Human Prehistory (3.3 million years BC – 3500 BC)

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Re: Human Prehistory (3.3 million years BC – 3500 BC)

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weatheriscool
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Re: Human Prehistory (3.3 million years BC – 3500 BC)

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Ancient handprints on cave walls in Spain found to include children's hands
https://phys.org/news/2022-03-ancient-h ... spain.html
by Bob Yirka , Phys.org

A trio of researchers from Universidad de Cantabria and the University of Cambridge has found evidence suggesting that up to a quarter of all ancient handprints found on cave walls in Spain were made using children's hands. In their paper published in the Journal of Archaeological Science, Verónica Fernández-Navarro, Edgard Camarós and Diego Garate describe their study of ancient hand prints found in five Spanish caves and what they believe their findings suggest about ancient hand prints on cave walls in general.

Over the past several decades, hand prints on cave walls have come to represent ancient cave art as much as drawings of animals. Scientists studying the handprints have generally agreed that they, along with the animal drawings, were all likely done by males in a given group. In this new effort, the researchers have found evidence suggesting that up to a quarter of all cave hand prints were made using children's hands.

The researchers began their work by noting that there is very little mention of the impact or activities of children in ancient societies. That led them to wonder about some of the art on the walls of caves across Europe and in Spain in particular—and that led them to take a closer look at the hand prints.
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Re: Human Prehistory (3.3 million years BC – 3500 BC)

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Tools reveal patterns of Neandertal extinction in the Iberian Peninsula
https://phys.org/news/2022-03-tools-rev ... ction.html
by Public Library of Science

Neandertal populations in the Iberian Peninsula were experiencing local extinction and replacement even before Homo sapiens arrived, according to a study published March 30, 2022 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Joseba Rios-Garaizar of the Archaeological Museum of Bilbao, Spain and colleagues.

Neandertals disappeared around 40,000 years ago, but many details of their extinction remain unclear. To elucidate the situation, it is useful to explore how Neandertal populations were changing during their final millennia. In this study, researchers examined the distribution of a tool complex known as the Châtelperronian, which is thought to be unique to certain populations of Neandertals in France and the Iberian Peninsula.

The researchers examined over 5,000 remains of Châtelperronian tools from a site called Aranbaltza II in Barrika, in the Northern Iberian Peninsula, dating to around 45,500 years ago. Comparing this site with other nearby Neandertal tool sites, they document that the Châtelperronian system does not overlap in time with older Neandertal technologies in this region, suggesting that Châtelperronian tools were not developed from earlier Iberian technology, but instead originated elsewhere before migrating into the region. They also found that Châtelperronian tools appear earlier than the first Homo sapiens tools in the Iberian Peninsula.
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Re: Human Prehistory (3.3 million years BC – 3500 BC)

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Mysterious, giant stone jars found in India
https://phys.org/news/2022-03-mysteriou ... india.html
by Australian National University

Mysterious giant jars that may have been used for burial rituals have been unearthed across four new sites in Assam, India. The discovery comes from a major collaboration involving researchers at The Australian National University (ANU).  

The 65 newly discovered sandstone jars vary in shape and decoration, with some tall and cylindrical, and others partly or fully buried in the ground. Similar jars, some of which span up to three meters high and two meters wide, have previously been uncovered in Laos and Indonesia.  

"We still don't know who made the giant jars or where they lived. It's all a bit of a mystery," ANU Ph.D. student Nicholas Skopal said.  

Another mystery is what the giant jars were used for. The researchers believe it is likely they were associated with mortuary practices.  

"There are stories from the Naga people, the current ethnic groups in north-east India, of finding the Assam jars filled with cremated remains, beads and other material artifacts," Mr. Skopal said. This theory aligns with findings from the other jar sites in countries including Laos, which are also tied to burial rituals.  

Initially, the aim of the new research was to survey the existing sites in Assam. However, as the researchers moved about the landscape they realized there was more to be uncovered. "At the start the team just went in to survey three large sites that hadn't been formally surveyed. From there grids were set up to explore the surrounding densely forested regions," Mr. Skopal said. "This is when we first started finding new jar sites. The team only searched a very limited area so there are likely to be a lot more out there, we just don't yet know where they are."  
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Re: Human Prehistory (3.3 million years BC – 3500 BC)

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Skeletal remains reveal grave health of Australian pioneer settlers
https://phys.org/news/2022-04-skeletal- ... alian.html
by Flinders University
In one of the first studies of its kind, Australian scientists have investigated the health and economic status of a group of migrant settlers to colonial South Australia from an examination of skeletal remains at the Anglican Parish of St Mary's in Adelaide.

The new research, published in reputed international publication PLOS ONE today, is the only bio-archaeological study examining evidence of changes in the teeth and bones of European settlers in the St Mary's-on-the-Sturt (Creek) area to gain new insights into the health and living conditions they faced in the new colony.

At the request of the parish, the long-running research commenced at St Mary's Cemetery 20 years ago when Flinders University archaeologists excavated a rear section of the cemetery which lacked any markers.

Based on follow-up studies by Flinders, University of Adelaide and international experts in bioanthropology, anatomy and dental development have now applied anatomical and micro-CT techniques to this unique archaeological sample.
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Re: Human Prehistory (3.3 million years BC – 3500 BC)

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Spruce trees' reconquest of Sweden after the last Ice Age took 10,000 years
https://phys.org/news/2022-04-spruce-tr ... n-ice.html
by Uppsala University
A new study from scientists at Uppsala University shows that it took more than 10 millennia from when the first spruces returned to Sweden after the glacial stage of the last Ice Age until the species became widespread. This sluggish rate of initial dispersal has surprised the researchers, since the spruce might have had good prospects of expanding its range.

The Norway spruce (Picea abies) Sweden's dominant species of tree today, was common even before Scandinavia's last Ice Age.

To date, accounts of its migration to Scandinavia have been based on spruce pollen in ancient lake sediments and peat deposits. These studies prompted the conclusion that spruce migrated from the northeast after the deglaciation (thawing of the ice sheet), reaching southern Sweden as late as during the past thousand years. Previously, too, researchers have found that it took a relatively long time for the spruce to make its comeback, recolonising and resuming its dominance in the forests of Scandinavia.
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Re: Human Prehistory (3.3 million years BC – 3500 BC)

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And remember my friend, future events such as these will affect you in the future
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Re: Human Prehistory (3.3 million years BC – 3500 BC)

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Not the world's first city, only the oldest yet discovered.
And remember my friend, future events such as these will affect you in the future
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Re: Human Prehistory (3.3 million years BC – 3500 BC)

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Rare fossil of ancient dog species discovered by paleontologists
https://phys.org/news/2022-05-rare-foss ... ecies.html
by Pam Kragen
Sometime around 14,000 years ago, the first humans crossed the Bering Strait to North America with canines, domesticated dogs they used for hunting, by their side.

But long before the canines arrived here, there were predatory doglike canid species who hunted the grasslands and forests of the Americas. A rare and nearly complete fossilized skeleton of one of these long-extinct species was recently discovered by paleontologists at the San Diego Natural History Museum.

This fossil belongs to a group of animals called Archeocyons, which means "ancient dog." It was embedded in two large chunks of sandstone and mudstone unearthed in 2019 from a construction project in the Otay Ranch area of San Diego County. The fossil dates to the late Oligocene epoch and is believed to be 24 million to 28 million years old.

While the fossilized remains are still awaiting further examination and identification by a canid researcher, its discovery has been a boon for the San Diego museum's scientists, including the curator of paleontology Tom Deméré, post-doctoral researcher Ashley Poust and curatorial assistant Amanda Linn.
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Re: Human Prehistory (3.3 million years BC – 3500 BC)

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Researchers Identify Ancient Bird Behind Giant Eggs from Down Under
May 25, 2022
(EurekAlert) A years-long research debate over which animal is the rightful mother of giant prehistoric eggs in Australia has been resolved. In a new study, University of Copenhagen researchers and their international colleagues demonstrated that they can only belong to the last of a unique duck-like line of megafauna known as the 'Demon Ducks of Doom'.

Imagine sharing your neighborhood with a two-meter tall, 200 kg bird with a massive beak. This was the case for Australia’s first human inhabitants some 65,000 years ago.

There, our ancestors lived alongside the last species of a now extinct duck-like bird family; Genyornis newtoni, last of the 'Demon Ducks of Doom'.

The flightless bird laid eggs the size of cantaloupe melons, seemingly to the delight of ancient humans, who most likely harvested and enjoyed them as an important protein source, according to a new study by UCPH researchers and an international team of colleagues. The study has just been published in the journal PNAS.*

The large eggs have been at the center of controversy since researchers first discovered the 50,000-year-old eggshell fragments 40 years ago. Until recently, it was not known whether the eggs actually belonged to the 'demon-duck' family, more formally known as dromornithids.
Read more here: https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/953939

*https://www.pnas.org/doi/full/10.1073/pnas.2109326119
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