"Duh? The Neeander fellas used to live around here but we was too smart for'em.
Posted on 11/15/2005 11:47:13 AM PST by blam
Early Humans Settled India Before Europe, Study Suggests
Brian Vastag
for National Geographic News
November 14, 2005
Modern humans migrated out of Africa and into India much earlier than once believed, driving older hominids in present-day India to extinction and creating some of the earliest art and architecture, a new study suggests.
The research places modern humans in India tens of thousands of years before their arrival in Europe.
University of Cambridge researchers Michael Petraglia and Hannah James developed the new theory after analyzing decades' worth of existing fieldwork in India. They outline their research in the journal Current Anthropology.
"He's putting all the pieces together, which no one has done before," Sheela Athreya, an anthropologist at Texas A&M University, said of Petraglia.
Modern humans arrived in Europe around 40,000 years ago, leaving behind cave paintings, jewelry, and evidence that they drove the Neandertals to extinction.
Petraglia and James argue that similar events took place in India when modern humans arrived there about 70,000 years ago.
The Indian subcontinent was once home to Homo heidelbergensis, a hominid species that left Africa about 800,000 years ago, Petraglia explained.
"I realized that, my god, modern humans might have wiped out Homo heidelbergensis in India," he said. "Modern humans may have been responsible for wiping out all sorts of ancestors around the world."
"Our model of India is talking about that entire wave of dispersal," he added. "[T]hat's a huge implication for paleoanthropology and human evolution."
A New Model
Petraglia and James reached their conclusions by pulling together fossils, artifacts, and genetic data.
The evidence points to an early human migration through the Middle East and into India, arriving in Australia by 45,000 to 60,000 years ago, they say.
(click on the site for the conclusion of the article)
That's what I think. I think the Neanderthals don't get enough respect.
Yep! We modern humans suddenly appeared out of nowhere and the closest competition knew they were beat and gave up the struggle to evolve. (grin)
Thanks for this post. It accords with all my biases in terms of "where the Neanderthals went"...into us, of course.
I agree completely-the Neanderthals were assimilated the same as other tribes/races have been over time-there is likely a bit of Neanderthal in practically everyone with european ancestry.
"And that just simply means that culture developed in a slightly different way in South Asia than it did in Western Europe."
God forbid anyone think that Europeans might have been superior in any way.
After studying the twentieth century, can you have any doubt?
Yet another guilt trip. Obviously the extinguished species were more peaceful and lovable.
Von Daniken is a fiction writer. Surly, you don't believe all that UFO stuff in his books, do you?
Are you saying they weren't human? If not, how could they interbreed?
I miss spoke, I guess , I could't think of what to call a near related specis
What I would tot up into the Neanderthal column would be wide mouths, thin lips, long philtrum because that's more chimp-ish. Reddish hair maybe...not necessarily the real red but reddish brown and wavy.
My pleasure.
It would save them so much time and effort, and all their questions could be answered right here in the forums..
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