Cave Bears Extinct 13 Millennia Earlier Than Thought

Climate Change Wiped Out Cave Bears 13,000 Years Earlier Than Thought

Just as the Neanderthals were entering the final millennia of their own existence as a discrete species of human, so the mighty cave bear was facing its own extinction from the list of bear species, which at around 27,000 years ago, was much earlier than previously supposed, and probably a fair while before the cave bears and Neanderthals themselves would have preferred, had they been given any choice in the matter. This from Science Daily...

Enormous cave bears, Ursus spelaeus, that once inhabited a large swathe of Europe, from Spain to the Urals, died out 27,800 years ago, around 13 millennia earlier than was previously believed, scientists have reported.

The new date coincides with a period of significant climate change, known as the Last Glacial Maximum, when a marked cooling in temperature resulted in the reduction or loss of vegetation forming the main component of the cave bears' diet.

Quite surprising to read that these fearsome creatures were mostly vegetarian, partly because this would mean they would have had to spend a significant proportion of their waking hours finding enough calories to maintain their strength - it has been noted for example that Neanderthals would have needed to consume large quantities of meat to maintain their muscular profile, although as this post by John Hawks points out, not all Neanderthals were heavy meat consumers, as indicated by recent research conducted by Noreen Tuross, in a recent symposium presentation...

Evidence from Neanderthal bones collected from the Shanidar cave in Northern Iraq decades ago and analyzed recently by Tuross indicate that at least that particular Neanderthal was not a heavy carnivore. Neanderthals, she suggested, had a varied diet that included meat, but that was not solely or even largely made up of it. One possible alternative food was found in abundance in the cave, she said: land snails.

“This was not a heavy meat-eater,” Tuross said. “So what else can they be eating? I think the answer is escargot.”

Whether the might cave bears also resorted to snails as an item on their daily menu isn't mentioned,; however, the report suggests that the cave bears' extinction probably wasn't mitigated by human activities...

In a study published in Boreas, researchers suggest it was this deterioration in food supply that led to the extinction of the cave bear, one of a group of 'megafauna' – including woolly mammoth, woolly rhinoceros, giant deer and cave lion – to disappear during the last Ice Age.

They found no convincing evidence of human involvement in the disappearance of these bears. The team used both new data and existing records of radiocarbon dating on cave bear remains to construct their chronology for cave bear extinction.

"Our work shows that the cave bear, among the megafauna that became extinct during the Last Glacial period in Europe, was one of the earliest to disappear," said Dr Martina Pacher of the Department of Palaeontology at the University of Vienna. "Other, later extinctions happened at different times within the last 15,000 years."

I think there's a general theory which posits that larger fauna are more prone to extinction in the event of their ecological environments being compromised - however, as with the Neanderthals, whose own extinction has in part been blamed on adverse climate conditions as the last glacial maximum approached, all these fauna had lived through previous ice ages without going extinct, so why there should have been such a large extinction event last time round remains a mystery. Ian Tatersall for example, has suggested that the key additional factor in the Neanderthals' extinction may have been the new presence of anatomically modern humans, especially in north western Europe, where for archaic humans, there may have been insuperable competition for resources.

Or put another way, what was it about anatomically modern humans that specifically prevented them from also becoming extinct at a time when Euarasia would have been as inhostpitable to modern humans as it would have been to most of the other large fauna that went extinct. More on those vanished cave bears from Science Daily...

Many scientists previously claimed that cave bears survived until at least 15,000 years ago, but Dr Pacher and Professor Stuart claim that the methodology of these earlier studies included many errors in dating as well as confusion between cave bear and brown bear remains.

The pair also concluded, from evidence on skull anatomy, bone collagen and teeth, that these extinct mammals were predominantly vegetarian, eating a specialised diet of high-quality plants. Compared with other megafaunal species that would also become extinct, the cave bear had a relatively restricted geographical range, being confined to Europe, which may offer an explanation as to why it died out so much earlier than the rest.

"Its highly specialised mode of life, especially a diet of high-quality plants, and its restricted distribution left it vulnerable to extinction as the climate cooled and its food source diminished," said Dr Pacher.

"A fundamental question to be answered by future research is: why did the brown bear survive to the present day, while the cave bear did not?" said Professor Stuart. Answers to this question may involve different dietary preferences, hibernation strategies, geographical ranges, habitat preferences and perhaps predation by humans.

That last paragraph echoes my earlier question as to why modern humans survived when their Neanderthal cousins did not - we have seen increasing evidence that there was much less behavioural or cognitive difference between the two species of Homo than hitherto supposed - admittedly they weren't identical, but in my opinion they were both adapted well enough to survive with a variety of suitable technology and cognitive abilities that should theoretically have ensured that neither perished solely because of adverse weather conditions.

image of Ursus spelaeus from Fossil Treasures of Florida.com

A Giant Breach in Earth's Magnetic Field Detected by NASA THEMIS

NASA - A Giant Breach in Earth's Magnetic Field

(view video here)

According to David Sibeck who works on the THEMIS project, this recent discovery "fundamentally alters our understanding of the solar wind-magnetosphere interaction.", some details of which are as follows...

NASA's five THEMIS spacecraft have discovered a breach in Earth's magnetic field ten times larger than anything previously thought to exist. Solar wind can flow in through the opening to "load up" the magnetosphere for powerful geomagnetic storms. But the breach itself is not the biggest surprise. Researchers are even more amazed at the strange and unexpected way it forms, overturning long-held ideas of space physics.

The magnetosphere is a bubble of magnetism that surrounds Earth and protects us from solar wind. Exploring the bubble is a key goal of the THEMIS mission, launched in February 2007. The big discovery came on June 3, 2007, when the five probes serendipitously flew through the breach just as it was opening. Onboard sensors recorded a torrent of solar wind particles streaming into the magnetosphere, signaling an event of unexpected size and importance.

"The opening was huge—four times wider than Earth itself," says Wenhui Li, a space physicist at the University of New Hampshire who has been analyzing the data. Li's colleague Jimmy Raeder, also of New Hampshire, says "1027 particles per second were flowing into the magnetosphere—that's a 1 followed by 27 zeros. This kind of influx is an order of magnitude greater than what we thought was possible."

Another aspect of Earth's relationship with the Sun that was hitherto thought impossible was the idea that star and planet are in some way, directly connected to one another, as we see from this story at the end of October 2008, titled 'Magnetic Portals Connect Earth And Sun' - here's a detail from that report...

During the time it takes you to read this article, something will happen high overhead that until recently many scientists didn't believe in. A magnetic portal will open, linking Earth to the sun 93 million miles away. Tons of high-energy particles may flow through the opening before it closes again, around the time you reach the end of the page.

"It's called a flux transfer event or 'FTE,'" says space physicist David Sibeck of the Goddard Space Flight Center. "Ten years ago I was pretty sure they didn't exist, but now the evidence is incontrovertible."...

...Researchers have long known that the Earth and sun must be connected. Earth's magnetosphere (the magnetic bubble that surrounds our planet) is filled with particles from the sun that arrive via the solar wind and penetrate the planet's magnetic defenses. They enter by following magnetic field lines that can be traced from terra firma all the way back to the sun's atmosphere.

"We used to think the connection was permanent and that solar wind could trickle into the near-Earth environment anytime the wind was active," says Sibeck. "We were wrong. The connections are not steady at all. They are often brief, bursty and very dynamic."

And it seems that along with unsteady state of the connection between Earth and Sun, the laws of physics concerning magnetic fields and the way they attract and repulse one another, might not be as steady as previously thought; this from the Giant Breach report, and Our Man on the Sun, David Sibeck...

The circumstances were even more surprising. Space physicists have long believed that holes in Earth's magnetosphere open only in response to solar magnetic fields that point south. The great breach of June 2007, however, opened in response to a solar magnetic field that pointed north.

"To the lay person, this may sound like a quibble, but to a space physicist, it is almost seismic," says Sibeck. "When I tell my colleagues, most react with skepticism, as if I'm trying to convince them that the sun rises in the west."

Here is why they can't believe their ears: The solar wind presses against Earth's magnetosphere almost directly above the equator where our planet's magnetic field points north. Suppose a bundle of solar magnetism comes along, and it points north, too. The two fields should reinforce one another, strengthening Earth's magnetic defenses and slamming the door shut on the solar wind. In the language of space physics, a north-pointing solar magnetic field is called a "northern IMF" and it is synonymous with shields up!

"So, you can imagine our surprise when a northern IMF came along and shields went down instead," says Sibeck. "This completely overturns our understanding of things."

All of which sounds vaguely alarming - it suddenly sounds as if the Earth is a great deal more vulnerable to the harmful effects of the Sun, and there's probably not a great deal that can be done to lessen the dangers - here's how the data have been interpreted in that context...

Northern IMF events don't actually trigger geomagnetic storms, notes Raeder, but they do set the stage for storms by loading the magnetosphere with plasma. A loaded magnetosphere is primed for auroras, power outages, and other disturbances that can result when, say, a CME (coronal mass ejection) hits.

The years ahead could be especially lively. Raeder explains: "We're entering Solar Cycle 24. For reasons not fully understood, CMEs in even-numbered solar cycles (like 24) tend to hit Earth with a leading edge that is magnetized north. Such a CME should open a breach and load the magnetosphere with plasma just before the storm gets underway. It's the perfect sequence for a really big event."

Sibeck agrees. "This could result in stronger geomagnetic storms than we have seen in many years."

Whether we end up being devastated, or at least seriously affected by a perfect solar storm remains to be seen; maybe in the future somebody will find a way of exploiting such events as a type of energy resource for example, but in the short-term, it seems more likely that we can expect large numbers of communications satellites to go down, and with them entire terrestrial power grid systems which supply our electricity.

see also :: Science Daily : Delving Into Mysterious Irregularity Of Earth's Magnetic Field - Observatory Being Built In Middle Of Atlantic Ocean - October 2008, from which this is an excerpt...

At present the strength of the Earth’s magnetic field is decreasing by 5% every hundred years and researchers do not know why or what the consequences will be. In the South Atlantic Anomaly, the strength of the magnetic field is decreasing ten times as fast and the measuring station will therefore also give the researchers the opportunity to learn more about the consequences of the global weakening of the magnetic field.

To read more, just hit the link above - meanwhile from Jupiter, via the European Space Agency, (ESA) we have this...

Looking at Jupiter to Understand Earth, from which this is a brief snippet...

In terms of energetic particles at Earth, a periodic substorm is characterized by gradual decreases (flux dropouts) followed by rapid increases (injections) of proton fluxes with a 2-3 hours periodicity (Figure 1a). A similar behaviour is observed at Jupiter with a 2-3 days periodicity (Figure 1b). This longer duration is at least partly due to the stronger internal magnetic field emanating from Jupiter that induces a larger magnetosphere.

That's probably enough magnetism for now, and later we'll be looking at how the search for Earth-like planets that might support life, is progressing.


image from NASA

Sticking To The Point - Neanderthals Hafted Tools Using Adhesive 70,000 Years Ago

Science News / Tools With Handles Even More Ancient


Science News are reporting on a paper slated to appear in the December issue of Antiquity, 'Middle Palaeolithic Bitumen Use At Umm el Tlel around 70,000 BP', for which this is the abstract...

The authors identify natural bitumen on stone implements dating to 70,000 BP. It is proposed that this represents residue from hafting, taking the practice back a further 30,000 years from the date previously noted and published in Nature. The bitumen was tracked to a source 40km away, using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry and carbon isotopes.

This latest research indirectly follows on from an article at Discovery all the way back in January 2002, which I covered on this blog in 2005, albeit not very well; that article went by the title of 'Neanderthals Made High-Tech Superglue', (link extinct, but see this BBC News coverage) which in turn referred to a paper by Dietrich Mania, called 'High-Tech in the Middle Palaeolithic: Neanderthal-Manufactured Pitch Identified' - here's the abstract to that paper...

Any new knowledge that goes beyond the stone tools and techniques used in the Palaeolithic and Mesolithic is most significant as it reveals the cultural and technical capabilities of the people living in these periods. In 1963, two pitch finds were discovered in a lignite open-mining pit in the northern foothills of the Harz Mountains, in a layer the geological age of which was dated as being older than 80,000 years. The great significance of these finds was therefore immediately apparent. One of the finds showed a fingerprint as well as the imprints of a flint stone tool and the structure of wood cells. This was indicative of the pitch piece having served as an adhesive to secure a wooden haft to a flint stone blade.

Over 30 years later these finds were transferred to the Doerner Institut for investigation. The GC and GC/MS analyses revealed that, in both cases, birch pitches, well-known historical adhesives, had been used. These consist predominantly of pentacyclic triterpenoid components of the lupane type, with betulin forming the major component. The comparison with birch bark extracts showed that the biological peak profile (bio-marker) was surprisingly well preserved in these pitch finds and that hardly any degradation products were present.

Today, comparable pitches can easily be produced with modern technical methods, i.e. using air- tight laboratory flasks and temperature control facilities. However, any attempt at simulating the conditions of the Neandertal period and at producing these birch pitches without any of these modern facilities will soon be met with many difficulties. This implies that the Neandertals did not come across these pitches by accident but must have produced them with intent. Conscious action is, however, always a clear sign of considerable technical capabilities.

According to the BBC report, there was at the time some doubt concerning the dating of this find, but as I haven't seen anything published since that suggests alterntative firm dates, I'm assuming that 80,000 bp is at present still held to be correct. Here's a telling detail from the 2002 Discovery story...

The ancient "superglue" was detected on two tool remnants excavated at a site called Koenigsaue in the northeastern foothills of the Harz Mountains in Germany. The first object had a big Neanderthal fingerprint on one side, and grains of wood on the other. The second, smaller object appeared to have been molded by hand. Findings are published in the current issue of the European Journal of Archaeology, which is issued by SAGE publications and the European Association of Archaeologists (EAA).

The adhesive, a form of birch pitch, is tricky to make, and would even be difficult for modern manufacturing plants to duplicate, according to the report.

Author Dietrich Mania and his team, from Freidrich-Schiller University in Jena, wrote that the smoldering process required to turn birch bark into pitch "must be carried out at the correct temperatures and under exclusion of oxygen in order for the biologically conditioned distribution patterns of extractable birch bark components to be maintained."

They explained that birch only turns into usable glue between 340-400 degrees Centigrade. Lower temperatures prohibit resin in the wood from melting and higher temperatures would burn tar exuded from the birch.

" ... The very fact that birch bark pitch was identified (in the artifacts) already proclaims the intellectual and technical abilities of the Neanderthals," concluded the researchers.

Chris Stringer, head of human origins in the Department of Paleontology at The Natural History Museum in London, did not wish to directly comment on Mania's paper, but suggested that the news adds to the argument that Neanderthals were not instantaneously killed off by supposedly superior Cro-Magnons — early modern humans.

"These days, both DNA and morphological studies support the majority view that Neanderthals were indeed a separate lineage, and probably species, to modern humans," said Stringer. "But equally there is growing evidence from dating techniques that Neanderthals did not vanish overnight, and that in some ways they were as behaviorally sophisticated as Cro-Magnons."

Stringer added that researchers hoped to next study Neanderthal fossils from western Asia, which could solve the mystery behind the apparent Neanderthal extinction."

Time to head back to the more recent story referred to at the beginning of this post...

In a gripping instance of Stone Age survival, Neandertals used a tarlike substance to fasten sharpened stones to handles as early as 70,000 years ago, a new study suggests.

Stone points and sharpened flakes unearthed in Syria since 2000 contain the residue of bitumen — a natural, adhesive substance — on spots where the implements would have been secured to handles of some type, according to a team led by archaeologist Eric Boëda of University of Paris X, Nanterre. The process of attaching a tool to a handle is known as hafting. The Neandertals likely found the bitumen in nearby tar sands, the team reports.

Stone tools of the type found at the Syrian site are typically attributed to Neandertals. These evolutionary cousins of modern humans frequently used bitumen and other tars as an adhesive for hafting and perhaps sometimes as a sleeve to protect a tool user’s hand, the researchers propose in the December Antiquity.

The new age of 70,000 years ago places the practice earlier than a previous finding in 1996 by Boëda’s team of 40,000-year-old stone artifacts unearthed at the same location, Umm el Tlel. Those artifacts also contained remnants of bitumen (SN: 4/13/96, p. 235).

“The surprising thing, to me, is that we do not find more such evidence for hafting by Neandertals,” remarks archaeologist John Shea of Stony Brook University in New York. Hafting may have been too time-consuming for Neandertals in some resource-poor locales, Shea hypothesizes, because their large bodies dictated that they forage constantly for food. Neandertals living at Umm el Tlel 70,000 years ago apparently had time for hafting, using bitumen to construct hunting spears, in his view.

John Shea is the author of numerous papers on Neanderthals, Mousterian lithic technology and the Middle Palaeolithic, one of which was 'Neandertal and Early Modern Human Behavioral Variability A Regional-Scale Approach to Lithic Evidence for Hunting in the Levantine Mousterian' published in 1998 by Current Anthropology - time for another abstract...

In southwestern Asia, both Neandertals and early modern humans are associated with the same Levantine Mousterian archaeological complex for tens of thousands of years. Thus, the Levantine Mousterian archaeological record offers the possibility of comparing long-term patterns of Neandertal and early modern human adaptation.

Ecological considerations suggest that Levantine Mousterian subsistence strategies varied along a continuum paralleling contrasts between Mediterranean woodland and Irano-Tura-nian steppe ecozones. This hypothesis is tested with evidence for the production and use of Levallois points, which breakage patterns suggest were used as spear points.

Stone spear points would have been advantageous mainly in intercept hunting and disadvantageous in encounter hunting. High frequencies of Levallois points among assemblages from the steppic interior and southern Levant and low frequencies of points among assemblages from the coastal and northern Levant suggest support for this model of Levantine Mousterian behavioral variability. Lithic assemblages associated with Neandertals exhibit higher point frequencies than those associated with early modern humans. This could suggest that in the Levant the adaptation of Neandertals was different from and possibly more predatory than that of early modern humans.

Of which that last sentence was particularly interesting - whether we can infer from a higher point count that Levantine Neanderthals were more predatory than early modern humans isn't clear, as it's possible that the moderns may have employed other means of hunting fauna which didn't involve spear points, such as trapping small game, for example. Here's more from Science News...

Neandertals and modern humans inherited the intellectual abilities needed for hafting from a common ancestor that lived more than 200,000 years ago, Shea speculates.

Following an analysis of microscopic wear on 90,000-year-old stone artifacts from an early Homo sapiens site in Israel, Shea reported in 2007 that some stone points had probably been attached to hand-cast spears with an unidentified adhesive. Also in 2007, archaeologist Marlize Lombard of Natal Museum in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa, reported that modern humans living in southern Africa around 60,000 years ago hafted stone points using an adhesive made from a mix of resin and ground pigment.

In 2006, Italian researchers found two sharpened stones, dating to more than 100,000 years ago, that Neandertals had apparently attached to handles using birch-bark tar. The tar-stained stones lay among the bones of an animal that belonged to a now-extinct elephant species.

The fact that it appears Neanderthals were using birch bark glue across a wide geographical area spanning the Middle East and western Europe during the Middle Palaeolithic, adds a greater depth to our perception of Neanderthals' cognitive abilities, although we can only speculate as to whether this widespread adhesive technology was invented multiple times in different parts of the Neanderthal world, or whether the discovery was made by a single or group of individuals, from whom the knowledge spread by word of mouth and practical demonstrations.Here are the final paragraphs from the Science News article...

In the new study, Boëda’s team identified black stains on 200 out of more than 1,000 stone implements excavated from several related sediment layers at Umm el Tlel. Seven pieces of burned flint found in those newly excavated layers were dated to 70,000 years ago using a method that measured the radiation dose that had accumulated since the artifacts had been heated.

Black residue on stone tools clung to areas that had been grasped by hand or attached to handles, the researchers note. Geochemical analyses revealed a close correspondence between bits of residue extracted from three artifacts and bitumen collected from tar sands located 40 kilometers from the Syrian site.

A closer investigation showed that the ancient residue and modern bitumen shared nearly identical chemical compositions.

The researchers then made an adhesive out of bitumen mixed with quartz and gypsum and applied it in various amounts to 10 experimentally produced stone implements. After drying, the mixture displayed microscopic features much like those of residue on the Umm el Tlel artifacts, the scientists say.

At present it's probably not possible to conclusively discern whether this technological innovation was learned by Neanderthals and modern humans separately, but I can't help but wonder whether this might represent a technology or innovation dreamt up by the Neanderthals, who at some later stage in prehistory, passed on their invention to anatomically modern humans they subsequently encountered.

image from here

Binnall of America : Audio : Season IV - Gian Quasar - Bermuda Triangle - Part 1 of 2

binnall of america : audio

As mentioned in the show, the Bermuda Triangle has to some extent, fallen off the paranormal radar in recent years, but according to this week's guest, Gian Quasar, humans and hardware continue to vanish from this troubled stretch of ocean - though not always together, as there have been several reported cases of deserted boats found drifting alone.

Whether this particular area of the open seas is statistically any more hazardous than any other of the world's oceans is open to debate, but nevertheless, a certain lore has evolved over the years, detailing odd cases such as the infamous disappearance of Flight 19 in December 1945, as well as the alleged disappearance of two subsequent sorties flown to investigate. But as Gian Quasar tells us in this article on his website, Bermuda Triangle.0rg, the popular myth might be even odder than we have been led to believe; as we see...

In reality, the story of Flight 19 is a convoluted tale of cover-up, intrigue, sensationalism and incredible irony.

When I began 13 years ago to investigate this disappearance beyond its public persona, along with the many others that had vanished in the Bermuda Triangle, it was readily apparent that Flight 19 stood out from the rest. It was a “long disappearance.” The flight leader’s voice was picked up for over 3 hours. He didn’t know which way lay the peninsula of Florida. Another pilot took over and headed the flight in the right direction. Yet still it didn’t get back.

There are many things that remain unexplainable in Flight 19’s drama, but one thing is certain: the flight did actually make it back to land. It was discovering the radar reports and Air Transport Command reports for that night which started me on my quest to find the final resting place of the 5 unidentified aircraft that they reported. These enigmatic planes were in the wrong place, and still flying later than the Navy thought was possible, but they were 5 planes that ATC confirmed they had no record of.

Following this lead has uncovered a trail of complicity, incompetence and criminal negligence on the part of the naval staff at Fort Lauderdale. Several reports of these aircraft make it possible to plot their course and indeed identify them with Flight 19. The Navy had all this information, and yet amazingly did not pursue it.

Did some crewmember survive Flight 19 for a short while to be seconded to a naval hospital and there to die, then to be buried in silence? An enigmatic telegram was sent one family claiming to be from their loved one, but the Navy would never comment on it.

In this first part of two show segments, Gian Quasar tells us he has referred to extensive official documentation detailing vanished people and machines almost to the present day, and beleives that the reportedly mysterious disappearance of USS Cyclops in 1918 may in fact have been the result of a mutiny after the crew had risen up against a modern-day Captain Bligh - so if you find your curiosity piqued, just hit the link at top to access the show, which as always, is free to download.

Part 2 is due to air this coming week.

Late Neanderthals And Modern Human Contact In Southeastern Iberia

Late Neandertals and modern human contact in southeastern Iberia

This news item refers to a paper recently published by PNAS, and although I can't find any trace of the paper or even its abstract online, for the purposes of this post we'll be relying on this linked report from Washington University in St. Louis, the introductory paragraphs of which read thus...

It is widely accepted that Upper Paleolithic early modern humans spread westward across Europe about 42,000 years ago, variably displacing and absorbing Neandertal populations in the process. However, Middle Paleolithic assemblages persisted for another 8,000 years in Iberia, presumably made by Neandertals. However, has been unclear whether these late Middle Paleolithic Iberian assemblages were actually made by Neandertals, and what the nature of those humans might have been.

New research, published the week of Dec. 8 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, is now shedding some light on what were probably the last Neandertals.

I'm not sure exactly what is meant by the reference to the 'last Neandertals', as there are much later dates for their presence in north and western Europe, notably at Gorham's Cave in Gibraltar, suggested to be as late as 25,000 bp, the same dates for the hybrid child found in Portugal, and Beedings in southern Britain at 30,000 bp, but in the overall context of around 250,000 - 300,000 bp since their inception date, these Neanderthals from Murcia are certainly latter day residents. Back to the linked article...

The human fossils from the upper levels of the Sima de las Palomas are anatomically clearly Neandertals, and they are now securely dated to 40,000 years ago. They therefore establish the late persistence of Neandertals in this southwestern cul-de-sac of Europe. This reinforces the conclusion that the Neandertals were not merely swept away by advancing modern humans. The behavioral differences between these human groups must have been more subtle than the Middle-to-Upper Paleolithic technological contrasts might imply.

In addition, the Palomas Neandertals variably exhibit a series of modern human features rare or absent in earlier Neandertals. Either they were evolving on their own towards the modern human pattern, or more likely, they had contact with early modern humans around the Pyrenees. If the latter, it implies that the persistence of the Middle Paleolithic in Iberia was a matter of choice, and not cultural retardation.

Whilst it remains unclear what was causing these evolutionary changes in Neanderthals, the most obvious explanation would appear to be interbreeding between the archaic and modern species of people living on the Iberian peninsular, although it is curious to note that Middle Palaeolithic lithic technology persisted in parallel to its Upper Palaeolithic counterpart.

Next up, we'll be looking at Part 2 of CBC Radio's Best of Ideas podcast, 'Homo (sapiens) Neanderthalensis', called 'Shadows on the Nursery Wall'.

Update 12/12/08 - The paper is now published, and although it's behind a paywall, here's the abstract...

Middle Paleolithic fossil human remains from the Sima de las Palomas in southeastern Iberia (dated to ≤43,000–40,000 calendar years before present) present a suite of derived Neandertal and/or retained ancestral morphological features in the mandibular symphysis, mandibular ramus, dental occlusal morphology, and distal hand phalanx. These traits are combined with variation in the mandibular corpus, discrete dental morphology, tooth root lengths, and anterior dental size that indicate a frequency difference with earlier Iberian and more northern European Neandertals. The Palomas Neandertals therefore confirm the late presence of Neandertals associated with the Iberian persistence of the Middle Paleolithic, but suggest microevolutionary processes and/or population contact with contemporaneous modern humans to the north.

This follows on from an earlier paper in 2001, by Michael Walker et al, namely 'Excavations at Cueva Negra del Estrecho del Rio Quipar and Sima de las Palomas del Cabezo Gordo: two sites in Murcia (south-east Spain) with Neanderthal skeletal remains, Mousterian assemblages and late Middle to early Upper Pleistocene fauna' (try saying that in one breath) and is reproduced in full over at Antiquity of Man.

And if after that, you have any energy left, there's a dedicated page which takes us inside Sima de las Palomas, as well as another on Cueva Negra - an overview of The Field School for Quaternary Palaeoanthropology and Prehistory of Murcia, S.E. Spain can be found here.

Finally, there's this page, 'Hallan dos Craneos de Neanderthal en La Sima De Las Palomas' in Spanish but reasonably accessible even without a translation, over at Homo Sapiens.

Reference ::

Late Neandertals in Southeastern Iberia: Sima de las Palomas del Cabezo Gordo, Murcia, Spain

Contributed by Erik Trinkaus, November 7, 2008 (sent for review October 17, 2008)

1. Michael J. Walker, 2. Josep Gibert, 3. Mariano V. López, 4. A. Vincent Lombardi, 5. Alejandro Pérez-Pérez, 6. Josefina Zapata, 7. Jon Ortega, 8. Thomas Higham, 9. Alistair Pike, 10. Jean-Luc Schwenninger, 11. João Zilhão, and 12. Erik Trinkaus.

Published by PNAS.

A (Tibetan) Nun's Life - The Archaeology Channel - video

TAC - A Nun's Life

For this latest addition to the TAC archive of videos from around the world, it's off to the Buddhist monastery of Thupten Choling in Nepal where REDI, Renewable Energy Development International have been instrumental in bringing electric light to some of the public institutions including monasteries, wherein monks and nuns who have been displaced from their native Tibet have set up in Nepal, and are engaged in building a new monastery.

Much of this 19-minute documentary, made by Dennis Ramsey, looks at the construction of a new monastery, built to replace what had originally been considered a temporary structure until the monks and nuns were allowed back to Tibet, these days under the control of the present Chinese regime.

As we see from the linked pages at REDI, there has also been a concerted effort to bring solar and hydro-powered electricity to various monasteries and public institutions in the region. Such is the shortage of fuel to provide light - wood is too scarce and valuable a resource in this remote region, and although kerosene lamps have been used over past years, they too are expensive, and pose some serious safety threats of their own.

There is no mention of how the recent changes in the government of Nepal have affected Tibetan monks and nuns, and it is hoped that these people are able to pursue their lives and teachings without the persecution visited upon them in their own lands.

All in all, a fascinating and sympathetic look at the lifestyles of people inhabiting one of the poorest and most remote regions of the civilised world, as they go about their daily lives, building for the future while mindful of the past, aided and abetted by REDI. Despite the fact that life for these people is clearly unremittingly tough, they nevertheless retain great dignity and good humour as they go about this project, and all credit to REDI for providing them the means to be able to read and study with aid of clean electric light once this and other projects have been completed.

Unlike Werner Herzog's 'Wheel of Time', (2003) this shorter film focuses much more on the everyday lives of Buddhist nuns and their efforts to maintain and rebuild what is left of their culture. The resulting 'A Nun's Life' in my opinion is framed better from a compositional point of view, and feels more visually fluid and less intrusive. Having said that, Herzog's film - he doesn't consider himself a documentary maker - is excellent, more meditative, and takes us in such different directions - in particular to Bodh Gaya in India, Mount Kailash in Tibet, and Graz in Austria, for example, that I'm not sure if direct comparisons apply. If you get the chance to watch both films together, so much the better.

see also :: Tibet Archaeology.com

image from redi-org.com

Ötzi Had 6 Types Of Moss in His Stomach

Iceman Mummy Had Moss in His Tummy LiveScience

More than five millennia after his death, Ötzi continues to make the headlines, as research aimed at determining the circumstances surrounding his mysterious demise finds new puzzles aplenty. This latest concerns the presence of half a dozen different moss types found in his stomach, none of which appear to have arrived there by means of gastronomic choice. This from Live Science, via a post I read, namely 'Mossy Ötzi' at On Being Unexceptional...

...his gut remains contained six different mosses, a new analysis shows. The unappetizing plants shed light on the Neolithic man's lifestyle and travels during the last few days of his life...

...Apparently, he also ate and drank some mosses. James Dickson of the University of Glasgow and his colleagues say the moss finding is surprising, because these plants are neither tasty nor nutritious. The mosses were likely accidentally ingested.

In particular, Dickson and his colleagues suggest that one type of moss could have been used to wrap food; another was likely swallowed when the Iceman drank water during the last few days of his life; and yet another would have been used as a wound dressing.

The food-wrapping moss is called Neckera complanata. And the Iceman probably accidentally ingested a moss called Hymenostylium recurvirostrum along with some drinking water before he died.

And he could have applied the bogmoss Sphagnum imbricatum as a wound dressing. That particular bogmoss does not grow, at least today, within about 30 miles (50 km) of the site where Ötzi was found, the researchers say, suggesting the Iceman must have been a traveler.

"The best explanation I can think of is when he was wounded he was in the vicinity of where that particular bogmoss was growing," Dickson told LiveScience.

It's hard to believe that Ötzi was so careless as to have accidentally ingested a total of six different mosses, and it might be notable that at least one of these mosses has been detected in various bog bodies including that of Lindow Man, who was executed in spectacular fashion some 2,000 years ago, before being (un?) ceremoniously thrown into a peat bog shortly thereafter. As we see from this Guardian article...

Lindow Man was in his mid-20s when he died. He was 1.6m (5ft 6in) tall, weighed 60kg (9.4 stone) and suffered from intestinal worms and mild osteoarthritis. In his stomach were traces of wheat bread, heather, sphagnum moss and a small amount of mistletoe pollen. His death was not pleasant. A thong of animal sinew was round his neck, his throat was slashed and his head bashed in. He wore nothing but a fox-skin armband and his moustache had been trimmed with shears. His elegant finger nails suggested he could have had a privileged work-free existence before his death.

However, as we see from this Wikipedia entry, it seems fairly likely that those thrown into peat bogs around 2,000 years ago might have ingested the sphagnum moss once they had been immersed in their watery graves...

Anaerobic acidic Sphagnum bogs are known to preserve mammalian bodies extremely well for millennia. Examples of these preserved specimens are Tollund Man, Haraldskær Woman, Clonycavan Man and Lindow Man. Such Sphagnum bogs can also preserve human hair and clothing, one of the most noteworthy examples being Egtved Girl, Denmark. Because of the acidity of peat, however, bones are dissolved rather than preserved.

And here's some detail on how sphagnum has been used across wide swathes of the ancient and modern world as a dressing for wounds...

And though it is only in quite recent years that Sphagnum Moss has come to the fore in the dressing of wounds, bygone generations recognized its value for this purpose. A Gaelic Chronicle of 1014 relates that the wounded in the battle of Clontarf 'stuffed their wounds with moss,' and the Highlanders after Flodden stanched their bleeding wounds by filling them with bog moss and soft grass. Stricken deer are known to drag their wounded limbs to beds of Sphagnum Moss. The Kashmiri have used it from time immemorial and so have the Esquimaux. An old writer says:

'the Lapland matrons are well acquainted with this moss. They dry it and lay it in their children's cradles to supply the place of mattress, bolster and every covering, and being changed night and morning, it keeps the infant remarkable clean, dry and warm.'

The Lapps also use the moss for surgical purposes, and it has been used in Newfoundland as a dressing for wounds and sores from the earliest times.

The growing plant, with its underlying layers of withered stems and leaves, is collected, picked clean from other plants, pineneedles, etc., and dried. It is then lightly packed in bags of butter-muslin, which are sterilized before being placed on the wound.

Sphagnum Moss has important advantages (as an absorbent) over cotton-wool. Many materials, including other kinds of moss, are equally soft and light, but none can compare with it in power of absorption, due to its sponge-like structure. Prepared Sphagnum can absorb more than twice as much moisture as cotton, a 2-OZ. dressing absorbing up to 2 lb. Even the best prepared cottonwool lacks the power to retain discharges possessed by Sphagnum. A pad of Sphagnum Moss absorbs the discharge in lateral directions, as well as immediately above the wound, and holds it until fully saturated in all parts of the dressing before allowing any to escape. The even absorption of the moss is one of its chief virtues, for the patient is saved a good deal of disturbance, since the dressing does not require to be changed so frequently...

...Sphagnum Moss was also used during the War in conjunction with Garlic, one of the best antiseptics. The Government bought up tons of the bulbs, which were sent out to the front; the raw juice expressed, diluted with water, was put on swabs of sterilized Sphagnum Moss and applied to wounds. Where this treatment was adopted there were no specific complications, and thousands of lives were thus saved.

Which brings us back to Ötzi, his wounds, eating habits and final days, as described by James Dickson of the University of Glasgow ...

"If he knew of the useful properties of bogmosses, as seems entirely plausible, then he may have gathered some to staunch the wound or wounds," the researchers write in the December issue of the journal Vegetation History and Archaeobotany, "and so tiny pieces could well have stuck to the blood drying on his fingers and then he accidentally ingested some of them when next eating meat or bread as we know he did during his last few days."

And although that wraps up the mossy component of this post, a passage from the Guardian article caught my eye...

Susan Chadwick, who has lived in the Lindow Moss area all her life, was at primary school when Lindow Man was found in the age of Bros and Care Bears, and sang on the recording of the Lindow Man song. She recalls her surprise at seeing his stubble and how her friend said he looked like a suitcase. More than 20 years on, she would still like him back on permanent display in the region: "I think if he came back to Manchester, a lot of people, especially from this area where I've been brought up, would be very proud to have him back ... this is our history, this is our neighbour ..."

Sensitive museum staff have even contacted pagan and Druid priest Emma Restall Orr, who wishes she could wrap Lindow Man "in some rich, sweet linen with herbs and take him back to the Moss". She is, she adds, perturbed by the display of human remains "almost for entertainment". Which makes you wonder what she thinks about Gunther von Hagens' Body Worlds exhibition up the road at the Manchester Museum of Science and Industry. (Perhaps she will say more during a debate on displaying the dead at MoSI on May 13.)

All these voices are fascinating but they tend to crowd out Lindow Man, who lies in a dimly-lit box surrounded by all this talk. He is not helped by the design of the exhibition, which features long rows of blockboard shelves. The shelving, with its resonances of libraries and sober academic endeavour, diminishes the mystery of Lindow Man, who appears as an extra in someone else's show.

(Lindow Man: a bog body mystery Manchester Museum until April 19 2009.)

I'm not sure to what extent there is any disquiet about Ötzi being on permanent display to the noisy public, and whilst it is clear that he cannot be returned to his final resting place, as by now the ice that entombed him for five millennia has melted away, sooner or later it may well transpire that someone decides he's been an exhibit for long enough, and deserves to spend his interrupted afterlife in a more peaceful, or at least private location, away from the bright lights and glass panels that currently focus our attention upon him.

see also :: About.com: Archaeology - 'Moss And The Iceman'

Gademotta Stone Tools Hint Anatomically Modern Humans May Date Back 276,000 Years

Humans 80,000 Years Older Than Previously Thought? - National Geographic

As we saw in a previous post, there are episodes of the Palaeolithic and the development of what are considered to be modern human behaviours, which turn out to have occurred earlier in the story of human evolution than was once supposed.

From attempting to unravel the mysteries of the Châtelperronian site of La Grotte des Fées, where it is claimed there is irrefutable evidence that Neanderthals' innovatory aptitude was in some cases equal to that of their anatomically modern counterparts, we turn next to a site called Gademotta near Lake Ziway in the Ethiopian Rift Valley, where what are described as modern stone tools have been estimated to be at least 276,000 years old, confirming the suggestions of the original excavators of the site, Nancy Singleton and Frank Servello, who worked there in 1971 and 1972.

This from National Geographic...

Modern humans may have evolved more than 80,000 years earlier than previously thought, according to a new study of sophisticated stone tools found in Ethiopia.

The tools were uncovered in the 1970s at the archaeological site of Gademotta, in the Ethiopian Rift Valley. But it was not until this year that new dating techniques revealed the tools to be far older than the oldest known Homo sapien bones, which are around 195,000 years old.

Because the are no human remains associated with the site, there is obviously some doubt as to exactly which species of humans made the stone tools at such early dates, a thought reflected in this brief paper (pdf) reporting on the 1970s excavations...

The dates for this site were hard to locate and even harder to accept one over the other. J.D. Clark gave the earliest dates for the region; using K/Ar dating method for the tuff just above hand axes and below the cultural area he came to a date of 235,000 ya +/- 6000 yrs. Other dates, using the thermoluminiscence method places the ETH-72-8B area at just under 90,000 ya.

Another form of Ar/Ar dating using sanidine placed the ETH- 72-8B site at almost 180,000 ya. All of these dates, confusing and conflicting in themselves are also controversial because the earliest dates for other Stillbay Complex sites in East Africa are no older than 35,000 ya....

...Artifacts recovered from the site are numerous and varied. Over 9,000 pieces of debitage, waste, tools, and cores were excavated; all of which came from a single source of green/black obsidian. The main component of this number is made up of crushed pieces of debitage (~ 44%).

But there are also many blades from prepared cores and many representatives of both the Levallois and Mousterian industry. Because of the presence of the Levallois and Mousterian blades, points, etc. the site is considered a part of the Stillbay Complex. The tools found at this site do not seem to change that much over time, except for the fact that the number of blades increases through time.

The final parts of the National Geographic article do a good job of summing up how these early dates adds another layer of complexity to the debate over what behaviours and technologies typify archaic and modern humans, specifically when it comes to trying to identify stone tool types with specific species...

The lack of bones at Gademotta makes it difficult to determine who made these specialist tools. Some archaeologists believe it had to be Homo sapiens, while other experts think that other human species may have had the required mental capability and manual dexterity.

Regardless of who made the tools, the dates help to fill a key gap in the archaeological record, according to some experts.

"The new dates from Gademotta help us to understand the timing of an important behavioral change in human evolution," said Christian Tryon, a professor of anthropology from New York University, who wasn't involved in the study.

If anything, the story has now become more complex, added Laura Basell, an archaeologist at the University of Oxford in the U.K.

"The new date for Gademotta changes how we think about human evolution, because it shows how much more complicated the situation is than we previously thought," Basell said.

"It is not possible to simply associate specific species with particular technologies and plot them in a line from archaic to modern."

This current research is in part funded by National Geographic through the Committee For Research And Exploration, and for a final look at the site, we return to the linked paper, (pdf) namely Gademotta Region of the Rift Valley Site ETH-72-8B

The most interesting feature of this site is the presence of a large concave depression in the fossil soil. The excavators believe that this depression is an arbitrary pit dug to be the floor of a large hut. They suspect this for a number of reasons, the most important being that outside the margins of the depression the number of artifacts decreases extremely rapidly, none existing more than a few fit from the pit.

Within the pit there are reasons to believe that it was a base camp. Inside there are mostly finished tools and sharpening spalls, whereas outside of the ring there are more cores and primary flakes. The size and distribution of artifacts within suggest a large extended family living there over a long period of time.

It is hoped that further developments from this intriguing site will follow in due course.

see also :: Human Evolution On Trial - 'Technology' - by Terry Toohill

The Long Road To Modernity - by Michael Balter

Cambridge World Archaeology - The First Africans

image from National Geographic

Analysis of Aurignacian Interstratification at the Châteltelperronian-type Site And Implications For The Behavioral Modernity of Neandertals — PNAS

Link to PNAS

Although this paper originally came out in 2006, I thought it might be an idea to post this is in tandem with a 2-part podcast in the process of being released by CBC Radio's 'The Best of Ideas', hosted by Paul Kennedy.

But first to the paper, written in 2006 by João Zilhão et al, of which this is the abstract...

The Châtelperronian is a Neandertal-associated archeological culture featuring ornaments and decorated bone tools. It is often suggested that such symbolic items do not imply that Neandertals had modern cognition and stand instead for influences received from coeval, nearby early modern humans represented by the Aurignacian culture, whose precocity would be proven by stratigraphy and radiocarbon dates.

The Grotte des Fées at Châtelperron (France) is the remaining case of such a potential Châtelperronian–Aurignacian contemporaneity, but reanalysis shows that its stratification is poor and unclear, the bone assemblage is carnivore-accumulated, the putative interstratified Aurignacian lens in level B4 is made up for the most part of Châtelperronian material, the upper part of the sequence is entirely disturbed, and the few Aurignacian items in levels B4-5 represent isolated intrusions into otherwise in situ Châtelperronian deposits. As elsewhere in southwestern Europe, this evidence confirms that the Aurignacian postdates the Châtelperronian and that the latter’s cultural innovations are better explained as the Neandertals’ independent development of behavioral modernity.

There has been much discussion over the years as to whether this site really does represent Neanderthal modernity, especially as the era in question slightly precedes what had previously been supposed to be the defining Middle/Upper Palaeolithic boundary, which supposedly marked the point where anatomically modern humans first appeared in western Europe, prevailing over the Neanderthals due largely to the perception that their own modern behaviours which were notably expressed in parietal and portable art, combined with innovative stone tool technologies. As we see from the paper...

The Châtelperronian Paleolithic culture of France and northern Spain is unambiguously associated with ornaments, decorated bone tools, and Neandertal remains (1, 7), providing among the best evidence that the emergence of human biological and behavioral “modernity” should be decoupled (8). This conclusion can be avoided only if the Aurignacian culture, generally taken as an archeological proxy for the first European modern humans, predated the Châtelperronian and was the source by diffusion or exchange of the latter’s symbolic artifacts (5–6).

For a wider discussion of Neanderthals, including the history of their discovery, and how they were subsequently portrayed after Marcellin Boule had cast his critical eye over some fossilised remains, The Best of Ideas podcast editions for November 1st and 8th are recommended listening.

'Homo (sapiens) Neanderthalensis' (Part 1) runs to around 55 minutes, and features a host well-known figures from the Neanderthal field of research. Very interesting to hear Chris Stringer of the Natural History Museum in London express his thoughts, and it's noticeable that he seems to have significantly shifted his stance regarding behavioural similarities between Neanderthals and anatomically modern humans, with whom they shared the Eurasian landscape for as much as 15,000 years. Although he cautions against mapping modern behaviours onto Neanderthals, and at one point even ponders whether we should regard them as similar to hyena, it's important, in my opinion, that such influential figures in the field remain demonstrably flexible in their ideas, and are even prepared to modify previously expressed opinions in the light of ongoing research.

Also featured is Cive Gamble, who with Stringer co-authored 'In Search of the Neanderthals' (someone once asked if that was my address-book sitting on the bookshelf), and Gamble makes reference to what he describes as "a 15 minute culture which lasted for tens of thousands of years". Jean-Jacques Hublin suggests that modern hunting techniques added to the flexibility of moderns as an advantage over Neanderthals, with different social networks extending hundreds of miles enabling a greater exchange of materials and ideas giving a crucial advantage.

But as we find more and more similarities between our Palaeolithic forebears and the Neanerthal neighbours, the mystery of what pushed them over the edge of life onto the barren rocks of extinction, has only deepened.

I found the discussion in the final 30 minutes or so the most interesting, part of which featured Professor Harold Dibble, who asks how we get from the stone tools of the Neanderthals to reading what was going through their minds, based on those artifacts they created. For example, what might be considered to be a double scraper may have been a single scraper, that was later picked up and re-worked on the other side for another lease of life a single scraper - this 10 minute section is well worth the listen from an archaeological standpoint, and hopefully will be illustrated more fully in a future TV documentary, if such is forthcoming.

This podcast is freely available on iTunes, available on the Ideas website, with Part 2 slated for release on Monday, December 8th, and it will be intriguing to see in which direction the story goes from here.

see also :: Human Evolution on Trial :: Neanderthals et al - by Terry Toohill


image from the linked paper.

Four Stone Hearth 54: Marriage and Japanese Toys @ Cognition And Culture

4 Stone Hearth 54: marriage and Japanese toys

The most recent edition of the anthropology blog carnival Four Stone Hearth, is hosted at Cognition And Culture, compiled this time round by Olivier Morin, whose introduction reads...

Anthro-bloggers this fortnight have written countless posts celebrating the 100th birthday of Claude Lévi-Strauss ( here's a review at anthropology.info, and another here at Savage Minds). Lévi-Strauss, I have been told, is not much of a webbie, but if he had been surfing the web this month, his absolute favourite piece on the web would have been this one. The author combines kinship systems theory, classification systems theory, database engineering and Graph Theory, to ask how one could cram a gay married couple into an official database. The answers are hilarious - and utterly Lévi-Straussian.

To read more, just grab the mouse and click the links; next up for 4SH will be The Greenbelt, on December 17th.

Top 100 Anthropology Blogs | Online Universities.com

Top 100 Anthropology Blogs | Online Universities.com

Here's a link to a resource with which I was previously unfamiliar, namely Online Universities.com, a website which caters for prospective graduate students wishing to pursue their studies online, rather than attend traditional campus facilities - I'm assuming that this applies only to U.S. residents, especially where financial aid is required, although further clarification may be forthcoming from the site authors.

My specific reason for this mention is that as may be apparent from the headline of this post, Online Universities have published a rather helpful list of 100 Top Anthropology Blogs - in which, I'm pleased and grateful to say, this blog is included, (within the Archaeology and Palaeontology section).

Other sections include the main disciplines of anthropology, as well as resources such as Museums, a section marked Linguistic, Media and Communication, as well as one called Professors and Students, in which are links to sites and blogs reflecting the thoughts and experiences of those currently participating in higher education.

Elsewhere on the site there is advice for those wishing to study for a degree of their choice, as well as giving accreditation information, as discussed in this post, 'Why Is Accreditation Important For Online Universities?'...

Accreditation means that your school, program and degree have been evaluated and passed a standards and quality test that ensure you’re getting the level of education you’re investing in. For some students, it can be difficult or even impossible to pay a visit to an online school. If a student lives too far away or has limited transportation, validating a school’s offices and the fact that it even exists at all is a challenge.

Because there are a number of bogus online schools and organizations that run diploma mills — printing presses that “award” meaningless diplomas to unsuspecting students — students researching fully online schools need to be extra careful before signing up for the semester and sending in a check. One of the easiest ways to find out if an online school is legitimate is to research its accreditation. If an online school has been accredited, especially if it has been accredited by one of the six approved regional accrediting councils, then a student can feel more comfortable enrolling in of the school’s programs.

So if you're considering studying for a Bachelor's or Master's degree, (or indeed, for less formal qualifications), but because of work or domestic commitments, travel restrictions, or the simple fact that you just prefer distance learning, Online Universities.com looks like an excellent first stop to check out and validate what's on offer, as well as gaining insights into one particular field of study by visiting the multitude of anthropology blogs listed on the page linked to at top.

For UK residents, the primary distance learning resource for those wishing to embark on higher education courses, would appear to be the Open University.

Human Evolution on Trial - Technology - by Terry Toohill

Human Evolution on Trial - Technology

Stone Age cultures are classified, oddly enough, by the different ways they worked stone and the kinds of tools they made from it. More recent human cultures are classified by the style of their pottery. Both these artifacts are very hard and remain pretty much where they were left. In 10,000 years time our present cultures will probably be classified by styles of plastic items. James Burke (1978) pointed out more than 20 years ago it was possible to “tell at a glance the various changes in style of radios over the past forty years”. His book “Connections” is an account of technology’s development in more recent times. Ancient patterns of change provide evidence in support of the wave theory of evolution.

The sequence of the development of ancient stone tool cultures was worked out many years ago, by looking at which types overly others, the upper ones presumed to be more recent. Dating by the radioactive decay of several elements has enabled some absolute dates to be applied to various technologies but the sequence worked out years ago has not usually been altered. Pottery is a relatively recent development in human existence and the defence will touch on its dating in “The Last Point” [Pottery].

Here is a closer look at a short history of the earth (“Time”) without the adjustments of the earlier chart. It shows the names of Stone Age technologies and the human species usually associated with them. The jury will be able to refer back to it from time to time.




Lower Palaeolithic

The earliest human stone technology, at the bottom right of the column, is called the “Oldowan”. This appears about two and a half million years ago and in many regions lasts about a million years, but in other places lasts till more recently. The Oldowan is named after Olduvai Gorge in Kenya where it was first identified. (see also) It has also been found near the Caucasus Mountains (“The First Point” [Caucasus population]). The Oldowan consists of simple, sharp stone flakes and flaked pebbles difficult to classify into types. An example of an Oldowan stone tool is shown in the upper left of map 12 (Roe 1971). The stone tool in the upper right is from China and the one beneath it is from Java. The Homo erectus skull at bottom right is from Johanson and Edey (1982). We’ll return to the lines and arrows soon. Members of the jury will be able to follow the main developments in stone technology by simply following the maps.

About one and a half million years ago throughout much of the world the Oldowan gave way to the more sophisticated “Acheulean” (named from Saint Acheul in France). This is distinguished by bifacial flaking (flaking on both sides of the stone tool). Hand-axes (shown along the bottom and left of map 12) are the most characteristic tool from this period but the tools were still largely undifferentiated into functional types and the technology changed very little over a long time.

As you saw in the chart the Oldowan and Acheulean stone industries are usually referred to collectively as the “Lower Palaeolithic” (palaeo – old). Individually they are sometimes associated with different stages in human development but technological and biological change are not necessarily closely correlated, i.e. technological change does not necessarily indicate a genetic change, or change in species. The Oldowan is associated with Homo habilis and the Acheulean with Homo erectus. But the change in species is usually dated at 1.7 million years ago and the change of technology is dated at about 1.4 million years. Also the hand-axe didn’t make it to Eastern Asia even though Homo erectus did.

Hallum Movius recognised the technological division between east and west at least 50 years ago and the boundary between the two is often referred to as the Movius line (Tattersall and Schwartz 2000). It is the dark line on the map. The defence will show that this line can provide a great deal of evidence about our evolution. It is not just relevant in separating hand-axes from more “primitive” tools. Perthaps the Ganges / Brahmaputra River delta was virtually impassable through much of ancient history.

The continued use of Oldowan technology in eastern Asia and parts of northern Europe has two or three possible explanations. The most likely is that the Acheulean hand-axe developed after the first Homo erectus had expanded around the world. Therefore it would be a very early example of the spread of a technology which failed to reach the marginal areas. Alternatively people may have moved out of Africa with the hand-axe but lost the technology during their migration. The expansion may have spent several generations passing through an area with no suitable stone for example. The series of crosshatched lines in map 12 mark the region where the defence suggests the hand-axe failed to keep up with Homo erectus, for whatever reason. The arrows indicate a possible migration route. Some splitters, who like to see lots of species between Homo habilis and Homo sapiens, offer a third explanation: two species of Homo erectus each with different technologies. In this case the Movius line represents the boundary between the two species.

Middle Palaeolithic

The next stage in the diagram, the “Middle Palaeolithic”, follows on from the Lower Paleolithic and leads to the appearance of the “Mousterian” in Europe and the Middle East (after Le Moustier in France). The possibly related “Aterian” (pdf) (Bir-el-Ater, Tunisia) appeared in northern Africa. Hand-axes become less important, but the Mousterian is generally more advanced than the Acheulean. It results from the development of a technique known as “Levallois” (pdf) (a suburb of Paris). It shows a leap in mental ability and has been called the most significant breakthrough in the Palaeolithic (Nicolas Rolland in an article in Mellars 1990). Previous stone tool-making techniques had involved shaping an individual stone, or using the numerous sharp flakes knocked off it. Levallois involves thinking several steps ahead. It involves working a rock up until it can be hit on one end to knock off a very sharp flake with a predetermined size and shape. Tools of this type first appear between 200,000 and 400,000 years ago and become especially common in Late Middle Palaeolithic Mousterian cultures (Klein 1989). By then the technique had been further improved allowing a series of similarly shaped flakes to be taken off a single pebble (Roe 1971). The defence will show the jury Mousterian tools in map 13. A precise boundary between Lower and Middle Palaeolithic is very difficult to define (Stringer and Gamble 1993) but the timing and the area of development shows the Levallois technique was presumably invented by what have been called “Archaic Homo sapiens” (Homo heidelbergensis).

But once again there is not a good correlation between stone technology and different human types. For example the European Mousterian is associated with Neanderthal humans but in Africa, where the similar Aterian appears, the people are not Neanderthal. Another problem is that the Levallois technique didn’t make it across the Movius line either. The jury will later see that some early advanced-looking humans seem to have appeared in the East though. In other regions humans continued using Mousterian technology for many years after the Neanderthals disappeared. This again shows that technology is independent of genes. Advanced stone technology doesn’t necessarily represent a more advanced, or modern-looking, human type and a more modern-looking human type doesn’t necessarily have advanced technology.

But through much of Europe and the Middle East the Middle Palaeolithic seems to replace the Lower Palaeolithic rather than develop from it (Klein 1989). This probably indicates a population replacement in those regions rather than the adoption of a new technology by a resident population. We’ll return to this problem, and meet all the Middle Palaeolithic people again, in “Species or Not” [Homo heidelbergensis].

Upper Palaeolithic

The “Upper Palaeolithic”, the next division from about 40,000 years ago, is associated exclusively with modern humans, Homo sapiens. It is distinguished from the Middle Palaeolithic in several ways (Klein 1989). Tools included elongated stone flakes (called blades), end scrapers and burins. The people also cut, carved, polished and shaped bone, ivory, shells and antler. They were probably the first to use composite tools combining leather, wood, stone, bone etc. From these raw materials they constructed what can be called the first art. The cultures became much more varied regionally, and are much more elaborate, than are those of the Middle Palaeolithic. Fire-hardened clay artifacts appear in Central Europe about 28,000 years ago, and by about 20,000 years ago humans had available to them much of the technology used by the Stone Age cultures that managed to survive into historic times.

The Upper Palaeolithic also provides the first evidence for fishing and birding. Small blades (microliths) of a type used to tip arrows were in use at least 20,000 years ago, although they may have been attached to spears to start with. There is a rapid increase in their number through Africa and Eurasia about this time. This probably indicates a rapid expansion of a new technology (Klein 1989). And possibly genes. The earliest conclusive evidence for the bow and arrow occurs only much later. Bone spear throwers were in use by at least 14,000 years ago. By 12,000 years ago what is considered to be the world’s oldest pottery was being made in Japan (Klein 1989, and see “Pacific Population” [Lapita]).

France has provided a fairly clear idea of the sequence of the development of stone technology in Europe and, as the jury may have noticed, many names of technologies come from French sites. As it is the most studied, most complete and most easily understood, its sequence has influenced all European study of Stone Age cultures. This in turn has influenced the global view. In France an immigrant population introduced the Upper Palaeolithic suddenly and obviously.

In France modern humans (Cro-Magnon) brought in the first Upper Palaeolithic about 33,000 years ago. This new technology is called the “Aurignacian” (named after a cave in France, Aurignac). It probably came to Europe from the southeast via Turkey and Greece. John Wilford (Wade 2001) writes, “In the rest of Europe by this time, Dr. Trinkaus noted, modern humans had spread from east to west; there is no evidence that people could have crossed from Africa into Europe by way of Gibraltar”.

P. Allsworth Jones, quoted in Mellars (1990), gives the beginning of the Aurignacian as 43,000 years ago in Southeastern Europe to 34,000 years ago in Western Europe. The culture reached its peak in France about 30,000 years ago. By then there even appears to be a hybrid of Upper Palaeolithic Aurignacian and Middle Paleolithic Mousterian in parts of France. This is the “Châtelperronian” and the defence will remind the jury of this in “Neanderthals et al” [Aurignacian and Mousterian]. About 27,000 years ago a new culture, the Gravettian, replaced both the Aurignacian and the Châtelperronian in France. It has been shown that this new culture originated in Eastern Europe or Southern Russia (Clark 1969) and it seems to have developed independently of the Aurignacian. We’ll catch up with all this and study the separate origin of the Aurignacian and Gravettian in Part V “Conquest”.

Marcel Otte (Mellars 1990) sees technological continuity in England, Belgium, Germany and Southern Poland, from the Middle Palaeolithic Mousterian right through to later elements of the Aurignacian, and especially to the Gravettian. Also Clive Gamble (Cunliffe 1994) mentions that some distinctive Middle Palaeolithic stone tools are also “found in some of the earliest Upper Palaeolithic industries”. This continuity may indicate some genetic continuity or gene flow in that region. The defence will also remind you of this later in the trial.

Around 21,000 years ago the Solutrean appeared and is basically confined to France and presumably developed there. The next culture is the Magdalenian, which lasts from 16,500 years ago until 11,000 years ago. It expanded from France into areas of Northwestern Europe that were becoming ice-free at the end of the ice age.

Changing environmental conditions around the end of the ice age (Roe 1971, and Cunliffe 1994) had led to the development of what is collectively called the “Mesolithic” (Middle Stone Age). But we’ll leave that for now and come back to it much later in “The Last Point” [Islands Again].

Progress

Out-side Western Europe the Upper Palaeolithic’s development is not necessarily associated with the first arrival of modern humans or Homo sapiens. Change in the rest of the world is not straightforward. In many places modern humans used Mousterian or even more primitive stone technology for thousands of years before they adopted the Upper Palaeolithic. In many regions the Upper Palaeolithic appears and is then abandoned several times (Stringer and Gamble 1993). In fact it could be said that even in fairly modern times the Eurasian Upper Palaeolithic was yet to reach such people as the Australian Aborigines or the Khoisan of Southern Africa.

The Upper Palaeolithic seems to have first developed somewhere in the Middle East, South Central Asia or Southeast Europe 40,000 to 50,000 years ago. There is actually evidence for even earlier use of standardised bone artifacts and personal adornment in parts of Southern Africa though. These African sites have been variously dated at anywhere between 100,000 and 40,000 years ago. But it seems that in Africa the Upper Palaeolithic proper developed as a result of the introduction of a new technology along the southern edge of the Mediterranean Islands subpoint of the human star. In other words it’s a back migration of culture, and presumably genes, through the Middle East.

New technological ideas have always moved backwards and forwards around the world. Therefore it is a good bet that the Upper Palaeolithic had developed from the gradual diffusion of waves of technological change over wide areas. It was almost certainly not due to some sudden genetic expansion of a single small group of advanced humans. In other words, like the hand-axe of the Acheulean and the Levallois of the Middle Palaeolithic, there is not necessarily close connection in the Upper Palaeolithic between technological and genetic change. The defence will continue to show that many maps of human gene distribution seem to be related to the expansion of particular technologies or cultures though.

The defence suggests that in some ways we can regard technology as evolving in a similar way to organic evolution; diversification, then hybridising followed by selection. However, unlike most genetic change, advances in both technology and culture seem usually to occur where two or more of them meet and form a hybrid, rather than on a geographic margins of their individual distributions. Improvements in technology have then allowed particular genetic and cultural combinations to expand, often through regions already occupied by other humans (see “Indo-Europeans”). New technology has even allowed those with it to move into so far unoccupied environments or at least exploit different aspects of them (“Pacific Population” [The Canoe]). In other words human groups have been able to separate ecologically in the same way the mallard and grey duck may be doing in New Zealand (“Species” [Ecology]). The time taken to then become either a stabilised hybrid or for one group to become extinct depends on the effectiveness of each group’s isolating mechanisms, or tribalism, and the mythconceptions they have evolved to support it. It can take centuries for different groups to mix, and then divide into a new set of tribes with a new set of mythconceptions.

Technological evolution has made our evolution different from that of other animals. Changes in technology have given humans more adaptability and mobility than is usual within a species. The defence suggests that if not for changing technologies human populations would have developed greater regional diversity than they have. Various groups would have each become genetically the best adapted to their particular environment and would have remained in that particular region, effectively excluding other types. In time they may have diverged enough to become separate species. “Single origin” supporters believe this is in fact what has happened, in that separate human species have kept replacing earlier species. But humans, even more than most other species, usually show a remarkable willingness to hybridise and to form new combinations rather than to diversify into separate species. Supporters of the “spread origin” theory believe this willingness goes back a long way.

Movement of groups of people bringing new technology into new regions has offset tendencies to genetic isolation within the human species. All advances in technology have effectively meant times of plenty and led to environmental or ecological change. At such times the population increases, boundaries become porous and hybrids are able to form and survive. Selection then acts on these hybrids and various genes, including mtDNA and Y-chromosome lines, become extinct (“Pedigrees” [Ancestry]).

As in the example of the Pacific Islands, advances in technology have allowed humans to expand at times into more hostile environments. People with Upper Palaeolithic culture were able to move rapidly into Northeastern Europe and Siberia (see “North to Alaska”) and then to America. But the Mediterranean Islands and Island Southeast Asia and the Pacific, the last two sub-points on the human star, were not settled till more recently.

The defence suggests that males carrying new technology have contributed to the distribution of the Y-chromosome variants. Incoming variants often replace pre-existing ones. As the defence pointed out in “Polynesian Origins” [Societies] in most cases, and especially until relatively recently, women (mtDNA) transmit most elements of culture between the generations. Therefore as a rule of thumb: Y-chromosome distribution reflects technological waves of expansion, mtDNA distribution reflects cultural waves of expansion, and nuclear DNA reflects the combined result of these with elements already present in particular regions. The three genetic lines are surprisingly different in their history (Wade 2001). In fact, as the defence said in “Pedigrees” [Selection], we could go further and say, “each gene has its own evolutionary history” (Karafet et al 1999), anyway it “has a separate ancestor” (Jobling et al 2004).

see also :: 'First Humans'

Witnesses Called

Burke, James (1978) Connections. Macmillan, London Ltd.

Clark, Grahame (1969) World Prehistory. Cambridge University Press, UK.

Cunliffe, Barry ed. (1994) The Oxford Illustrated Prehistory of Europe. Oxford

University Press, Oxford.

Jobling et al (2004) Human Evolutionary Genetics. Garland Science, New York.

Johanson, Donald and Edey, Maitland (1982) Lucy. Warner Books, New York.

Karafet et al (1999) Ancestral Asian Source(s) of New World Y-chromosome Founder Haplotypes. Am. J. Hum. Genet. 64: 817-831.

Klein, Richard G. (1989) The Human Career. University of Chicago Press, Chicago.

Mellars, Paul ed. (1990) The Emergence of Modern Humans. Edinburgh University

Press, Great Britain.

Roe, Derek (1971) Prehistory. Paladin (Macmillan and Co. Ltd.), London.

Stringer, Christopher and Gamble, Clive (1993) In Search of the Neanderthals. Thames

and Hudson, Great Britain.

Tattersall, Ian and Schartz, Jeffrey H. (2000) Extinct Humans. Westview Press, New York.

Wade, Nicholas ed. (2001) The New York Times Book of Fossils and Evolution. The Lyon Press, New York.

Zilhão, J. et al (2006) Analysis Of Aurignacian Interstratification At The Châtelperronian-type Site And Implications For The Behavioral Modernity Of Neandertals