Posted on 11/26/2007 11:01:42 AM PST by SunkenCiv
Atapuerca gives us incontrovertible evidence that there was human life, already in north Spain, in 1.2m years BC. Is it possible that the "out of Africa" theory is wrong - that mankind evolved separately in Europe? ...Atapuerca's rich limestone silt hides still another secret, even more astonishing. As archaeologist Susana Callizo explains... "The question you have to ask is, how did those skeletons get down there? The Pit of Bones is inaccessible. Even today it is difficult to approach - the archaeologists have to abseil down a narrow chasm, then crawl through passages, before they can start digging. Some people think the bodies might have been washed down there, by rainstorms or wind, but most believe that this is very unlikely, given the remote nature of the cavern... It is likely that the bodies were deliberately buried here. Interred by their relatives maybe." ...So far, the earliest firm evidence for human religious ritual comes from 70,000-year-old burials, of Neanderthal skeletons adorned with red powder and flower petals... But now we have the Pit of Bones, and all those skeletons, purposefully moved, it seems, into a highly inaccessible place. Skeletons of hunters and young mothers: people you might want to mourn, and to bury... Quite recently, excavators in the Pit found a hand axe, exquisitely carved from rose quartz. It was placed deliberately with the skeletons, like an offering: a precious ritual object to be ferried into the next world.
(Excerpt) Read more at thefirstpost.co.uk ...
Fragments of another skull unearthed at the Atapuerca site
Typically Spanish | July 24, 2007 | m.p
Posted on 10/16/2007 10:49:05 AM EDT by SunkenCiv
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1911918/posts
‘First west Europe tooth’ (million-year-old human tooth) found in Spain
BBC News | 6-30-07 | BBC/AFP
Posted on 06/30/2007 6:05:03 PM EDT by GraniteStateConservative
Shttp://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1858939/posts
Mandible, Sierra de Atapuerca, Spain, Homo Antecessor, 800K years old
Reuters / Yahoo | Tue Jun 21,10:36 AM ET | Felix Ordoez
Posted on 06/24/2005 12:23:35 PM EDT by SunkenCiv
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1429826/posts
Disaster May Have Killed Ancients
BBC | 5-19-2004 | Paul Rincon
Posted on 05/19/2004 4:44:47 PM EDT by blam
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1138706/posts
21st Century New York Meets Neanderthal Male
Science - Reuters | 1-20-2003 | Grant McCool
Posted on 01/20/2003 2:04:12 PM EST by Junior
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/826033/posts
A Rebuilt Neanderthal
The New York Times | 12-31-02 | John Noble Wilford
Posted on 12/31/2002 7:38:20 PM EST by Pharmboy
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/814911/posts
Sabre-tooths and Hominids
Instituto Geologico y Minero de Espana | Alfonso Arribas & Paul Palmqvist
Posted on 11/22/2002 5:18:45 PM EST by Sabertooth
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/794165/posts
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Thanks for the link, Renfield and NYer. :') |
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lmao that skull looks like mine!
Hey, grow some skin over that thing, willya? ;’)
Gravity?
L
Man’s first landfill?
So who were these?
Neanderthals? Heidelberg Man?
No, that was a hoax.
Its Homo antecessor, Homo heidelbergensis, or Neanderthal Man.
If I remember correctly, the remains in the Sima de los Huesos are thought to be entirely Homo Heidelbergensis (ca. 350-400kya).
Answer:
These pits suck!
Mans first Miners trapped in a mine. Details at 11.
“How did thos skeletons get down there?”
Have enough of these bones been found of a single individual to determine if they were laid down in a possible burial position, or if they were carried in by a large preditor of flooding, in which case they would be scattered or deposited in a distorted position?
Also if I remember past info about the cave, I seem to recall that bones as old as 700 k had been found. Has this info been updated and changed?
What was the state of the Gibraltar area 1.2 m years ago? Certainly there were times in the past million years when it was probably possible to walk from Africa to Europe or the other way around.
Maybe they were somebody’s lunch? ;’)
I’d been under the impression that this site was in the running for the ancestral home of Neandertal, via Heidelbergensis, and that the remains were the latter. This page was little help:
http://www.amnh.org/exhibitions/atapuerca/sima/index.php
“...The hominids of Sima de los Huesos lived around 400,000 years ago — much later than Homo antecessor. Detailed analysis of the Sima fossils indicates that these hominids belong to a different lineage, possibly unrelated to Homo antecessor.”
I think we should just refer to them as “Bob”.
http://www.amnh.org/exhibitions/atapuerca/simahumans/skull5.php
“...The early humans who lived in the region of Atapuerca some 400,000 years ago represent a distinct species from the earlier Gran Dolina population. The scientists who discovered the Sima hominids have tentatively classified them as members of Homo heidelbergensis, named for Heidelberg, Germany, the first site where that species was found. Evidence from other sites of similar age suggests that this species probably used throwing spears and built fires — two things for which there is so far no evidence at the Gran Dolina site. The early humans of Sima de los Huesos resembled the Neanderthals, a later species that eventually inhabited Europe and part of Asia before going extinct some 30,000 years ago. Indeed, some scholars have suggested that the species at Sima de los Huesos was a direct ancestor of the Neanderthals.
Nope, the break at Gibraltar took place around 5 million years ago, if memory serves. Ah, it sez here, 5.5 myr. Since then, no solid connection, but I think there’s a topic around here (two years ago?) about navigation from Africa to Europe 100s of 1000s of years ago. Flores island in SE Asia hasn’t been connected to any mainland in human times, yet 800,000 year old tools were found there.
a little info, mostly about the Black Sea flood:
http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=noahs-flood
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Messinian_Salinity_Crisis
“...But the Strait of Gibraltar is 320 m deep, and global sea levels during the most recent Ice Age are believed to have lowered sea levels by only about 100 m, so the basin was not dry during the Ice Age. That there had been an extreme drying event in the region earlier, was to be discovered forty years later.”
Well, they are called “the Pits”.
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