Caption: Uluzzian artifacts from Grotta del Cavallo, Apulia, southern Italy.
Credit: Annamaria Ronchitelli and Katerina Douka
Usage Restrictions: The image may only be used with appropriate caption and credit.
Posted on 11/02/2011 11:38:28 AM PDT by decimon
Virtual anthropology allows new identification of first modern humans
Members of our species (Homo sapiens) arrived in Europe several millennia earlier than previously thought. At this conclusion a team of researchers, led by the Department of Anthropology, University of Vienna, arrived after re-analyses of two ancient deciduous teeth. These teeth were discovered 1964 in the "Grotta del Cavallo", a prehistoric cave in southern Italy. Since their discovery they have been attributed to Neanderthals, but this new study suggests they belong to anatomically modern humans. Chronometric analysis, carried out by the Oxford Radiocarbon Accelerator Unit at the University of Oxford, shows that the layers within which the teeth were found date to ~43,000-45,000 cal BP. This means that the human remains are older than any other known European modern humans. The research work was published in the renowned science journal Nature.
Grotta del Cavallo, in Apulia, was discovered in 1960. It contained about 7 m of archaeological deposits spanning the period during which Neanderthals were replaced by modern humans. Two milk teeth were unearthed in 1964 by Arturo Palma di Cesnola (emeritus of the University of Siena) from the so-called Uluzzian archaeological layers. The Uluzzian culture has been described from more than 20 separate sites across Italy, and is characterised by personal ornaments, bone tools and colourants; items typically associated with modern human symbolic behaviour. But the teeth from Cavallo were identified in the 1960's as Neanderthals who lived around 200,000 to 40,000 years ago. This attribution has been at the heart of a widely held consensus that the Uluzzian and the complex ornaments and tools within it were also produced by Neanderthals.
(Excerpt) Read more at eurekalert.org ...
Credit: Annamaria Ronchitelli and Katerina Douka
Usage Restrictions: The image may only be used with appropriate caption and credit.
Uluzzian of culture ping.
Fascinating, thanks for posting.
BP = Before Prozac.
“At this conclusion a team of researchers, led by the Department of Anthropology, University of Vienna, arrived after re-analyses of two ancient deciduous teeth.”
Nice sentence structure.
Even before they arrived in California?
YEP! Like about 4,000 years ago after a REALLY BIG Global FLOOD! Came from arount the Mt Ararat Area of present day Turkey!
“Whenever the literary German dives into a sentence, that is the last you are going to see of him until he emerges on the other side of his Atlantic with his verb in his mouth.” Mark Twain
Counts for Austrian, too, I guess.
“Austrian” = German (linguistically)
Is that code for religious items? The Neanderthals didn't have religion which proved fatal vs. modern humans. Religion provides a competitive advantage, during tribal warfare and life in general.
“Even before they arrived in California?”
I think you’ve confused Homo Sapiens with Homo Sexuals...which have inhabited California for some time.
I know that. Pretty much everyone knows that. My comment was aimed obliquely at Barry O who, you may recall, thinks Austrians speak "Austrian".
In German, the whole thing is one word.
Eg, Dienstleistungsimportuberschuess.
Oder, Blauaugendammenaustossedesgassenschlampe.
Argh, BlauaugenDESSammenaustossedesgassenschlampe.
Minor speeling error.
Wait, I can extend this joke further:
Die LesendedsjungebraunhaarendesBlauaugendessammenaustossedesgassenschlampe.
Great essay. I’m tempted to read it again tonight.
Dang it! ...I hate when that happens.
|
|
|
| GGG managers are SunkenCiv, StayAt HomeMother & Ernest_at_the_Beach | |
|
|
Thanks decimon. Dang, I wonder how many others I missed? Anyway, better late than never, this should have been in last week's digest. |
|
|
|
|
How long were you on that bender? ;-)
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.