Window on Humanity
Conrad Phillip Kottak
Third Edition
Chapter 6
The First Humans
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Human Family Tree
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Overview
 Evolution of Homo
 Early Homo
 H. erectus
 Archaic H. sapiens
 Neandertals
 Anatomically modern humans (AMH)
 Settling the Americas
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Early Homo
 Distinctive early Homo trends – exhibited by H. habilis and later
H. erectus:
 Major increases in brain size and complexity
 Increasingly elaborate tool making
 Greater reliance on hunting (in addition to gathering)
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H. rudolfenis and H. habilis
 KNM-ER 1470 – skull found at Koobi Fora, Kenya
 Large cranial capacity of the skull suggests it belonged to Homo, but its
molars are similar to those of hyperrobust australopithecines
 Dating the skull is problematic – either 1.8 or 2.4 m.y.a.
KNM-ER 1813
(H. Habilis)
What differences
do you see in the
skulls?
KNM-ER 1470
(H. Rudolfensis)
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Different theories about H. rudolfensis
 KNM-ER 1470 represents a species (H. rudolfensis) separate
from H. habilis


Rudolfensis was earlier than, ancestral to habilis
Rudolfensis and habilis lived at the same time
(from about 2.4 to 1.7 m.y.a.)
 Rudolfensis and habilis were simply male and female members of
the same species (H. habilis)
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Punctuated Equilibrium Model
 H. habilis was not very different from australopithecines in terms of
body size and form (H. habilis was very simliar to Lucy)
 Major and rapid change with the emergence of H. erectus (between
1.8 and 1.7-1.6 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 hominins
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Punctuated
Equilibrium Model
is the idea that
evolution involves
short periods of rapid
change interspersed
with longer periods
of relative stability
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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)
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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)
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Acheulian Tools
 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
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Hand Axes
Scrapers
Blades
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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
 Brain size was double that of
australopithecines, within the low range of
modern humans
 Study of chewing muscles and molars
indicate they were more dependent on
hunting
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 Lived in Rock Shelters and Caves
 Use of Fire
 Hearths found at various sites
 Fire allowed H. erectus to colonize a wider range of climates, provided
protection against predators, made cooking possible – less strain on
chewing
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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.
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Evolution and expansion of H. erectus
 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
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Archaic H. sapiens
 300,000? to 28,000 B.P.
 Include the earliest members of our species
 Neandertals (H. sapiens neanderthalensis) of Europe and the Middle East
 Neandertal-like contemporaries in Africa and Asia (130,000 to 28,000 B.P.)
 Brain size within the modern human range
Large jaw of Heidelberg man; transitional
hominin, between H. Erectus and archaic H.
Sapiens
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Ice age conditions in the northern
hemisphere during the Pleistocene
(persistent glaciers with tundra and
cold forests at lower elevations
farther south)
 Lived
 during the second and third glacials (ice ages)
 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
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Neandertals
 Discovered in Western and Central Europe and the
Middle East
 Archaic human fossils with Neandertal-like features
found in Africa and Asia
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Neandertal Adaptation
 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)
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Mousterian Tradition
Oldowan tradition core tool (chopper)
 The Mousterian Tradition was marked by the progressive
reduction in the use of large core tools, such as hand axes, as
specialized flake tools became more common.
Mousterian tradition unifacial hide scraper (left) and spear point (right)
(both were made from Levallois flakes)
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Mousterian tradition hand ax
Neandertals
 Became less robust through time
 Improving tool technology may have assumed some of the
burdens formerly placed on the anatomy
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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 around
50,000 B.P.
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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
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Homo sapiens sapiens (AMHs)
 Most scholars
 believe AMHs evolved from an archaic H. sapiens ancestor in
Africa
 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
 Colonized America
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“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 154,000-160,000 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
 Chinese Skulls http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y9zVEQCIiRs
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Technological advances
 Upper Paleolithic tool-making traditions
 Associated with early AMHs
 Emphasized blade tools
 More efficient than Mousterian techniques
 Some composite and bone tools
 Adapt to more environments
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 Click for video on Lascaux Prehistoric Cave Paintings
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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
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Settling the Americas
 Bering land bridge (Beringia) exposed during periods of glacial
advance (15,000 years ago)
 Gradual migration of big-game hunters from northeast Asia into
North America
 Southward migration via unglaciated corridors
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 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 13,500 B.P.
 First migration of humans
into the Americas may have occurred
as early as 18,000 B.P.
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