Chapter 13 Homo sapiens sapiens The Origin and Dispersal of Homo sapiens The Earliest Homo sapiens Discoveries Technology and Art in the Upper Paleolithic Summary of Upper Paleolithic Culture

Theories of Human Origins Complete Replacement Model Regional Continuity Model Partial Replacement Model

Complete Replacement Model Modern populations arose in Africa in the last 200,000 years. Migrated from Africa, replacing populations in Europe and Asia. Using mitochondrial DNA, scientists concluded the world’s population descended from a single African lineage. Other scientists, using the same mtDNA material, have found that some of them have no African roots.

Partial Replacement Model The dispersal of H. sapiens sapiens out of South Africa was gradual. Moving into Eurasia, modern humans hybridized with local archaic populations and eventually replaced them.

Regional Continuity Model Some local archaic populations in Europe, Asia and Africa continued their evolutionary development from archaic H. sapiens to anatomically modern humans. Denies that the earlier modern H. sapiens populations originated exclusively in Africa and challenges the notion of complete replacement.

Earliest Discoveries Africa Near East: Israel Anatomically modern forms 120,000 to 80,000 y.a. Near East: Israel At least 10 individuals were found in the Skhul Cave at Mt. Carmel, dated to about 115,000 y.a. 20 individuals were found at Qafzeh Cave. Some exhibit Neandertal features, indicating that modern H. sapiens and Neandertals overlapped.

Earliest Discoveries Central Europe Fossils at many sites display Neandertal and modern features, supporting the regional continuity model. In Mladec in the Czech Republic, moderns have been found that date to 33,000 y.a.

Earliest Discoveries Western Europe The best known fossil find is from the Cro-Magnon site, discovered in 1868 in a shelter in southern France. A child’s skeleton from Portugal gives evidence of hybridization between Neandertal and anatomically modern Homo sapiens.

Earliest Discoveries Asia Dating to at least 50,000 y.a. Ordos is probably the oldest anatomically modern find in China. Chinese paleoanthropologists see a continuous evolution in their geographic area from Homo erectus to archaic H. sapiens to anatomically modern humans.

Earliest Discoveries Australia By 50,000 y.a., Sahul, the area including New Guinea and Australia, was inhabited by modern humans. The Kow Swamp people date to 14,000 and 9,000 y.a. and exhibit certain archaic traits such as a receding forehead.

Technology and Art in the Upper Paleolithic Five cultural periods based on stone tool technologies: Chatelperronian Aurignacian Gravettian Solutrean Magdalenian

Tool Making Upper Paleolithic was an age of technological innovation. Solutrean tools exhibit skill and aesthetic appreciation. The Magdalenian stage saw even more advances in technology.

Art The time depth for prehistoric imagery encompasses the entire upper Paleolithic. There is considerable variety in style, medium, content and meaning. European prehistoric art reached it’s peak during the Magdalenian phase.

Cave Art The majority of cave art comes from southwestern France and northern Spain. Grotte Chauvet The cave painting is dated during the Aurignacian period more than 30,000 y.a. Images include stylized dots, human handprints and animal representations. Footprints on the cave floor were produced by bears as well as humans.

Africa Rock art is found in southern Africa dating to between 28,000 and 19,000 y.a. Personal adornment dates back to 38,000 y.a. in the form of beads fashioned from ostrich shells.