Cro-Magnons are us?

[zarahan]

On the web, extensive, misleading spam and Wikipedia “stealth” inserts
claim that Cro-Magnons are pure “Caucasian” ancestors of today’s
Europeans. Hard data however debunks this on 6 counts, and shows a
diverse Cro-Magnon population.


1-- Detailed modern cranial studies show Cro-magnon crania clustering
AWAY from today’s Europeans. Brace 2005 tested the “Cro-magnid”
claim and found it “folklore.” QUOTE: "When canonical variates are
plotted, neither sample ties in with Cro-Magnon as was once suggested. ..
If this analysis shows nothing else, it demonstrates that the oft-repeated
European feeling that the Cro-Magnons are “us” (46) is more a product of
anthropological folklore than the result of the metric data available from
the skeletal remains..."
--CL. Brace 2005. The Questionable contribution of the Neolithic to
European craniofacial form



2–Africans possessing the highest phenotypical diversity on earth,
producing variants covering most features. Several Cro-Magnon
specimens are described as ‘negroid.’ QUOTE:

“Both methods for estimating regional diversity show sub-Saharan
Africa to have the highest levels of phenotypic variation consistent with
many genetic studies.“
[-- Relethford, John "Global Analysis of Regional Differences in
Craniometric Diversity .” Hum Bio v73, n5, -629-636])

---------------------- Three scholars (Arthur Keith, M Boule and HV
Valloid found ‘negroid’Cro-Magnon features: QUOTE: "The ancient
Grimaldi woman and boy are of the mixed or negroid type."
--(Arthur Keith. Ancient Types of Man. p. 60)




3- Several Upper Paleolithic European specimens show high cural
indices in limb proportions- more akin to dark-skinned tropical Africans
than today’s Europeans, who show lower cural indices. QUOTE:
"As with all the other limb/trunk indices, the recent Europeans evince
lower indices, reflective of shorter tibiae, and the recent sub-Saharan
Africans have higher indices, reflective of their long tibiae... The Dolno
Vestonice and Pavlov humans.. have body proportions similar to those of
other Gravettian specimens. Specifically, they are characterized by high
bracial and cural indices, indicative of distal limb segment elongation..
.. as a whole, in body shape the Gravettian sample (including most of the
specimens from Dolni Vestonice and Pavlov) are morphologically closer to
the recent Africans than to the recent Europeans. In many cases, recent
Europeans of the same sex with index values identical to the Dolbi
Vestonice and Pavlov individuals are rare indeed. Therefore the overall
pattern that emerges is that the Gravettian himans, despite living in
Europe during a glacial period, evince relatively tropically adapted
physiques (Trinkhaus, 1981; Ruff, 1994; Holliday, 1997a, 1999). The
limb and body proportions of the Dolni Vestonice and (to a lesser degree)
Pavlov fossils conform well to this overall pattern."
--Trinkaus and Svoboda. 2005. Early Modern Human Evolution in Central
Europe]


– AND--

-Body proportions of early European H. sapiens fossils suggest a tropical
adaptation and support an African origin (Holliday & Trinkaus, 1991;
Ruff, 1994; Pearson, 1997, 2000; Holliday, 1997, 1998, 2000).”
-–McBrearty and Brooks 2000. The Revolution that Wasn’t. Jrn Hu Evo
39, 453-563



4-- Traits like narrow noses occur naturally in African
environments:
".. low mean nasal indices (high, narrow noses) tend to [also] be found in
arid regions, such as the desert areas of east Africa.. -- Mays. S. (2010).
The Archaeology of Human Bones. Pg 100-101


5-- Several Upper Paleolithic European types- Predmost (Czech),
Combo Capelle (France) Grimaldi (Italy) and Teviec (France) show a
variant of “African” affinities like prognathism. Some scholars hold this to
be an ‘Eastern Cro-Magnon’ variant: QUOTE:

------ "others like Predomost and to a lesser degree Grimaldi and Teviec,
are more prognathic like Skhul 5."
--Marta Mirazón Lahr. 2005. The Evolution of Modern Human Diversity:
A Study of Cranial Variation

and

---------- ".. on whose basis, many specialists define the eastern
Cro-Magnon variant in the Upper Paleolithic population of western
Europe."
--S. De Laet (1994). History of Humanity, UNESCO


6– DNA provides clear evidence of tropical African types migrating to
Paleolithic era Europe, contradicting claims of “Caucasoid” evolution in
situ. Tropical limb evidence confirms DNA. The African tropical types
may have interbred with local Neanderthals, but in any event would have
adapted to the colder conditions of Europe over time. QUOTE:

"Early modern Europeans reflect both their predominant African early
modern human ancestry and a substantial degree of admixture between
those early modern humans and the indigenous Neandertals. Given the
tens of millennia since then and the limitations inherent in ancient DNA,
this process is largely invisible in the molecular record. It is readily
apparent in the paleontological record.“
--E. Trinkhaus (2004) European early modern humans and the fate of the
Neandertals. PNAS 2007 vol. 104 no. 18 7367-7372

and

"The so-called Old Man [Cro-Magnon 1] became the original model for
what was once termed the Cro-Magnon or Upper Paleolithic "race" of
Europe.. there's no such valid biological category, and Cro-Magnon 1 is
not typical of Upper Paleolithic western Europeans- and not even all that
similar to the other two make skulls found at the site. Most of the genetic
evidence, as well as the newest fossil evidence from Africa argue against
continuous local evolution producing modern groups directly from any
Eurasian pre-modern population.. there's no longer much debate that a
large genetic contribution from migrating early modern Africans infuenced
other groups throughout the Old World.“
--B. Lewis et al. 2008. Understanding Humans: Introduction to Physical
Anthropology and Archaeology. p 297

[zarahan]

Modern "Eurasian Adam" and "Eurasian Eve" evolved
in Africa modern DNA analysis shows

"The vast majority, perhaps all, men with EUropean and Asian genetic
backgrounds can trace their Y-chromosome lineage back to a particulat
male (named M168, after the marker that defines these chromosomes). M168
thus can be considered the Eurasian Adam. ALthough the Y-chromosome Adam
and mitrochondrial Eve did not meet, it is quite possible that the Eurasian "Adam"
M168 could have met his equivalent, the EUrasian Eve (known as L3). The
estimates of their dates overlap (around fifth thousand years ago) and they both
probably lived in northeast Africa. Africa? Tes, Africa. Although nearly all EUrasian
mtDNA and Y chromosomes currently existing can be traced back to L3 and M168
respectively, M168 and L3 also had African descendants."
Norman Johnson (2007) Darwinian Detectives: Revealing the Natural History of
Genes and Genomes. p. 100. [Norman A. Johnson, an evolutionary geneticist,
is the author of numerous research publications, mainly in the genetics and evolution
of reproductive isolation between nascent species. Johnson has taught at the University
of Chicago, University of Texas at Arlington, and the University of Massachusetts].

[zarahan]

www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/romania/5273654/Scientists-reveal-face-of-the-first-European.html



Scientists reveal face of the first European
The face of the first European has been recreated from bone fragments by scientists.

By Urmee Khan, Digital and Media Correspondent

8:22PM BST 04 May 2009

The head was rebuilt in clay based on an incomplete skull and jawbone discovered in a cave in the south west of the Carpathian Mountains in Romania by potholers.
The first modern European Forensic artist Richard Neave reconstructed the face based on skull fragments from 35000 years ago.
The first modern European Forensic artist Richard Neave reconstructed the face based on skull fragments from 35000 years ago.

Using radiocarbon analysis scientists say the man or woman, it is still not possible to determine the sex, lived between 34,000 and 36,000 years ago.

Europe was then occupied by both Neanderthal man, who had been in the region for thousands of years, and anatomically-modern humans – Homo sapiens.

Modern humans first arrived in Europe from Africa.

The skull appears very like humans today, but it also displays more archaic traits, such as very large molar teeth, which led some scientists to speculate the skull may belong to a hybrid between Homo sapiens and Neanderthals – an idea discounted by other experts.
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Erik Trinkaus, professor of anthropology at Washington University in Missouri, said the jaw was the oldest, directly-dated modern human fossil. "Taken together, the material is the first that securely documents what modern humans looked like when they spread into Europe," he said.

The model was created by Richard Neave, a forensic artist, for a BBC programme about the origins of the human race and evolution.

[zarahan]

Advanced cognitive, technological and behavioral patterns derive from
Africa. Dubbed the "Human Revolution" by some researchers, they lead up to the
expansion of humans from Africa to other parts of the world, circa 60-40kya. Other
scholars argue for a more gradual continuum of advances deeply rooted in
Africa that spread worldwide. In either scenario, whether relatively rapid advance
or gradual accumulation, the cognitive, technological and behavioral advances
took place within Africa.

QUOTE:
"Recent research has provided increasing support for the origins of anatomically
and genetically "modern" human populations in Africa between 150,000 and 200,000
years ago, followed by a major dispersal of these populations to both Asia and Europe
sometime after ca. 65,000 before present (B.P.). However, the central question of why it
took these populations {approx}100,000 years to disperse from Africa to other regions of
the world has never been clearly resolved. It is suggested here that the answer may lie
partly in the results of recent DNA studies of present-day African populations, combined
with a spate of new archaeological discoveries in Africa. Studies of both the mitochondrial
DNA (mtDNA) mismatch patterns in modern African populations and related mtDNA
lineage-analysis patterns point to a major demographic expansion centered broadly within
the time range from 80,000 to 60,000 B.P., probably deriving from a small geographical
region of Africa.

Recent archaeological discoveries in southern and eastern Africa suggest that, at approximately
the same time, there was a major increase in the complexity of the technological, economic, social,
and cognitive behavior of certain African groups, which could have led to a major demographic
expansion of these groups in competition with other, adjacent groups. It is suggested that this
complex of behavioral changes (possibly triggered by the rapid environmental changes around
the transition from oxygen isotope stage 5 to stage 4) could have led not only to the expansion of
the L2 and L3 mitochondrial lineages over the whole of Africa but also to the ensuing dispersal of
these modern populations over most regions of Asia, Australasia, and Europe, and their replacement
(with or without interbreeding) of the preceding "archaic" populations in these regions."
---Mellars, Paul (2006) Why did modern human populations disperse from Africa ca. 60,000 years ago?
A new model. PNAS, 2006, 103(25), pp. 9381-9386




Advanced cognitive, artistic and behavioral patterns and technology like more refined tools
are found in Africa long before similar patterns arose in Europe. The migration of tropical
African types to Europe in the Cro-Magnon era brought these cognitive, cultural and behavioral
advances to Neanderthal Europe.

"A more gradual "revolution" position is now held [by Paul Mellars].. a period of
accelerated change in Africa between about 60,000 and 80,000 years ago, as shown
by the following developments recorded in South African cave sites: new and better-
techniques for producing long thin flakes of stone blades; specialized tools called end
scrapers and burins, which were probably used for working skins and bones, the
[production of tiny stone segments that must have mounted on handles of wood or
bone to make composite tools, complexly shaped stone tools such as 'leaf points',
relatively complex bone tools; marine shells perforated to make necklaces or bracelets,
red ochre (natural iron oxide) engraved with geometric designs suggesting early artwork,;
greater permanence and differentiated occupation areas in caves; new subsistence practices
such as the exploitation of marine fish as well as shellfish; and perhaps intentional burning
of undergrowth to encourage the growth of underground plant resources such as tubers.
Mellars suggests that a neurological switch to modernity in the brain alongside rapid
Climatic fluctuations, could have been the driving forces behind this period of heightened
cultural innovations.."

"The most impressive site for early evidence of symbolism however, is Blombos Cave in South
Africa, with a record stretching well beyond 70,000 years ago.. The stone tools in these levels
include Still Bay points, beautifully shaped thin lanceolate spear points, flaked on both sides.
They also show the earliest application of a refined stone tool-making technique known as
pressure flaking, some 55,000 years before its best-known manifestation in the Soultrean
industry of EUrope. Slabs of red ochre were excavated from various levels, including the
deepest ones, with wavy, fan or mesh-shaped patterns carefully engraved on them..
Hundreds [beads made from seashells] have now been excavated from Blombos,
and most show signs of piercing, with many holes also displaying signs of wear.. The
shells have a natural shiny luster, but the color seems to have been modified by rubbing
with hematite in some cases and by heating to darken the shells in other cases, so they
may have been strung in different-colored patterns.. "
--Chris Stringer (2012) Lone Survivors: How we came to be the only human on earth 150-155




Some archaeologists criticize notions of a "human revolution" suddenly
occurring after humans exited Africa for Asia and Europe. Instead they
argue, the supposed "revolutionary" changes in cognition, symbol
manipulation, advanced technology, trade etc were ALREADY occurring
WITHIN Africa, long before any migration out. There is no need for a
'eureka moment' of 'progress' upon leaving Africa. 'Progress' was already
well underway and long in place within Africa. QUOTE:

"This is because by focusing on changes that occurred at the Middle
Paleolithic/Upper Paleolithic or Middle Stone Age/Later Stone Age
transitions (in Europe and Africa, respectively), there is a failure to
appreciate the depth and breadth of the African Middle Stone Age record
that preceded the time of the supposed revolution by at least 100,000
years. In their view, [McBrearty and Brooks 2000] 'modern' features such
as advanced technologies, increased geographic range, specialized hunting,
fishing and shell-fishing, long distance trade, and the symbolic use of
pigments had already developed in a broad range of Middle Stone Age
industries right across Africa, between 100,000 and 250,000 years ago.
This suggested to them that an early assembly of the package of modern
human behaviors occurred in Africa, followed by much later export to the
rest of the world. Thus the origin of our species, both behaviorally and
morphologically, was linked to early developments in Middle Stone Age
technology, and not to changes that occurred much later.. 'this quest for
this 'eureka moment' reveals a great deal about the needs, desired and
aspirations of archaeologists, but obscures rather than illuminates events in
the past.."
--Chris Stringer (2012) Lone Survivors: How we came to be the only
human on earth 128-29

[zarahan]

blombos ochre processing tech



The bogus "generalized Caucasoids" model. This involves defining
away Africoid affinities or features as "generalized" but at the
same time ot treating "European" features the same way. The double
standard only runs one way- if a feature has African affinities-
airbrush it away as "generalized" but otherwise call it "Caucasoid"
or equivalent. This double-standard howevert is contradicted by Africa's
diversity, and clear tropical body/limb proportion affinities of its migrating
peoples

For example, Jantz and Ousley 2003 assert that:
"Upper Paleolithic crania are, for the most part, larger
and more generalized versions of recent Europeans."
(AJPA 121(2))

But their wording gives the game away. They achieve a "match" with
"recent Europeans" because features deemed to have African affinities
are defined away as "generalized." The African irritant thus eliminated,
they can then go on to cluster all else with Europe. Two central
points undermine this method:

-----------CRANIA
Africa has the most diversity in crania in the world. It has almost any skull
variation on earth. This diversity DECREASES the farther one goes from Africa.
As one of the world's foremost palentologists Chris Stringer notes:

"Africa today has the greatest internal genetic variation of any inhabited
continent and its skull shapes show the highest variation. This is usually
attributed to its greater size, larger ancient populations and deepest
timelines for humanity."
----Chris Stringer (2012) Lone Survivors: How we came to be the only
human on earth p260

-----------TROPICAL LIMB/BODY ADAPTATIONS
"Erik Trinkhaus noted that the Cro-Magnons who livd in much the same
environments as Neanderthals were more like recent African populations in
body shape than Neanderthals. And the same thing now seems to apply to the
earliest modern skeleton we have from the north of Ice Age China."
----Chris Stringer (2012) Lone Survivors: How we came to be the only
human on earth p105

Qafzeh/Skhul remains cluster more with tropical Africans and show
similarities to Cro-Magnons. They are not identical, nor are they direct
parents, but they show certain affinities- Cro-Magnons themselves also showing tropical affinities.

i]"The Qafzeh/Skhul sample is fundamentally modern,
and in fact very similar to Cro-Magons.."
--Geoffrey A. Clark, Catherine M. Willermet. 1997.
Conceptual Issues in Modern Human Origins Research. p111

"Results indicate that the Qafzeh-Skhul hominids
have African-like, or tropically adapted,
proportions, while those from Amud, Kebara,
Tabun, and Shanidar (Iraq) have more
European-like, or cold-adapted, proportions. This
suggests that there were in fact two distinct
Western Asian populations and that the
Qafzeh-Skhul hominids were likely African in
origin - a result consistent with the
"Replacement" model of modern human origins.

.. Thus, the discovery of tropically adapted
hominids in the region would therefore
likely indicate population dispersal from
the TROPICS, and the most logical
geographic source for such an influx is
Africa. In this regard, Trinkaus (1981,
1984, 1995) and Ruff (1994) have
argued that the high brachial and crural
indices, narrow biiliac breadths, and
small relative femoral head sizes of the
Qafzeh-Skhul hominids suggest an
influx of African genes associated with
the emergence of modern humans in the
region."
---Trenton Holliday (2000) Evolution at the
Crossroads: Modern Human Emergence in Western
Asia. American Anthropologist. New Series,
Vol. 102, No. 1, 54-68

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Blombos bone points


In summary, Cro-Magnons were tropically adapted migrants to
Europe that resembled tropical Africans. They were never IDENTICAL
to tropical Africans for they adapted over time to colder European
environments. However several specimens still show evidence of
African links. Africa in addition has the highest phenotypic diversity
in the world. For example, skull shapes on African fossils for example
are the most diverse. They cover most known variants in skull shape
on earth- thru the ages. Everything else is a more limited subset of this diversity.
Its worth repeating:

"Africa today has the greatest internal genetic variation of any inhabited
continent and its skull shapes show the highest variation. This is usually
attributed to its greater size, larger ancient populations and deepest
timelines for humanity."
----Chris Stringer (2012) Lone Survivors: How we came to be the only
human on earth p260

When in comes to Cro-Magnons's Eurocentric writers
play a hypocritical double game, defining away African features as
"generalized" but not doing the same when it comes to their favorite
"European" fossils. Thus a dark-skinned, broad nosed, prognathous
fossil with tropical limb proportions becomes "generalized[/img] features"
but a narrow nose (common in Africa by the way) conveniently becomes
"European". Can we all say hypocrisy?


Blombos- Africa: oldest pigment production operation on earth. Advanced
cognitive, behavioral, technological and social features were already
in place and ongoing before any migration out of Africa.



Assorted Multi-regionalists like Michael Wolpoff deny such diversity, but that
denial is hollow in the face of substantial evidence of the Out OF Africa model.
Four prominent multi-regionalists along with Wolpoff claimed in 1994 for example- QUOTE:

"The evolutionary patterns of three different
regions show that the earliest "modern" humans
are not Africans and do not have the complex of
features that characterize the Africans of that
time or any other... There is no evidence of
specific admixture with Africans at any time, let
alone replacement by them.. "
END WOLPOFF et all quote.

But, Wolpoff et al are comprehensively refuted by fossil
and DNA evidence of the Out OF Africa model:
Respected paleontologist Chris Stringer notes: (continued)

"This model gave Africa no special place in our
evolution and claimed specific connections in
individual features between Homo erectus fossils
more than a million years old in each region and
humans in the same regions today.. these particular
views have been pretty comprehensively shown to be false."
----Chris Stringer (2012) Lone Survivors: How we came to be the only
human on earth p267human on earth p267

[zarahan]

Proponents of a "fast track" human "revolution" in cognition,
organization and technology locate the "revolution" as beginning in, and
being sustained from Africa, not other parts of the globe. Other scholars
argue for a more gradual evolution of the traits that brought about
advances in Africa where anatomically modern humans first appeared, and
their expansion to Europe and Asia circa 50kya. Whatever scenario is
followed, it makes little difference. The "revo", gradual or "fast track",
began in Africa and was sustained from thence. - QUOTE:


"..distance and small population size probably limited gene flow, and the
composite fossil and archeological records indicate that the African
lineage spread to replace or swamp the others beginning roughly 50 ky
ago. It is thus reasonable to supply the lineages with biological species
labels: Homo sapiens in Africa, H. neanderthalensis in Europe, and H.
erectus in the Far East. The European lineage is the best documented,73
and it is marked by the progressive accumulation of Neanderthal features,
culminating in the classic Neanderthals by 130 ky ago. During the long
interval when the Neanderthals were evolving, from at least 500 to 130 ky
ago, Europe was generally much cooler than it has been historically, and
some conspicuous Neanderthal distinctions, including massive trunks and
short limbs, were probably physiological adaptations to cold. Other key
distinctions— including, for example, the strong forward projection of the
face along the midline, the unique configuration of the mastoid region and
the occipital, and some peculiarities of the postcranium— may owe more
to gene drift in populations that periodically crashed when climate became
especially cold.

The pertinent African fossil record is much less complete, but it contains
no specimens that anticipate the Neanderthals, and it shows that
anatomically near-modern people were widespread in Africa by 130 ky
ago,74 when only Neanderthals inhabited Europe. The Far Eastern record
is the most sketchy,75 and it may actually comprise two distinct
evolutionary trajectories: one in southeastern Asia that suggests continuity
within Indonesian Homo erectus from before 500 ky ago until perhaps 50
ky ago,76 and a second in China that may indicate evolution from classic
H. erectus before 500 ky ago to populations that by 100 ky ago, retained
few distinctive H. erectus features and that approached H. sapiens in
braincase size and form.77 The relevant archeology suggests that even as
Europeans and Africans progressively diverged in morphology after 500
ky ago, they remained fundamentally similar in behavior.



Thus, both Europeans and Africans produced Acheulean artifacts before
250 ky ago, and they made very similar kinds of non-Acheulean artifacts
afterwards. From a strictly artifactual perspective, a conspicuous
difference between Africa and Europe arose only after 40 ky ago, and it
then occurred in the absence of a morphological contrast, for the artifact
makers on both continents were now H. sapiens of African origin.
Archeological divergence was followed on each continent by a significant
acceleration in artifactual (cultural) differentiation through time and space.
This surely signals the existence of the historically familiar modern human
ability to innovate. If as I suggest, the development of this ability
depended on a biological (neural) change in Africa 50–40 ky ago, then the
name H. sapiens should probably be restricted to fully modern humans
after this time, and their preceding near-modern African ancestors should
be assigned to another species, for which the name H. helmei is
available.78

The more fundamental point, however, is that the sudden origin of the
modern capacity for culture in Africa 50–40 ky ago could help explain
both how and why fully modern Africans were then able to expand at the
expense of their nonmodern Eurasian contemporaries... The issue is
complicated by the realization that Middle Paleolithic people in Europe
were Neanderthals, whereas MSA people in Africa more closely
resembled living people. contexts.

Using this criterion, the most plausible evidence for modern human
behavior before 50 ky ago comes from the Katanda sites in the Democratic
Republic of the Congo121–124 and from Blombos Cave in South
Africa.125–128 At Katanda, electron spin-resonance dates on
hippopotamus teeth and luminescence dates on covering sands bracket
mammal and fish bones, stone artifacts that could be either MSA or LSA,
eight whole or partial barbed bone points, and four additional formal bone
artifacts between 150 and 90 ky ago. At Blombos Cave, luminescence
dates on enclosing sands suggest that mammal and fish bones, classic
MSA stone artifacts, three whole or fragmentary polished bone points, and
17 less formal bone artifacts accumulated around 100 ky ago.129 At both
Katanda and Blombos Cave, the most striking discoveries are the formal
bone artifacts..

.. credible claims for art or other modern human behavioral markers before
50 ky ago must involve relatively large numbers of highly patterned
objects from deeply stratified, sealed contexts would antedate other known
examples, from LSA/Upper Paleolithic sites, by 50 to 40 ky. If the
stratigraphic associations and age estimates at both sites are accepted, they
could imply that modern human behavioral traits and modern morphology
arose in Africa together, at or before 100 ky ago..."

--Richard Klein 1999. Archeology and the Evolution of Human Behavior.
Evolutionary Anthropology. 9(1) 17-36

[zarahan]

The "human revolution" of innovation began in Africa per some scholars
QUOTE:

"Paleolithic scholars working in Africa identify numerous behavioral
innovations associated with the MSA cultural entity. These include (i)
technological standardization in producing diverse point
styles, (ii) abstract thinking and symbolic behavior manifested
in the use of ochre, geometric engraving design,
and use of body adornments, (iii) planning and extensive
alliance networks reflected in long distance raw material
transportation, and (iv) use of aquatic resources [29, 84–86].
These behavioral complexes are thought to have stimulated
economic diversification and dispersals within and out of
Africa in the Upper Pleistocene [ibid.]. Of these, projectile
technology is considered to be an important innovation that
enabled modern humans to broaden their spatial and dietary
niches [29, 30, 87, 88]."

"The Levantine related Levallois method is poorly represented in Oman and
in those areas east of the Rub’al Khali Desert; instead the sites
there display a mosaic of local technological developments
and some East African MSA affinities [69, 104]...

Somewhat appealing evidence concerning Upper Pleistocene
cultural connections between NE Africa and the
Arabian Peninsula comes from the recently excavated MP
assemblage at the site of Jebel Faya 1, UAE [5]. Radiometrically
dated to ¡­127.95 kya, one stratified assemblage at the
site (Assemblage C) contains both small handaxes and foliate
points produced by fac¢¬onnage technology, revealing close
technological similarity with NE African MSA industries
[5, 69]. Two younger assemblages from the site (A and
B) indicate no apparent technotypological affinity with
the Levantine, NE African, or other assemblages in the
Arabian Peninsula [69, page 305]. Interestingly, a surface
MSA assemblage with similar took kit to that of Jebel Faya
Assemblage C has recently been documented on the Eritrean
Red Sea coast, at a site called Asfet [67]."
--Beyin (2011) Upper Pleistocene Human Dispersals out of Africa

[zarahan]

One of the richest European archaeological sites was developed by peoples showing more affinity to tropically adapted types like Africans, than today's cold-adapted Europeans

"The site of 'Sungir', which is located on a tributary of the Oka River at Valdimir in northern Russia at 56 degrees North, is one of the most remarkable Paleolithic sites in the world... Over 50,000 stone artifacts and 10,000 nonstone artifacts were recovered from the large occupation area.." (Hoffecker- 2002- Desolate Landscapes- pg 151)

"Sungir, also produced the richest array of ornaments, decorated objects and figurative art in the early Upper Paleolithic of Eastern Europe.."
--Hoffecker (2002) p. 171

"Thus on the basis of existing evidence, Eastern Europe now reveals the same pattern as Western Europe with respect to the transition from Neanderthals to modern humans. Modern humans appear to represent an intrusive population with clear affinities to earlier Homo sapiens in Africa and the Near East that replaced the local Neanderthal population.. Among the morphological contrasts between the Eastern European modern humans and their Neanderthal predecessors, the evidence for climatic adaptation in the postcranial skeleton is particularly striking. The high brachial and crural indices for the modern humans from Kostenki and Sungir are consistent with a patter of adaptation to temperate and tropical environments among modern population.. following the prediction of Allen's rule concerning the length of extremities. The overall shape and size of the body of the adult male from Kotenski XIV (small and thin) seems to conform to both Bergmann's and Allens's rules for warm climate adaptations (Gerasimova 1982, 256). The same pattern is evident among the West European Cro-Magnon sample (Trinkhaus 1981), but seems more significant in a north Russian setting like Sungir -- at a latitude comparable to that of Kodiak Island, Alaska."
--John F. Hoffecker (2002) Desolate Landscapes: Ice-Age Settlement in Eastern Europe. p. 158

[azrur]

who is "us"?

[zarahan]

Some Environmental disasters hindered early African population growth and agriculture

“Dating from more than 15,000 years ago, the evidence from the Nile valley is arguably the earliest comprehensive instance of an organized food-producing system known anywhere on Earth. Given time, this pioneering system might have developed into the stupendous civilization that ruled ancient Egypt for two and a half millennia from about 5,000 years ago. But it could never be. Disaster struck the Nile Valley as its population reached a peak, and by 10,000 years ago occupation density had plunged to a level only slightly above that known for the time of the Wadi Kubbaniya site. The cause of the calamity originated more than 2,000 kilometers to the south, in central Africa at the headwaters of the Nile, where climatic amelioration which followed the last glacial maximum had brought a very marked increase in rainfall.. Around 13,000 years ago, heavy and persistent whih had already flooded even the desiccated Kalahari basin with a number of large lakes moved steadily northward..

The effects downstream were catastrophic. From a sluggish river flowing through shallow braided channels, the Nile was transformed over a period of five hundred years (12,000 to 11,5000 years ago) into what has been called the 'wild' Nile. Extremely high floods were only the beginning of the problem.. With the Nile now flowing through a single deep channel, the extent of the floodplain was severely reduced. The quantities of available plant foods declined.. The levels to which the human population had soared could not be sustained,.. Conservative assessments conclude that regular annual rain began to fall on the region from about 11,000 years ago; additional rain in the valley can hardly be viewed as compensation for the devastating floods its inhabitants had suffered.."

--Africa: A Biography of the Continent, by John Reader, 1999, pp. 155-156


The "revolution" took place in Africa per scholar John Reader, not "Eurasia"

"The Katanda sites are at least 75,000 and possibly as much as 90,000 years old, an age which demands revision of some entrenched Eurocentric views on human cultural development. Hitherto it had been widely believed that although modern humans had evolved in Africa and first migrated from the continent around 100,000 years ago, the manufacture of specialized tools and the development of sophisticated cultural practices such as complex economic strategies, large scale social networks, personal adornment, and an expanded use of symbols in art and daily life arose in Europe, central Asia, Siberia and the Near East between 40,000 and 30,000 years ago. The Katanda evidence contradicts this view, pushing back the invention of specialized tools at least 35,000 years and making Africa the origin not only of anatomically modern humans but also of modern human behaviour."

--John Reader, 1999, Africa: A Biography Of The Continent, p139

[zarahan]

Crucial human technological innovations first took place during the MSA in Africa.
before the Out of Africa expansion into Eurasia

Recently discovered bone implements from Middle Stone Age (MSA) deposits
at Sibudu Cave, South Africa, confirm the existence of a bone tool industry for the
Howiesons Poort (HP) technocomplex. Previously, an isolated bone point from
Klasies River provided inconclusive evidence. This paper describes three bone
tools: two points and the end of a polished spatula-shaped piece, from unequivocal
HP layers at Sibudu Cave (with ages greater than ?61 ka). Comparative microscopic
and morphometric analysis of the Sibudu specimens together with bone tools from
southern African Middle and Later Stone Age (LSA) deposits, an Iron Age occupation,
nineteenth century Bushman hunter-gatherer toolkits, and bone tools used experimentally
in a variety of tasks, reveals that the Sibudu polished piece has use-wear reminiscent of
that on bones experimentally used to work animal hides. A slender point is consistent with a
pin or needle-like implement, while a larger point, reminiscent of the single specimen from
Peers Cave, parallels large un-poisoned bone arrow points from LSA, Iron Age and historical
Bushman sites. Additional support for the Sibudu point having served as an arrow tip comes
from backed lithics in the HP compatible with this use, and the recovery of older, larger bone
and lithic points from Blombos Cave, interpreted as spear heads. If the bone point from the
HP layers at Sibudu Cave is substantiated by future discoveries, this will push back the origin
of bow and bone arrow technology by at least 20,000 years, and corroborate arguments in
favour of the hypothesis that crucial technological innovations took place during the MSA in Africa.

--Backwella, d'Erricob, and Wadleyd (2008) Middle Stone Age bone tools from the Howiesons
Poort layers, Sibudu Cave, South Africa. Journal of Archaeological Science. Volume 35, Issue 6,
June 2008, Pages 1566–1580 [/b]




Ancient Stone tone assemblages in North Africa suggest closer links with
the African Middle Stone Age industries rather than to the Middle Paleolithic
of western Eurasia.

quote:
North Africa is quickly emerging as one of the more important regions
yielding information on the origins of modern Homo sapiens. Associated with significant
fossil hominin remains are two stone tool industries, the Aterian and Mousterian, which
have been differentiated, respectively, primarily on the basis of the presence and absence
of tanged, or stemmed, stone tools. Largely because of historical reasons, these two
industries have been attributed to the western Eurasian Middle Paleolithic rather than
the African Middle Stone Age. In this paper, drawing on our recent excavation of
Contrebandiers Cave and other published data, we show that, aside from the presence or
absence of tanged pieces, there are no other distinctions between these two industries
in terms of either lithic attributes or chronology. Together, these results demonstrate
that these two ‘industries’ are instead variants of the same entity. Moreover, several
additional characteristics of these assemblages, such as distinctive stone implements
and the manufacture and use of bone tools and possible shell ornaments, suggest a closer
affinity to other Late Pleistocene African Middle Stone Age industries rather than to the
Middle Paleolithic of western Eurasia.

--On the industrial attributions of the Aterian and Mousterian of the Maghreb,
Harold L. Dibble et al. Journal of Human Evolution, 2013 Elsevier.

[zarahan]

Alleged "usustainable" pattern based on limited sampling
in the field not any "flickering" pattern of African development

There is consensus that the modern human lineage appeared in Africa before
100,000 years ago1, 2. But there is debate as to when cultural and cognitive
characteristics typical of modern humans first appeared, and the role that these
had in the expansion of modern humans out of Africa3. Scientists rely on symbolically
specific proxies, such as artistic expression, to document the origins of complex
cognition. Advanced technologies with elaborate chains of production are also proxies,
as these often demand high-fidelity transmission and thus language. Some argue that
advanced technologies in Africa appear and disappear and thus do not indicate
complex cognition exclusive to early modern humans in Africa3, 4. The origins of
composite tools and advanced projectile weapons figure prominently in modern
human evolution research, and the latter have been argued to have been in the exclusive
possession of modern humans5, 6. Here we describe a previously unrecognized advanced
stone tool technology from Pinnacle Point Site 5–6 on the south coast of South Africa, originating
approximately 71,000 years ago. This technology is dominated by the production of small bladelets
(microliths) primarily from heat-treated stone. There is agreement that microlithic technology was
used to create composite tool components as part of advanced projectile weapons7, 8.

Microliths were common worldwide by the mid-Holocene epoch, but have a patchy pattern of first appearance
that is rarely earlier than 40,000 years ago9, 10, and were thought to appear briefly between 65,000
and 60,000 years ago in South Africa and then disappear. Our research extends this record to
~71,000?years, shows that microlithic technology originated early in South Africa, evolved over
a vast time span (~11,000 years), and was typically coupled to complex heat treatment that persisted
for nearly 100,000 years. Advanced technologies in Africa were early and enduring; a small sample
of excavated sites in Africa is the best explanation for any perceived ‘flickering’ pattern."

--Kyle S. Brown, et al 2012. An early and enduring advanced technology originating 71,000
years ago in South Africa, Nature 491, 590-593