Ch3 The Hunters 01 31 2014 Introduction The Rise of Homo Sapiens Modern Humans take the stage toward the end of the Pleistocene Homo sapiens took stage and became fully modern since middle of Paleolithic had behaviors such as burial of the dead cannibalism and nurturing of the weak and elderly By end of Paleolithic own species Homo sapiens sapiens created art invented many new tools made tailored clothing started counting and spread to almost all parts of the world Evolution of Homo sapiens most important development of later Pleistocene Conventional wisdom today generally regards the Neanderthals as a rather specialized form that evolved from Homo erectus in the colder more isolated Earliest fully modern humans FMH have been found in East and South Africa earliest example found in Kibish in southwestern Ethiopia 195 000 areas of Europe years ago Project at Cape of Good Hope at southern tip of Africa has provided remarkable new discoveries regarding our early FMH ancestors Evidence from caves around Pinnacle Point not in the form of fossil skeletons but rather regards the behavior of early Homo sapiens Several finds small stone tools red ochre as a pigment the earliest known collection and consumption of shellfish point to new kinds of food new tools that probably required hafting and the use of powered mineral as a pigment or preservative o Firsts in archaeological record and are likely to point to beginnings of creative explosion witnessed more fully after 50 000 years ago Beginning around 50 000 years ago FMH replaced Neanderthals in southwestern Asian and then rest of Asian and Europe mechanism for replacement is subject to vigorous debate among archaeologists and physical anthropologists Question of whether FMH evolved in only Africa and spread from there or if they evolved in many places through the flow of genetic material between different human populations o Known as the Out of Africa theory and the Multiregional theory o Genetic and fossil evidence make it seem as thought FMH appeared first in Africa sometime around 200 000 years ago Expanding groups of modern humans created a number of remarkable innovations in human culture human culture changed more in period shortly after 50 000 years ago than it had during the previous several million years Innovations include Shaping of various materials such as bone wood shell and ivory Transport or exchange of raw materials such as flint and sea shells into tools over long distances Great diversity and specialization in artifacts First Art This period is known as the Upper Paleolithic 40 000 10 000 years ago Innovations represent a major change in organization of the human brain an advance that may be related to the emergence of complex language skills Other changes as well new line of evidence concerning use of clothing in Paleolithic comes from surprising source genetic code of lice Two kinds of lice head lice live in hair on head and body lice live in the clothing not body body lice fairly recent species Use mutation rates in modern lice genes body lice first appeared between 72 000 and 42 000 years ago o Humans must have been wearing clothing at that time to provide a habitat for the new species Homo sapiens to probably wear clothes against harsh winters opportunity for skin to become light again based of assumption that skin was at first dark to protect against the sun light skin trait fairly recent only last 10 000 years Concept The Origins of Language 01 31 2014 Why we first spoke may be more important than when Origin of human speech and language one of most fascinating aspects of human adaption and evolution yet perhaps most difficult to explain Natural interest in when and where ability to communicate with spoken word originated evolved gradually from utterances and cries of early primates to its modern forms Studies of physical remains of early humans provide substantial information about language use by early hominins Discovery of hyoid bone in a Neanderthal burial from Kebara Cave in Israel showed no difference than ours hyoid bone holds muscles of tongue to throat suggests that speaking abilities would have also been similar Endocasts on inside of skull provide only direct evidence of brain organization cerebrum upper portion of the brain is primarily concerned with complexities of behavior may have increased over course of evolution in primate ancestors o In modern humans front of brain is much larger than back and sides are well developed in contrast with brains of chimps and other apes two sides of brain operate cooperatively to direct and control different aspects of behavior and activities Division in organization and operation in brain is called lateralization essential for language because processing of word strings much occur in close proximity in nerve cells of brain o Pattern of lateralization in fossil endocasts goes back well into Pleistocene and probably to australopithecines as well Ralph Holloway of Colombia University Dean Falk State University of New York pointed out that Broca s area region of brain involved in control of language is larger in Homo habilis than in contemporaries australopithecines of East Africa Research on human use of language has recently turned to the hypoglossal nerve which controls the movement of the tongue began to appear around 500 000 year ago with larger brained members of the genus Homo and it may be at that point that most sophisticated language became possible Other fossil evidence indicates that the necessary mouth and throat anatomy for a spoken language was not in place until 150 000 years ago Still not clear when modern language abilities emerged or whether the process was gradual or sudden Many of activities of early Pleistocene ancestors would have required some form of communication food sharing social organization and other distinctly human characteristics imply a system of verbal expression abilities must have evolved and expanded through time as both brainpower permitted and need required Major unresolved issue in development of language is shift from primitive language like that of small children to a syntactic one with rules and structure May be related in part to further changes in the human brain some linguists suggested that all of the world s languages evolved from common mother tongue and few would even suggest a date of 100 000 years ago for common language One of the more striking developments in human prehistory was the creative explosion that