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Category: Anthropology

Research reveals humans ventured out of Africa repeatedly as early as 400,000 years ago to visit Arabia

Research reveals humans ventured out of Africa repeatedly as early as 400,000 years ago to visit Arabia

Eleanor Scerri, Author provided By Julien Louys, Griffith University; Gilbert Price, The University of Queensland; Huw Groucutt, Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, and Michael Petraglia, Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History If you stood in the middle of the Nefud Desert in central Arabia today, you’d be confronted on all sides by enormous sand dunes, some rising more than 100 meters from the desert floor. The few scraggly bushes make poor browse for…

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For most of human history, equality was the norm. What happened?

For most of human history, equality was the norm. What happened?

Kim Sterelny writes: Most of us live in social worlds that are profoundly unequal, where small elites have vastly more power and wealth than everyone else. Very few of the have-nots find this congenial. As experimental economists have shown, we tend to enter social situations prepared to take a chance and cooperate in collective activities. But if others take more than their share, we resent being played for a sucker. We live in unequal worlds, and few of us are…

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Humans started growing cannabis 12,000 years ago

Humans started growing cannabis 12,000 years ago

ZME Science reports: A new study traced back the origin of cannabis agriculture to nearly 12,000 years ago in East Asia. During this time cannabis was likely a multipurpose crop — it was only 4,000 years ago that farmers started growing different strains for either fiber or drug production. Although it’s largely understudied due to legal reasons, cannabis is one of the first plants to be domesticated by humans. Archaeological studies have found traces of cannabis in various different cultures…

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As little as 1.5% of our genome is ‘uniquely human’

As little as 1.5% of our genome is ‘uniquely human’

Live Science reports: Less than 10% of your genome is unique to modern humans, with the rest being shared with ancient human relatives such as Neanderthals, according to a new study. The study researchers also found that the portion of DNA that’s unique to modern humans is enriched for genes involved with brain development and brain function. This finding suggests that genes for brain development and function are what really set us apart, genetically, from our ancestors. However, it’s unclear…

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51,000-year-old bone carving suggests Neanderthals were true artists

51,000-year-old bone carving suggests Neanderthals were true artists

Gizmondo reports: Patterns deliberately etched onto a bone belonging to a giant deer are signs that Neanderthals possessed the capacity for symbolic thought. Neanderthals decorated themselves with feathers, drew cave paintings, and created jewelry from eagle talons, so it comes as little surprise to learn that Neanderthals also engraved patterns onto bone. The discovery of this 51,000-year-old bone carving, as described in Nature Ecology & Evolution, is more evidence of sophisticated behavior among Neanderthals. “Evidence of artistic decorations would suggest…

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Discovery of ‘Dragon Man’ skull in China may add species to human family tree

Discovery of ‘Dragon Man’ skull in China may add species to human family tree

The New York Times reports: Scientists on Friday announced that a massive fossilized skull that is at least 140,000 years old is a new species of ancient human, a finding that could potentially change prevailing views of how — and even where — our species, Homo sapiens, evolved. The skull belonged to a mature male who had a huge brain, massive brow ridges, deep set eyes and a bulbous nose. It had remained hidden in an abandoned well for 85…

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It looks like the real paleo diet often included lots of grains

It looks like the real paleo diet often included lots of grains

Nature reports: On a clear day, the view from the ruins of Göbekli Tepe stretches across southern Turkey all the way to the Syrian border some 50 kilometres away. At 11,600 years old, this mountaintop archaeological site has been described as the world’s oldest temple — so ancient, in fact, that its T-shaped pillars and circular enclosures pre-date pottery in the Middle East. The people who built these monumental structures were living just before a major transition in human history:…

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For most of human history, equality was the norm

For most of human history, equality was the norm

Kim Sterelny writes: Most of us live in social worlds that are profoundly unequal, where small elites have vastly more power and wealth than everyone else. Very few of the have-nots find this congenial. As experimental economists have shown, we tend to enter social situations prepared to take a chance and cooperate in collective activities. But if others take more than their share, we resent being played for a sucker. We live in unequal worlds, and few of us are…

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How did Neanderthals and other ancient humans learn to count?

How did Neanderthals and other ancient humans learn to count?

Nature reports: Some 60,000 years ago, in what is now western France, a Neanderthal picked up a chunk of hyena femur and a stone tool and began to work. When the task was complete, the bone bore nine notches that were strikingly similar and approximately parallel, as if they were meant to signify something. Francesco d’Errico, an archaeologist at the University of Bordeaux, France, has an idea about the marks. He has examined many ancient carved artefacts during his career,…

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Neanderthals carb loaded, helping grow their big brains

Neanderthals carb loaded, helping grow their big brains

Science reports: Here’s another blow to the popular image of Neanderthals as brutish meat eaters: A new study of bacteria collected from Neanderthal teeth shows that our close cousins ate so many roots, nuts, or other starchy foods that they dramatically altered the type of bacteria in their mouths. The finding suggests our ancestors had adapted to eating lots of starch by at least 600,000 years ago—about the same time as they needed more sugars to fuel a big expansion…

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Tools and voyages suggest Homo erectus invented language

Tools and voyages suggest Homo erectus invented language

Daniel Everett writes: What is the greatest human technological innovation? Fire? The wheel? Penicillin? Clothes? Google? None of these come close. As you read this, you are using the winning technology. The greatest tool in the world is language. Without it there would be no culture, no literature, no science, no history, no commercial enterprise or industry. The genus Homo rules the Earth because it possesses language. But how and when did we build this kingdom of speech? And who…

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Is music what makes us human?

Is music what makes us human?

Kevin Berger writes: In the past two years, the debate over whether music is universal, or even whether that debate has merit, has raged like a battle of the bands among scientists. The stage has expanded from musicology to evolutionary biology to cultural anthropology. This summer, in the journal Behavioral and Brain Sciences, more than 100 scholars sound off on evolution and universality of music. I love the din. The academic discord gives way to a symphony of insights into…

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One incredible ocean crossing may have made human evolution possible

One incredible ocean crossing may have made human evolution possible

Yasni/Shutterstock By Nicholas R. Longrich, University of Bath Humans evolved in Africa, along with chimpanzees, gorillas and monkeys. But primates themselves appear to have evolved elsewhere – likely in Asia – before colonising Africa. At the time, around 50 million years ago, Africa was an island isolated from the rest of the world by ocean – so how did primates get there? A land bridge is the obvious explanation, but the geological evidence currently argues against it. Instead, we’re left…

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How bipedalism led humans down a strange evolutionary path

How bipedalism led humans down a strange evolutionary path

Riley Black writes: No other animal moves the way we do. That’s awfully strange. Even among other two-legged species, none amble about with a straight back and a gait that, technically, is just a form of controlled falling. Our bipedalism doesn’t just set us apart, paleoanthropologist Jeremy DeSilva posits; it’s what makes us human. There’s no shortage of books that propose this or that feature — tool use or self-awareness, for example — as the very definition of humankind. But much of our supposed…

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Modern humanlike brains may have emerged about 1.7 million years ago

Modern humanlike brains may have emerged about 1.7 million years ago

Science News reports: Even after ancient humans took their first steps out of Africa, they still unexpectedly may have possessed brains more like those of great apes than modern humans, a new study suggests. For decades, scientists had thought modern humanlike organization of brain structures evolved soon after the human lineage Homo arose roughly 2.8 million years ago. But an analysis of fossilized human skulls that retain imprints of the brains they once held now suggests such brain development occurred…

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Ancient human migration into Europe revealed via genome analysis

Ancient human migration into Europe revealed via genome analysis

AFP reports: Genetic sequencing of human remains dating back 45,000 years has revealed a previously unknown migration into Europe and showed intermixing with Neanderthals in that period was more common than previously thought. The research is based on analysis of several ancient human remains – including a whole tooth and bone fragments – found in a cave in Bulgaria last year. Genetic sequencing found the remains came from individuals who were more closely linked to present-day populations in east Asia…

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