Modern culture emerged in Africa 20,000 years earlier than thought

Los Angels Times ^ | 30 July 2012 | By Thomas H. Maugh II

[smokingfrog]

Modern culture emerged in southern Africa at least 44,000 years ago, more than 20,000 years earlier than anthropologists had previously believed, researchers reported Monday.

That blossoming of technology and art occurred at roughly the same time that modern humans were migrating from Africa to Europe, where they soon displaced Neanderthals. Many of the characteristics of the ancient culture identified by anthropologists are still present in hunter-gatherer cultures of Africa today, such as the San culture of southern Africa, the researchers said.

The new evidence was provided by an international team of researchers excavating at an archaeological site called Border Cave in the foothills of the Lebombo Mountains on the border of KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa and Swaziland. The cave shows evidence of occupation by human ancestors going back more than 200,000 years, but the team reported in two papers in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences that they were able to accurately date their discoveries to 42,000 to 44,000 years ago, a period known as the Later Stone Age or the Upper Paleolithic Period in Europe.

[TXnMA]

Oh — you mean, “cRap”...

[equaviator]

Replies like yours here are what keeps me coming back to Free Republic and rather than clamming up thinking I can’t possibly top it, I would ask you to lease tell us more.

In no way am I being sarcastic, either.

[muawiyah]

Change occurs rapidly. Today's Sa'ami are much more cold adapted than other humans ~ incredibly so. Where a Sa'ami can probably survive 4 to 6 hours in 32 degree water, just about all the other kinds of humans have a difficult time topping 20 minutes.

Those changes took place over the last 24,000 to 20,000 years. Then there's the work done that demonstrates that Chinese have been adapted to rice ~ they digest it easier and more thoroughly than other humans ~ this is for a plant under cultivation for no more than 10,000 years! BTW, neither major species of rice originated in China. One is from the Ganges and the other is from the Aleutians ~ or maybe even Alaska (which is one of the current archaeological mysteries to be solved). Rice has chemicals that "talk to you" by infiltrating brain tissue and encouraging you to eat more rice.

Adaptation to cow's milk is more recent ~ maybe 5000 years tops ~ yet, almost all Europeans and South Asians can consume milk as adults.

It's possible our ancestors of 25,000 years back were quite similar to us but may have not had all it takes to become technologically adept.

[equaviator]

“Rice has chemicals that “talk to you” by infiltrating brain tissue and encouraging you to eat more rice.”

You mean like a built-in subliminal commercial message for Rice-A-Roni or Uncle Ben’s?...Whoa, THAT’s how they getchya!

[equaviator]

Have a rice day, everyone!

[muawiyah]

Turns you into a Chinaman

[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]

[SunkenCiv]

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Thanks Pollster1 for the ping, and thanks smokingfrog for posting the topic, I couldn't get the pages to load from dialup. To all -- please ping me to other topics which are appropriate for the GGG list.