Human Prehistory (3.3 million years BC – 3500 BC)

[Yuli Ban]

[Yuli Ban]

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Fossils That "Clearly Foreshadow" Modern Humans are 30,000 Years Older Than We Thought
by Tara Yarlagadda
January 12, 2022

https://www.inverse.com/science/ancient-man-timeline

Introduction:

(Inverse) FIXING THE TIMELINE of human history has been one of archeology’s most exciting — and frustrating — endeavors. In part, that’s because scientists have limited fossil evidence to help them put a pin on when the earliest Homo sapiens arose in eastern Africa. But new archaeological methods let us re-examine existing fossils with a fresh perspective — leading to new discoveries. And this latest one completely defies what we thought we knew about the oldest humans.

THE DISCOVERY — The Omo I and Herto fossils, found in East Africa, are the oldest known Homo sapiens fossils yet discovered in the region — but a new study shows they are tens of thousands of years older than we thought. Older studies had dated the Omo I and Herto fossils to 197,000 years old and between 155,000 to 160,000 years old, respectively. They are, in fact, far older.

“The Omo I and Herto specimens are the oldest Homo Sapiens that have been found so far [in the region], so their discovery and their age are critical to understanding the emergence of our species,” Céline Vidal, lead author on the study and a volcanologist at Fitzwilliam College, tells Inverse.

Vidal and her team use ancient volcanic eruptions to date the human fossils. In a study published Wednesday in the journal Nature, they re-examine the Omo I and Herto fossils in Ethiopia. The findings push back the starting point for human history in eastern Africa by some 36,000 years.

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Earliest human remains in eastern Africa dated to more than 230,000 years ago
https://phys.org/news/2022-01-earliest- ... dated.html
by University of Cambridge

The age of the oldest fossils in eastern Africa widely recognized as representing our species, Homo sapiens, has long been uncertain. Now, dating of a massive volcanic eruption in Ethiopia reveals they are much older than previously thought.

The remains—known as Omo I—were found in Ethiopia in the late 1960s, and scientists have been attempting to date them precisely ever since, by using the chemical fingerprints of volcanic ash layers found above and below the sediments in which the fossils were found.

An international team of scientists, led by the University of Cambridge, has reassessed the age of the Omo I remains—and Homo sapiens as a species. Earlier attempts to date the fossils suggested they were less than 200,000 years old, but the new research shows they must be older than a colossal volcanic eruption that took place 230,000 years ago. The results are reported in the journal Nature.

The Omo I remains were found in the Omo Kibish Formation in southwestern Ethiopia, within the East African Rift valley. The region is an area of high volcanic activity, and a rich source of early human remains and artifacts such as stone tools. By dating the layers of volcanic ash above and below where archaeological and fossil materials are found, scientists identified Omo I as the earliest evidence of our species, Homo sapiens.

"Using these methods, the generally accepted age of the Omo fossils is under 200,000 years, but there's been a lot of uncertainty around this date," said Dr. Céline Vidal from Cambridge's Department of Geography, the paper's lead author. "The fossils were found in a sequence, below a thick layer of volcanic ash that nobody had managed to date with radiometric techniques because the ash is too fine-grained."

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New Research Suggests Modern Humans Lived in Neanderthal Territories in Europe 10,000 Years Earlier than Previously Thought
by Ludovic Slimak, Clément Zanolli, Jason E. Lewis, and Laure Metz

https://theconversation.com/new-researc ... ies-176648

Extract:

(The Conversation) Human origins researchers have generally agreed that between 300,000 and 40,000 years ago, Neanderthals and their ancestors occupied Europe. From time to time during that period, they had contact with modern humans in the Levant and parts of Asia. Then around 48,000 to 45,000 years ago, modern humans – essentially us – expanded throughout the rest of the world, and Neanderthals and all other archaic humans disappeared.

In the journal Science Advances, we describe our discovery of evidence that modern humans lived 54,000 years ago at Mandrin. That’s some 10 millennia earlier than our species was previously thought to be in Europe and over a thousand miles west (1,700 kilometers) from the next-oldest known site, in Bulgaria. And fascinatingly, Neanderthals appear to have used the cave both before and after the modern human occupation.

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Earliest evidence of ear surgery 5,300 years ago
https://phys.org/news/2022-02-earliest- ... years.html
by Bob Yirka , Phys.org

A team of several researchers from the University of Valladolid, in Spain and one from the Spanish National Research Council in Italy, has found evidence of the earliest ear surgery performed on a human being. In their paper published in the journal Scientific Reports, the group describes their study of a human skull found at the Dolmen of El Pendónis back in 2018 and what they learned from it.

Dolmen of El Pendónis is a dig site near Burgos, Spain. Prior research has shown that the site was once used by early people as a funerary chamber. Prior research has also shown that the site was used for approximately 800 years, between 3,800 and 3,000 BC.

In the summer of 2018, a skull was found at the site and was put into storage. More recently, the researchers with this new effort retrieved the skull and took a closer look at it. In so doing, they found it bore evidence of a type of cranial surgery meant to cure an ear ailment. They also found evidence showing that the patient, a woman between the ages of 35 and 50, had survived the surgery—at least for a few months. There was evidence of bone regrowth in the holes that had been bored through her skull. The skull was dated to 5,300 years ago, making it the earliest known example of ear surgery.

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Ancient DNA Reveals Surprises About How Early Africans Lived, Traveled and Interacted
February 23, 2022

https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/944328

Introduction:

(EurekAlert) A new analysis of human remains that were buried in African archaeological sites has produced the earliest DNA from the continent, telling a fascinating tale of how early humans lived, traveled and even found their significant others.

An interdisciplinary team of 44 researchers outlined its findings in "Ancient DNA reveals deep population structure in sub-Saharan African foragers." The paper was published today in Nature and reports findings from ancient DNA from six individuals buried in Malawi, Tanzania and Zambia who lived between 18,000 and 5,000 years ago.

“This more than doubles the antiquity of reported ancient DNA data from sub-Saharan Africa,” said David Reich, a professor at Harvard University and investigator at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute whose lab generated the data in the paper. “The study is particularly exciting as a truly equal collaboration of archaeologists and geneticists.”

The study also reanalyzed published data from 28 individuals buried at sites across the continent, generating new and improved data for 15 of them. The result was an unprecedented dataset of DNA from ancient African foragers — people who hunted, gathered or fished. Their genetic legacy is difficult to reconstruct from present-day people because of the many population movements and mixtures that have occurred in the last few thousand years.

Thanks to this data, the researchers were able to outline major demographic shifts that took place between about 80,000 and 20,000 years ago. As far back as about 50,000 years ago, people from different regions of the continent moved and settled in other areas and developed alliances and networks over longer distances to trade, share information and even find reproductive partners. This social network helped them survive and thrive, the researchers wrote.

[wjfox]

BDI researchers create largest ever human family tree

24 February 2022

https://www.bdi.ox.ac.uk/news/bdi-resea ... amily-tree

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Origin of the 30,000-year-old Venus of Willendorf discovered
https://phys.org/news/2022-02-year-old- ... ndorf.html
by University of Vienna

The almost 11-cm-high Venus figurine from Willendorf (Austria) is one of the most important examples of early art in Europe. It is made of a rock called oolite that is not found in or around Willendorf. A research team led by the anthropologist Gerhard Weber from the University of Vienna and the two geologists Alexander Lukeneder and Mathias Harzhauser as well as the prehistorian Walpurga Antl-Weiser from the Natural History Museum Vienna have now found out with the help of high-resolution tomographic images that the material from which the Venus was carved likely comes from northern Italy. This sheds new light on the remarkable mobility of the first modern humans south and north of the Alps. The results currently appear in Scientific Reports.

The Venus von Willendorf is not only special in terms of its design, but also in terms of its material. While other Venus figures are usually made of ivory or bone, sometimes also of different stones, oolite was used for the Lower Austrian Venus, which is unique for such cult objects. The figurine found in the Wachau in 1908 and on display in the Natural History Museum in Vienna has so far only been examined from the outside. Now, more than 100 years later, anthropologist Gerhard Weber from the University of Vienna has used a new method to examine its interior: micro-computed tomography. During several passes, the scientists obtained images with a resolution of up to 11.5 micrometers—a quality that is otherwise only seen under a microscope. The first insight gained is: "Venus does not look uniform at all on the inside. A special property that could be used to determine its origin," says the anthropologist.

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7,000-year-old grains hints at origin of Swiss pile dwellings
https://phys.org/news/2022-03-year-old- ... -pile.html
by University of Basel

No place have researchers found more Neolithic pile dwellings than around the Alps. It is a mystery, however, how this "building boom" came to be. Researchers at the University of Basel have now uncovered new clues and say that settlers at Lake Varese in northern Italy may have played a leading role.

When workers discovered the first pile-dwelling settlement on Lake Zurich in the mid-19th century, a whole new area of archaeological research was born. Since then, 111 pile-dwelling villages in the Alpine region have been made UNESCO World Heritage Sites, but it has so far been unclear where this unique construction method came from. Experts assumed until a few years ago that it was a local phenomenon.

Researchers led by Professor Ferran Antolín from the subject area of Integrative Prehistory and Archaeological Science (IPAS) at the University of Basel, however, have found new clues as to how pile-dwelling culture came to the areas north of the Alps. Prehistoric plant remains from a settlement from Lake Varese in northern Italy show the same composition as the crops from the oldest Swiss pile-dwelling settlements in Zurich and Egolzwil, Canton Lucerne. The researchers have reported their findings in the Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports.

[wjfox]

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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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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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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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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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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.

[Yuli Ban]

[Yuli Ban]

Not the world's first city, only the oldest yet discovered.

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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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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