The last Neanderthal
• Emerged about 300,000 ybp most likely from
Homo heidelbergensis
• Cold adapted bodies; short stocky 20% heavier
than modern humans of same stature.
• Larger brains, but possibly smaller frontal and
parietal lobes.
Hunting, Toolmaking
• Close in kills, not projectiles
• Injury patterns similar to rodeo
riders
• Smaller ranges, little evidence of
raw material exchange
• Levallois technique
• Mousterian tools: hafting
Social life
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Smaller, more local groups
Less organized camps, more temporary
Less organized hearths
Abundance of ochre, other oxides
Chatelperronian controversy
No sexual division of labor?
Emergence of Homo sapiens
First anatomically modern humans
(behaviorally?)
Omo Kibish Ethiopia 190,000
Herto 160,000 ybp (defleshing)
Homo sapiens more derived than
Neanderthals.
Human developmental pattern (necessary for
cultural learning):
altricial infants-early weaning age-extended
juvenile period-adolescent growth spurt
Two stages:
Homo erectus (Turkana Boy 1.6
mybp)
Transition to Homo sapiens (300200ybp)
Middle Paleolithic or Middle Stone Age: 250,000 –
35,000 ybp
• Emergence of two new species (possibly both descended from Homo
heidelbergensis: Homo neanderthalensis (Neanderthals in Europe), and
Homo sapiens sapiens (AMH in Africa).
• Levant event: First (failed) excursion of AMH out of Africa
Upper Paleolithic
• Aurignacian tool kit
• MCPH1: 37,000 ybp
AMH: Expansion out of Africa (about 60,000
ybp)
• Genetic evidence:
• Interbreeding
with Neanderthals
60,000ybp in
Levant – on to
Europe and Asia
• About 50,000ybp
same with
Denisovians in
East Asia -- on to
Melanesia (Denis:
pinky and one tooth!)
Modern Cognition: Cave art, abstract artifacts,
religious/symbolic imagery
McBrearty & Brooks (2000) The revolution that wasn’t JHE, 39, 453–563
Effects of EMW
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Increased phonological storage capacity
Recursion
Cross-modal thinking
Long range planning (subjunctive “what if”
thinking)
• Episodic buffer capacity (mental time travel)
Archeological evidence for EWM
• Alloying metals: 5,000 ybp
• Traps and weirs: hard evidence: 9-12,000 ybp; implications
20,-25,000 ybp.
• Harpoons: 17,000ybp
• Managed foraging: burning, Niah Cave, Borneo 30,000ybp
• Colonization: Australia 40,000? 30,000 New Guinea
• Abstract artifacts: Hohlen-Stadel; Lartet Plaque; 30,000ybp
Blombos beads
• Why not evidence for EWM
• Social categorization based on expanded parietal
cortex, but not abstract, and not combination of
categories (as is true with H-S figurine).