© 2007 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All right reserved. Windows on Humanity Conrad Phillip Kottak Second Edition Chapter 6 The First Humans

© 2007 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All right reserved. Overview Evolution of Homo –H. erectus –Neandertals –Anatomically modern humans Technological advances in the Paleolithic Colonization of the Americas

© 2007 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All right reserved. CHAPTER 6 The First Humans Early Homo –H. habilis was not very different from australopithecines in terms of body size and form –Major and rapid change with the emergence of H. erectus (between 1.8 and m.y.a.) Cranial capacity, body shape, and height of H. erectus were comparable to those of modern humans H. habilis to H. erectus transition may support a punctuated equilibrium model of the evolution of early hominids

© 2007 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All right reserved. CHAPTER 6 The First Humans Emergence of H. erectus –Major change in adaptive strategy – greater reliance on hunting –Rapid increase in the number and diversity of stone tools used for hunting and gathering Increasing reliance on cultural means of adaptation –Dietary changes eased the burden on the chewing apparatus – smaller dentition favored –Hunting of large prey encouraged the development of thicker skulls –Larger body size and cranial capacity (within range of modern humans)

© 2007 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All right reserved. CHAPTER 6 The First Humans Paleolithic tools –Three divisions of the Paleolithic (Old Stone Age): Lower Paleolithic – roughly associated with H. erectus Middle Paleolithic – roughly associated with archaic H. sapiens, including the Neandertals Upper Paleolithic – roughly associated with early members of H. sapiens sapiens (anatomically modern humans)

© 2007 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All right reserved. CHAPTER 6 The First Humans Paleolithic tools –Acheulian – primary tool-making tradition of H. erectus during the Lower Paleolithic Various tool types, including oval-shaped hand axes More complex than earlier Oldowan pebble tools Acheulian tradition illustrates trends in the evolution of technology: –Greater efficiency –Manufacture of tools for specific tasks –Increasingly complex technology

© 2007 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All right reserved. CHAPTER 6 The First Humans Adaptive strategies of H. erectus –Interrelated biological and cultural changes Improved tools and “modern” skeleton permitting long- distance walking and endurance – allowed H. erectus to increase its range and hunt more efficiently Average H. erectus brain size was double that of australopithecines, within the low range of modern humans –Fire Hearths found at various sites Fire allowed H. erectus to colonize a wider range of climates, provided protection against predators, made cooking possible

© 2007 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All right reserved. CHAPTER 6 The First Humans Adaptive strategies of H. erectus –Language H. erectus may have had rudimentary speech –Suggested by evidence of cooperative hunting and manufacture of complicated tools –Speech would have aided coordination, cooperation, and the learning of traditions (e.g., tool making) Evidence of language among H. erectus is not conclusive

© 2007 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All right reserved. CHAPTER 6 The First Humans Evolution and expansion of H. erectus –Important H. erectus sites: East and West Turkana, Kenya – 1.6 m.y.a. Dmanisi, former Soviet Republic of Georgia – 1.75 to 1.7 m.y.a. Indonesia (e.g., “Java man,” the first H. erectus find) – at least 700,000 B.P. – perhaps 1.6 m.y.a. Zhoukoudian cave, China (e.g., “Peking man”) – 670,000 to 410,000 B.P. Kenya, Tanzania, Ethiopia, Eritrea, and South Africa – 1 million to 500,000 B.P. at Olduvai Ceprano, Italy – 800,000 B.P.

© 2007 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All right reserved. CHAPTER 6 The First Humans Evolution and expansion of H. erectus –Widespread distribution of H. erectus fossils and stone tools – indicates expansion out of tropics into subtropical and temperate zones of Asia and Europe

© 2007 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All right reserved. CHAPTER 6 The First Humans Archaic H. sapiens –300,000 to 28,000 B.P. –Include the earliest members of our species –Also Neandertals (H. sapiens neanderthalensis) of Europe and the Middle East and their Neandertal-like contemporaries in Africa and Asia (130,000 to 28,000 B.P.) –Brain size within the modern human range –Lived during the second and third glacials (ice ages) and a warmer interglacial period – last part of the Middle Pleistocene –Distribution of fossils and tools in Europe, Africa, and Asia reflects increased tolerance of environmental diversity

© 2007 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All right reserved. CHAPTER 6 The First Humans Neandertals –Discovered in Western and Central Europe and the Middle East –Archaic human fossils with Neandertal-like features found in Africa and Asia –Neandertals in Western Europe were biologically and culturally adapted to an extremely cold climate (Würm glacial) Made clothes and elaborate tools (Mousterian tradition) Hunted reindeer, mammoths, and woolly rhinos Anatomy (e.g., stocky build, massive nasal cavities) reflected adaptation to cold climate Massive faces and heavy wear on front teeth – evidence that teeth used for various purposes (e.g., chewing animal hides to make winter clothing)

© 2007 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All right reserved. CHAPTER 6 The First Humans Neandertals –Became less robust through time Improving tool technology may have assumed some of the burdens formerly placed on the anatomy

© 2007 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All right reserved. CHAPTER 6 The First Humans Neandertals and modern humans –Debate over whether Neandertals were ancestral to modern Western Europeans –Current prevailing view: H. erectus split into two groups One group was ancestral to Neandertals Another group was ancestral to anatomically modern humans (AMHs) –AMHs evolved in Africa, Asia, Central Europe, or the Middle East, then colonized Western Europe and displaced Neandertals after 40,000 B.P.

© 2007 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All right reserved. CHAPTER 6 The First Humans Neandertals and modern humans –Alternative view: Neandertals were ancestral to modern Europeans Evidence: fossils from sites in Western and Central Europe (e.g., Mladeč, l’Hortus, and Vindija) exhibit both Neandertal robustness and modern features –Fossils from Skhūl and Qafzeh in Israel Suggest that archaic H. sapiens was evolving directly into AMHs in the Middle East more than 50,000 years before Neandertals disappeared Implication: Neandertals and AMHs overlapped in time, rather than being ancestor and descendant

© 2007 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All right reserved. CHAPTER 6 The First Humans Homo sapiens sapiens (AMHs) –Most scholars believe AMHs evolved from an archaic H. sapiens ancestor in Africa and deny that Neandertals were ancestral to AMHs in Western Europe and the Middle East –According to this view, AMHs spread out from Africa In Western Europe, they replaced or interbred with the Neandertals

© 2007 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All right reserved. CHAPTER 6 The First Humans “Out of Africa” hypothesis –Study of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) lineages Everyone alive today has mtDNA descended from a woman (“Eve”) who lived in sub-Saharan Africa around 200,000 B.P. Eve’s descendants left Africa no more than 135,000 B.P., displacing Neandertals in Western Europe and colonizing the rest of the world –Other evidence for African origin of AMHs: Three anatomically modern skulls dated to 154, ,000 B.P. found in Ethiopia Fossils and tools found at several South African sites Neandertals coexisted with AMHs in the Middle East for thousands of years

© 2007 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All right reserved. CHAPTER 6 The First Humans Technological advances –Mousterian (Middle Paleolithic) technology Generally associated with Neandertals Sophisticated technique – Levallois Special-purpose tools made from flakes chipped off prepared stone core –Upper Paleolithic tool-making traditions Associated with early H. sapiens sapiens Emphasized blade tools More efficient than Mousterian techniques Some composite and bone tools

© 2007 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All right reserved. CHAPTER 6 The First Humans Technological advances –Increasing technological differentiation, specialization, and efficiency – allowed humans to adapt to a wider range of environments

© 2007 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All right reserved. CHAPTER 6 The First Humans Glacial retreat –Retreat of ice sheet in northern Europe (17,000-12,000 B.P.) –Tundra and steppe vegetation replaced by shrubs, forests –Reindeer and other large game replaced by more solitary animals –Southwestern Europe – economies became less specialized Humans began to exploit a wider range of plant and animal life Broad-spectrum revolution

© 2007 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All right reserved. CHAPTER 6 The First Humans Colonization of the Americas –Bering land bridge (Beringia) exposed during periods of glacial advance –Gradual migration of big-game hunters from northeast Asia into North America –Southward migration via unglaciated corridors –Clovis points – used by Paleoindians to hunt large game in North America (12,000 to 11,000 B.P.) –Monte Verde site, Chile Dated to 12,000 B.P. First migration of humans into the Americas may have occurred as early as 18,000 B.P.