scholarly journals Middle Pleistocene fire use: The first signal of widespread cultural diffusion in human evolution

2021 ◽  
Vol 118 (31) ◽  
pp. e2101108118
Author(s):  
Katharine MacDonald ◽  
Fulco Scherjon ◽  
Eva van Veen ◽  
Krist Vaesen ◽  
Wil Roebroeks
Keyword(s):  
Human Evolution ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Homo Sapiens ◽  
Middle Stone Age ◽  
Middle Pleistocene ◽  
Spatiotemporal Pattern ◽  
Similar Time ◽  
Cultural Behavior ◽  
Fire Use ◽  
Cultural Diffusion

Control of fire is one of the most important technological innovations within the evolution of humankind. The archaeological signal of fire use becomes very visible from around 400,000 y ago onward. Interestingly, this occurs at a geologically similar time over major parts of the Old World, in Africa, as well as in western Eurasia, and in different subpopulations of the wider hominin metapopulation. We interpret this spatiotemporal pattern as the result of cultural diffusion, and as representing the earliest clear-cut case of widespread cultural change resulting from diffusion in human evolution. This fire-use pattern is followed slightly later by a similar spatiotemporal distribution of Levallois technology, at the beginning of the African Middle Stone Age and the western Eurasian Middle Paleolithic. These archaeological data, as well as studies of ancient genomes, lead us to hypothesize that at the latest by 400,000 y ago, hominin subpopulations encountered one another often enough and were sufficiently tolerant toward one another to transmit ideas and techniques over large regions within relatively short time periods. Furthermore, it is likely that the large-scale social networks necessary to transmit complicated skills were also in place. Most importantly, this suggests a form of cultural behavior significantly more similar to that of extant Homo sapiens than to our great ape relatives.

scholarly journals The origin and evolution of Homo sapiens

2016 ◽  
Vol 371 (1698) ◽  
pp. 20150237 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chris Stringer
Keyword(s):  
Human Evolution ◽  
Late Pleistocene ◽  
Fossil Record ◽  
Homo Sapiens ◽  
Species Recognition ◽  
Genetic Data ◽  
Middle Stone Age ◽  
Middle Pleistocene ◽  
Last Common Ancestor ◽  
The Impact

If we restrict the use of Homo sapiens in the fossil record to specimens which share a significant number of derived features in the skeleton with extant H. sapiens , the origin of our species would be placed in the African late middle Pleistocene, based on fossils such as Omo Kibish 1, Herto 1 and 2, and the Levantine material from Skhul and Qafzeh. However, genetic data suggest that we and our sister species Homo neanderthalensis shared a last common ancestor in the middle Pleistocene approximately 400–700 ka, which is at least 200 000 years earlier than the species origin indicated from the fossils already mentioned. Thus, it is likely that the African fossil record will document early members of the sapiens lineage showing only some of the derived features of late members of the lineage. On that basis, I argue that human fossils such as those from Jebel Irhoud, Florisbad, Eliye Springs and Omo Kibish 2 do represent early members of the species, but variation across the African later middle Pleistocene/early Middle Stone Age fossils shows that there was not a simple linear progression towards later sapiens morphology, and there was chronological overlap between different ‘archaic’ and ‘modern’ morphs. Even in the late Pleistocene within and outside Africa, we find H. sapiens specimens which are clearly outside the range of Holocene members of the species, showing the complexity of recent human evolution. The impact on species recognition of late Pleistocene gene flow between the lineages of modern humans, Neanderthals and Denisovans is also discussed, and finally, I reconsider the nature of the middle Pleistocene ancestor of these lineages, based on recent morphological and genetic data. This article is part of the themed issue ‘Major transitions in human evolution’.

scholarly journals Increased ecological resource variability during a critical transition in hominin evolution

2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (43) ◽  
pp. eabc8975
Author(s):  
Richard Potts ◽  
René Dommain ◽  
Jessica W. Moerman ◽  
Anna K. Behrensmeyer ◽  
Alan L. Deino ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
Homo Sapiens ◽  
Plant Cover ◽  
Middle Stone Age ◽  
Resource Base ◽  
Ecological Resources ◽  
Ecological Flexibility ◽  
Ecological Changes ◽  
Social Innovations ◽  
Resource Variability

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.

scholarly journals The Stone Age Archaeology of West Africa

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eleanor Scerri
Keyword(s):  
West Africa ◽  
Homo Sapiens ◽  
Middle Stone Age ◽  
West African ◽  
Middle Pleistocene ◽  
Wild Food ◽  
Stone Age ◽  
Population Movements ◽  
Early 21St Century ◽  
Ecological Zones

In the early 21st century, understanding West Africa’s Stone Age past has increasingly transcended its colonial legacy to become central to research on human origins. Part of this process has included shedding the methodologies and nomenclatures of narrative approaches to focus on more quantified, scientific descriptions of artifact variability and context. Together with a growing number of chronometric age estimates and environmental information, understanding the West African Stone Age is contributing evolutionary and demographic insights relevant to the entire continent. Undated Acheulean artifacts are abundant across the region, attesting to the presence of archaic Homo. The emerging chronometric record of the Middle Stone Age (MSA) indicates that core and flake technologies have been present in West Africa since at least the Middle Pleistocene (~780–126 thousand years ago or ka) and that they persisted until the Terminal Pleistocene/Holocene boundary (~12ka)—the youngest examples of such technology anywhere in Africa. Although the presence of MSA populations in forests remains an open question, technological differences may correlate with various ecological zones. Later Stone Age (LSA) populations evidence significant technological diversification, including both microlithic and macrolithic traditions. The limited biological evidence also demonstrates that at least some of these populations manifested a unique mixture of modern and archaic morphological features, drawing West Africa into debates about possible admixture events between late-surviving archaic populations and Homo sapiens. As in other regions of Africa, it is possible that population movements throughout the Stone Age were influenced by ecological bridges and barriers. West Africa evidences a number of refugia and ecological bottlenecks that may have played such a role in human prehistory in the region. By the end of the Stone Age, West African groups became increasingly sedentary, engaging in the construction of durable monuments and intensifying wild food exploitation.

scholarly journals Gold Miners on the Trail of the Earliest Humans in Eastern Saharan Africa. Investigating the Acheulean and Middle Stone Age in Sudanese Nubia

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-10
Author(s):  
Mirosław Masojć ◽  
Ahmed Nassr ◽  
Ju Yong Kim ◽  
Maciej Ehlert ◽  
Grzegorz Michalec ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Human Activity ◽  
Gold Mining ◽  
Homo Sapiens ◽  
Eastern Desert ◽  
Middle Stone Age ◽  
Homo Erectus ◽  
Middle Pleistocene ◽  
Stone Age ◽  
Preliminary Results ◽  
Gold Miners

Abstract This research note presents evidence for the oldest Middle Pleistocene Eastern Saharan human activity from the area referred to as the Eastern Desert Atbara River (EDAR), Sudan, which is currently threatened by gold mining. Preliminary results of multifaceted analyses indicate the activity of Homo sapiens during MIS 5 as well as Homo erectus during MIS 7–11 or earlier.

The Early Middle Stone Age in South Africa

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarah Wurz
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Homo Sapiens ◽  
Cutting Tools ◽  
Complex Problem ◽  
Modern Human ◽  
Middle Stone Age ◽  
Middle Pleistocene ◽  
Stone Age ◽  
Fossil Evidence ◽  
Core Technology

The Early Middle Stone Age (EMSA) from South Africa occurred, broadly, between 300,000 and 130,000 years ago. This is a crucial phase in the history of Homo sapiens, as genetic and fossil evidence increasingly indicate that the roots of Homo sapiens reach back to this time. The fossil evidence from South Africa from this period is sparse, but the c. 260,000-year-old Homo helmei partial skull from Florisbad is especially significant in understanding modern human origins. A detailed chronological and regional framework for the EMSA is still in progress, but on the available evidence, the earliest EMSA occupations seem to be centered in the interior and northern regions. Transitional entities such as the Fauresmith and Sangoan and the first EMSA without large cutting tools, from Florisbad, are found in these areas. In the EMSA, biface technology as well as bipolar, discoidal, blade, and Levallois technologies were used to manufacture a wide variety of blanks, some of which were retouched into an array of tool types. Before lithic types such as hand-axes and bifacial points can be used as diagnostic criteria to define, for example, the Fauresmith and Pietersburg, further extended technological analyses are needed to determine their production sequences and context. Prepared core or Levallois technology occur frequently, but not always, in the EMSA. Prepared core technology entails careful planning to shape stone nodules geometrically prior to knapping the preformed blanks. EMSA hunters used Levallois and other pointed flakes as armatures in hafted thrusting spears. Levallois and composite tool technology reflect complex problem solving and hierarchical organizational cognitive capabilities. These competencies are also evident in early pigment processing. The clear footprint of the EMSA on the South African landscape indicates that several human groups populated this region during the Middle Pleistocene. It is highly likely that such groups were linked across Africa and that they collectively developed into Homo sapiens.

Long-distance stone transport and pigment use in the earliest Middle Stone Age

Science ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 360 (6384) ◽  
pp. 90-94 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alison S. Brooks ◽  
John E. Yellen ◽  
Richard Potts ◽  
Anna K. Behrensmeyer ◽  
Alan L. Deino ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Homo Sapiens ◽  
Middle Stone Age ◽  
Stone Tool ◽  
Middle Pleistocene ◽  
Stone Age ◽  
Red Pigment ◽  
Associated Fauna ◽  
Long Distance ◽  
Tool Materials ◽  
Uranium Series

Previous research suggests that the complex symbolic, technological, and socioeconomic behaviors that typifyHomo sapienshad 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.

scholarly journals New Excavations at Umhlatuzana Rockshelter, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa: a Stratigraphic and Taphonomic Evaluation

2020 ◽  
Vol 37 (4) ◽  
pp. 551-578
Author(s):  
Irini Sifogeorgaki ◽  
Victor Klinkenberg ◽  
Irene Esteban ◽  
May Murungi ◽  
Andrew S. Carr ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
Homo Sapiens ◽  
Stable Carbon Isotope ◽  
Middle Stone Age ◽  
Site Formation ◽  
Site Formation Processes ◽  
Stone Age ◽  
Later Stone Age ◽  
Sediment Movement ◽  
And Cluster Analysis

AbstractUmhlatuzana rockshelter has an occupation sequence spanning the last 70,000 years. It is one of the few sites with deposits covering the Middle to Later Stone Age transition (~40,000–30,000 years BP) in southern Africa. Comprehending the site’s depositional history and occupation sequence is thus important for the broader understanding of the development of Homo sapiens’ behavior. The rockshelter was first excavated in the 1980s by Jonathan Kaplan. He suggested that the integrity of the late Middle Stone Age and Later Stone Age sediments was compromised by large-scale sediment movement. In 2018, we initiated a high-resolution geoarchaeological study of the site to clarify the site formation processes. Here, we present the results of the excavation and propose a revised stratigraphic division of the Pleistocene sequence based on field observations, sedimentological (particle size) analyses, and cluster analysis. The taphonomy of the site is assessed through phytolith and geochemical (pH, loss on ignition, stable carbon isotope) analyses. The results indicate a consistent sedimentological environment characterized by in situ weathering. The analysis of the piece-plotted finds demonstrates semihorizontal layering of archaeologically dense zones and more sterile ones. There was no indication of large-scale postdepositional sediment movement. We show that the low-density archaeological horizons in the upper part of the Pleistocene sequence are best explained by the changing patterns of sedimentation rate.

Hominin transition to Upper Pliocene

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Francisco J. Ayala ◽  
Camilo J. Cela-Conde
Keyword(s):  
Brain Development ◽  
Late Pleistocene ◽  
Technological Progress ◽  
Homo Sapiens ◽  
Middle Pleistocene ◽  
Evolutionary Significance ◽  
Australopithecus Afarensis ◽  
Phylogenetic Significance ◽  
Homo Neanderthalensis ◽  
Surprising Discovery

This chapter analyzes the transition of the hominins from the Middle Pleistocene to the Late Pleistocene. Two alternative models are explored, the “Multiregional Hypothesis” (MH) and the “Replacement Hypothesis,” and how each model evaluates the existing relationships between the taxa Homo neanderthalensis and Homo sapiens. Next is the investigation of the transitional (or “archaic,” if this grade is taken into account) exemplars found in Europe, Africa, and Asia and their evolutionary significance. In particular, the comparison between H. erectus and H. sapiens in China and Java is investigated, as the main foundation of the MH. The chapter ends with the surprising discovery of Homo floresiensis and its description and interpretations concerning its taxonomic and phylogenetic significance. The correlation between brain development and technological progress is at odds with the attribution of perforators, microblades, and fishing hooks to a hominin with a small cranial volume, similar to that of Australopithecus afarensis.

scholarly journals Dynamic variations in salinity and potassium grade of a potassium-rich brine deposit in Lop Nor basin, China

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Lichun Ma ◽  
Kai Wang ◽  
Yu Zhang ◽  
Qingfeng Tang ◽  
Hui Yan
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
Sustainable Use ◽  
Potassium Sulfate ◽  
Middle Pleistocene ◽  
Underground Brine ◽  
Average Decrease ◽  
Rational Development ◽  
Mining History ◽  
Before And After ◽  
Lop Nor

AbstractThe Quaternary Lop Nor playa is the largest production base of potassium sulfate in the world. It has a mining history of more than 10 years, and its share in the Chinese potassium sulfate market is about 50% to-date. In this basin, the high-salinity potassium-rich brines are mainly contained in Middle Pleistocene–Holocene glauberite strata. Based on the monitoring of the underground brine table and geochemical analysis, this study reveals variations in the underground brine table and potassium-bearing grade before and after large-scale mining in the Lop Nor potash deposit. The results showed that the underground brine table and potassium sulfate grade decreased by varying degrees over sub-mineral areas after large-scale mining. The underground brine table declined by 8.5 m, on average, in the Luobei depression, by 6.4 m in the Tenglong platform and by 1.9 m in the Xinqing platform. However, the potassium-bearing grade showed the different trend. The Tenglong platform had the largest decline with average decreases in layers W1, W2 and W3 of 18.2%, 13.0% and 24.8%, respectively. In the Xinqing platform, the average decrease in layersW2 and W3 were 17.4% and 16.0% respectively. The Luobei depression decreases were relatively small (W1, W2 and W3 decreased 4.3%, 4.2% and 3.1%, respectively). This research provides a theoretical basis for the rational development and sustainable use of the potassium-rich brines in the Lop Nor basin.

scholarly journals Directional changes in Levallois core technologies between Eastern Africa, Arabia, and the Levant during MIS 5

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
James Blinkhorn ◽  
Huw S. Groucutt ◽  
Eleanor M. L. Scerri ◽  
Michael D. Petraglia ◽  
Simon Blockley
Keyword(s):  
Homo Sapiens ◽  
Environmental Parameters ◽  
Detailed Comparison ◽  
Eastern Africa ◽  
Middle Pleistocene ◽  
Reduction Activity ◽  
Core Technology ◽  
Geographic Expansion ◽  
First Time ◽  
Mis 5

AbstractMarine Isotope Stage (MIS) 5, ~ 130 to 71 thousand years ago, was a key period for the geographic expansion of Homo sapiens, including engagement with new landscapes within Africa and dispersal into Asia. Occupation of the Levant by Homo sapiens in MIS 5 is well established, while recent research has documented complementary evidence in Arabia. Here, we undertake the first detailed comparison of Levallois core technology from eastern Africa, Arabia, and the Levant during MIS 5, including multiple sites associated with Homo sapiens fossils. We employ quantitative comparisons of individual artefacts that provides a detailed appraisal of Levallois reduction activity in MIS 5, thereby enabling assessment of intra- and inter-assemblage variability for the first time. Our results demonstrate a pattern of geographically structured variability embedded within a shared focus on centripetal Levallois reduction schemes and overlapping core morphologies. We reveal directional changes in core shaping and flake production from eastern Africa to Arabia and the Levant that are independent of differences in geographic or environmental parameters. These results are consistent with a common cultural inheritance between these regions, potentially stemming from a shared late Middle Pleistocene source in eastern Africa.

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