ANTH Mid-Term

Java Man

Is a specimen repsensted by

• A skull cap

• A femur

• A molar

was officially classifed as Homo erectus in 1950 and is about 1 million years old.

Eugene Dubois (1858-1940)

Argues that Java Man is the missing link

• He thinks it would walk like a gibbon (a lesser ape) but could walk upright without support

• It has a larger cranial capacity than other non-human apes

The Implications of Java Man

• Ancient Human life could be found outside of Europe

• Hominins looked different from humans and Neanderthals

Endocast

Fossilization of Material inside the skull, leaving an impression of the inside of the skull

Taung Child

Species: Autralopithecus africanus.

Lived 2.8-3.3 mya

Tanug Child Morphological Indicators

1. Larger brain than other apes, smaller than modern humans

2. Teeth morphology indicate it was a child that aged more like a chimpanzee than a human

3. The position of the foramen magnum (hole at the base of the skull) suggests the Taung child walked upright

Hominids

Any species in the family hominidae, including gorillas, chimpanzees, and orangutans

Robert Broom

Finds the skull of plesianthroupus transvallenisis

• Now considered an adult Australopitchecus africanus

Implications of Broom’s Finds

• Additional support to Darts claims that

  • These remains were humanlike, not apelike

  • These species walked upright before they had large brains

  • Human ancestors don’t necessarily have to make tools

• Confirming significance of Africa to human evolution

• Finding additional species

  • Family tree is more complicated than previously thought

Hominins

Anatomically modern humans and all the extinct species on, or connected to, the modern human twig of the Tree of Life

Piltdown Man

was unearthed in Sussex, England by Charles Dawson

• Names Eoanthropus dawsoni (meaning Dawn Man of Dawson)

• Had a human-like skull, but its jaw was distinciply ape-like

Sexual Dimorphism

When male and female members of a species have different physical traits

Trace Fossil

Soft tissues such as organs, skin, and feathers that do not fossilize but sometimes leave impressions, or traces, on the sedimentary rock that forms around them.

Fossilized trace of an organism rather than the organism itself (footprint, coprolites, burrows).

Ex. Laetoil Footprints

The Leakeys

Popularized Africa as the heart of paleonanthroplogy, and their work was continued by therir son Richard Leakey.

They found several specimens, and labelled some as belonging to a new species, such as Paranthropus Boisei

Post Cranial

All skeletal material behind or below the skull/cranium

Arboreal

Lives in trees

Bipedalism

Walking on two legs

The Pliocene

• 5.33-2.5 mYA

• Hominies lived in a warm climate on the savannah or forests’ edge

• Many similar species existing at the same time

  • “The Golden Age of Hominins”

Radiation Adaptation

Subgroups of a single species rapidly diversify and adapt to fill a variety of ecological niches

Niche

A set of constraints and resources that are available in an environmental setting.

Genus Homo

Consists of modern humans and extinct species of humans

• Homo sapiens is the only species of Homo and hominin extant today

  • Extant: Not extinct

What Defines Genus Homo

• Material culture

  • Tools/clothing/Jewelry/Body decorating

    • These are metal templates that describe how to produce and use objects, and in turn they are thought of as symbols of status

• Complex communication and speech

• Socialization and group survival

• Larger brains and Bodies

• Diet Changes

  • Wider geographic range meant a wider variety of food

  • Smaller teeth and shorter intestinal tract

  • Cooking food

Origins of Genus Homo

East or South Africa

• Easy to find fossils in the great rift valley because the layers of rocks are exposed,

Homo Habilis

Handy Man

Geo range: Eastern and southern Africa

Physical Description:

• Cranial capacity between 500-800 cubic centimeters

• 3-4 feet tall

• Culture: Oldowan

First to use tools

Oldowan

The earliest stone tool template

• Round stone with edge for chopping and scraping

• In use 2.6-1.7 mya

• Predates H. Habilis

Homo Ergaster

Working Man

Temoral Range: 1.9-1.4 mya

Geo: Eastern and southern Africa

Physical Description:

• Skull

  • Larger brain, flatter face with projecting nose, smaller teeth

• Post Cranial

  • Larger than H. Habilis

  • Longer legs but relatively shorter arms

  • The body has little suggestion of an arboreal pattern

Oldowan

First species of genus Homo

Homo Erectus

Upright Man

The predecessor to many different species of Homo, including our own.

Geo range:

• Originated in Africa, found in northern eastern, and souther africa, western asia, eastern aisa, indonesia

Physical Description:

• Skull: Crancial capacity at about 1050 cubic. The bones of the skull were robust, particualry along the crest of the skull and brow ridge.

• Post cranial: Simiar to modern humans

Culture: Oldowan and Acheulean

First to extent out of Africa

Acheulean

this tech is larger than the Oldowan style. They are considered “hand axes” because of their axe-like shape that would have been directly used by hand instead of anchored to a shaft

Neanderthals

Man from Neander (Popularly referred to as neanderthals)

Dsecended from h. erectus

Geo range: Europe, southwest asia, central asia

Physical description

• Bodies reflect the cold climates of Ice Age Europe

• Skull: Nose was awider to bring in more oxygen

• Post Cranial: Wide rib cage for greater lung capacity, stocker than H.sapiens, limbs were shorter to help retain heat near their core.

Sister species to Homo Sapiens

Homo Floresiensis

The Hobbit People

Insular Dawarfism

Miocene

• Ardipithecus (and other primitive forms)

• Arboreal to ground transition

Pliocene

• “Golden age of Hominins

• Austrolaoptiechus and paranthroupus

Pleistocene

• Ice Age

• Emergence of genus Homo

Holocene

• Modern times-H. Sapiens are the last of genus homo

How did we emerge from Homo Erectus

Two theories:

• Out-of-Africa Hypto

• Multiple Hearths hypothesis

Out of Africa hypothesis

variations of homo erectus were reproductively isolated. Homo sapiens evolved from an African variant of Homo erectus and then migrated out of africa, replacing the arachi home rectues

one point of origin, followed by dispersal

This is known as replacement theory

Multiple Hearths hypothesis

Variations of Homo erectus were not reproductively isolated and thus simultaneously gave rise to Homo sapiens throughout the old world

Multiple points of origin maintained by access to greater gene pool

Archaeology

The study of cultures through the recovery and analysis of material remains and environmental data.

• Artifacts

• Features

• Landscape

Artifact

An object made or modified by humans

Feature

An attribute found in an excavation (or a survey) such as pit, fireplace, or a wall, that was formed, created, or modified by human

• non-portable archaeological remain

• can be an arrangement of artifacts

Landscape

The arrangement and interaction of the environment, its objects, and people

• arrangement of features

Prehistoric Archaeology

The study of material culture without written historical text

Historic Archaeology

The study of material culture with written historical text

• material as complementing or contending with established historical narrative

Antiquarian

Someone (usually from the 19th century) interested in the material relics of the past but does not use careful archaeological methods to retrieve objects and explore sites

Chronology

The order or sequences. of events, styles, periods, or eras

Relative Dating

Any dating technique that provides a rough assessment of the age of fossil, artifact, or archaeological feature relative to other fossils, rocks, artifacts, or features

Designating an event, object, or fossil as being older or younger than another

General Chronology of American Archaeology in North America

• Paleo-Indian Period

  • 20-10 KYA

  • Defined by the ice age

  • hunting of megafunna

  • Small, migratory populations

  • clovis culture

• Archaic Period

  • Seasonal settlements

  • 10-3KYA

  • change in tech

  • Rise of Meso-American civilizations

• Post-Archaic Period

  • 1000BCE- 1600BCE

  • Woodland period

  • mounds

  • Mississippi period

  • larger citie s

Paleo-Indian Period

The first period of human occupation in the Americas, which lasted from when first humans arrived (23 kya, 15kya) to the end of ice age (12-11 KYA)

People were migratory and thus harder to see in the archaeological record

Lithnic

meaning “of stone”, refers to stone tools such as arrowheads, spearheads, hammers, or scrapers

The Colvis

One of the earliest cultures found in North America, represented by the Clovis point lithic.

Flute

The long, smooth groove running the length of a lithic.

Conical Mounds

The earliest type of mound, usually. dated to the early Woodland period.

Dome shaped.

• 2-8 feet high, 10-20 feet wide

• archaeological investigations indicated these are usually burial mounds

Linear Mounds

Cigar shaped mounds that are usually 2-4 feet high, 6-8 feet wide, and up to 100 feet long.

Not used for burial, but maybe ceremonial.

Effigy Mounds

Mounds in various shapes of mammals, reptiles, or birds. Characteristics of late Woodland period, found in groups.