Transcript 10.9 MB - Human Evolution and Prehistory, Second Canadian Edition

Human Evolution
and PREHISTORY
Chapter Ten:
HOMO SAPIENS AND THE
UPPER PALEOLITHIC
Link to the Canadian Association for Physical Anthropology
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When Did Anatomically Modern Forms Of Homo
sapiens Appear?
What Was The Culture Of Upper Paleolithic
Peoples Like?
What Were The Consequences Of The New
Upper Paleolithic Technologies?
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CRO-MAGNON
European modern Homo
sapiens after 36,000 years
ago are referred to as CroMagnons, after the first
fossil forms discovered in
Cro-Magnon rock shelter at
Les Eyzies, France in 1868
© David Brill
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UPPER PALEOLITHIC PEOPLES:
THE FIRST MODERN HUMANS
Cro-Magnons and Upper Paleolithic people
from Africa and Asia are now referred to as
anatomically modern
Brain size has reduced by 10% from archaic H.
sapiens but with a reduction in body size – we
now have the modern brain/body size ratio
Technological improvements meant less
selective pressure on massive teeth and bodies
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Homo floresiensis
Flores Island, Indonesia,
about 18,000 ya
Archaeological evidence
to 95,000 ya
Cranial capacity 380 cc,
1 m. tall
Flake tools, use of fire,
hunters
[insert illustration p. 10-5A]
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Homo floresiensis
One explanation for this unique member of the genus
Homo:
They evolved from larger hominins, in isolation on the
island; size reduction is a trend found in other island
species of animals
A second explanation:
They were modern humans who suffered from
microcephaly, and early populations were never
isolated
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Upper Paleolithic Tools –
Innovations in Techniques
1. Blade technique of core
preparation to produce
long, parallel-sided flint
flakes, twice as long as
they were wide
[insert illustration p. 10-6A]
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Upper Paleolithic Tools –
Innovations in Techniques
2. Pressure flaking technique to make
small flakes by pressing with a bone,
antler or wooden tool, which allows for
greater control than by striking
3. Blade-core technique for producing
small tools efficiently (Northeast Asia)
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Upper Paleolithic Tools -Innovations
1. Microliths, tiny blades used to make bone
and stone composite tools; widespread in
northern regions during last glaciation
2. Burins, with chisel-like edges for working
with bone, horn, antler, and ivory
3. Spear thrower, for increasing the velocity
of the spear when thrown
4. Knotted nets, for net hunting of hare,
fox, e.g.
5.
Bow and arrow
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Upper Paleolithic Tools
Changes in hunting and
weaponry resulted in
people becoming weaker
and less robust, with
reduced nutritional
requirements
[insert illustration p. 10-10A]
Wide variety of food
resources were exploited,
e.g. plants, fish, birds
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Upper Paleolithic Art
Precursors found in the Middle
Paleolithic, e.g. use of ochre,
carving, possible musical
instrument
In southwest Asia, figure of
volcanic tuff, 250,000 years old
Earliest evidence of figurative
pictures goes back to 32,000 ya in
Europe and likely equally as old
in Africa
Humans and animals in
association with geometric and
other abstract motifs
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Art and Shamanism
Scenes with visions seen in a state of trance
Distortions of figures represent sensations felt during
a trance
Geometric designs depict entoptic phenomena,
pulsating designs seen as one enters the trance
Animals in this art are most often not eaten, but are
powerful beasts in the surrounding habitat
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Rock Art
Goes back at least 45,000 years
ago in Australia, entirely
entoptic
In Europe, the earliest art took
the form of sculpture and
engravings of animals such as
reindeer, horses, bears, and also
of humans
Venus figures, emphasizing
female traits, have been found
from Europe to as far east as
Siberia
[insert illustration p. 10-16B]
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Cave Paintings
On the walls of caves in
southern France and
northern Spain, dating from
about 32,000 years ago
Accurate portrayals of Ice
Age mammals
Humans and scenes of events
are not common
Often in hard-to-get-at places
where lamps were needed
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ORIGINAL STUDY
Paleolithic Paint Job
[insert illustration p. 10-14B]
The “spitting” technique of
rock painting is used today
by the aboriginal peoples of
Australia
Michel Lorblanchet sees
evidence for this technique
in the Upper Paleolithic cave
of Pech Merle, 18,400 ya
He uses charcoal ground
with limestone (wet with his
saliva) and red ochre
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Hypotheses Accounting for Cave Art
Art for art’s sake
[insert illustration p. 10-16A]
Ceremonial purposes
Success in the hunt
To promote fertility in the herd
Initiation rites for youngsters
Depictions of trance experiences, painted after
the fact
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Ornamentation
Necklaces of animal teeth,
shells, bone beads, etc.
Rings, bracelets, anklets
Clothing adorned with beads
Probably much art was
executed in perishable
materials, e.g. wood carvings,
bark paintings
Courtesy of Mesa Community College, Anthropology
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OTHER ASPECTS OF UPPER
PALEOLITHIC CULTURE
Construction of huts with
floors
Tailored clothing
Long-distance trade, e.g.
seashells traded several
hundred kilometres from
the source
[Insert illustration p. 10-19B]
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THE SPREAD OF UPPER
PALEOLITHIC PEOPLES
Expansion into previously uninhabited regions of the world
Siberia by 42,000 years ago
Australia and New Guinea, by 60,000 years ago, which
involved a 90-kilometre sea voyage
[insert illustration p. 10-19C]
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Australia
Earliest sophisticated rock art
Ritualistic burial of the dead, 40,000 to 60,000
years ago
Tools that are very similar to those of the
Eurasian Middle Paleolithic
Medicinal use of ochre for healing and
cleansing
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The Americas – First Peoples
Archaeological evidence suggests that the
roots of aboriginal populations are in
northeast Asia, but the biological affiliations
are unclear
The few preserved crania older than 8,000
years do not resemble recent aboriginal
populations
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First Peoples – Physical Evidence
Before 10,000 years ago people migrating
from East Africa would have been of the
generalized Asian type (Sundadont), who lived
in Southeast Asia during the Paleolithic
After 10,000 years ago, the specialized,
modern Asian type (Sinadont) arose in
Northeast Asia, and migrating populations
would have been of this type
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First Peoples – Molecular Evidence
1. mtDNA analysis indicates five haplotypes (a set of
closely linked genes inherited as a unit) in all
populations of First Nations ancestry
2. Several migrations with considerable mixing of
populations? OR, only migration?
3. Analysis of mtDNA mutations indicates the initial
emergence of modern First Nations ancestral lines
to be between 14,000 and 11,000 years ago
(assuming a constant mutation rate)
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First Peoples – Archaeological and
Linguistic Evidence
People were settled in south Chile
(Monte Verde) by 12,500 years
ago, and in Pennsylvania
(Meadowcroft) as early as 20,000
years ago
Based on the time it takes for
languages to spread from their
homelands, it has been suggested
that the first people arrived in
North America by 20,000 years
ago
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First Peoples – Technology
It has long been thought that
people travelled over the Bering
Strait land bridge (Beringia)
from Northeast Asia into
Alaska
[insert illustration p. 10-23A]
A blade-making tradition
dating to 40,000 years ago in
Northeast Asia is historically
related to the Northwest
Microblade Tradition in North
America, dating from 11,000 to
6,000 years ago
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Fluted Point Tradition
The Clovis Tradition was
used by the Paleoindians
for hunting big game
such as mammoth,
caribou and extinct forms
of bison, about 12,000
years ago, throughout
North and Central
America
[insert illustration p. 10-24A]
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Route into the Americas
Glaciers blocked movement
southward in North America
until 13,000 years ago
People were living on
Beringia (Siberia, Alaska,
Yukon Territory) by 15,000
years ago, as evidenced by the
discovery of Bluefish Caves,
Yukon
However, people were already
living south of the glaciers by
this time
[insert illustration p. 10-23A]
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Other Routes into the Americas
If people were living in Monte Verde by 12,500 years
ago, could they have arrived by boat from Japan and
down the coast of the Americas?
The fluted point was made nowhere else in the world,
but bears similarities to the technology of the Upper
Paleolithic of France and Spain
It has been hypothesized that Upper Paleolithic
people cold have made it to the Grand Banks, due to
lowered sea levels, and migrated westward
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Clovis Sites
Debert site, Nova Scotia,
was occupied about
10,200 years ago to take
advantage of migrating
caribou
It appears that these
Clovis peoples migrated
from the south, e.g. Vail
site in Maine
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Other Early Sites
Kilgii Gwaay, Ellen Island, British
Columbia, 9,500 to 9,400 years ago
Coastal food resources (no
salmon)
Stone flakes and bone tools
Charlie Lake Cave, B.C., 10,500 to
9,500 years ago
Earliest tools were based on
fluted point tradition
Later tools were microblades
Courtesy of Dr. Jon Driver
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THE AMERICAS
The current picture is that through
a combination of many migrations
over time and gene flow, we see the
characteristics of the First Nations
peoples of today
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Kennewick Man – who owns him?
9,300-year-old skeletal remains
found in Washington state
Conflict between the Confederated
Tribes of the Umatilla Indian
Reservation, a group of scientists
(including anthropologists), and the
U.S. government
In 2002, courts ruled in favour of
the scientists who wished to study
him in order to learn such
information as the biological
linkages to modern First Nations
[insert illustration p. 10-26A]
peoples
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WHERE DID UPPER PALEOLITHIC
PEOPLE COME FROM
Transition from archaic to
anatomically modern H. sapiens took
place in one specific population
OR
Several populations living in Africa,
Asia and even Europe 100,000 to
40,000 ya evolved together
Mix of features in Upper Paleolithic
populations does not fit with complete
extinction of the older population [insert illustration p. 10-26A]
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Old World
Since Homo erectus cultural adaptation had
become the means of handling environmental
stress and, thus. the major thrust in the
evolution of Homo has been toward improved
cognitive capacity, or “brain power”
Gene flow was occurring from east to west,
and vice-versa, and has contributed to the low
level of genetic differentiation among modern
humans
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MAJOR PALEOLITHIC TRENDS
1. More sophisticated, varied and specialized tool kits
2. Population growth and spread, enabled by
technology
3. Loss of heavy physical features
4. Development of conceptual thought
5. Amount of sexual dimorphism greatly reduced
6. Importance of and proficiency in hunting
7. Marked regionalism
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NEXT TIME:
Cultivation and Domestication
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