Early clues to 'modern' humans

bbcnews.com ^ | nov-7-2001 | bbcnews

[green team 1999]

Wednesday, 7 November, 2001, 16:35 GMT Early clues to 'modern' humans

Modern humans descended from African hominids

A collection of bone tools dating back 70,000 years is raising new questions about human evolution.
The discovery suggests that our early human ancestors were far more sophisticated than previously thought.

The bone tools and flaked stone points, possibly used as spear heads, were found in a cave on the South African coast, east of Stillbaai.

Until now, it was assumed that humans were not advanced enough to make such tools until long after they had emerged from Africa and migrated into Europe.

The appearance of bone, rather than stone tools, and signs of abstract and creative thought in the form of body decoration and art works appeared in Europe about 35,000 years ago.

But according to new evidence, published in the Journal of Human Evolution, ancient humans were already making bone tools in Africa more than twice as long ago.

The implications are that humans came out of Africa with fully developed "modern" technology and modes of behaviour.

'Modern' behaviour
Royden Yates, one of the team that discovered the tools, told the BBC: "Every indication that we have been able to gather suggests that we are looking at something between 80 and 100,000 years old.

"Artefacts very similar to this occur in Europe and they are dated to about 19,000 years ago."

The collection of 28 bone tools and related artefacts were found in Blombos cave, located on a cliff overlooking the Indian Ocean at the extreme tip of South Africa.

A yellow sand layer lying above the sediment containing the tools is thought to date to 60,000-70,000 years ago. The tools were found below the sand layer and are thought to be somewhat older.

Bone tools need a high degree of skill and labour to produce, which is why archaeologists consider them a significant indicator of human development.

New horizons
According to archaeologist Christopher Henshilwood, of the Iziko-South African Museum in Cape Town, the tools show that people in Africa exhibited "modern" behaviour as far back as 80-100,000 years ago.

"What has been suggested up until now is that modern human behaviour was a very late occurrence," he said.

"The implication was that though people were anatomically modern in Africa from about 150,000 to 100,000 years ago, they remained behaviourally non-modern until about 40,000 or 50 000 years ago, when they suddenly changed and then moved into Europe and elsewhere."

There have been a few claims of equally old bone tools found at other African sites, such as in the Democratic Republic of Congo. But these have been either single finds or of doubtful authenticity.

However, while Europe has been extensively excavated, many sites in Africa have yet to be examined closely.

This find may mark the beginning of a new understanding of the human fossil record.

The main image on this page comes from the BBC's forthcoming series Walking With Beasts

for information and discusion only,not for profit etc,etc.

[AndrewC]

How disappointing it must be to think that you are as good as it is going to get.

No, when considering self, that is a "healthy" perspective. It is called high self-esteem, too much is arrogance, too little is Darwinist. (yet surprisingly, it appears that most Darwinists are arrogant). You may feel inferior if you wish, that is your prerogative.

[gcruse]

You may feel inferior if you wish, that is your prerogative.

Nicely redundant.  At any rate, as
long as just about every other mammal
on earth can make its own vitamin C
internally, the alleged superiority of
the human body over other animals
is a lie on the face of it.

[AndrewC]

The fact that the patterns found at Erk-el-Ahmar matched those from the North Atlantic core supports our interpretation that the age of the formation - and the hominid tools it contains - is between 1.7 and 2.0 million years old

Looks like they shoehorned that right in.

[AndrewC]

the alleged superiority of the human body over other animals is a lie on the face of it

Well, that does depend on a definition of superiority. Since humans seem to be the only entities proffering an opinion, I believe we win.

[Fiddlstix]

BTTT

[gcruse]

Well, that does depend on a definition of superiority.

Since I don't advocate the perfect creation
of man in situ without the benefit of
evolution, I'll leave the quibbling of just
what superior means to the creationists
who proclaim it.  The point of the
exercise, at any rate, is that humanity
has evolved from something different
than what we see walking around
today.

[Ditto]

You know, my dog makes his own vitamin C. Why can't you?

Your dog also licks its own butt.

[Genesis defender]

You are assuming that God created us as we are today. It is entirely possible that over time, humans as a species lost the ability (through natural selection) to manufacture the fourth enzyme needed to make vitamin C.

Thank you. And it is entirely possible that man was created as in the graphic picture seen at the top of this thread and has evolved into what we are today. As a matter of fact, the inability to make vitamin C suggests that at one time the human diet was so overwhelmingly fruit that we lost the need to make our own C. Use it or lose it.

I think you misunderstood my point and/or I didn't explain my position very well. I was trying to say that I believe humans were created with far better and more efficient bodies than what we have today. When I cited natural selection, it was not in defense of Darwinian evolution. Whenever natural selection occurs, it always results in a loss of genetic information. As specialization occurs in a species or an isolated group of that species, those creatures inevitably lose the genetic potential to produce certain characteristics. Now I could talk about mutations and genetic info, but I would be wandering farther from the original post.

Plus, this thread would end up being hundreds of posts long!

To woolyone: Looks to me that your dog was created diffently than humans.

You could learn some things from your friend gen[e]sis defender.

I agree with woolyone. Furthermore, I believe that <10,000 years ago, God created this universe, in 6 days, and that man was created in God's image. We can't convince each other of anything here on FR; that would take years. Three links to visit as a start for anyone interested would be:

PBS Evolution website

Institute for Creation Research

Answers in Genesis

[Ahban]

Vade!,

Long time no argue bud. I hope all is well on your end.

That's historical times. Pre-history figures to offer a near flat-line graph. Anything else would be a stunner.

It IS a stunner. There was an explosion of art, religion, and creativity in tool use that occurs in conventional dating around 40K ago. The reason it seems flatline is that the non-human hominids did have a nearly flat line for a long time prior to that, before they all (except neadertals) go extinct around 70-80K ago. When true humans arrive, there is a "BIG BANG" of creativity. The earliest art we find is just as advanced as a college freshman art major, given the same materials, could do today.

I should save my articles documenting this to hard drive. All I did was add a bookmark, and those stories have been moved.

[dbbeebs]

Someone pass me a Bible, it's got more truth in it.

I try to keep my religion separate from factual science.

[dbbeebs]

Evolution is a religion in decline...

Great. You'll be able to provide references in biological science journals testifying to this so-called "decline" of evolution.
I'll accept an even dozen as proof of your claim. Cite:

[dbbeebs]

I thought we were on V. 8.0.....

[razorbak]

The discovery suggests that our early human ancestors were far more sophisticated than previously thought.

Virtually every anthropological find I've read about since I was in high school in the '70s contains a sentence like the above. The trend has been toward a younger universe, more sophisticated "prehistoric" men, and catastrophism instead of uniformitarianism as an explanation for the disappearnce of the dinosaurs.

[razorbak]

Do you really expect the proponents of evolution to furnish material concerning its demise?

[razorbak]

Once I was a tadpole beginning to begin, Then I was a froggie with my tail tucked in. Then I was a monkey, swinging from a tree, And now I'm a professor with a Ph.D.

[DouglasKC]

They must not have been too smart or they wouldn't have died off...

[dubyagee]

Nicely redundant. At any rate, as long as just about every other mammal on earth can make its own vitamin C internally, the alleged superiority of the human body over other animals is a lie on the face of it.

Why? Because we can and do eat fruit? Because as humans we actually enjoy fruit? A dog is superior to me because he doesn't want or need fruit? Stunning proof that objectivity can leave you wanting for common sense. ; * )

[woollyone]

Veerryy cute! May I quote you? =)

[gnarledmaw]

Big Bang...