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Scerri EML, Will M. The revolution that still isn't: The origins of behavioral complexity in Homo sapiens. J Hum Evol 2023; 179:103358. [PMID: 37058868 DOI: 10.1016/j.jhevol.2023.103358] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/27/2022] [Revised: 03/13/2023] [Accepted: 03/14/2023] [Indexed: 04/16/2023]
Abstract
The behavioral origins of Homo sapiens can be traced back to the first material culture produced by our species in Africa, the Middle Stone Age (MSA). Beyond this broad consensus, the origins, patterns, and causes of behavioral complexity in modern humans remain debated. Here, we consider whether recent findings continue to support popular scenarios of: (1) a modern human 'package,' (2) a gradual and 'pan-African' emergence of behavioral complexity, and (3) a direct connection to changes in the human brain. Our geographically structured review shows that decades of scientific research have continuously failed to find a discrete threshold for a complete 'modernity package' and that the concept is theoretically obsolete. Instead of a continent-wide, gradual accumulation of complex material culture, the record exhibits a predominantly asynchronous presence and duration of many innovations across different regions of Africa. The emerging pattern of behavioral complexity from the MSA conforms to an intricate mosaic characterized by spatially discrete, temporally variable, and historically contingent trajectories. This archaeological record bears no direct relation to a simplistic shift in the human brain but rather reflects similar cognitive capacities that are variably manifested. The interaction of multiple causal factors constitutes the most parsimonious explanation driving the variable expression of complex behaviors, with demographic processes such as population structure, size, and connectivity playing a key role. While much emphasis has been given to innovation and variability in the MSA record, long periods of stasis and a lack of cumulative developments argue further against a strictly gradualistic nature in the record. Instead, we are confronted with humanity's deep, variegated roots in Africa, and a dynamic metapopulation that took many millennia to reach the critical mass capable of producing the ratchet effect commonly used to define contemporary human culture. Finally, we note a weakening link between 'modern' human biology and behavior from around 300 ka ago.
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Affiliation(s)
- Eleanor M L Scerri
- Pan-African Evolution Research Group, Max Planck Institute for Geoanthropology, Kahlaische Str. 10, 07749, Jena, Germany; Department of Classics and Archaeology, University of Malta, Msida, MSD 2080, Malta; Department of Prehistory, University of Cologne, 50931, Cologne, Germany.
| | - Manuel Will
- Department of Early Prehistory and Quaternary Ecology, University of Tübingen, Schloss Hohentübingen, Burgsteige 11, 72070, Tübingen, Germany
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Burke A, Bisson M, Schilt F, Tolan S, Museba J, Drapeau MSM, Aleman JC, Peros MC. The archaeological potential of the northern Luangwa Valley, Zambia: The Luwumbu basin. PLoS One 2023; 18:e0269209. [PMID: 36917590 PMCID: PMC10013907 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0269209] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/14/2022] [Accepted: 12/14/2022] [Indexed: 03/15/2023] Open
Abstract
The Luangwa Basin, Zambia, which forms part of the Zambezi drainage, is strategically located between the Central African plateau and the East African Rift system. The Luangwa River and major tributaries, such as the Luwumbu River, are perennial water sources supporting essential resources that sustain human communities and a rich and diverse fauna and flora. The archaeological record of Luangwa is relatively unknown, despite early archaeological exploration hinting at its potential. Recent research in the southern Luangwa valley, however, suggests that it preserves a long record of hominin occupation spanning the Early to Late Stone Age. The research described here details fieldwork carried out in northeastern Luangwa, in the Luwumbu Basin, that confirms that a relatively deep package of Quaternary deposits, containing evidence of the Stone Age occupation of the region persists in the upper piedmont zone.
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Affiliation(s)
- A. Burke
- Dept. d’Anthropologie, Université de Montréal, Montréal, QC, Canada
- * E-mail:
| | - M. Bisson
- Anthropology Dept., McGill University, Montréal, QC, Canada
| | - F. Schilt
- Interdisciplinary Center for Archaeology and Evolution of Human Behavior (ICArEHB), FCHS, Universidade do Algarve, Faro, Portugal
| | - S. Tolan
- Chipembele Conservation Centre, Mfuwe, Zambia
| | - J. Museba
- National Heritage Conservation Commission, Northern Region, Kasama, Zambia
| | - M. S. M. Drapeau
- Dept. d’Anthropologie, Université de Montréal, Montréal, QC, Canada
| | - J. C. Aleman
- CNRS, IRD, INRA Coll France, CEREGE, Aix Marseille Univ, Aix-en-Provence, France
| | - M. C. Peros
- Department of Environment and Geography, Bishop’s University, Sherbrooke, QC, Canada
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Herries AIR, Arnold LJ, Boschian G, Blackwood AF, Wilson C, Mallett T, Armstrong B, Demuro M, Petchey F, Meredith-Williams M, Penzo-Kajewski P, Caruana MV. A marine isotope stage 11 coastal Acheulian workshop with associated wood at Amanzi Springs Area 1, South Africa. PLoS One 2022; 17:e0273714. [PMID: 36264956 PMCID: PMC9584507 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0273714] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/23/2021] [Accepted: 08/11/2022] [Indexed: 11/06/2022] Open
Abstract
Amanzi Springs is a series of inactive thermal springs located near Kariega in the Eastern Cape of South Africa. Excavations in the 1960s exposed rare, stratified Acheulian-bearing deposits that were not further investigated over the next 50 years. Reanalysis of the site and its legacy collection has led to a redefined stratigraphic context for the archaeology, a confirmed direct association between Acheulian artefacts and wood, as well as the first reliable age estimates for the site. Thermally transferred optically stimulated luminescence and post-infrared infrared stimulated luminescence dating indicates that the Acheulian deposits from the Amanzi Springs Area 1 spring eye formed during Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 11 at ~ 404–390 ka. At this time, higher sea levels of ~13-14m would have placed Amanzi Springs around 7 km from a ria that would have formed along what is today the Swartkops River, and which likely led to spring reactivation. This makes the Amanzi Springs Area 1 assemblage an unusual occurrence of a verified late occurring, seaward, open-air Acheulian occupation. The Acheulian levels do not contain any Middle Stone Age (MSA) elements such as blades and points that have been documented in the interior of South Africa at this time. However, a small number of stone tools from the upper layers of the artefact zone, and originally thought of as intrusive, have been dated to ~190 ka, at the transition between MIS 7 to 6, and represent the first potential MSA identified at the site.
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Affiliation(s)
- Andy I. R. Herries
- Palaeoscience, Dept. Archaeology and History, La Trobe University, Melbourne Campus, Bundoora, Victoria, Australia
- The Palaeo-Research Institute, University of Johannesburg, Auckland Park, South Africa
- * E-mail:
| | - Lee J. Arnold
- Environment Institute and Institute for Photonics and Advanced Sensing (IPAS), Department of Earth Sciences, School of Physical Sciences, University of Adelaide, Adelaide, South Australia, Australia
| | - Giovanni Boschian
- The Palaeo-Research Institute, University of Johannesburg, Auckland Park, South Africa
- Dipartimento di Biologia, Università di Pisa. 1, Pisa, Italy
| | - Alexander F. Blackwood
- Palaeoscience, Dept. Archaeology and History, La Trobe University, Melbourne Campus, Bundoora, Victoria, Australia
- Human Evolution Research Institute, University of Cape Town, Western Cape, South Africa
| | - Coen Wilson
- Palaeoscience, Dept. Archaeology and History, La Trobe University, Melbourne Campus, Bundoora, Victoria, Australia
| | - Tom Mallett
- Palaeoscience, Dept. Archaeology and History, La Trobe University, Melbourne Campus, Bundoora, Victoria, Australia
| | - Brian Armstrong
- The Palaeo-Research Institute, University of Johannesburg, Auckland Park, South Africa
| | - Martina Demuro
- Environment Institute and Institute for Photonics and Advanced Sensing (IPAS), Department of Earth Sciences, School of Physical Sciences, University of Adelaide, Adelaide, South Australia, Australia
| | - Fiona Petchey
- Environmental Research Institute, University of Waikato, Hamilton, New Zealand
| | - Matthew Meredith-Williams
- Palaeoscience, Dept. Archaeology and History, La Trobe University, Melbourne Campus, Bundoora, Victoria, Australia
| | - Paul Penzo-Kajewski
- Palaeoscience, Dept. Archaeology and History, La Trobe University, Melbourne Campus, Bundoora, Victoria, Australia
| | - Matthew V. Caruana
- The Palaeo-Research Institute, University of Johannesburg, Auckland Park, South Africa
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Abstract
The genetic basis for the emergence of creativity in modern humans remains a mystery despite sequencing the genomes of chimpanzees and Neanderthals, our closest hominid relatives. Data-driven methods allowed us to uncover networks of genes distinguishing the three major systems of modern human personality and adaptability: emotional reactivity, self-control, and self-awareness. Now we have identified which of these genes are present in chimpanzees and Neanderthals. We replicated our findings in separate analyses of three high-coverage genomes of Neanderthals. We found that Neanderthals had nearly the same genes for emotional reactivity as chimpanzees, and they were intermediate between modern humans and chimpanzees in their numbers of genes for both self-control and self-awareness. 95% of the 267 genes we found only in modern humans were not protein-coding, including many long-non-coding RNAs in the self-awareness network. These genes may have arisen by positive selection for the characteristics of human well-being and behavioral modernity, including creativity, prosocial behavior, and healthy longevity. The genes that cluster in association with those found only in modern humans are over-expressed in brain regions involved in human self-awareness and creativity, including late-myelinating and phylogenetically recent regions of neocortex for autobiographical memory in frontal, parietal, and temporal regions, as well as related components of cortico-thalamo-ponto-cerebellar-cortical and cortico-striato-cortical loops. We conclude that modern humans have more than 200 unique non-protein-coding genes regulating co-expression of many more protein-coding genes in coordinated networks that underlie their capacities for self-awareness, creativity, prosocial behavior, and healthy longevity, which are not found in chimpanzees or Neanderthals.
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Integrative geochronology calibrates the Middle and Late Stone Ages of Ethiopia's Afar Rift. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2021; 118:2116329118. [PMID: 34873047 PMCID: PMC8685921 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2116329118] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 10/19/2021] [Indexed: 01/19/2023] Open
Abstract
Understanding the evolution, dispersals, behaviors, and ecologies of early African Homo sapiens requires accurate geochronological placement of fossils and artifacts. We introduce open-air occurrences of such remains in sediments of the Middle Awash study area in Ethiopia. We describe the stratigraphic and depositional contexts of our discoveries and demonstrate the effectiveness of recently developed uranium-series dating of ostrich eggshell at validating and bridging across more traditional radioisotopic methods (14C and 40Ar/39Ar). Homo sapiens fossils and associated Middle Stone Age artifacts are placed at >158 and ∼96 ka. Later Stone Age occurrences are dated to ∼21 to 24 ka and ∼31 to 32 ka, firmly dating the upper portion of one of the longest records of human evolution. The Halibee member of the Upper Dawaitoli Formation of Ethiopia’s Middle Awash study area features a wealth of Middle and Later Stone Age (MSA and LSA) paleoanthropological resources in a succession of Pleistocene sediments. We introduce these artifacts and fossils, and determine their chronostratigraphic placement via a combination of established radioisotopic methods and a recently developed dating method applied to ostrich eggshell (OES). We apply the recently developed 230Th/U burial dating of OES to bridge the temporal gap between radiocarbon (14C) and 40Ar/39Ar ages for the MSA and provide 14C ages to constrain the younger LSA archaeology and fauna to ∼24 to 21.4 ka. Paired 14C and 230Th/U burial ages of OES agree at ∼31 ka for an older LSA locality, validating the newer method, and in turn supporting its application to stratigraphically underlying MSA occurrences previously constrained only by a maximum 40Ar/39Ar age. Associated fauna, flora, and Homo sapiens fossils are thereby now fixed between 106 ± 20 ka and 96.4 ± 1.6 ka (all errors 2σ). Additional 40Ar/39 results on an underlying tuff refine its age to 158.1 ± 11.0 ka, providing a more precise minimum age for MSA lithic artifacts, fauna, and H. sapiens fossils recovered ∼9 m below it. These results demonstrate how chronological control can be obtained in tectonically active and stratigraphically complex settings to precisely calibrate crucial evidence of technological, environmental, and evolutionary changes during the African Middle and Late Pleistocene.
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Lupien RL, Russell JM, Subramanian A, Kinyanjui R, Beverly EJ, Uno KT, de Menocal P, Dommain R, Potts R. Eastern African environmental variation and its role in the evolution and cultural change of Homo over the last 1 million years. J Hum Evol 2021; 157:103028. [PMID: 34216947 DOI: 10.1016/j.jhevol.2021.103028] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/17/2020] [Revised: 05/20/2021] [Accepted: 05/20/2021] [Indexed: 10/21/2022]
Abstract
Characterizing eastern African environmental variability on orbital timescales is crucial to evaluating the hominin evolutionary response to past climate changes. However, there is a dearth of high-resolution, well-dated records of ecosystem dynamics from eastern Africa that cover long time intervals. In the last 1 Myr, there were significant anatomical and cultural developments in Homo, including the origin of Homo sapiens. There were also major changes in global climatic boundary conditions that may have affected eastern African environments, yet potential linkages remain poorly understood. We developed carbon isotopic records from plant waxes (δ13Cwax) and bulk organic matter (δ13COM) from a well-dated sediment core spanning the last ∼1 Myr extracted from the Koora Basin, located south of the Olorgesailie Basin, in the southern Kenya rift. Our record characterizes the climatic and environmental context for evolutionary events and technological advances recorded in the adjacent Olorgesailie Basin, such as the transition from Acheulean to Middle Stone Age tools by 320 ka. A significant shift toward more C4-dominated ecosystems and arid conditions occurred near the end of the mid-Pleistocene Transition, which indicates a link between equatorial eastern African and high-latitude northern hemisphere climate. Environmental variability increases throughout the mid- to late-Pleistocene, superimposed by precession-paced packets of variability modulated by eccentricity. An interval of particularly high-amplitude climate and environmental variability occurred from ∼275 ka to ∼180 ka, synchronous with evidence for the first H. sapiens fossils in eastern Africa. These results support the 'variability selection hypothesis' that increased environmental variability selected for adaptable traits, behaviors, and technology in our hominin ancestors.
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Affiliation(s)
- Rachel L Lupien
- Department of Earth, Environmental, and Planetary Sciences, Brown University, Providence, RI 02906, USA; Division of Biology and Paleo Environment, Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, Palisades, NY 10964, USA.
| | - James M Russell
- Department of Earth, Environmental, and Planetary Sciences, Brown University, Providence, RI 02906, USA
| | - Avinash Subramanian
- Department of Earth, Environmental, and Planetary Sciences, Brown University, Providence, RI 02906, USA
| | - Rahab Kinyanjui
- Department of Earth Sciences, National Museums of Kenya, Nairobi 00100, Kenya
| | - Emily J Beverly
- Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, University of Houston, Houston, TX 77204, USA
| | - Kevin T Uno
- Division of Biology and Paleo Environment, Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, Palisades, NY 10964, USA
| | - Peter de Menocal
- Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, MA 02543, USA; Division of Biology and Paleo Environment, Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, Palisades, NY 10964, USA
| | - René Dommain
- Institute of Geosciences, University of Potsdam, 14476 Potsdam, Germany; Human Origins Program, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC 20560, USA
| | - Richard Potts
- Human Origins Program, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC 20560, USA; Department of Earth Sciences, National Museums of Kenya, Nairobi 00100, Kenya
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Anthropological Prosociality via Sub-Group Level Selection. Integr Psychol Behav Sci 2021; 56:180-205. [PMID: 33893612 DOI: 10.1007/s12124-021-09606-y] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 03/01/2021] [Indexed: 10/21/2022]
Abstract
A perennial challenge of evolutionary psychology is explaining prosocial traits such as a preference for fairness rather than inequality, compassion towards suffering, and an instinctive ability to coordinate within small teams. Considering recent fossil evidence and a novel logical test, we deem present explanations insufficiently explanatory of the divergence of hominins. In answering this question, we focus on the divergence of hominins from the last common ancestor (LCA) shared with Pan. We consider recent fossil discoveries that indicate the LCA was bipedal, which reduces the cogency of this explanation for hominin development. We also review evolutionary theory that claims to explain how hominins developed into modern humans, however it is found that no mechanism differentiates hominins from other primates. Either the mechanism was available to the last common ancestor (LCA) (with P. troglodytes as its proxy), or because early hominins had insufficient cognition to utilise the mechanism. A novel mechanism, sub-group level selection (sGLS) is hypothesised by triangulating two pieces of data rarely considered by evolutionary biologists. These are behavioural dimorphism of Pan (chimpanzees and bonobos) that remain identifiable in modern humans, and the social behaviour of primate troops in a savannah ecology. We then contend that sGLS supplied an exponential effect which was available to LCA who left the forest, but was not sufficiently available to any other primates. In conclusion, while only indirectly supported by various evidence, sGLS is found to be singularly and persuasively explanatory of human's unique evolutionary story.
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Shipton C, Blinkhorn J, Archer W, Kourampas N, Roberts P, Prendergast ME, Curtis R, Herries AIR, Ndiema E, Boivin N, Petraglia MD. The Middle to Later Stone Age transition at Panga ya Saidi, in the tropical coastal forest of eastern Africa. J Hum Evol 2021; 153:102954. [PMID: 33714916 DOI: 10.1016/j.jhevol.2021.102954] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/05/2019] [Revised: 01/18/2021] [Accepted: 01/19/2021] [Indexed: 12/26/2022]
Abstract
The Middle to Later Stone Age transition is a critical period of human behavioral change that has been variously argued to pertain to the emergence of modern cognition, substantial population growth, and major dispersals of Homo sapiens within and beyond Africa. However, there is little consensus about when the transition occurred, the geographic patterning of its emergence, or even how it is manifested in the stone tool technology that is used to define it. Here, we examine a long sequence of lithic technological change at the cave site of Panga ya Saidi, Kenya, that spans the Middle and Later Stone Age and includes human occupations in each of the last five Marine Isotope Stages. In addition to the stone artifact technology, Panga ya Saidi preserves osseous and shell artifacts, enabling broader considerations of the covariation between different spheres of material culture. Several environmental proxies contextualize the artifactual record of human behavior at Panga ya Saidi. We compare technological change between the Middle and Later Stone Age with on-site paleoenvironmental manifestations of wider climatic fluctuations in the Late Pleistocene. The principal distinguishing feature of Middle from Later Stone Age technology at Panga ya Saidi is the preference for fine-grained stone, coupled with the creation of small flakes (miniaturization). Our review of the Middle to Later Stone Age transition elsewhere in eastern Africa and across the continent suggests that this broader distinction between the two periods is in fact widespread. We suggest that the Later Stone Age represents new short use-life and multicomponent ways of using stone tools, in which edge sharpness was prioritized over durability.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ceri Shipton
- Institute of Archaeology, Gordon Square, University College London, London, WC1H 0PY, UK; Centre of Excellence for Australian Biodiversity and Heritage, The Australian National University, Canberra, ACT, 2000, Australia.
| | - James Blinkhorn
- Department of Geography, Royal Holloway, University of London, Egham, TW20 0EX, UK; Pan-African Evolution Research Group, Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, Kahlaische Strasse 10, 07745, Jena, Germany
| | - Will Archer
- Department of Human Evolution, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Deutscher Pl. 6, 04103, Leipzig, Germany; Department of Archaeology, University of Cape Town, Rondebosch, 7701, South Africa; Department of Archaeology, National Museum, Bloemfontein, 9300, South Africa
| | - Nikolaos Kourampas
- Centre for Open Learning, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK; Biological and Environmental Sciences, University of Stirling, Stirling, UK
| | - Patrick Roberts
- Department of Archaeology, Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, Kahlaische Strasse 10, 07745, Jena, Germany
| | - Mary E Prendergast
- Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Saint Louis University, Avenida del Valle 34, Madrid, Spain; Department of Anthropology, Rice University, Houston, TX, USA
| | - Richard Curtis
- The Australian Archaeomagnetism Laboratory, Department of Archaeology and History, La Trobe University, Melbourne Campus, Bundoora, 3086, Australia
| | - Andy I R Herries
- The Australian Archaeomagnetism Laboratory, Department of Archaeology and History, La Trobe University, Melbourne Campus, Bundoora, 3086, Australia; Palaeo-Research Institute, University of Johannesburg, Auckland Park, Gauteng, South Africa
| | - Emmanuel Ndiema
- Department of Earth Sciences, National Museum of Kenya, Museum Hill Road, Nairobi, Kenya
| | - Nicole Boivin
- Department of Archaeology, Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, Kahlaische Strasse 10, 07745, Jena, Germany; Department of Anthropology, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, 600 Maryland Ave SW, Washington, D.C., USA; School of Social Science, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD, 4072, Australia; Department of Anthropology and Archaeology, University of Calgary, 620 2500, University Drive NW, Calgary, Canada
| | - Michael D Petraglia
- Department of Archaeology, Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, Kahlaische Strasse 10, 07745, Jena, Germany; Department of Anthropology, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, 600 Maryland Ave SW, Washington, D.C., USA; School of Social Science, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD, 4072, Australia
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Kuman K, Lotter MG, Leader GM. The Fauresmith of South Africa: A new assemblage from Canteen Kopje and significance of the technology in human and cultural evolution. J Hum Evol 2020; 148:102884. [DOI: 10.1016/j.jhevol.2020.102884] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/09/2019] [Revised: 08/25/2020] [Accepted: 08/25/2020] [Indexed: 12/13/2022]
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Potts R, Dommain R, Moerman JW, Behrensmeyer AK, Deino AL, Riedl S, Beverly EJ, Brown ET, Deocampo D, Kinyanjui R, Lupien R, Owen RB, Rabideaux N, Russell JM, Stockhecke M, deMenocal P, Faith JT, Garcin Y, Noren A, Scott JJ, Western D, Bright J, Clark JB, Cohen AS, Keller CB, King J, Levin NE, Brady Shannon K, Muiruri V, Renaut RW, Rucina SM, Uno K. Increased ecological resource variability during a critical transition in hominin evolution. SCIENCE ADVANCES 2020; 6:eabc8975. [PMID: 33087353 PMCID: PMC7577727 DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.abc8975] [Citation(s) in RCA: 22] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/19/2020] [Accepted: 09/03/2020] [Indexed: 05/31/2023]
Abstract
Although climate change is considered to have been a large-scale driver of African human evolution, landscape-scale shifts in ecological resources that may have shaped novel hominin adaptations are rarely investigated. We use well-dated, high-resolution, drill-core datasets to understand ecological dynamics associated with a major adaptive transition in the archeological record ~24 km from the coring site. Outcrops preserve evidence of the replacement of Acheulean by Middle Stone Age (MSA) technological, cognitive, and social innovations between 500 and 300 thousand years (ka) ago, contemporaneous with large-scale taxonomic and adaptive turnover in mammal herbivores. Beginning ~400 ka ago, tectonic, hydrological, and ecological changes combined to disrupt a relatively stable resource base, prompting fluctuations of increasing magnitude in freshwater availability, grassland communities, and woody plant cover. Interaction of these factors offers a resource-oriented hypothesis for the evolutionary success of MSA adaptations, which likely contributed to the ecological flexibility typical of Homo sapiens foragers.
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Affiliation(s)
- Richard Potts
- Human Origins Program, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC 20013, USA.
- Department of Earth Sciences, National Museums of Kenya, P.O. Box 40658, Nairobi 00100, Kenya
| | - René Dommain
- Human Origins Program, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC 20013, USA
- Institute of Geosciences, University of Potsdam, 14476 Potsdam, Germany
| | - Jessica W Moerman
- Human Origins Program, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC 20013, USA
| | - Anna K Behrensmeyer
- Department of Paleobiology, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC 20013, USA
| | - Alan L Deino
- Berkeley Geochronology Center, Ridge Road, Berkeley, CA 94709, USA
| | - Simon Riedl
- Institute of Geosciences, University of Potsdam, 14476 Potsdam, Germany
| | - Emily J Beverly
- Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, University of Houston, TX 77204, USA
| | - Erik T Brown
- Large Lakes Observatory and Dept. of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Minnesota Duluth, Duluth, MN 55812, USA
| | - Daniel Deocampo
- Department of Geosciences, Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA 30302, USA
| | - Rahab Kinyanjui
- Department of Earth Sciences, National Museums of Kenya, P.O. Box 40658, Nairobi 00100, Kenya
| | - Rachel Lupien
- Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, Columbia University, Palisades, NY 10964, USA
| | - R Bernhart Owen
- Department of Geography, Hong Kong Baptist University, Kowloon Tong, Hong Kong
| | - Nathan Rabideaux
- Department of Chemistry, Rutgers University Newark, Newark, NJ 07109, USA
| | - James M Russell
- Department of Earth, Environmental, and Planetary Sciences, Brown University, Providence, RI 02912, USA
| | - Mona Stockhecke
- Large Lakes Observatory and Dept. of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Minnesota Duluth, Duluth, MN 55812, USA
- Department of Surface Waters-Research and Management, EAWAG, Überlandstr. 133, 8600 Dübendorf, Switzerland
| | - Peter deMenocal
- Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, Columbia University, Palisades, NY 10964, USA
| | - J Tyler Faith
- Natural History Museum of Utah, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT 84108, USA
- Department of Anthropology, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT 84112, USA
| | - Yannick Garcin
- Aix Marseille Univ, CNRS, IRD, INRAE, Coll France, CEREGE, 13545 Aix-en-Provence, France
| | - Anders Noren
- Continental Scientific Drilling Coordination Office and LacCore Facility, Dept. of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN 55455, USA
| | - Jennifer J Scott
- Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Mount Royal University, Calgary, Alberta T3E 6K6, Canada
| | - David Western
- African Conservation Centre, P.O. Box 15289, Nairobi 00509, Kenya
| | - Jordon Bright
- School of Earth and Sustainability, Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, AZ 86011, USA
| | - Jennifer B Clark
- Human Origins Program, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC 20013, USA
| | - Andrew S Cohen
- Department of Geosciences, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85721, USA
| | - C Brehnin Keller
- Department of Earth Sciences, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH 03755, USA
| | - John King
- Graduate School of Oceanography, University of Rhode Island, Narragansett, RI 02882, USA
| | - Naomi E Levin
- Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA
| | - Kristina Brady Shannon
- Continental Scientific Drilling Coordination Office and LacCore Facility, Dept. of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN 55455, USA
| | - Veronica Muiruri
- Department of Earth Sciences, National Museums of Kenya, P.O. Box 40658, Nairobi 00100, Kenya
| | - Robin W Renaut
- Department of Geological Sciences, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, SK S7N 5E2, Canada
| | - Stephen M Rucina
- Department of Earth Sciences, National Museums of Kenya, P.O. Box 40658, Nairobi 00100, Kenya
| | - Kevin Uno
- Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, Columbia University, Palisades, NY 10964, USA
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11
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The emergence of the Levallois technology in the Levant: A view from the Early Middle Paleolithic site of Misliya Cave, Israel. J Hum Evol 2020; 144:102785. [PMID: 32428731 DOI: 10.1016/j.jhevol.2020.102785] [Citation(s) in RCA: 20] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/15/2019] [Revised: 03/13/2020] [Accepted: 03/13/2020] [Indexed: 01/09/2023]
Abstract
The Early Middle Paleolithic (EMP) lithic assemblage of Misliya Cave, dated to 240-150 ka, is associated with one of the earliest occurrences of Homo sapiens outside Africa. Our research provides a detailed technological study of the lithic assemblage of stratigraphic unit 5-6c of the site, using the chaîne opératoire approach, to characterize the technological behavior of the early H. sapiens. Our results indicate that both Levallois and laminar volumetric concepts were used. The Levallois reduction strategy involved preparing subtriangular cores with steep distal edges that allowed producing a series of triangular/subtriangular Levallois blanks using a unidirectional convergent method. Laminar débitage constitutes a semirotating/rotating method. The results of our study and comparisons with other Levantine sites indicate that the EMP represents a distinct entity within the Levantine Middle Pleistocene record that can be distinguished by the earliest occurrence of a full-fledged Levallois technology in the region, laminar technology, and a distinct tool kit dominated by elongated retouched points. The level of core management involved in producing convergent Levallois products and in preparing laminar cores points to a major conceptual change from the preceding Acheulian and Acheulo-Yabrudian. This suggests a break in knapping strategies between the Lower and the Middle Paleolithic. The finding of a H. sapiens maxilla at Misliya Cave in association with the EMP industry supports the hypothesis that the introduction of the Levallois technology in the Near East was associated with an early dispersal of H. sapiens from Africa. A comparison between the Levantine EMP and other regional records indicates that different Levallois methods were routinely used by hominins from the beginning of the Middle Paleolithic and the Middle Stone Age.
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12
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Moncel MH, Ashton N, Arzarello M, Fontana F, Lamotte A, Scott B, Muttillo B, Berruti G, Nenzioni G, Tuffreau A, Peretto C. Early Levallois core technology between Marine Isotope Stage 12 and 9 in Western Europe. J Hum Evol 2020; 139:102735. [PMID: 32078934 DOI: 10.1016/j.jhevol.2019.102735] [Citation(s) in RCA: 20] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/06/2018] [Revised: 12/11/2019] [Accepted: 12/11/2019] [Indexed: 12/15/2022]
Abstract
Early Levallois core technology is usually dated in Europe to the end of Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 9 and particularly from the beginning of MIS 8 to MIS 6. This technology is considered as one of the markers of the transition from lower to Middle Paleolithic or from Mode 2 to Mode 3. Recent discoveries show that some lithic innovations actually appeared earlier in western Europe, from MIS 12 to MIS 9, contemporaneous with changes in subsistence strategies and the first appearance of early Neanderthal anatomical features. Among these discoveries, there is the iconic Levallois core technology. A selection of well-dated assemblages in the United Kingdom, France, and Italy dated from MIS 12 to 9, which include both cores and flakes with Levallois features, has been described and compared with the aim of characterizing this technology. The conclusion supports the interpretation that several technical features may be attributed to a Levallois technology similar to those observed in younger Middle Paleolithic sites, distinct from the main associated core technologies in each level. Some features in the sample of sites suggest a gradual transformation of existing core technologies. The small evidence of Levallois could indicate occasional local innovations from different technological backgrounds and would explain the diversity of Levallois methods that is observed from MIS 12. The technological roots of Levallois technology in the Middle Pleistocene would suggest a multiregional origin and diffusion in Europe and early evidence of regionalization of local traditions through Europe from MIS 12 to 9. The relationships of Levallois technology with new needs and behaviors are discussed, such as flake preference, functional reasons related to hunting and hafting, an increase in the use of mental templates in European populations, and changes in the structure of hominin groups adapting to climatic and environmental changes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Marie-Hélène Moncel
- UMR 7194 CNRS - Département Hommes et Environnement, Muséum National D'Histoire Naturelle, Institut de Paléontologie Humaine, Paris, France.
| | - Nick Ashton
- Department Britain, Europe & Prehistory, British Museum, Franks House, 56 Orsman Road, London N1 5QJ, UK
| | - Marta Arzarello
- Sezione di Scienze Preistoriche e Antropologiche, Dipartimento di Studi Umanistici, Università Degli Studi di Ferrara, Corso Ercole I D'Este, 32, I-44121, Italy
| | - Federica Fontana
- Sezione di Scienze Preistoriche e Antropologiche, Dipartimento di Studi Umanistici, Università Degli Studi di Ferrara, Corso Ercole I D'Este, 32, I-44121, Italy
| | - Agnès Lamotte
- University of Lille, UMR 8164, Bâtiment de Géographie, Avenue Paul Langevin, Villeneuve D'Ascq, France
| | - Beccy Scott
- Sezione di Scienze Preistoriche e Antropologiche, Dipartimento di Studi Umanistici, Università Degli Studi di Ferrara, Corso Ercole I D'Este, 32, I-44121, Italy
| | - Brunella Muttillo
- Sezione di Scienze Preistoriche e Antropologiche, Dipartimento di Studi Umanistici, Università Degli Studi di Ferrara, Corso Ercole I D'Este, 32, I-44121, Italy
| | - Gabriele Berruti
- Sezione di Scienze Preistoriche e Antropologiche, Dipartimento di Studi Umanistici, Università Degli Studi di Ferrara, Corso Ercole I D'Este, 32, I-44121, Italy; Museo di Archeologia e Paleontologia C. Conti, Borgosesia, Italy
| | | | - Alain Tuffreau
- University of Lille, UMR 8164, Bâtiment de Géographie, Avenue Paul Langevin, Villeneuve D'Ascq, France
| | - Carlo Peretto
- Sezione di Scienze Preistoriche e Antropologiche, Dipartimento di Studi Umanistici, Università Degli Studi di Ferrara, Corso Ercole I D'Este, 32, I-44121, Italy
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13
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Animal residues found on tiny Lower Paleolithic tools reveal their use in butchery. Sci Rep 2019; 9:13031. [PMID: 31506589 PMCID: PMC6736941 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-019-49650-8] [Citation(s) in RCA: 30] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/26/2019] [Accepted: 08/29/2019] [Indexed: 11/18/2022] Open
Abstract
Stone tools provide a unique window into the mode of adaptation and cognitive abilities of Lower Paleolithic early humans. The persistently produced large cutting tools (bifaces/handaxes) have long been an appealing focus of research in the reconstruction of Lower Paleolithic survival strategies, at the expenses of the small flake tools considered by-products of the stone production process rather than desired end products. Here, we use use-wear, residues and technological analyses to show direct and very early evidence of the deliberate production and use of small flakes for targeted stages of the prey butchery process at the late Lower Paleolithic Acheulian site of Revadim, Israel. We highlight the significant role of small flakes in Lower Paleolithic adaptation alongside the canonical large handaxes. Our results demonstrate the technological and cognitive flexibility of early human groups in the Levant and beyond at the threshold of the departure from Lower Paleolithic lifeways.
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14
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Zaidel DW. Coevolution of language and symbolic meaning: Co-opting meaning underlying the initial arts in early human culture. WILEY INTERDISCIPLINARY REVIEWS. COGNITIVE SCIENCE 2019; 11:e1520. [PMID: 31502423 DOI: 10.1002/wcs.1520] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/03/2019] [Revised: 07/19/2019] [Accepted: 08/22/2019] [Indexed: 12/28/2022]
Abstract
Many of language's components, including communicating symbolic meaning, have neurobiological roots that go back millions of years in evolutionary time. The intersection with the human social survival strategy spawned additional adaptive meaning systems. Under conditions threatening survival in socially oriented human groups, extra-language meaning systems co-opted and adapted to facilitate unity, including the early formats of the arts. They would have percolated into cultural practice for this social purpose and ultimately survival. With evolutionary pressures tapping into biologically inherited, physiologically functioning sensory-motor pathways, anchored specifically in rhythm cognition and motor synchrony output, initial art practice conveyed symbolic group cohesion through communal, all-inclusive synchronously moving dance formations and rhythmically produced vocal or percussion sounds. As with the sounds of language in the deep past, and numerous other cultural behaviors, such nonmaterial early art formats would not have left marks in the archeological record but their evolutionary driven practice would have contributed to adaptive genetic factors woven into brain-behavior evolution. Their practice is likely to have well predated unearthed art-related objects. Consolidation of evidence and notions from language evolution, genetics, human physiology, comparative animal communication, archeology, and climate history in the distant past of early humans in Africa supports the evolutionary driven practice of initial nonmaterial art formats conveying symbolic expressions optimizing group survival. This article is categorized under: Cognitive Biology > Evolutionary Roots of Cognition Linguistics > Evolution of Language Psychology > Comparative Psychology.
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Affiliation(s)
- Dahlia W Zaidel
- Department of Psychology, University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), Los Angeles, California
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15
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Malinsky-Buller A, Hovers E. One size does not fit all: Group size and the late middle Pleistocene prehistoric archive. J Hum Evol 2019; 127:118-132. [PMID: 30777353 DOI: 10.1016/j.jhevol.2018.11.002] [Citation(s) in RCA: 15] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/22/2018] [Revised: 11/02/2018] [Accepted: 11/06/2018] [Indexed: 02/03/2023]
Abstract
The role of demography is often suggested to be a key factor in both biological and cultural evolution. Recent research has shown that the linkage between population size and cultural evolution is not straightforward and emerges from the interplay of many demographic, economic, social and ecological variables. Formal modelling has yielded interesting insights into the complex relationship between population structure, intergroup connectedness, and magnitude and extent of population extinctions. Such studies have highlighted the importance of effective (as opposed to census) population size in transmission processes. At the same time, it remained unclear how such insights can be applied to material culture phenomena in the prehistoric record, especially for deeper prehistory. In this paper we approach the issue of population sizes during the time of the Lower to Middle Paleolithic transition through the proxy of regional trajectories of lithic technological change, identified in the archaeological records from Africa, the Levant, Southwestern and Northwestern Europe. Our discussion of the results takes into consideration the constraints inherent to the archaeological record of deep time - e.g., preservation bias, time-averaging and the incomplete nature of the archaeological record - and of extrapolation from discrete archaeological case studies to an evolutionary time scale. We suggest that technological trajectories of change over this transitional period reflect the robustness of transmission networks. Our results show differences in the pattern and rate of cultural transmission in these regions, from which we infer that information networks, and their underlying effective population sizes, also differed.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ariel Malinsky-Buller
- MONREPOS, Archaeological Research Centre and Museum for Human Behavioural Evolution, Schloss Monrepos, 56567, Neuwied, Germany.
| | - Erella Hovers
- The Institute of Archaeology, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Mt. Scopus, 91905, Jerusalem, Israel; International Affiliate, Institute of Human Origins, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, USA
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16
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SAHLE YONATAN, GIUSTI DOMENICO, TOURLOUKIS VANGELIS. Newly discovered Middle Pleistocene hominid-bearing deposits from the Lower Awash basin, Ethiopia. ANTHROPOL SCI 2019. [DOI: 10.1537/ase.190603] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/01/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- YONATAN SAHLE
- DFG Center for Advanced Studies: ‘Words, Bones, Genes, Tools’, University of Tübingen, Tübingen
| | - DOMENICO GIUSTI
- Paleoanthropology, Senckenberg Centre for Human Evolution and Palaeoenvironment, University of Tübingen, Tübingen
| | - VANGELIS TOURLOUKIS
- Paleoanthropology, Senckenberg Centre for Human Evolution and Palaeoenvironment, University of Tübingen, Tübingen
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17
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Progressive aridification in East Africa over the last half million years and implications for human evolution. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2018; 115:11174-11179. [PMID: 30297412 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1801357115] [Citation(s) in RCA: 27] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/18/2022] Open
Abstract
Evidence for Quaternary climate change in East Africa has been derived from outcrops on land and lake cores and from marine dust, leaf wax, and pollen records. These data have previously been used to evaluate the impact of climate change on hominin evolution, but correlations have proved to be difficult, given poor data continuity and the great distances between marine cores and terrestrial basins where fossil evidence is located. Here, we present continental coring evidence for progressive aridification since about 575 thousand years before present (ka), based on Lake Magadi (Kenya) sediments. This long-term drying trend was interrupted by many wet-dry cycles, with the greatest variability developing during times of high eccentricity-modulated precession. Intense aridification apparent in the Magadi record took place between 525 and 400 ka, with relatively persistent arid conditions after 350 ka and through to the present. Arid conditions in the Magadi Basin coincide with the Mid-Brunhes Event and overlap with mammalian extinctions in the South Kenya Rift between 500 and 400 ka. The 525 to 400 ka arid phase developed in the South Kenya Rift between the period when the last Acheulean tools are reported (at about 500 ka) and before the appearance of Middle Stone Age artifacts (by about 320 ka). Our data suggest that increasing Middle- to Late-Pleistocene aridification and environmental variability may have been drivers in the physical and cultural evolution of Homo sapiens in East Africa.
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18
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19
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Brooks AS, Yellen JE, Potts R, Behrensmeyer AK, Deino AL, Leslie DE, Ambrose SH, Ferguson JR, d'Errico F, Zipkin AM, Whittaker S, Post J, Veatch EG, Foecke K, Clark JB. Long-distance stone transport and pigment use in the earliest Middle Stone Age. Science 2018; 360:90-94. [PMID: 29545508 DOI: 10.1126/science.aao2646] [Citation(s) in RCA: 83] [Impact Index Per Article: 13.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/30/2017] [Accepted: 02/14/2018] [Indexed: 11/02/2022]
Abstract
Previous research suggests that the complex symbolic, technological, and socioeconomic behaviors that typify Homo sapiens had roots in the middle Pleistocene <200,000 years ago, but data bearing on human behavioral origins are limited. We present a series of excavated Middle Stone Age sites from the Olorgesailie basin, southern Kenya, dating from ≥295,000 to ~320,000 years ago by argon-40/argon-39 and uranium-series methods. Hominins at these sites made prepared cores and points, exploited iron-rich rocks to obtain red pigment, and procured stone tool materials from ≥25- to 50-kilometer distances. Associated fauna suggests a broad resource strategy that included large and small prey. These practices imply notable changes in how individuals and groups related to the landscape and to one another and provide documentation relevant to human social and cognitive evolution.
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Affiliation(s)
- Alison S Brooks
- Center for the Advanced Study of Human Paleobiology, Department of Anthropology, George Washington University, Washington, DC 20052, USA. .,Human Origins Program, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC 20013-7012, USA
| | - John E Yellen
- Human Origins Program, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC 20013-7012, USA.,Archaeology Program, National Science Foundation, Alexandria, VA 22314, USA
| | - Richard Potts
- Human Origins Program, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC 20013-7012, USA. .,Department of Earth Sciences, National Museums of Kenya, Post Office Box 40658-00100, Nairobi, Kenya
| | - Anna K Behrensmeyer
- Department of Paleobiology, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC 20013-7012, USA
| | - Alan L Deino
- Berkeley Geochronology Center, Ridge Road, Berkeley, CA 94709, USA
| | - David E Leslie
- Department of Anthropology, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT 06269, USA
| | - Stanley H Ambrose
- Department of Anthropology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL 61801, USA
| | | | - Francesco d'Errico
- Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, UMR 5199-De la Préhistoire à l'Actuel: Culture, Environnement et Anthropologie (PACEA), Université de Bordeaux, 33615 Pessac, France.,Senter for Fremragende Forskning (SFF) Centre for Early Sapiens Behaviour (SapienCE), University of Bergen, Postboks 7805, 5020 Bergen, Norway
| | - Andrew M Zipkin
- Department of Anthropology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL 61801, USA
| | - Scott Whittaker
- Laboratory of Analytical Biology, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC 20013-7012, USA
| | - Jeffrey Post
- Department of Mineral Sciences, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC 20013-7012, USA
| | | | - Kimberly Foecke
- Center for the Advanced Study of Human Paleobiology, Department of Anthropology, George Washington University, Washington, DC 20052, USA
| | - Jennifer B Clark
- Human Origins Program, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC 20013-7012, USA
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20
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Potts R, Behrensmeyer AK, Faith JT, Tryon CA, Brooks AS, Yellen JE, Deino AL, Kinyanjui R, Clark JB, Haradon CM, Levin NE, Meijer HJM, Veatch EG, Owen RB, Renaut RW. Environmental dynamics during the onset of the Middle Stone Age in eastern Africa. Science 2018; 360:86-90. [PMID: 29545506 DOI: 10.1126/science.aao2200] [Citation(s) in RCA: 50] [Impact Index Per Article: 8.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/27/2017] [Accepted: 02/14/2018] [Indexed: 11/02/2022]
Abstract
Development of the African Middle Stone Age (MSA) before 300,000 years ago raises the question of how environmental change influenced the evolution of behaviors characteristic of early Homo sapiens We used temporally well-constrained sedimentological and paleoenvironmental data to investigate environmental dynamics before and after the appearance of the early MSA in the Olorgesailie basin, Kenya. In contrast to the Acheulean archeological record in the same basin, MSA sites are associated with a markedly different faunal community, more pronounced erosion-deposition cycles, tectonic activity, and enhanced wet-dry variability. Aspects of Acheulean technology in this region imply that, as early as 615,000 years ago, greater stone material selectivity and wider resource procurement coincided with an increased pace of land-lake fluctuation, potentially anticipating the adaptability of MSA hominins.
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Affiliation(s)
- Richard Potts
- Human Origins Program, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC 20013, USA. .,Department of Earth Sciences, National Museums of Kenya, P.O. Box 40658-00100, Nairobi, Kenya
| | - Anna K Behrensmeyer
- Human Origins Program, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC 20013, USA.,Department of Paleobiology, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC 20013, USA
| | - J Tyler Faith
- Natural History Museum of Utah and Department of Anthropology, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT 84108, USA
| | - Christian A Tryon
- Department of Anthropology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA
| | - Alison S Brooks
- Human Origins Program, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC 20013, USA.,Department of Anthropology, George Washington University, Washington, DC 20052, USA
| | - John E Yellen
- Human Origins Program, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC 20013, USA.,Archaeology Program, National Science Foundation, Alexandria, VA 22314, USA
| | - Alan L Deino
- Berkeley Geochronology Center, Berkeley, CA 94709, USA
| | - Rahab Kinyanjui
- Department of Earth Sciences, National Museums of Kenya, P.O. Box 40658-00100, Nairobi, Kenya
| | - Jennifer B Clark
- Human Origins Program, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC 20013, USA
| | - Catherine M Haradon
- Department of Earth Science, Santa Monica College, Santa Monica, CA 90405, USA
| | - Naomi E Levin
- Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA
| | - Hanneke J M Meijer
- Human Origins Program, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC 20013, USA.,University Museum, Department of Natural History, University of Bergen, Bergen, Norway
| | | | - R Bernhart Owen
- Department of Geography, Hong Kong Baptist University, Kowloon Tong, Hong Kong
| | - Robin W Renaut
- Department of Geological Sciences, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, SK S7N 5E2, Canada
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