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Chapter 10: Homo Erectus & Archaic Homo sapiens (Lower Palaeolithic…
Chapter 10: Homo Erectus & Archaic Homo sapiens
Homo erectus
First hominin outside of Africa after 2mya, fossils found in Asia & recent finds in Georgia ~1.8mya
Discoveries of H. Erectus fossils
"Java man": 1891 by Eugene Douglas
Ngandang Site: 70k or 40kya
"Peking Man" 1920's China: cranial, post cranial elements 800k to 130kya
Northern Africa, 1950's : oldest African h. Erectus fossils from 1.7mya; Lake Turkana region, Kenya (numerous mostly complete individuals)
Dmansi Georgia ~1.8 mya: earliest African emigrants, oldowan tool culture, mix of early homo traits
Homo floriensis
Flores, Indonesia: ~190 to 50kya
Almost complete female skeleton, 12+ individuals
Made and used stone tools, used fire, hunted pygmy elephants and large rodents
H. erectus traits
Cranial capacity: 700-1200 cc
Lighter and thinner jaw (less prognathic face), prominent and projecting nose
Taurodontism
: enlarged pulp cavity in tooth, wear and tear
Post Cranial: adaptations to life on the ground
Prolonged developmental period: wide pelvis, large brained infant
Evolution of H. Erectus
Cranial capacity and brain increasing
Face, teeth and jaw decreasing from cooking food
Reduction of sexual dimorphism
Marriage like unions and family units
Cultural innovations: clothes & fire allowed them to move to new environments
Lower Palaeolithic Culture
Beginning of Pleistocene epoch (2.3 to 100kya)
Oldowan tool production associated with H. Erectus after 1.8mya
Acheulian tool tradition ~1.6mya to 1mya; throughout Europe and Africa, not common in Asia(bamboo??)
Sophisticated, stadnardized tools, including hand axes, picks, cleavers, scrapers, bruins
Innovation: bifacial flaking, thinner, sharper tools
Used for animal butchery
Subsistence strategies
elephant remains, frighten into muddy bog
might have scavenged big game
Preferably hunted smaller game though
Control of Fire
For warmth, by H. Erectus
Wonderwork cave, South Africa ~1.7mya
Swartkans cave, South Africa~1.5-1mya
Zhoukoudian cave, China ~500kya; splintered and charred animal bones and layers of ash
Gesher Benot, Israel, 800 000ya: burned seeds, wood, stones --> hearths
Campsites/homebases
Acheulian sites located close to water sources, vegetation, animals. Some in caves, most in open areas
African sites marked by stony rubble, securing windbreaks and providing ammunition
Centre of group functions
Terra Amata site, Nice France, 400-200kya. Huts with a central hearth
Religion/RItual
Red ochre (oxidized clay)
Burial rituals.... removal of brain??
Language
growth of frontal and posterior portions of brain --> similar to modern brain
hemispheric specialization--> h. Erectus has linguistic skills , language of modern 6 year old
Transition to Archaic H. sapiens from H. Erectus 500-400kya
transition from early palaeolithic to middle palaeolithic
Palaeolithic is a cultural period , corresponds to Pleistocene epoch, which is a geological time division
H. Heidelbergensis: type of H. Erectus from Europe
Homo Antecessor: proposed last common ancestor between Neandertals and modern humans
Neandertals: 500-200kya, Homo neandertalensis
Might not have been bipedal
Traits
Sloping foreheads
large brow ridges
flattened brain cases
large jaws
nearly absent chins
much more robust and muscled bodies
Located in: western/Central Europe, Israel, Iraq, Uzbekistan
DNA extracted from Neandertal was not Human DNA, came from Mitochondria (mtDNA)
mtDNA can only be inherited from mothers, and can be used to measure the degree of relatedness between two species
Neandertals lack microcephalin, gene associated with brain development. Human and Neanderthal populations split more than 1/2mya
Fossils found widely in Europe, SW and Central Asia
mtDNA
Neandertals and modern human ~25 differences
Among modern humans ~5-10 differences
Neandertal and human populations bred: red hair and fair skin shared traits, but still cultural evidence for them being separate species
Middle Palaeolithic Cultures
Associated with Neandertals 300-40kya
Mousterian
tool tradition in Europe
Decrease in larger core tools, increase in small flake tools like scrapers
HIde or wood working, may have had handles
Levallois Technique
Cores prepared to remove a deliberate flake
Standardized flakes, only 2-5 per core
Multi-functional: cut, scrape or pierce
Home Sites: Caves, rock shelters, open areas. Reuse of areas ~ semi permanence of favoured locations, control of fire in hearths
Neandertal Diet
Big Game hunting and broad spectrum foraging
Big game animals: bison, mammoth, wild cattle, reindeer
Using drives, group hunting
Small mammals, shellfish, fish, birds
Plant resources
Food (mushrooms, pine nuts)
Medicine (poplar, chamomile)
Social Life; deliberate graves
burial rituals, offering (artifacts and flowers), skull removal
Neandertal Altruism: Care for members no longer able to contribute survival
Evolutionary relationships
Denisovans: hominin species found in the last decade, contemporous with neandertals and modern humans. Shared common ancestor Homo sapiens