in Fuyan Cave.
Liujiang
the Liujiang hominin had a taller forehead than archaic Homo sapiens but also had an enlarged occipital region. Other parts of the skeleton also had a mix of modern and archaic traits: for example, the femur fragments suggested a slender length but with thick bone walls
Tianyuan
a few transitional traits between archaic and modern categories, such as deep tooth measurements the anteroposterior or front-to-back dimension) and a robust tibia. The Tianyuan fossils also had some antemortem tooth loss which happened during life), osteoarthritis of a left-hand finger joint, and enlargements to muscle attachment sites of the tibia and femur. The evidence pointed to a physically demanding life.
Zhoukoudian
Homo erectus and archaic Homo sapiens have also been found, there were three crania that fit the modern Homo sapiens set of traits. The crania were all more globular than that of archaic humans but still lower and longer than later modern humans. These findings again show that human variation was very different from what we see today.
Balangoda Man
The Balangoda hominins refer to around 36 modern humans as far back as 38,000 years ago whose fossils were found in numerous cave sites around Sri Lanka. Measurements of Balangoda Man show a closeness to the modern-day Vedda people who live in Sri Lanka, suggesting a direct ancestral relationship. Ornamentation such as pendants and beads, and the presence of shark teeth far from the coast, supported the presence of modern behavior as they were possibly transported for their aesthetic or symbolic value rather than their practical use
Mal’ta
A double-infant burial dated to 28,000 years ago was found in 1928 at the site of Mal’ta in southern Siberia, north of Mongolia Raghavan et al. 2014). Researchers named the three- to four-year-old individual MA-1. This burial was decorated with Later Stone Age decorations: a beaded necklace, pendants, and a headband. Other accessories and lithics were buried with the pair. Genetic analysis of MA-1 found a connection with both present-day Western Europeans and Native Americans but not East Asians. This finding hints at the complex routes people took in the expansion of the species.
What major discoveries were made in Sri Lanka?
Measurements of Balangoda Man show a closeness to the modern-day Vedda people who live in Sri Lanka, suggesting a direct ancestral relationship. Ornamentation such as pendants and beads, and the presence of shark teeth far from the coast, supported the presence of modern behavior as they were possibly
transported for their aesthetic or symbolic value rather than their practical use
What major discoveries were made in Mal’ta?
Researchers named the three- to four-year-old individual MA-1. This burial was decorated with Later Stone Age decorations: a beaded necklace, pendants, and a headband. Other accessories and lithics were buried with the pair. Genetic analysis of MA-1 found a connection with both present-day Western Europeans and Native Americans but not East Asians. This finding hints at the complex routes people took in the expansion of the species.
What conclusions can we make about human migration from these discoveries?
What major conclusions can we draw about human migration from remains found in Asia?
Sunda
Sunda was a landmass made up of the modern-day Malay Peninsula, Sumatra, Java, and Borneo. Lowered sea levels connected these places with land bridges, making them easier to traverse.
Wallacea
the archipelago that includes the Indonesian islands east of Borneo.
Megafauna
Large prehistoric animals that may have been hunted to extinction by people around the world.
Sahul
New Guinea and Australia as one contiguous continent. This land had never seen hominins or any other primates before modern Homo sapiens arrived.
Lake Mungo
The skeletal remains at Lake Mungo are the oldest known in the continent.
Kow Swamp
also in southern Australia, contained human crania that looked distinctly different from the ones at Lake Mungo. The frontal bones had extremely linear slopes from the brow to the top of the cranium, resembling intentional cranial modification seen in other parts of the world. If the crania were shaped on purpose, they are another sign of symbolic behavior, as the practice has linked to ideas of group cultural identity
Describe how people migrated into Australia.
Through large landmasses that had lowered sea levels. Expansion of the first modern human Asians, still following the coast, eventually entered an area called Sunda by researchers before continuing on to modern Australia. Sunda was a landmass made up of the modern-day Malay Peninsula, Sumatra, Java, and Borneo.
Even though no bones have been found in the North Territory of Australia, what has been found there and what does it reveal about the people who left them?
more than 10,000 artifacts found there show both behavioral modernity and variability. They include a diverse array of stone tools and different shades of ochre for rock art, including mica-based reflective pigment
Describe the major discoveries at Lake Mungo and Kow Swamp. Make sure to indicate if the remains found there show traits of modern humans, archaic humans or both.
What might cranial modification reveal about the people who engaged in it?
Describe how people moved across the continent of Australia.
The presence of the first humans in Australia along the current northern and southern coasts suggests that they used a route that wrapped around the perimeter of the continent
