Posted on 05/19/2004 1:44:47 PM PDT by blam
Disaster may have killed ancients
By Paul Rincon
BBC News Online science staff
Homo heidelbergensis appears about 600,000 years ago
The remains of 28 early humans found buried at the bottom of a cave shaft in northern Spain may belong to a group that died suddenly in a "catastrophe". Experts conducted an analysis to determine whether it was likely the bodies accumulated in the shaft over years or were dumped at the same time.
They concluded the 350,000-year-old death chamber may have held the victims of a disease outbreak or a massacre.
The study details are published in the Journal of Anthropological Research.
"We still don't know how they died. But what does seem increasingly clear is that the death of these people could have been simultaneous," Jose Bermudez de Castro, co-director of the Atapuerca excavation, told BBC News Online.
If you look at the 7,500 civilians that were killed at Srebrenica in the former Yugoslavia, you get the same age profile
Dr Andrew Chamberlain, University of Sheffield
The remains were recovered from a 14m-long shaft called Sima de los Huesos (the pit of bones) in the caves of Atapuerca, near the town of Burgos.
Atapuerca contains one of the richest records of prehistoric human occupation in Europe.
The bodies in the pit belong to a hominid species called Homo heidelbergensis, which may have been the common ancestor of the Neanderthals and modern humans (Homo sapiens).
Death and disasters
However, exactly how the bodies came to be deposited at the bottom of the shaft has always perplexed and intrigued those researchers that have excavated the site.
Professor Bermudez de Castro and his colleagues considered whether the remains in the pit fitted an attrition profile, in which individuals die one by one over long periods; or a catastrophic one, in which the dead cover the age spectrum of a population.
A single, pinkish-red stone axe was found in the pit of bones
Natural disasters, violence, epidemics of diseases such as influenza or bubonic plague and occasionally famine can be responsible for catastrophic mortality profiles.
The team compared the mortality profile of the Atapuerca remains with 26 other Homo heidelbergensis hominid remains from across Europe.
The proportion of individuals between the ages of 11 and 20 was 64% compared with just 39% for the other European sample.
"This corresponds best with a group of people who all died at the same time - a catastrophic profile," said Professor Bermudez de Castro.
"The only problem with this model is that we are missing the infants. But it is certainly a more rational model than the attritional one."
Victims of conflict?
In the research article, the scientists suggest that carnivores could have removed the bones of infants.
Dr Andrew Chamberlain, a biological anthropologist at the University of Sheffield, UK, agreed with this broad assessment of the mortality profile.
"This profile is very similar to the kind of one you get in conflicts, with people who fight and die in battle; you get this peak of teenagers and young adults.
More than 7,000 Bosnian Muslims were killed at Srebrenica in 1995 "But in that young age group - there are more females than males. With combat mortality, the deaths are nearly all males.
"The other way you can get this age profile is deaths of non-combatants. If you look at the 7,500 civilians that were killed at Srebrenica in the former Yugoslavia, you get the same age profile.
"You could have one group of hominids attacking the other, with very large numbers killed. The problem is that we just don't know enough about the social behaviour of these early humans."
Professor Bermudez de Castro predicts that it will be difficult to progress further with efforts to understand how the Atapuerca hominids died.
"Skull 5 has a serious infection in his face. It's possible that he could have died from it, but the truth is we don't know," he explained.
"There are also signs of trauma in other individuals and it is possible that these traumas caused their deaths. But it is very difficult to give these people a death certificate."
Interesting.
I think she looks like young Robert Blake (who incidentally was "Little Beaver" in the Red Ryder serial westerns).
Anyone else think that this female GI looks a lot like Peterson [the guy in California that's accused of murdering his wife, Laci and her nearly full-term fetus]?
What would they have been mining 350,000 years ago?
Rare, undesigned, pinkish stone rocks?
Blam old buddy, I hate to disillusion people... I mean, a neanderthal is one thing, but that thing is basically an ape.
Thanks! :-)
I really doubt that these bones relate to heidelbergensis. If they could be established as belonging to heidelbergensis, a species not yet proven to exist but merely theorized primarily from one bone find, that would be the larger story not what the individuals died from.
Sorry, no mention of alluvial deposits within this article.
I really doubt that these bones relate to heidelbergensis. If they could be established as belonging to heidelbergensis, a species not yet proven to exist but merely theorized primarily from one bone find, that would be the larger story not what the individuals died from.
Actually, you're wrong:
Homo heidelbergensis
Homo heidelbergensis is the species name now given to a range of specimens from about 800,000 years ago to the appearance of anatomically modern Homo sapiens (the species to which we belong). The species name was originally proposed for the fossil mandible discovered at Mauer, a town near Heidelberg, Germany. It is a nearly complete early human mandible that is very robustly built, but lacks a chin. Additional finds of early humans with morphological attributes of both modern humans and Homo erectus have shown that the transition from early and middle Pleistocene forms and the morphology of modern humankind was not a neat transition that could be easily explained.
For many years, scientists placed any problematic specimens displaying mixtures of "erectus-like" and "modern" traits into a confusing category: "Archaic" Homo sapiens (basically meaning any Homo sapiens that didn't look quite modern). Recently, it has been proposed to separate these individuals into a distinct species. For this purpose, the Mauer mandible, and the species name Homo heidelbergensis has seniority.
Umm... no.
For many years, scientists placed any problematic specimens displaying mixtures of "erectus-like" and "modern" traits into a confusing category: "Archaic" Homo sapiens (basically meaning any Homo sapiens that didn't look quite modern). Recently, it has been proposed to separate these individuals into a distinct species. For this purpose, the Mauer mandible, and the species name Homo heidelbergensis has seniority
According to your citation Homo heidelbergensis is basically a catchall name for those finds which don't fit into the earlier or later "models".
I am certainly open to being corrected (I don't claim to be an anthropologist) but that citation doesn't seem to do it.
This might help:
Diagnostic Features
Due to the fact that there have been so many different specimens attributed to the erectus offshoots, it is difficult to create a list of features that differentiate heidelbergensis from erectus or H. neanderthalensis. In general, heidelbergensis specimens show a continuation of evolutionary trends that occurred in the Lower Pleistocene into the Middle Pleistocene. Along with changes in robustcity of cranial and dental features, there is a marked increase in brain size from erectus to heidelbergensis. Some of the features of Middle Pleistocene Homo that shows these trends include:
An increase in brain size (early Homo approximately 900 cc, heidelbergensis specimens approximately 1200cc).
A shift from the widest part of the brain case from the cranial base to the parietal regions.
The rear of the cranial vault becomes more vertical.
A gradual reduction in cranial robusticity.
A decline in postcranial robusticity also.
A tendency for a shift from shorter more robust stature to taller more leaner bodies.
The increase in brain size may have also come with an increase in brain complexity, although this is difficult to determine from endocasts, and may have to remain supposition only. However, the increase in absolute size, and the change to larger frontal and parietal lobes indicate that there may have been a reorganization of the functional anatomy of the hominid brain. The increase in size itself indicates changes in behavior that lead to the ability to more easily acquire nutritional resources. This is due to the high nutrition requirements of brain tissue, especially during development. There is increasingly more convincing evidence in the use and control of fire, and in the hunting of animals for food. This time period is important for many reasons, and may be the time period when more modern behavior began to develop.
Hmmmm ... good question ...
Gold?
Coal?
Thanks for that.
Any time. I actually enjoy doing the research. I've been slammed a time or two when I haven't. Once bitten, twice shy...
Thanks for the info on Alley Oop!
One thing though - here's something about the author of your cites use of 'robusticity' that irks me - makes me flinch, actually.
'Robustness' would be better...much better.
Nope, all fault of proto-Serbs...did you not see refrences? Bet they all Muslim "victems" too. Time to build some mosques there for rememberance...oooh and revenge.
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