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Doug M
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Study sheds light on Neanderthal-Homo sapiens transition

Still trying to find evidence of Neanderthal and human mixture in Europe.... Of course this is related to all the recent news from Africa.
quote:

AUSTRALIAN NATIONAL UNIVERSITY—Archaeologists at The Australian National University (ANU) and the University of Sydney have provided a window into one of the most exciting periods in human history—the transition between Neanderthals and modern humans.

An archaeological dig in a cave in the Moravian region of the Czech Republic has provided a timeline of evidence from 10 sedimentary layers spanning 28,000 to 50,000 years ago. This is the period when our modern human ancestors first arrived in Europe.

The dig, in a cave near the Czech border with Austria and around 150kms north of Vienna, has unearthed over 20,000 animal bones as well as stone tools, weapons and an engraved bone bead that is the oldest of its kind in Central Europe.

ANU archaeologist Dr Duncan Wright said the project was so important because it gives some of the earliest evidence of modern human activity in the region. This was a period when humans were moving substantial distances and bringing with them portable art objects.

"In the early layers the items we've found are locally made flakes, possibly used by small communities living and hunting in the vicinity to kill animals or prepare food, but around 40,000 years ago we start to see objects coming from long distances away," Dr Wright said.

"Dating from this same time we unearthed a bead made from mammal bone. This is the oldest portable art object of its type found anywhere in central Europe and provides evidence of social signalling, quite possibly used as a necklace to mark the identity of the wearer.

"So between these two periods, we've either seen a change in behaviour and human movement or possibly even a change in species."

Archaeologist Ladislav Nejman of the University of Sydney said one of the biggest questions is the beginnings of human exploration of this landscape by Homo sapiens who arrived in this area for the first time. "We've found that somewhere between 40-48,000 years ago people became highly mobile," Dr Nejman said.

"Instead of moving short distances near the cave where they lived, they were walking for hundreds of kilometres quite often. We know that because we found various artefacts where the raw material comes from 100-200 kilometres away.

http://popular-archaeology.com/issue/june-2013/article/study-sheds-light-on-neanderthal-homo-sapiens-transition

The key reason why this is a hot topic of investigation is because some still feel that "modern" human behavior first emerged in Europe...


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Archaeology marches away from the "march of progress"
quote:

New discoveries are demolishing one of science’s most iconic images: that of man evolving from a knuckle-dragging ape through progressively upright stages to become a trim, spear-carrying hunter. Scientists have long complained that this image is misleading, but recent developments paint a completely different picture of our backstory -- one that, unfortunately, doesn’t lend itself well to novelty T-shirts.

Scientists are finding that different aspects of human physiology and behavior emerged in different groups living in different parts of Africa over the last 2 million years. Until the last 40,000 years or so, the world accommodated multiple versions of humanity at the same time. Some met. Some mingled.

The evidence is in the fossil records. In April, scientists announced that a small-brained, primitive-looking version of humanity called Homo naledi lived relatively recently -- between 236,000 and 335,000 years ago. Then last week, scientists announced a newly dated cache of fossils that pushes back the origin of our own species, Homo sapiens, to 300,000 years ago -- making us 100,000 years older than previously thought. Taken together, the two findings show that these different species overlapped in time.

https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2017-06-16/archaeology-marches-away-from-the-march-of-progress

Of course the "march of Progress" implies that European males are the epitome of human progress.
And this ties into the neanderthal mixture theory in Europe wherein some folks have long believed some "special" events happened that triggered "modern" human behavior (first use of fire, art, etc). Ultimately leading to the theories of back migrations to Africa carrying these "modern" behaviors and forming cultures like Ancient Egypt....

It is all tied together.

Early use of fire is another example:

On Human Fire Use, Anthropologists Miss the Point
quote:

If you follow popular and scholarly writing on anything to do with evolution, the massive gaps in what these people say, what they allow themselves to see, are unsurprising. At the NPR blog 13.7, anthropologist Barbara J. King highlights a supplement published by the journal Current Anthropology on humans and our use of fire. Guess what gets left out?

If you’re been around the block with evolutionists, you’d likely predict: This will largely be about the timing of our primordial fire use. There will be comparisons with chimps. Nothing will be said about the remarkable set of circumstances – from chemical, to anatomical, to planetary – that make our use of fire possible in the first place and that biologist Michael Denton identifies in his work. There will be nothing about how fire, the key to the rise of civilization and modern technology, gives every evidence of being intended, carefully planned, for our discovery.

Judging from Dr. King’s post, we find this prediction to be correct. She is fascinated by questions of timing and comparisons with chimps. We learn that archaeological evidence can be misleading because scientists might confuse deliberate fire use with natural fires. Chimps who live in an area with frequent fires show an impressive ability to maneuver around it, suggesting insights about our evolutionary past. There’s nothing about the startling evidence of design that Dr. Denton identifies.

On the timing question:

While acknowledging the possibility that the site of Gesher Benot Ya’akov in Israel indicates the first repeated fire use by our ancestors at around 800,000 years ago, Sandgathe concludes that “the earliest unquestionable examples” of continuous, long-term fire use come later, between 350,000 and 200,000 at the cave sites of Hayonim, Qesem, and Tabun, also in Israel. There, hearths and burned lithics occur in such abundance as to reasonably preclude other explanations. Sandgathe notes, however, that “continuous” doesn’t necessarily mean “habitual,” that is, “there may still be decades, centuries, or in some cases even millennia between fire-use events.”

We can, Sandgathe says, take the date of 400,000 years ago as a kind of milestone in our ancestors’ use of fire. But even then, fire use wasn’t anything like a key behavioral adaptation for a long while…

https://evolutionnews.org/2017/06/on-human-use-of-fire-anthropologists-miss-the-point/
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Ish Geber
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Cosigned on the analysis.
Posts: 22234 | From: האם אינכם כילדי הכרית אלי בני ישראל | Registered: Nov 2010  |  IP: Logged | Report this post to a Moderator
Doug M
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Thanks.

You know "popular" science shows are purely made for a European audience which is why they just ignore most of what science actually says. Yet supposedly Afrocentrics are the ones causing confusion.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1uNIID5R4pM

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