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 A105 Human Origins and Prehistory
Lecture 12: Colonization of Europe, Neandertals, Modern Human Origins

Last week, we talked about H. erectus, the spread out of Africa, and archaic H. sapiens.

Earliest possible non-African sites: Dmanisi, Ubeidiya, some SE Asian sites, >1 mya

Occupation of Europe controversial, plagued by dating problems
 

Atapuerca TD levels, ~780 kya, hominid fossils. Called H. antecessor, possibly gave rise to later Atapuerca population (Sima de los Huesos, 300 kya).
 

Other very early European sites include Ceprano, Boxgrove

May have been multiple colonizations, only the last of which “stuck.”
 
 

Recall from last week, H. erectus succeeded by archaic H. sapiens/H. heidelbergensis; H. erectus may persist for much longer in Far East.  The period from 400-125 kya still has relatively few fossils, many unanswered questions.                  
 

Date not uncontroversial, but Neandertals emerge ~130-125kya.  Best-known archaic H. sapiens population.  Contemporaneous species include H. erectus/archaic sapiens in the Far East and the earliest anatomical moderns in Africa and the Near East. 

Neandertal Locations 
Europe, Near East. 
France, Germany, Portugal, Spain, Italy, and several locations in Central
  Europe 
Israel, Iraq 

Key Sites 
Earliest: Krapina, Yugoslavia, 120-80,000 years ago. 
La Chapelle aux Saints, in France; famous skeleton recovered here. 
Tabun and Kebara, Israel -- Important skeletons and stone tools. 
Shanidar, Iraq. Important burials here. 
Latest Neandertals in Spain; new "hybrid" found at Lagar Velho, Portugal.
 

Cranial and Dental Characteristics 
Brain size avg. 1500cc 
Long, low skull with occipital bun 
Pronounced brow ridge. 
Large nose and midfacial projection, with zygomatics angled back 
 “Puffy” maxilla -- characteristic seen in earlier European archaics 
Retromolar space. 
Incisors largest in genus Homo, may have been used as tools. Extremely   
      worn, also have scratches that  could have been made by stone tools. 
Molars smaller than H. erectus, larger than modern humans'. 
 
 

Neandertal Postcrania 
Robust
Forearms and lower legs relatively short. 
Barrel chest. 
Huge hands. 
Many bones show signs of healed fractures, with pattern matching rodeo
   cowboys
 

Explanations for Features: Cold Adaptation 
Recall: lived from about 120-35/30,000 years ago; first hominid to adapt to
   glacial conditions. 
                   
Huge nose and midface projection: relates to the cold, dry air (allows air to
be warmed and moistened for easier breathing and oxygen intake) 
                   

Short distal extremities, barrel chest: minimized surface area/volume ratio, conserved heat. 

                   

Stone Tools 
 Middle Palaeolithic; industry is called the Mousterian. 
 Some differences through space and time; overall fairly uniform. 
 
Large numbers of flake tools (dozens of types of scrapers), a few handaxes, and some types that are much more common in the Upper Palaeolithic. 
                   
Technology: Levallois flaking technique common. 
 Allows flakes and points of a specific form to be made repeatedly. 
 
 
 

 Not used at all Middle Palaeolithic sites, but tool types similar at most    Middle Palaeolithic sites. 
 

Mousterian has five variants, given a variety of explanations.
 
 
 
 

In Africa, this broad technological level is called the Middle Stone Age, or MSA.  Less use of Levallois, much focus on flake-blades.
 
 

Tools of Later Neandertals 
 Europe, Near East, claims of intermediate stone tool industries. 
    Europe: Chatelperronian. Found with Neandertal fossils. It contains both Mousterian and Upper Palaeolithic tool types; mostly Mousterian technology. 

Transitional Tools? 
 Neandertals develop Chatelperronian independently? 
Or, a result of contact with modern people? 
Near East is very murky, fossils lacking from important transitional sites. 
In Europe the transition is more abrupt. 

                   
Culture from Human Remains 
Survival of sick or injured individuals. 
Shanidar 1, the skeleton of an elderly man, was arthritic and showed evidence of serious injury.  
Argues for Neandertal compassion, or at least some care of incapacitated group members (Trinkaus main proponent). 

                   
Burials 
Known from sites in Europe and the Near East. 
Not all Neandertal remains were intentionally buried. 
Burials less elaborate than Upper Palaeolithic burials. 
But, some have traces of ocher (red coloring material); one Shanidar grave may have flowers. 

                   
Symbolic Behavior? 
Burial of the dead. 
 Representational art etc. are absent, however. A few ornaments. 
Stone tools sometimes used here: standardization, diversity of tool types,
difficulty of manufacture. 

                   
Language? 
Physical anthropologists: were Neandertals capable of articulate speech? 
   First study said no. 
But, the specimen from the first analysis was reconstructed again, with
   different results. 
Neandertal hyoid bone was found in Israel. 
Seems Neandertals were physically capable of speech, but it is not known
whether they had fully modern language. 

                   
Summary of Neandertals 
Some very human characteristics (large brains, burials, etc.) but differed from moderns in important ways  (anatomical differences, lack of art, etc.). 
Raises question of their relationship to later humans, in Europe especially. 
Ancestral or evolutionary dead end? Two main theories. 

                   

Regional Continuity 
Suggests that people all over the world today evolved from the local
populations of H. erectus. 
Continuity from local genes that persist in geographic areas. 
People all still a single species due to gene flow, diffusion of cultural
innovations. 

                   
Replacement of Archaics 
Also called “Out of Africa” hypothesis; associated with "mitochondrial Eve."

Suggests that anatomically modern humans evolved in Africa about
100-300kya, then emigrated, replacing the local archaic populations. 
Some versions allow for contact/breeding between archaics & moderns, what your text refers to as the Partial Replacement Model.