EARLY ANCESTORS Archaeologies of the Ancient Middle East ARCH 0440

Early Hominin Radiation

  Occurred between 4 and 2 m.y.a.   Included three distinct genera of hominins:

 Kenyanthropus  Australopithecus  Paranthropus

  Walked upright   Lacked pronounced canines   Brain size 450-475 cubic cms

Australopithecines

  Known from six species   Fossils date to 4-2.5 m.y.a   Most specimens from East and South Africa   Australopithecus afarensis – LUCY   Footprints found in Laetoli, Tanzania, show that the

species walked upright

Kenyanthropus

 Dates to 3.5 m.y.a.  First discovered in 2001 in Kenya  Appears to be similar to australopithecines  Still poorly understood

Paranthropus

  Also known as robust Australopithecus

  Dates to 2.5-1.4 m.y.a.   Characterized by massive

molars and muscles for chewing   Believed to have had a diet of

seeds or fruits with hard outer coatings

Homo Habilis

 First primate with a large brain —500-800 cubic centimeters

 First primate assigned to genus Homo

 Found at sites in East Africa  Dates to 2.5-1.6 m.y.a.

Homo erectus

 Second oldest member of the genus Homo

 Dates to 1.9-1.5 m.y.a.  First hominid to spread out of Africa—

fossils found in Africa, Europe, and Asia  Very similar to modern humans in body

shape

East African Rift Valley   Stretches from Malawi in southern Africa

to Turkey and Syria   Has three characteristics that make it

valuable in the search for early hominin sites 1. It is a trough that fills up with sediments,

preserving potential sites 2. It is tectonically active, so there is a lot of erosion 3. It is volcanically active, so there are levels of volcanic ash that can be used to date sites

Lower Paleolithic: The Oldowan

  Earliest well characterized tool industry   Dates to between 1.9 and 1.15 m.y.a   Which hominin(s) are responsible for making these

tools is uncertain  Paranthropus, Homo habilis, and Homo erectus all lived

during the Oldowan period

  Characteristic Oldowan tool is the chopper  Make a chopper by taking a rounded stone and striking

flakes off one edge

Oldowan Replicas

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Lower Paleolithic: The Acheulian

  Dates to between 1.7 m.y.a. and 400,000 to 200,000 years ago

  Acheulian sites found throughout Africa and in Europe, the Middle East, and India

  Acheulian appears at the same time as the emergence of Homo erectus and extinction of Homo habilis

An Acheulian cleaver (left) and handaxe (right). Archaeologists stress the symmetry of many Acheulian handaxes.

Acheulian Replicas

The Origin of Tool Use: Tool Use by Animals

Most evidence for tool manufacture and use come from studies of chimpanzees and other great apes

  Jane Goodall was the first to document tool use by chimpanzees

  Observed chimpanzee tool use includes:  Using twigs to fish termites or ants out of mounds  Using stone hammers and anvils to crack nuts

The Origin of Tool Use: Archaeological Evidence

The oldest known stone tools date to 2.5 million years ago   They were found in the Hadar region, Ethiopia  Almost 3000 stone tools were recovered   The major types of tools are sharp-edged flakes and cores,

including choppers

Stone tools from Lokalalei, Kenya date to 2.3 million years ago  Here about 2000 stone flakes and cores were recovered   These tools indicate that early tool manufacture followed a clear

and consistent strategy

Were Early Hominins Hunters?

Early views held that australopithecines were brutal hunters

Archaeologists began to question this view in the 1970s

It is difficult to prove archaeologically whether early hominins were hunters or scavengers  Hominin tools are found in association with many bones   These bones exhibit cut marks from tools and bite marks

from carnivores   The question is which came first to the kills: the carnivores or

the hominins?

Hominin Living Floors and Base Camps

  The home-base/food-sharing model sees sharing of meat at base camps as a fundamental part of early hominin life

  According to this model, hominins created places on the landscape to which meat was brought for sharing among members of a community

  The stone circle at DKI site in Olduvai Gorge may be evidence of a structure build on a home-base site

The Use of Fire

  Very little evidence for controlled use of fire from Oldowan and Acheulian sites in Africa

  Tentative evidence for the use of fire by early hominins dates to 1.4 million years ago in Kenya at the site of Chesowanja  The burnt clay at Chesowanja may be from a hearth or

the result of natural fires

  Hard evidence that early hominins used fire has not been found to date

Expansion of the Hominin World: Middle East and Europe

  The site of Ubeidiya, Israel, is one of the earliest Homo erectus outside of Africa

 Dates to 1.4 and 1.0 million years ago  Site produced tools characteristic of the Oldowan and

fragmentary hominin remains

  The site of Dmanisi, Georgia, the oldest known archaeological site outside of Africa

 Dates to 1.8 and 1.7 million years ago  Site produced 3 nearly complete Homo erectus crania and

stone tools, mostly simple flakes  No evidence of Acheulian technology

Expansion of the Hominin World: Asia

  Sites on the island of Java show that the hominin dispersal spread into Asia

 Homo erectus fossils from Java date to 1.8 million years ago  No evidence of stone tools has been found on Java

  The Nihewan Basin, China, is rich in early hominin sites  Dates from these sites show that members of the genus Homo

occupied the area between 1.36 and 1.1 million years ago  Stone tools have been found, but there is no evidence of

Acheulian technology