On the origin of our species

Stringer, Chris; Galway‐Witham, Julia

doi:10.1038/546212a

Cited by 116 publications

(69 citation statements)

References 14 publications

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“…The European Middle Pleistocene hominin lineage(s) do not directly contribute to the evolution of modern humans -this occurs in Africa (Hublin et al, 2017;Stringer, 2011;Stringer and Galway-Witham, 2017). However, in focusing on a region away from the direct line of sapiens evolution we will provide important comparative data for the character of material culture of our actual ancestor when that lineage becomes clearer.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

From side to side: Symmetry in handaxes in the British Lower and Middle Palaeolithic

McNabb

Cole

Hoggard

2018

Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports

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The Acheulean is defined by its iconic tool type, the handaxe, and a suite of other large cutting tools (LCTs). These tools retain information on technical and procedural practices concerned with the manufacture of these butchery tools and carcass processing knives. The Acheulean straddles the period in which more ancient hominin species (H. erectus and H. heidelbergensis) give way to archaic H. sapiens (sensu lato) amongst whom the ancestor of modern humans may be found. The roots of modern behaviour may be present in these handaxe making hominin species, and the handaxes themselves, through proxy data such as bilateral symmetry, may chart hominin cognitive evolution as researchers such as T. Wynn and F. Coolidge (2016), amongst others, have argued. But the search for the earliest consistent application of symmetry, and its persistence thereafter has been hampered by the lack of large datasets, spanning the temporal extent of the Acheulean, and analysed through a single consistent methodology.Our paper has two aims. The first, and in the absence of a large comparative data set of earlier Acheulean handaxes, is to assess the degree to which symmetry is consistently applied to the making of handaxes in the later Acheulean (=<0.5 mya), a time when bilateral planform symmetry should already be an integral component in handaxe making. The dataset we select is the British Acheulean from MIS 13 -MIS 3/4. To the best of our knowledge this is the first time handaxe symmetry has been assessed on a large body of British Acheulean handaxes. Our second aim is to present a relatively simple and low tech methodology for the analysis of handaxes

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

From side to side: Symmetry in handaxes in the British Lower and Middle Palaeolithic

McNabb

Cole

Hoggard

2018

Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports

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“…However, given the sparse nature of the hominin fossil record, the fact that we have evidence for cannibalism at all infers that the behaviour was perhaps more common within prehistoric populations7 than the number of archaeological sites suggests. Additional support for the possible widespread nature of prehistoric cannibalism comes from genetic studies of global patterns of transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSEs)8, which imply that prehistoric TSE polymorphisms were a routine feature of hominin life.…”

mentioning

confidence: 82%

“…Some sites, such as Krapina (Croatia), Brillenhöhle (Germany) and Monte Cicero (Italy), have served as useful cautionary tales, with initial behavioural interpretations of cannibalism being overturned once additional analyses were carried out on the hominin remains21222324 (although the cases of Krapina and Brillenhöhle remain controversial in that they may well now be cannibalism sites2526). Other specimens, such as those from Bodo27 and Herto728 (Ethiopia), illustrate how our hominin ancestors anthropogenically modified human remains through defleshing; however, it is not clear whether this defleshing was followed by the actual consumption of flesh.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Assessing the calorific significance of episodes of human cannibalism in the Palaeolithic

Cole

2017

Sci Rep

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Episodes of Palaeolithic cannibalism have frequently been defined as ‘nutritional’ in nature, but with little empirical evidence to assess their dietary significance. This paper presents a nutritional template that offers a proxy calorie value for the human body. When applied to the Palaeolithic record, the template provides a framework for assessing the dietary value of prehistoric cannibalistic episodes compared to the faunal record. Results show that humans have a comparable nutritional value to those faunal species that match our typical body weight, but significantly lower than a range of fauna often found in association with anthropogenically modified hominin remains. This could suggest that the motivations behind hominin anthropophagy may not have been purely nutritionally motivated. It is proposed here that the comparatively low nutritional value of hominin cannibalism episodes support more socially or culturally driven narratives in the interpretation of Palaeolithic cannibalism.

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“…The clavicle is short, the scapula protracted, there is little humeral torsion, and the carpal morphology is primitive; these all link H. floresiensis with pre-Homo hominins, such as the australopithecines (Stringer, 2014). The little postcranial evidence that exists shows that H. heidelbergensis adults were tall and robust with possible climatic variation in their body shapes (Stringer, 2013). best supported, interpretation of the data includes African, European, and possibly Asian Mid-Pleistocene material and is thought to be the most probable last common ancestor between H. sapiens and Neanderthals Stringer, 2012b).…”

Section: Homo Heidelbergensismentioning

confidence: 99%

“…As the fossil remains (dated to B50 ka) attributed to the Denisovans are still limited to the phalanx and three very large molars (from other individuals), their overall morphology is still unknown and their relationships to other Pleistocene hominins are incompletely understood. As there are Mid-Pleistocene fossils from Asia (e.g., Maba and Dali from China, Figure 11), it is possible they could represent a branch of H. heidelbergensis ancestral to the Denisovans (Stringer, 2013). Evidence of interbreeding with recent H. sapiens in Southeast Asia and Melanesia shows that the Denisovans were once widespread in the region (Reich et al, 2010).…”

Section: The Denisovansmentioning

confidence: 99%