Modern Human Behavior: Origins and Development

What is Modern Human Behavior?

  • Imagination is a key component.
  • Identifying artifact types and associations indicative of modern human behavior is crucial.

Defining "Modern Behavior"

  • Involves behaviors demonstrating increased cognitive sophistication and "culture".
  • Key indicators:
    • Blade and microlithic technology.
    • Bone tools.
    • Tool diversity.
    • Dietary diversity.
    • Long-distance trade.
    • Systematic pigment processing and usage (art).
    • Symbolic art and decoration.
    • Distinction between utilitarian vs. non-utilitarian objects.

The Active Role of Material Culture

  • Material culture is not passive; it actively stimulates cognition and imagination.
  • This stimulation leads to technological advancements, enhanced imagination, and creativity.
  • There was an exponential growth of material culture after 100,000 years ago (100ka).

Modern Human Behavior: Evolution vs. Revolution

  • Two competing theories exist regarding the development of modern human behavior:
    • Revolution (European Model):
      • Proposes a rapid change in technological and artistic complexity around 40,000 years ago (40 kya) in Europe.
      • Raises questions about whether this was due to real biological change or data limitations.
    • Evolution (African Model):
      • Suggests a gradual development of a "package" of modern human behavior in Africa between 250,000 and 50,000 years ago (250-50 kya).

Middle Stone Age: Africa

  • Timeframe: 300,000 - 40,000 years ago (300-40 ka).
  • Key Behavioral Innovations:
    • Burials.
    • Beads.
    • Harpoons & Fishing.
    • Trade & Exchange.
    • Shellfishing.
    • Increased use of Bone & Ivory.
    • Storage practices.
    • Pigment Processing.
    • Use of Flintstones.
    • Blade technology.
  • Key Anatomical Changes:
    • Evolution from Archaic Homo sapiens to Modern Homo sapiens.
  • Language development is also indicated during this period.
  • Timeline:
    • First Exit from Africa
      • 250 kya
    • Entry into Europe
      • 40 kya

Blade Technology

  • Significance: represents a more sophisticated tool-making technique.

Middle Stone Age Africa: Early Complexity in Tools

  • Bone points with barbs discovered in Katanda, Congo, dating back 90,000 years ago (90 kya).
  • Cores and blades found at the Klasies River site, dating between 115,000 and 60,000 years ago (115-60 kya).
  • Tanged stone points discovered in Morocco, dating back 45,000 to 40,000 years ago (45-40 kya).

Upper Paleolithic Tool Technology

  • Materials used:
    • Bone.
    • Antler.
    • Shell.
  • Tool types:
    • Points for hafting.
    • Barbed points.
    • Burins (chisels).
    • Needles.
    • Fish hooks.

Tailored Clothing

  • Although actual clothing has not been preserved, tools used in making them have (needles, awls).
  • Clothing was made out of animal skins and sometimes decorated with beads.

Bow and Arrow

  • Evidence dates back 64,000 years ago (64 ka).
  • Found in South Africa, Sidubu Cave.
  • Blood remains were found on the edges, indicating use for hunting.

New Hunting Weapon: Atlatl

  • Dates back 20,000 years ago (20 ka).
  • Made of antler or bone.
  • Functions as a lever, extending the distance a spear can be thrown.
  • Improves hunting chances because hunters don't have to get as close to the game.
  • Increases the force of the spear.
  • Often decorated, raising questions about the purpose (possibly symbolic).

Modern Human Sites

  • Middle to Late Stone Age sites:
    • Irhoud
    • Taforalt
    • Misliya, Skhul, & Qafzeh
    • Nazlet Khater
    • Herto
    • Omo-Kibish
    • Enkapune Ya Muto
    • Mumba
    • Kisese
    • Magubike
    • Florisbad -Border Cave
    • Apollo 11
    • Elands Bay & Diepkloof-
    • Montagu
    • Die Kelders
    • Klasies River
    • Klipdrift-
    • Nelson Bay
    • Blombos
    • Pinnacle Point

Modern Human Health

  • Modern humans generally lived longer and showed fewer signs of nutritional deficiencies and dental diseases compared to Neanderthals.
    • Lower prevalence of Linear Enamel Hypoplasia (LEH) and fewer dental abscesses.
  • There's a slight decline in stature from the Upper Paleolithic to the Lower Paleolithic
  • Prevalence of cranial trauma is not significantly different between Upper Paleolithic modern humans and Neanderthals.
  • Higher rate of cranial trauma in males compared to females.

Burials – Imagination?

  • Imagination allows us to think about 'ancestors' as people in the afterlife.

Earliest Burials – Skhul and Qafzeh

  • Dating back 100,000 years ago (100 ka).
  • Repeated burials, sometimes up to 10 at a time, some including shell beads.

MSA Africa Earliest Burial - Mtoto

  • Location: Panga ya Saidi, Kenya.
  • Dates back 80,000 years ago (80 ka).
  • Involved the burial of a 3-year-old child.

'Il Principe'

  • Location: Spain
  • Dates back 23,500 years ago (23.5kya)

Sungir, Russia

  • Dates back 34,000 years ago (34 ka).
  • Burials were more common.
  • Included grave goods.
  • Suggests the presence of ideas about an afterlife and concepts of ownership, indicating imagination.

Art and Symbolic Culture - Imagination

  • Evidence of art demonstrates abstract thoughts

Early Examples: Outliers?

  • West Tofts, England: 500,000 years ago (500ka)
  • Berekhat Ram, Israel: 300,000 years ago (300 ka)

Early African Sites

*Show 'Established Behavioral Pattern'

Blombos Cave

  • Southern Cape coastline, South Africa.
  • Dates back 100,000 to 70,000 years ago (100-70 kya).
  • Marine environment.

Paint Manufacture

  • Location: Blombos Cave, South Africa.
  • Dates back 120,000 years ago (120 ka).
  • Tick shell beads indicate symbolic thought.

Diepkloof, South Africa

  • Dates back 100,000 years ago (100 ka).
  • Suggests patterned behavior in Africa early on.
  • Engraved water bottles demonstrate symbolic thought and artistic expression.
  • Highly decorated artifacts show a capacity for abstract thought.

Africa: Early Art and Ornamentation

  • Ostrich eggshell beads from Loiyangalani, Tanzania, dating back 70,000 years ago (70 kya).
  • Perforated tick shell beads from Blombos Cave, South Africa, dating back 77,000-75,000 years ago (77-75 kya).
  • Engraved red ochre from Blombos Cave, South Africa, dating back 77,000 years ago (77 kya).

Imagination and Fantasy

  • Example: "Lion man" from Germany, dating back 32,000 years ago (32 ka).

“Venus” Figurines

  • Date as early as 35,000 years ago (35kya), but more common by 25,000 years ago (25kya).
  • Female figurines emphasizing sexual characteristics.
  • Potential functions:
    • Fertility.
    • “Sympathetic” magic.
    • Self-expression.
    • Grave offerings.
    • Ritual objects.
  • Examples:
    • Willendorf: 25,000-20,000 years ago (25-20kya).
    • Hohle Fels, Germany:
      *Greater than 35,000 years ago (>35kya).
    • Dolni
      *31,000-28,000 years ago (31-28kya).

Musical Instruments

  • Bird bone flutes from Geißenklösterle cave (~42-43 kya) and Hohle Fels (~35 kya), Germany

Cave Art/Parietal Art

  • Le Chauvet, France
    • Dates to 36,000 years ago (36 ka), making it one of the earliest known examples of cave art.
  • Lascaux Cave
    • Dates to 17,000 years ago (17 kya)

Cave Art - Symbols

  • Various symbols are found in cave art, potentially representing early forms of communication or symbolic expression.
  • Examples of symbols include:
    • Aviform
    • Cupule
    • Circle
    • Claviform
    • Cordiform
    • Dot
    • Finger Fluting
    • Crosshatch
    • Cruciform
    • Flabelliform
    • Half-Circle
    • Line
    • Negative Hand
    • Open-Angle
    • Oval
    • Pectiform
    • Quadrangle
    • Reniform
    • Scalariform
    • Serpentiform
    • Penniform
    • Positive Hand
    • Spiral
    • Tectiform

Proto-Writing and Phenological Calendar

  • Bacon et al. 2023 study suggests a link between figurative and non-figurative forms in early art.
  • Phenology: The study of the timing of recurring biological events.
  • The study proposes that when figurative forms are found with non-figurative "I" and ".", they denote months.
  • The symbol “Y” = ‘to give birth’.

Intrinsic Archaic Language in our Minds?

  • Images, lights, and shapes produced in the mind during altered states of consciousness.
  • These are presumed to be part of a collective (and genetic) unconsciousness.
  • Known as Entoptic images.
  • Caused by hyperexcitation of the Central Nervous System (CNS).
  • Can be induced by substances like Psilocybin, mescaline, DMT, and THC.

Human Revolution or Evolution?

  • McBrearty and Brooks argue that modern human behavioral characteristics gradually evolved in Africa from about 200,000 years ago (200 ka).
  • These traits were then carried with AMHS (Anatomically Modern Homo Sapiens) migrations to Europe.