Stone tools discovery prompts re-think of African theory

Past Horizons ^ | September 26, 2014 | unattributed

[SunkenCiv]

The belief that a type of technology known as Levallois – where the flakes and blades of stones were used to make useful products such as hunting weapons was invented in Africa and then spread to other continents as the human population expanded can now be discounted say the researchers.

At an archaeological site in Armenia called Nor Geghi 1, the researchers discovered that these types of tools already existed there between 325,000 and 335,000 years ago, suggesting that local populations developed them out of a more basic type of technology, known as biface, which was also found at the site.

Archaeologists have argued that Levallois technology was invented in Africa and spread to Eurasia with expanding human populations, replacing local biface technologies in the process. This theory draws a link between populations and technologies and thus equates technological change with demographic change. The co-existence of the two technologies at Nor Geghi 1 provides the first clear evidence that local populations developed Levallois technology out of existing biface technology.

Preserved between two lava flows

Nor Geghi 1, is a unique site preserved between two lava flows dated to 200,000–400,000 years ago. Layers of floodplain sediments and an ancient soil found between these lava flows contain the archaeological material. The dating of volcanic ash found within the sediments and detailed study of the sediments themselves allowed researchers to correlate the stone tools with a period between 325,000 and 335,000 years ago when the Earth’s climate was similar to today’s.

[SunkenCiv]

Levallois and biface tools. Image: Royal Holloway, University of London

[SunkenCiv]

[Swordmaker]

Oh OH! Some archaeologists are going to be picketed and called racists. . .

[zeestephen]

I’m confused by the use of “human” in this article for events in Armenia 325,000 years ago.

I thought modern humans first developed around 200,000 years ago, in Africa, and did not migrate out of Africa until about 80,000 to 100,000 years ago.

[gleeaikin]

So were these “humans” more likely Neanderthal or Heidelbergensis?

[zeestephen]

No doubt there were plenty of hominids around Armenia 325,000 years ago.

But I thought “human” was reserved for homo sapiens.

[Fred Nerks]

Excavations at the Nor Geghi 1 site in 2008. The archaeological artefacts are in the black band (a fossilised soil) visible above the red bucket, the yellow layers are floodplain deposits and the rock at the top of the section is basalt (solidified lava). (Picture © Keith Wilkinson)

Working with an international research team, the researchers analysed the remains of sharp chipping tools found in two lava flows in a 325,000-year-old site in Armenia. They found evidence of the Levallois technique in this site, and showed that the people there had developed it themselves.

[bert]

Lekson’s rules.....

Everybody knew everything
Distance was not a problem
There is no coincidence

Consider if you will a convention, a gathering of flakers. Periodically they came together to share and learn their trade.

[SunkenCiv]

Well said, bert!

And they also “climbed all over each other like a box of hamsters”. :’)

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks FN, nice pics!

[SunkenCiv]

The Neandertal Enigma
by James Shreeve
in local libraries

Frayer's own reading of the record reveals a number of overlooked traits that clearly and specifically link the Neandertals to the Cro-Magnons. One such trait is the shape of the opening of the nerve canal in the lower jaw, a spot where dentists often give a pain-blocking injection. In many Neandertal, the upper portion of the opening is covered by a broad bony ridge, a curious feature also carried by a significant number of Cro-Magnons. But none of the alleged 'ancestors of us all' fossils from Africa have it, and it is extremely rare in modern people outside Europe." [pp 126-127]

[PIF]

So if you met one of these early men, your first thought and first action would be to put them in zoo with the other animals?

Of course they were human, just not the same. Or put you in the place and conditions they lived in, how long do you think you would survive?

[Dusty Road]

Flint knapping is not an easy skill to learn, the thought and manual dexterity required to achieve a simple usable biface is not easily learned. Were we to meet face to face with early man I expect we would by quite surprised at his resemblance to modern man. There is far more to flint knapping than just banging on rocks. I suspect early man was far more intelligent than we give him credit for, he was just limited by the tool and material he had to work with.

[SunkenCiv]

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[SunkenCiv]

Replacement theorists claim a lot of things, but, to frame it in an intellectual argument, phooey on ‘em.

Armenia City In The Sky ~ The Who https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YsSa8Whfp9A

The Who - Armenia City In The Sky
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y7wrwctQS3s

[BushCountry]

Neanderthals were making complex tools for hundreds of thousands of years. The could bench press between 300-500lbs. They roam earth for over 400,000 years before we killed them off, with the advancements in technology I wonder what our society will be like in 100,000 or more.

I suspect genetic superhumans will kill us off or put us in cages.

[Sirius Lee]

I suspect genetic superhumans will kill us off or put us in cages.

Agenda 21

[PIF]

We may not have killed off the Neanderthals, but merged, interbred - many of European descent have some Neanderthal DNA. We may also have culturally inherited Neanderthal’s tonal harmonics ie music, and with that, numbers.

The deep past is not only stranger than we are taught, but stranger than we can imagine.

[Ditter]

I have boxes of stone tools that look just like the ones picturered here. I was told that for the most part they were scrapers and some unfinished spear points. I found them all myself in south Texas.

[Ruy Dias de Bivar]

Was this before or after the Africans built all those sky scrapers and taught philosophy and had higher mathematics and all those other things Sharpton claimed they had before Whitey?