Pioneers of Modern Humanity

ARCHAIC Homo sapiens By 100,000 Years Ago ... Found throughout the “Old World” Physically similar, culturally distinct “Growing into” local environments A “critical mass” of neurons attained

ARCHAIC Homo sapiens Homo sapiens neanderthalensis By 100,000 Years Ago ... ARCHAIC Homo sapiens Homo sapiens neanderthalensis Discovered by Johann Fuhlrott in 1856 in a small cave at Feldhofer in the Neander Valley in Germany. The find consisted of a skullcap, thigh bones, part of a pelvis, some ribs, and some arm and shoulder bones. The lower left arm had been broken in life, and as a result the bones of the left arm were smaller than those of the right. There were actually two earlier Neandertal finds. A partial cranium of a 2.5 year old child found in 1829 in Belgium was not recognized until 1936. An adult cranium found on Gibraltar in 1848 gathered dust in a museum until it was recognized as a Neandertal in 1864.

Homo sapiens neanderthalensis Mainly confined to SW Europe 1400cc skull capacity (vs. 1300cc for mod humans) Very robust skeleton Comparison of top view of Chimpanzee, Homo erectus, and Neandertal skulls.

Homo sapiens neanderthalensis Middle Paleolithic (Middle Old Stone Age) Mousterian Culture Flake tool technology… Levallois flakes Earlier cultures had core tool lithic technologies, Mousterian is characterized by flake tools. First hominid known to have buried the dead. consciousness… aesthetics…. religion

Homo sapiens neanderthalensis What happened to Neandertal?

By 40,000 Years Ago…. Homo sapiens sapiens ….had “grown into” a wide variety of local habitats throughout the Old World by cultural adaptation. Upper Paleolithic Sequence in Southwestern France and Northern Spain Lascaux Magdalenian 15,000-10,000BC Altamira Solutrian 18,000-15,000BC Pech Merle Solutrian Laurel-leaf Points Gravettian 22,000-18,000BC “Venus” figurines Aurignacian 28,500-22,000BC Burins Chatelperronian 38,000-28,500BC Backed blades

Lascaux - southwestern France Upper Paleolithic Art (ca. 12, 000 BP) Lascaux - southwestern France In this panel of Back-to Back Bison, reserves around the limbs in the background, distortion of shapes, choice of surface, symmetrical composition, are all used to create a three dimensional effect...

Altamira - northern Spain Upper Paleolithic Art (ca. 12, 000 BP) Altamira - northern Spain In this representation of a horse, red is ocher, black charcoal. Undulations in cave wall and ceiling were incorporated in the composition of the paintings.

Upper Paleolithic Art (ca. 12, 000 BP) Pech Merle - Spotted Horses (entoptic phenomena?)

Summary of Early Fossil Evidence This chart shows rough sequence of fossil hominids. 10,000BP ------------------------------ Homo sapiens (full culture, worldwide distribution) 100,000BP ---------------------------- Homo sapiens (Neandertal, et al.) 1mBP ---------------------------------- Homo erectus (Radiation thru Old World) 2mBP ---------------------------------- Homo habilis (Earliest Culture?) 3mBP ---------------------------------- Australopithecus var. (Fully bipedal) 4mBP ---------------------------------- Ardipithecus ramidus (Earliest hominines?) 5mBP ----------------------------------

Post Pleistocene Adaptations Exam 1 Scores A – 8 B – 10 C – 6 D – 1 F – 0 O - 2 Mesolithic and Archaic - After last glaciation in Europe and New World.

Neolithic The Neolithic Revolution domestication of plants and animals occurred independently in several “hearths” Sedentary, population increase, specialization in division of labor Jericho; Jarmo - early villages

Early Civilization Developed in various places at different times…. generally in area of earliest domestication. Sumerian Civilization - Early Phases (Developed in the Fertile Crecent region.) Sumerian Early Dynasty 3200-2800 BCE Sumerian Protoliterate 3500-3200 BCE Sumerian Ubaid Phase 3800-3500 BCE