Name:
Anthropology From Lucy to Us Unit: “Human Genius and Creativity” Web Assignment
New discoveries arise constantly in the field of paleoanthropology. Here are some easy-to-read,
easy-to-understand, and easy to respond to articles that add intriguing information to our current
examination of early humans. Please be advised that although we may not/have not discussed this,
you will be held accountable for the information in this “outside of class” activity (ie. some of it will
be on the test)
1. Go to ScientificAmerican.com/mar2013/creativity
2. Click on the following links and fill in the information needed
“Humans Tamed Fire One Million Years ago”
1. The long-held belief was that humans created fire around _______________________________ years ago, but
that figure has now been shown to be around ___________________________________ years ago in
__________________________________ Cave in _________________________________. It is believed that these fires
were made from materials consisting of ___________________ & __________________ instead of ________________.
This discovery helps support the “cooking hypothesis” of ________________________________________________.
“Human Ancestors Made Deadly Stone-Tipped Spears 500,000 Years Ago”
2. The finding that human ancestors made hafted multi-component tools __________________ years ago by
the ancestor common to both modern humans and Neandertal (homo __________________________________)_
pushes back the date when paleoanthropologists thought this originally occurred by
___________________ years. Although no wooden shafts remain today to examine, paleoanthropologists
believe that stone-tipped spears existed 500,000 years ago because marks ______________________________
____________________________________________________________ and __________________________________________________
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This follows the revelation that the _________________________________________________ is also thought to be
developed much earlier than originally thought.
“Oldest Arrowheads Hint At How Modern Humans Overtook Neandertals”
3. “ . . .anatomically modern humans didn’t begin thinking like us until much later. And when the
creative spark did eventually ignite, the ______________________________________ ,
only _______________________________________________________________
taking their __________________________________________________________.
Archaeologists have often focused on _________________________________from body ornaments, such as
beads, to . . . ________________________________ on cave walls in their search for clues to the origin of the
modern mind, because this indicates whoever made it had ______________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________.
Making these early projectile points was made more difficult because early homo sapiens had to first
find and transport the stone and ___________________________________________________________________________
before chipping it into a tool. Complex projectile points gave an advantage to modern humans over
Neandertals because ___________________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________.
“When the Sea Saved Humanity “
4. The climate was mild and food was plentiful for humans until around _____________________ years ago
when our planet entered Marine Isotope Stage 6 which lasted until around _______________________ years
ago. While the planet was in the grip of this icy regime, the number of people plummeted
perilously—from more than ____________________ breeding individuals to
just_________________. (Click on to the interactive link “When the Sea Saved Humanity” to
find the rest of this info. You will have to go through the slides). Humans were able to survive
these devastating conditions at places like Pinnacle Point because these locations offered humans
these two types of specific food sources. One of these sources were protein rich vegetation such as
seaweed along with (slide 3) ___________________ offering high __________________
_______________________________and ______________________ along with
(slide 5) ____________________________________.
“Oldest Cave Paintings May Be Creation of Neandertals, Not Modern Humans”
5. Alistair Pike of Bristol University in England and João Zilhão of the University of Barcelona have
posited that Neandertals created some of the art found in the caves of ___________________________________.
In four or five sentences, what is the problem with their claim according to other scientists and what
will have to happen in order to prove undisputedly that Neandertal were cave painters?
Problem:__________________________________________________________________________________________________________
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What has to happen:
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