Archaic Homo sapiens

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Archaic Homo sapiens
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Betwixt and BetweenLiminal people

• 400,000 to 200,000 BP
• Homo erectus probably evolved into Homo sapiens
• Where and how remain questions
• Physically
• skeletal remains from this time period--400-200,
  000 BP--show features of both H. erectus and
  modern H. sapiens in varying degrees
• Culturally
• Middle Paleolithic Cultures found in the
  archaeological record 400-300,000 years ago
  replaced the older Acheulian Tool Tradition

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One exampleAtapuerca Gran Dolina and Sima de
los huesos

• Another early example hominins which may have
  been ancestral to archaic Homo sapiens was Homo
  antecessor.
• Found at Atapuerca site in Spain with skeletal
  material dating to 800,000 BP (note that the date
  is before when we normally think of finding
  archaic Homo sapiens)

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The caves of Atapuerca Gran Dolina

• Gran Dolina was a cave site used for about 1
  million years by humans
• Earliest inhabitants were archaic humans called
  Homo antecessor dating to about 800,000 years
  ago
• Relatively temperate climate on the Iberian
  Peninsula although glaciers to the north.
• Fragmentary fossil remains but many stone tools
• Bones of animals and hominids were hit in the
  same way with stone tools and the marrow was
  removed from both.
• Is this evidence that there archaic humans were
  cannibals

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The caves of Atapuerca Sima de los Heusos

• Skull from the Sima de los Heusos (Pit of Bones)
  at the Atapuerca Cave site in northern Spain.
• This cave contained the bones of many animals
  including those of fox, cave bear, lion and wolf.

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Archaic Homo sapiens at Sima de los Heusos

• The cave also contained
• thousands of fossil remains of about 32
  individuals,
• many teenagers and young adults many between ages
  10 and 18
• none over 40
• Dates are between 500,000 and 350,000 BP

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Archaic Homo sapiens at Sima de los Heusos

• Differed from the hominins (Homo antecessor)
  found at Gran Dolina about 400, 000 years earlier
• Their bones were strong, especially in the legs
  and they are tall.
• http//www.amnh.org/exhibitions/atapuerca/simahuma
  ns/skull5.php
• http//www.amnh.org/exhibitions/atapuerca/simahuma
  ns/index.php

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Archaic Homo sapiens at Sima de los Heusos

• They have been called Homo heidelbergensis.
• These individuals were similar to the Neandertals
  that would later inhabit the region.
• Evidence from other sites shows that these people
  would have used spears and fire
• The teeth are worn. They probably ate meat and
  vegetables and used their teeth to hold objects
  when they were cutting.

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Archaic Homo sapiens at Sima de los Heusos

• Archaeologists dont know why so many bones of
  young people were found in the cave. Perhaps
  they were dropped there?
• http//www.amnh.org/exhibitions/atapuerca/simahuma
  ns/index.php

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Archaic Homo sapiens at Sima de los Heusos

• This one hand axe was found in the pit.
• Archaeologists think it was probably put there on
  purpose.
• The material is exotic quartzite and it dates to
  400,000 BP.
• http//www.amnh.org/exhibitions/atapuerca/discover
  y/index.php

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So who (or what) were the Neandertals?

• The first hominins ever discovered in 1856 in the
  Neander Valley, Germany
• Until the 1950s they were considered brutish
  and primitive and really different from modern
  Homo sapiens
• Neandertals now considered very similar to modern
  humans
• Are Neandertals part of our species?
• Did Neandertals provide genetic material which
  was incorporated into the genome of Homo sapiens?

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Neandertals

• Premodern humans existed in other parts of the
  world even though Neandertals have received the
  most attention
• Neandertals were premodern humans found during
  what is called the Middle Paleolithic in western
  Europe after, central Europe, Israel, Iraq,
  Usbekistan
• Dated to between about 200,000 and 40,000 BP
• Neanderthals were Middle Paleolithic and were
  associated with the Mousterian tool complex

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Neandertal

• Males and females very muscular compared to H
  sapiens like us
• Large feet and legs with thick shin bones
• Arms designed for downward thrusting movements
• Pelvis shaped slightly differently from ours so
  gait different although birthing the same as ours

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Comparison of hominid skulls

• Skulls
• Sloping foreheads
• Heavy and pronounced brow ridges
• Elongated skull
• Large jaws
• Small chin
• Large brainsAverage of 1450 cc compared to
  1300-50 of modern humans
• http//www.mnh.si.edu/anthro/humanorigins/ha/nead_
  sap_comp.html

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Neandertal

• Large front teeth worn down to stubs because they
  were used for tasks other than chewing.
• Large noses for cold air?
• Ridges over eyes
• Bony mass at back of headthe occipital bun

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Neandertals

• Physical similarities and differences
• Neandertals were muscular and robust
• Evidence that Neandertal infants closely
  resembled Homo sapiens although by 10 years old
  children had the physical characteristics of
  Neandertals
• Physical development faster than that of Homo
  sapiens? Less time to learn? Resulted in more
  basic culture?
• Physical differences in jaw and teeth the result
  of behavioural differences rather than genetic
  differences?

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The Neandertals Archaic Homo sapiens in Europe

• The best-known European version of Archaic Homo
  sapiens
• Date from 200,000 to about 40,000 BP
• Differed from other Archaic Homo sapiens found in
  Africa, China and Java at the same time as the
  earlier Neandertals in that Neandertals were more
  robust.

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What does mtDNA tell us about Neandertals and
modern humans?

• What is mtDNA
• Mitochondrial DNA
• Mutation rates rapid
• Female line
• Used for dating the latest common ancestor of one
  of more different species
• - Last common ancestor of modern humans and-
  Neandertals was 600,00 BP

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Archaic Homo sapiensCultural Aspects

• At this time we also see the beginning of hafting
  and composite tools
• Composite tools took forethought because they are
  made in several steps.
• We see the beginning of distinct cultural
  traditions which have stylistically different
  tools.
• We see the use of stone for Lavalloisian
  technique tools from as far as 300 km away in
  comparison to Acheulian tool stone which came
  from only 20 km awaypeople were looking for
  stone sources

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Middle Paleolithic Mousterian Tradition of the
Neandertals

• Found in Europe, western Africa and North Africa
  between 300,000-40,000 BP
• Technologically more advanced than the Acheulian
  but the presence of handaxes shows that the
  Mousterian grew out of the Acheulian
• Many flakes from one core and a wide variety of a
  tool types such as scrapers, gravers, and notched
  flakes points.
• Levalloisian technique

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Middle Stone Age

• Terms used to refer to African cultural remains
  from the same period as the Middle Paleolithic in
  Europe.
• Rather than the Mousterian we refer to this
  period in Africa as the post-Acheulian
• Levalloisian technique used
• Klaises River in South Africablades, scrapers
  and burins at 120,000 Bp even though these are
  characteristic of the Upper Paleolithic

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Lavalloisian technique

• Found in Africa, Europe and the Middle east
• Found in China although no use in China of the
  Acheulian tradition, therefore, this may be an
  independent invention
• New knapping techniques, like the Lavalloisian
  technique, allowed a more efficient use of lithic
  material

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Lavalloisian technique (200,000 BP)
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Mousterian tools
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Lifestyle of Archaic Homo sapiens

• Where did they live? Settlement Patterns
• Cave sites common and used for at least part of
  the year
• Open air sites also found near lakes and rivers
• Heaths found at all sites
• Mobile people moving for food and weather
  conditions

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Lifestyle of archaic Homo sapiens

• What did they eat?
• Depended on the environment
• Tundra where Neandertals lived had a lot of game
  including big game
• Klasies Rivershellfish and meat
• Big-game hunting
• Neandertals show flexibility in their hunting
  probably as a result of climatic changethey also
  planned their hunting
• Were Neandertals over specialized in one
  ecological niche? Was this the reason they
  disappeared?

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Lifestyle of archaic Homo sapiens

• Funeral rites
• Le Moustier
• 15 or 16 year old boy buried with a stone axe
• Children and adults buried together in a family
  plot
• Shanidar Cave, Iraqburial with flowers?
• Evidence of altruism and cannibalism
• Evidence from brain form of language by 250,000
  BP in archaic Homo sapiens including possibly
  Neandertals

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Summary

• Betwixt and between
• Culture
• Relationship between archaics and moderns?