Unit 2 – African and Maya Civilizations
(September 2013) – Yasser Musa
notes in Grey
Key themes and ideas in yellow
Important info in ligh blue
Notes from the Powerpoint
1. Our species is an African one: Africa is where we first evolved, and where we have spent the
majority of our time on Earth. The earliest fossils of recognizably modern Homo sapiens
appear in the fossil record at Omo Kibish in Ethiopia, around 200,000 years ago.
2. Geneticists have come to the same conclusion by looking at Africa's vast genetic diversity,
which could only have arisen as DNA mutated over millennia.
3. There's less consensus about the routes our ancestors took in their journey out of Africa and
around the planet.
4. Early migrations stalled but left behind evidence such as a human skull from 92,000 years
ago at Qafzeh, Israel.
5. Those people may have taken a northern route through the Nile Valley into the Middle East.
But other emigrants who left Africa tens of thousands of years later could also have taken a
different route: across the southern end of the Red Sea.
Migrations - Study the National Geographic Human Migration Route
maphttps://genographic.nationalgeographic.com/human-journey/
The First Steps Out of Africa. BAB EL MANDEB STRAIT . Researchers identify the Bab-el-Mandeb
Strait on the Red Sea as the most likely departure point for the first human exodus from Africa. This narrow
stretch of water between the Horn of Africa and the Arabian Peninsula offered the shortest route to new
continents. The strait would actually have been even less of a stretch than it is today (12 miles), because when
Homo sapiens made the crossing some 60,000 to 70,000 years ago, sea levels were 230 feet lower due to the
onset of ice age conditions that locked up water in vast polar ice caps. With some kind of raft, and perhaps a
few islands to hop between, such a crossing isn’t difficult to imagine.
SWARTKRANS, SOUTH AFRICA The First Fire-Starters.The use of controlled fire is an early beacon
on the journey of man, and the beacon was lit long before modern humans evolved. Sites that provide the
oldest good evidence for the controlled use of fire include Swartkrans in South Africa, where the burned bone
leftovers of prehistoric meals date to between 1 million and 1.5 million years ago.
The finds make Homo erectus—our direct human ancestor—the earliest known fire-starter. This milestone
opened up greater culinary opportunities by enabling humans to consume meats and tough plants more easily.
The life-changing impact of fire use is revealed in the dramatically reduced chewing muscles of humans
compared with those of earlier hominins. Cooking by fire upped the intake of energy-rich meat and plants
required to fuel the calorie-hungry growth of the modern human brain.
Beringia Bridge to North America. How and when humans first came to the Americas has long been a topic
of intense debate. Theories to explain the colonization of the New World—the last great habitable landmass to
be occupied by humans—focus on the Bering land bridge, or Beringia, which emerged between Siberia and
Alaska during the last ice age. Rising from seas drained by the water-locking effect of spreading ice caps,
Beringia is said to have given passage to the forebearers of Native Americans anywhere between 40,000 and
15,000 years ago.
NOTES FROM THE TEXT BOOK =
Ancient Africa (Chapter 12/ notes – pages 199 – 201)
Introduction
-
Ancestors of all humanity evolved in Africa
Fossil bones and stone tools found in East Africa
Footprints made by early hominids crossing a mudpan 3.6 million years ago in Tanzania
Scientists regard Africa as the birthplace of humanity (fossils – Ethiopia, Kenya and
Tanzania)
Environmental circumstances = upright stance and bipedal gait (sharp stones more efficient
than teeth – food)
Stone tool invention led to cognitive developments – attention, perception, memory,
reasoning, judgement, imagining, thinking and speech
Evolution of the BRAIN = human adaptive strategy (made environment easier to CONTROL)
GENETIC + PALEONTOLOGICAL AND LINGUISTIC evidence = anatomically , modern
humans existed only in Africa until about 100,000 years ago
MIGRATION – out of the continent = AFRICA
AFRICA: The BIRTHPLACE of humanity (page 201)
-
Tools dating 3 millon to .5 million years ago
Evolution of humans – Africa is the birthplace of humans who now live in different parts of the
world
Africa = place where early varieties of hominids similar in many ways and also different
emerged
Climate - Africa unique due to its dominant tropical vegetation
Olduvai Gorge (Tanzania) – Homo Erectus (early human) constructed small structures out of
trees
Tool making 1st emerged in East African Savannah
Early Humans 1st scavenged before learning to hunt and gather
Over time they developed (a) use of language (b) making fire (c) construct shelter and (d)
live in small communities
Biological and Cultural Diversity (pages 202 -204)
-
Human biological and cultural evolution continued both inside and outside of Africa due to a
process of natural selection and adaptation
How do we explain the emergence of Aficoid, Caucasoid and Mongloid.
Caucasoid evolution occurred in the ice age environment (Europe)
Neanderthaloids – inhabited Europe 50,000 years ago (died out completely)
Chapter 3 - NOTES– Maya Pre-History (pages 13-18) – we
return in detail to Ancient Maya Civilization in 2nd semester
Introduction
-
This history of the world has been about migration
Took ten thousand years to set down the foundation for complex societies
All their achievements were done within the Americas and independent of outside
intervention
From Africa and Asia to the Americas
-
The Bering Strait bridge connecting Asia with the Americas is the most popular theory to
explain how the Americas was first inhabited
Coastal Migration Theory – people made their way to North America by boat along the
Pacific coast
DNA evidence = indigenous people of the Americas arrived here – 15,000-20,000 years ago
Called Paleo(old)Indians = small bands of people speaking different languages
Paleo-Indians (15,000 – 7000 BC)
-
Common ancestry = Chinese and Mongolians
Crossed the Beringia landbridge = 620 miles long
Following herds of – large animals / mastodons, mammoths, reindeers, horses, and bison
Hunting knife = the CLOVIS
Paleo-Indians in Belize (hunters and foragers)
-
Evidence found north of Ladyville (spear points dated 9000 -7000bc) used for butchering
animals and scraping skins
Teeth of an extinct mastodon discovered in Bullet Tree Falls
The Archaic People (7,000 – 2500 BC)
-
Earth got warmer/ big animals started to die out so a new way to get food had to be
developed
Scientific experiments included – agriculture, domestication of maize (corn) and manioc the
processing of maize
Technology – ceramic pottery = a major achievement
Archaic People in Belize
-
Campsites dating from 9000 to 2000 BCE (eastern and northern areas of Belize)
Evidence = projectile points, blades, choppers, scrapers, adze (for digging), milling stones,
pestles and net sinkers found
Colha = archaeological site in Orange Walk (high quality CHERT stone)
Colha was a stone tool factory
THE REAL EVE NOTES (video clip)(summary Sept 2013):
1. 150,000 yrs ago, Earth was in an Ice Age w/Humans Struggling to Survive
(oceans 400 feet lower & Africa was a desert)
a. Modern humans struggled & lived as hunters/gatherers, fighting the growing deserts
in Africa.
b. Hunting required cooperation, planning, & communication.
2. Genetic tracking Unlocking 7000 generations of history.
a. Archaeology tells us much, but not enough.
b. “Genetic Eve” had the mitochondrial DNA that survived (common ancestor to all
humans (incl. Africa)
c. Mitochondrial DNA
d. Rebecca Cahn was key scientist - oldest DNA markers all came from Africa (ev. That
humans originated in Africa)
a. Mitochondrial Eve is different than biblical “Eve.” Not one woman who started
humans, but her DNA line survived, as all other dropped out, making her the
“common genetic ancestor” for all humans alive today.”
3. Earlier humans migrated out of Africa, but didn’t survive.
a. Peking Man& earlier human species migrated across Europe/Asia, but they all died
out/went extinct.
b. Some homo sapiens (modern humans) left through Northern route, but they died
during extreme droughts approx. 110,000 years ago
4. “Out of Africa” Story & Evidence (80K yrs BP).
a. Another ice age caused growing African deserts – environmental pressure on
humans.
b. “Eve’s” granddaughters @ 80,000 BP (70,000 years after Eve) were in an E. Africa
band of humans surviving along the Red Sea on beachcombing.
c. Fossilized Reef on Red Sea (evidence of 1st oyster bar)
Showed human tools & eaten oysters, scallops, & clam shells. First proof of coastal
beachcombing.
d. Human Pop. Eventually dropped to 10,000 (critically endangered)
e. Lower sea levels (150 ft. lower than today) makes foot crossing of the Red Sea at the
“Gates of Grief” possible. Dotted w/islands & reefs (approx. 10 mi. total). Would
have crossed into Yemen, to the “rest of the world.” (Southern Route)
5. Reduction of Mitochondrial DNA lines to 1.
a. First “Out of Africa” community numbered approx. 250 (minimum viable)
b. This original group has physically diversified to make up EVERY non-African
racial/ethnic group on the planet.
6. What Makes us Different?
a. Skin Color Explanation = As humans migrate farther from the Equator (less UV), skin
de-pigments to allow for vitamin D production.It is estimated that theentire process
(black to white (or vice versa)) takes approx. 20,000 years.
7. EUROPE: 50,000 yrs. ago first homo sapiens to Europe
a. Neanderthal interactions
1. Short & stocky conserves heat. Not dull. Brains were as big as HS.
2. Genes have died out if interbred w/HS.
3. Otherwise, Neanderthal & Homo Sapiens (HS) competed for territory
in Europe, & Neanderthals lost.
4. Neanderthals used tools for 100’sK years, w/very little innovation.
5. Neanderthals were extinct within 10,000 years of HS contact.
Reason may have been slow to adapt & compete w/more resourceful
HS.