Neanderthals etc. Flashcards
Upper Paleolithic Material Culture/Symbolic Behavior: “the full package”
- Started by Upper Paleolithic humans 50kya
- Abstract & realistic art incases and body decoration
- Carved figurines
- Beads made of ostrich eggshell, bones/ivory/teeth
- Musical instruments (bone pipes, flutes etc.)
- Practiced ritual burials
- Ex. Siberian site of Sungir, with jewelry, tools & sculpture found in burial site (dated to 15kya)
Plus practical stuff:
- Microlithic stone tools (especially blades and burins)
- Grinding and pounding stone tools
- Improved hunting and trapping tools (spear throwers, bow and arrows, boomerangs, nets etc.)
- Increase in long distance transfer of raw materials
Homo florensis (the hobbit)
- Lived in Indonesia 100-60kya
- Specimens found with tiny brains
- Thick bones
- Less prganathic than homo Erectus
- No chin
- Short asf: 3 feet tall
- Hunted wide range of animals like giant rat
Morphology of early anatomically modern humans
- No retromolar space
- Chin
- Small nose
- Canine fossa
- Vertical forehead
- Smaller browridges
- Smaller face
- Rounded occipital
Homo luzonensis
- Fossils found in Callao Cave, Luzon in the Philippines
- Older than 50kya
- Mix of australopith-like and modern-like traits
- Short stature
AMH vs Neandertals: subistinence and material culture
- Modern human & Neanderthal DNA 99.5-99.99% identical
- AMHs exploited more prey types
- We have more complex shelters (mammoth bone hut)
- Evidence of sewn clothes
Jebel Irhoud
- One of the earliest Homo sapiens sites
- Lived in Morocco 300kya
Skhul
Site in Israel of 10 AMHs from 130-100kya with deliberate burials
Qafzeh
Site in Israel of 14 AMHs from 120-90kya with deliberate burials
Homo naledi
- Hominim species found in Rising Star Cave, South Africa (15 individuals)
- 236-335 kya
- Some homo features: humanesque skull, versatile hands, long legs and humanesque feet
- Some austrolopith features: small brain, primitive shoulders, flared pelvis and curved fingers
Kebara
Israeli site from 60kya with evidence of symbolic burial
La Chappelle-aux-Saints
French cave site with adult Neanderthal man withe evidence of deliberate burial with 60kya
La Ferrassie
Site of deliberately buried Neanderthal in France from 50kya
Neanderthal traits (just get gist)
- Adapted for cold
- Large brains
- Big noses: to warm air and take in a high volume of air
- Cranium circular from rear
- Thinner bones
- No saggital keel
- Receding frontal bone
- Mid-facial prognathism
- Occipital bun
- Heavily muscled
- Thicker limbs
- Barrel-shaped chest
- Bowed femora
- Weighed 30% > AMHs
- Limb proportions like modern Arctic people
Significant sites of Neanderthals
- La Chappelle-aux-Saints, France
- La Ferrassie, France
- Neander Valley, Germany
- Engis, Belgium
- Forbes’ Quarry, Gibraltar
Neanderthal Subsistence strategy
- Successful big-game hunters: horses, mammoths, deer, bison, elephants, etc.
- Attacked from close-range with spears
– “Rodeo rider” type head & neck injuries - Also gathered plants where and when available, processed & cooked them
- Some use of aquatic resources (shellfish, crab, etc.)
Neanderthal Material and Living Culture
- Necklace made from perforated teeth, ivory and eagle talons
- Pigments for art? (potential use of materials for symbolic/artistic purposes)
- Mousterian tools
- Used tar as glue maybe
- Lived in caves with hearths (controlled use of fire)
Kabwe
- 125-600 thousand year old Homo heidelbergensis skull found in Zimbabwe
- Mix of ancestral (H. erectus-like) traits & derived (H. sapiens-like) traits
Bodo
- 600 thousand year old Homo heidelbergensis skull found in Ethiopia
- More primitive than Kabwe (higher facial prognathicism, slight sagittal keel, flat & receding forehead (like Kabwe), thick, but not continuous supraorbital torus)
Sima de los Huesos
- Pit of Bones in Atapuerca, Spain from 500-400kya
- Homo antecessor
- Mix of features but lean more toward Neanderthal-like anatomy rather than an AMH
Homo antecessor
- Earliest hominins in Europe (1.2-0.8 mya)
- Found in Sima de los Huesos
- Animal bones with cutmarks (chopping the meat up?)
Homo cepranensis
Early hominin found in Italy (1.2-0.8 mya)
“Cerano Man”
Out-of-Africa I
- Homo Erectus leaves Africa 2-1.8 mya
- Likely increasing population and adapting to exploit different habitats
Middle Pleistocene Homo in Asia
Mix of homo Erectus features and AMH, more modern looking than in Europe
Homo erectus in SE Asia
- Found in Java, living there 1.3-1.45 mya
- Got there due to low sea levels during glacial periods
- Land bridge between continental Asia and Java (Sunda Shelf)
Homo erectus morphology (get gist)
- Low forehead
- Big brain
- Long & low braincase
- Occipital crest
- Angular torus
- No chin
- Less facial prognathism
- Saggital keel
- Small teeth
- Large & continuos supraorbital torus
Zhoukoudian, China
Limestone cave system has homo erectus, “Peking Man” from 780 – 250 kya
Homo erectus in Africa aka homo ergaster
- Found at Koobi Fora & West Turkana, Kenya & Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania & Drimolen and Swartkrans, South Africa
- Dates from 1.9-0.9 mya
- Turkana (Nariokotome) boy (1.6 million year old skull in West Turkana, Kenya)
Dmanisi, Georgia
- 1.7 million year old skull found
- Similar to African Homo erectus, but more ancestral traits
- Small brain and short
Homo erectus tools and material culture
- Tools lasted more than a million years
- More big game hunting: megafauna
- Biface handaxes
- Controlled use of fire (burnt wood and charred bones found)
Bifaces tools
stone-tools that are flaked on both sides, such as hand axes, picks & cleavers
