anthro ch 7

Symbolic Life of Neandertals

At least seventeen sites in Europe, South Africa, and Southwest Asia include Middle Paleolithic burials. • Shanidar Cave, Iraq • Kebara Cave, Israel

physical traits of Neandertals

Extremely muscular people - Their large noses and teeth projected forward. - They had bony brow ridges over their eyes. - On the back of their skull, there was a bunlike bony mass for attachment of powerful neck muscles

Language Gene

FOXP2 gene found on chromosome 7 was identified through the analysis of a family in which members have severe language problems. • Identification of this gene allows researchers to compare its structure to that found in other mammalian species. • FOXP2 in apes differ from that found in humans.

Homo erectus in Western Europe

Fossil evidence indicates the presence of the genus Homo on the Eurasian landmass at 1.8 mya., In western Europe, fossil evidence starts at 1.2 mya., Sierra de Atapuerca region in Spain, and nearby Grand Dolina have yielded fragments of four individuals.

Homo erectus in Indonesia

Fossils found in Java reach about 40 individuals., There was a long continuity of H. erectus fossils in Southeast Asia from about 500,000-700,000 years ago., In the past lower sea levels resulted in a continuous landmass between most of Indonesia and the Asian continent.

Homo habilis

Found in East Africa and in South Africa. From the neck down, the skeleton of Homo habilis differs little from Australopithecus. Earliest representative of the genus Homo-the human line.

tripling

From 2.5 mya, the genus Homo began a course of brain expansion that continued until about 200,000 years ago. Almost ______ in size.

lateralization

Handedness is associated with ___________ of brain functions and ____________ is associated with language.

missing link

In 1887, before the discovery of Australopithecus and early Homo in Africa _________ between humans and apes.

Mousterian tradition

In addition to the Levalloisian traditions, the Middle Paleolithic also included the development of the......

Trinil skull cap

In the 1950s, the _______________ and similar specimens from Indonesia and China were assigned to the species Homo erectus because they were more human than apelike

"Pit of the Bones" (Sima de los Huesos)

In the Sierra de Atapuerca in northern Spain, between 205,000 and 325,000 years ago, the remains of 28 individuals of both sexes, were dumped into a deep cave shaft known today as......

Oldowan Tools

Microscopic wear patterns show that these flakes were used for cutting meat, reeds, sedges, and grasses and for cutting and scraping wood. Small indentations on their surfaces suggest the leftover cores were transformed into choppers, for breaking open bones, and they may have been used to defend the user.

Homo heidelbergensis

Named for the Mauer jaw, this name is now used as a designation for all European fossils from about 500,000 years ago until the appearance of the Neandertals.

physical traits of Neandertals

Occipital bun (large projection at the back of the skull) • Supraorbital torus (browridge) • Low forehead • Mid-facial prognathism • Barrel-shaped rib cage and robust limbs suggest cold climate adaptation

Language Origins

Oldowan toolmakers, like modern humans, were overwhelmingly right-handed. In making tools, they gripped the core in the left hand, striking flakes off with the right

Speech and Language in the Middle Paleolithic

Paleoneurologists working from endocranial casts agreed that Neandertals had the neural development necessary for spoken language. - The size of the hypoglossal canal in Neandertals is like that of modern humans and unlike that of apes. - An expanded thoracic vertebral canal suggests the increased breath control required for speech.

tertiary scavengers

earliest member of the genus homo, They were third in line to get something from a carcass after a lion or leopard managed to kill.-By the time H. habilis could get near the carcass of a dead animal, only bones remained. -They used tools to break open the long bones to get at the rich marrow inside. (The storing of stone tools, and raw materials for making tools, attests to their ability to plan ahead.)

genus homo

human line

Mousterian and Aurignacian Traditions

Population expansion into previously uninhabited colder regions was made possible through cultural adaptations to a colder climate. • Energy rich animal fat in the diets of cold climate meat eaters provides hunters with the extra energy needed for hunting and keeping the body warm. An abundance of associated animal bones showing cut marks include wild cattle, horses, mammoths, and woolly rhinoceroses. • Neandertals were not opportunistic hunters, rather organized. • Some Mousterian sites contain evidence of long production sequences, reshaping, and discarding of tools.

precise hand control

Regions of the human brain that control language lie adjacent to regions involved in _________

Homo ergaster

Some paleoanthropologists feel the large-brained successors to Homo habilis from Africa and Asia are too different to be placed in the same species. They use __________ for the African specimens, saving Homo erectus for the Asian fossils.

Homo ergaster

Some splitters would prefer to classify the African finds as another alternative species while maintain the Asian finds as homo erectus

Upper Paleolithic

The ______________ is categorized by a clear artistic expression preserved in sculptures, paintings, and engravings.

Lower Paleolithic (Old Stone Age)

The appearance of these tools mark the start of the __________ or Old Stone Age. spans approximately 200,000 years ago- 2.6 million years ago.

Burial

The position of the body and the careful removal of the skull indicate that the fossil from Kebara Cave in Israel was deliberately buried there about 60,000 years ago.

Acheulean Tool Tradition

The tool-making tradition of Homo erectus in Africa, Europe, and Southwest Asia in which hand-axes were developed from the earlier Oldowan chopper., The earliest hand-axes, from East Africa are about 1.6 million years old., Those found in Europe are no older than about 500,000 years.

Homo antecessor

This name was coined by splitters for the earliest Homo fossils from western Europe discovered in Spain; antecessor is Latin for "explorer" or "pioneer."

Acheulean Hand-Axe (Bi-Face)

To fabricate this tool from flint, the toolmaker imposed a standardized arbitrary form on the naturally occurring raw material.

Mousterian Tradition

Tool-making tradition of the Neandertals and their contemporaries of Europe, western Asia, and northern Africa from 40,000-125,000 years ago. Named after the Neandertal site of Le Moustier, France

The First Stone Tool Maker

Tools discovered by Louis and Mary Leaky in Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania dating back to 2 mya ago. (Pleistocene epoch) In association with Homo habilis

Man the Hunter hypothesis

Until the 1960s, most anthropologists doing fieldwork among foragers stressed the role of male hunters and underreported female gatherers resulting in the....

Supraorbital torus

browridge

Controlled fire use

allowed early humans to move successfully into regions where winter temperatures regularly dropped to temperate climate levels.

tool making

appears to have been associated with changes in the brain necessary for language development.

Neandertals

are a distinct group within the genus Homo inhabiting Europe and southwestern Asia from approximately 30,000- 125,000 years ago

Acheulean tools

are associated with H. erectus, During this part of the Lower Paleolithic tools began to diversify (Hand axes, cleaver, points, scrapers, borers, and other types of small tools.)

physical traits of homo erectus

occipital or nuchal torus, supraorbital torus, Postorbital constriction, Lower facial prognathism, Thick cranial bones

Occipital or Nuchal torus

projection at the back of the skull

percussion method

sharp edged flakes were obtained by a stone striking another stone.

marrow

the fatty tissue inside of long bones where blood cells are produced.

Oldowan tools

the percussion method

Hafting

the practice of fastening a small stone to the handles of wood. A major technological advance appearing in the archaeological record about the same time as the Levalloisian technique.

Levalloisian technique

tool-making technique by which three or four long triangular flakes were detached from a specially prepared core, Developed by humans transitioning from Homo erectus to Homo sapiens

Homo habilis

"handy man" The first fossil members of the genus Homo appearing 2.5 mya, with larger brains and smaller faces than australopithecines

Homo erectus

"upright human", A species within the genus Homo first appearing after 2 million years ago until about 300,000 years ago first in Africa than spread throughout the Old World.

Middle Paleolithic

( 200,000 years ago - 45,000 years ago) is the middle part of the Old Stone Age characterized by the development of the Mousterian tradition of tool making and the earlier Levalloisian tradition.

homo erectus enters Eurasia

1.8 mya, Two well preserved skulls, one with a partial face., Cranial features are consistent with other erectus finds. Dmanisi, Georgia

Physical Traits of Homo erectus

Cranial Capacity is about 600-1225 cc with an average of 1,000 cc., Cranium exhibits a low vault, head is long and narrow, massive brow ridges, marked constriction, sloping forehead, receding chin, large capable jaw muscles., The face, teeth, and jaws are still smaller than those of H. habilis, These hominids were tall, on average standing about 1.79 m (5 feet, 10 inches), The sexual dimorphism between males and females was almost the same as seen in modern Homo sapiens with males being slightly larger than females.

310-530 cc

Cranial capacity (cc) of large plant eating robust australopithecines ranged from

Hunting

Evidence that H. erectus developed the ability to organize a hunt for large animals. Dismembered remains of elephants, horses, red deer, wild oxen, and rhinoceroses. Remains closely associated with nearby tools. Not just butchering, but also killing.

environmental factors

Division of labor by food-foraging societies is not defined through biologically based sex differences, it is influenced by cultural and....

Pithecanthropus erectus

Dubois named the find of homo erectus from Greek pithekos meaning "ape," and anthropus meaning "man."

percussion method

Earliest stone tools manufactured by using the

meat

Eating mostly_______ easily fulfills the energy requirements of brain expansion

chimpanzees and bonobos

Evidence from _____&______ casts doubt on the notion of a sex-based division of labor in human evolutionary history

Dmanisi, Georgia

Evidence of the spread of Homo erectus from Africa is well preserved at the fossil site of __________,__________

775-1225 cc.

Homo erectus cc

Nariokotome Boy (Olduvai Gorge)

Homo erectus in Africa, Olduvai Gorge, Most complete skeleton ever found of Homo erectus/ergaster, 1.6 mya, died at age 12., 5 foot 3 inches, Probable that he would have been 6 foot in adulthood.

580-752 cc

Homo habilis from east Africa's cc ranged from

Culture of Neandertals

Made a variety of tools for special purposes. • Made objects for symbolic purposes. • Engaged in ceremonial activities. • Cared for the old and disabled

biped

The femur, or thighbone, was human in shape, and its proportions indicated the homo erectus was a

The Discovery of Homo erectus

The flat skull, with its low forehead and enormous brow ridges, appeared to be like that of an ape; but it possessed a cranial capacity much larger than an ape's, though small by modern human standards.

The Hypoglossal Canal

The nerve that passes through the ____________ controls tongue movement, and complex tongue movements are involved in spoken language. (Members of the genus Homo after about 500,000 years ago have an enlarged _______)

Homo erectus Fossils from Zhoukoudian

The original Homo erectus fossils from Zhoukoudian had been packed for shipment to the United States for safekeeping during World War II, but they disappeared., Excellent casts of the specimens and detailed anatomical descriptions were made before the fossils were lost during the war.

"Pit of the Bones" (Sima de los Huesos)

The other animal bones in the pit with humans raises the possibility that early humans used the site as a dump. Alternatively, the treatment of the dead may have involved ritual activity that preceded burial, a practice that became common after 100,000 years ago.

Old World tropics

With H. erectus came the first evidence of ancestral populations living outside of the........

Dubois

________ found fossilized remains consisting of a skull cap, a few teeth, and a thighbone at Trinil, on the island of Java

meat-eating

____________ also confers more leisure time to explore and manipulate their environment

The Genus Homo

a comprised of a group of various species that are characterized by increased brain size compared to earlier species and appeared around 2.5 mya in the fossil record.

One of the first Neandertals

was found in a cave in the Neander Valley near Düsseldorf, Germany, in 1856— before scientific theories to account for human evolution had gained acceptance. Examination of the fossil skull, a few ribs, and limb bones revealed that the individual was a human being, but it did not look "normal." • Evidence indicates Neandertals were nowhere near as brutish and apelike as originally portrayed. • Some scholars now see them as the archaic H. sapiens of Europe and Southwest Asia, ancestral to the more derived, anatomically modern populations of Europe and Southwest Asia of the last 30,000 years.