Homo heidelbergensis

Yerkabuğunu oluşturan sedimanter yani diğer adıyla tortul kayaçlar gerek jeologlar için gerekse birçok doğa bilimci için çoğu zaman bir günlük görevini üstlenmiştir. Bu kayaçlar oluşum aşamalarında bir havza içinde yani diğer bir değişle bir birikim alanında binlerce hatta milyonlarca yıl içinde yavaş yavaş birikirler. Yani bugün kafamızı kaldırıp baktığımız zaman gördüğümüz o koca dağlar, tepeler yıllar içerisinde yağmur, rüzgâr, sıcaklık farkı, akarsu gibi birçok doğa olayı karşısında yeni düşerek yavaş yavaş aşınırlar ve yine akarsular yardımıyla birikim alanlarına yani göllere, denizlere taşınırlar. Yıllar süren bu süreçte biriken kayaç tanelerinin üstünü her zaman daha genç olan taneler örter. Yani bilmemiz gereken şey, bu katmanlarda derinlere indikçe, zamanda geriye gittiğimizdir. Doğanın biz doğa bilimcilere sunduğu bu yapı adeta dünyanın bir günlüğü gibidir, Oluşmuş her katman dünyanın günlüğünde bir sayfayı temsil eder. Eğer siz doğanın yazdığı dilden okumayı biliyorsanız dünyanın gizli günlüğünü okumaktan aldığınız hazzı tarif edilemez şekilde yaşamaya başlarsınız. Zamanda yolculuk yapmak aslında bir bilim kurgu değildir. Hatta doğa bilimciler için belki de gülük hayatın bir parçası olmuştur zamanda yolculuk. Siz her katmanda geriye doğru gittikçe bir kaya parçasının içindeki ufacık bir tanenin milyonlarca yıl süren öyküsüne, belki de o kayaların içiresinde bulunan bir fosilin başından geçenlere tanıklık edersiniz. Ancak doğanın her zaman zor olanı sevdiğini unutmamamız gerekir. Bir jeolog zamanda yolculuk yapmak istiyorsa öncelikle doğanın günlüğüne ulaşmak için doğanın bilmecelerini çözmesi gerekir. Anlayacağınız bu günlüğün sayfaları her zaman ilk yazıldığı günkü gibi dümdüz olmayabilir.

The skull was discovered on June 17th 1921 in a cave of the largest mine in the country at Kabwe situated 650 miles north of Bulawayo, the industrial centre and second-largest city in Zambia. During the survey of the outcrop of an open quarry, the miners intersected a long passage leading to a cave with hominid remains, including the skull of late Middle Pleistocene age about 125, 000 years old.

Present paper synthesizes the process of introduction and development into Europe of the Acheulean technological complex, outlining the possibility that during the Middle Pleistocene cold climatic phases, European human populations could be concentrated into the Mediterranean margins, regions that would act as refuge areas. This recurrent process of demographic retraction and expansion could explain the origin of the Neanderthal morphology.

El presente trabajo sintetiza el proceso de introducción del tecnocomplejo achelense en Europa, planteando la posibilidad de que durante las fases isotópicas pares del Pleistoceno medio el subcontinente viera concentrarse las poblaciones humanas en los márgenes mediterráneos, que actuarían como áreas refugio. Este proceso recurrente de retracciónexpansión podría explicar el origen de la morfología neandertal.

Archaic Homo refers to the human populations or species that were chronologically and anatomically intermediate between Homo erectus and modern Homo sapiens. Archaic Homo can be further subdivided into two chronological groupings, Early and Late Archaics. Anatomically, Archaic Homo exhibit larger braincases than H. erectus as well as greater body mass, among other features. Archaic Homo had controlled and regular use of fire and colonized temperate regions of Eurasia for the first time. In some regions, Archaic Homo populations appear to have directly contributed to the ancestry of modern humans, while the evidence for this in other regions is limited. The overall pattern of evolutionary relationships among Archaic Homo, as elucidated by the available fossil and paleogenomic evidence, indicates that not all archaics and modern humans were reproductively isolated from each other.

Evidence of interpersonal violence has been documented previously in Pleistocene members
of the genus Homo, but only very rarely has this been posited as the possible manner
of death. Here we report the earliest evidence of lethal interpersonal violence in the hominin
fossil record. Cranium 17 recovered from the Sima de los Huesos Middle Pleistocene site
shows two clear perimortem depression fractures on the frontal bone, interpreted as being
produced by two episodes of localized blunt force trauma. The type of injuries, their location,
the strong similarity of the fractures in shape and size, and the different orientations and implied
trajectories of the two fractures suggest they were produced with the same object in
face-to-face interpersonal conflict. Given that either of the two traumatic events was likely
lethal, the presence of multiple blows implies an intention to kill. This finding shows that the
lethal interpersonal violence is an ancient human behavior and has important implications
for the accumulation of bodies at the site, supporting an anthropic origin.

Recent developments in the field of palaeoanthropology necessitate the suppression of two hominin taxa and the introduction of a new species of hominins to help resolve the current nebulous state of Middle Pleistocene (Chibanian) hominin taxonomy. In particular, the poorly defined and variably understood hominin taxa Homo heidelbergensis (both sensu stricto and sensu lato) and Homo rhodesiensis need to be abandoned as they fail to reflect the full range of hominin variability in the Middle Pleistocene. Instead, we propose: (1) introduction of a new taxon, Homo bodoensis sp. nov., as an early Middle Pleistocene ancestor of the Homo sapiens lineage, with a pan-African distribution that extends into the eastern Mediterranean (Southeast Europe and the Levant); (2) that many of the fossils from Western Europe (e.g. Sima de los Huesos) currently assigned to H. heidelbergensis s.s. be reassigned to Homo neanderthalensis to reflect the early appearance of Neanderthal derived traits in the Middle Pleistocene in the region; and (3) that the Middle Pleistocene Asian fossils, particularly from China, likely represent a different lineage altogether.

The classification and phylogenetic relationships of the middle Pleistocene human fossil record remains one of the most intractable problems in paleoanthropology. Several authors have noted broad resemblances between European and African fossils from this period, suggesting a single taxon ancestral to both modern humans and Neanderthals. Others point out 'incipient' Neanderthal features in the morphology of the European sample and have argued for their inclusion in the Neanderthal lineage exclusively, following a model of accretionary evolution of Neanderthals. We approach these questions using geometric morphometric methods which allow the intuitive visualization and quantification of features previously described qualitatively. We apply these techniques to evaluate proposed cranio-facial 'incipient' facial, vault, and basicranial traits in a middle-late Pleistocene European hominin sample when compared to a sample of the same time depth from Africa. Some of the features examined followed the predictions of the accretion model and relate the middle Pleistocene European material to the later Neanderthals. However, although our analysis showed a clear separation between Neanderthals and early/recent modern humans and morphological proximity between European specimens from OIS 7 to 3, it also shows that the European hominins from the first half of the middle Pleistocene still shared most of their cranio-facial architecture with their African contemporaries.

"This thesis aims to explore whether idiosyncrasies in Acheulean handaxe manufacture can be seen and, if so, whether these can be used to trace the actions of hominins within the Lower Palaeolithic. This analysis has important implications for the application of current social theory to Palaeolithic contexts, which advocates a 'bottom-up' approach to archaeological study. This socially orientated theoretical approach emphasises the individual as the primary unit of analysis. However, as Hopkinson and White (2005) state, there is currently no methodology for such an analysis, rendering many discussions as exercises in what has been termed 'theoretical storytelling'.

Using a series of innovative experiments, the questions of whether the individual is a viable unit of analysis was tested. The results show that a suite of other factors that also contribute to stone tool manufacture currently masks the actions of individuals. Chief amongst these is the variability in the raw material nodules selected for reduction. However, intra-site variability may indicate differences that are linked to socially mediated knapping strategies, or 'group templates' (c.f. Ashton and McNabb 1994). While this possibility requires further exploration, this thesis suggests that the individual is currently not viable as a primary unit of analysis within Palaeolithic archaeology and stresses that the theories posited from the standpoint of the individual cannot be interpreted as fact. At the same time, it appears that further work needs to be conducted that focuses on the more traditional group as the primary analytical unit and the prospect of teasing apart the interplay between individuals, groups and the effects of raw material variability."

Volume II of this thesis can be accessed via http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/5946/

La revisión del registro inferopaleolítico europeo permite identificar tres episodios de poblamiento. El segundo de los mismos, datado entre OIS25/OIS24-OIS19/OIS18, ofrece industrias líticas y fósiles humanos que indican un posible origen esteasiático. Se ofrece una síntesis sobre este episodio de dispersión, relacionado con el reemplazo de faunas galerienses. Se analizan las posibles vías migratorias que siguió y los motivos que pudieron ocasionar su interrupción. También se plantean las relaciones filogenéticas de estas poblaciones, insertándolas en el marco evolutivo del Pleistoceno inferior y medio.

On March 2003, the discovery of human fossil footprints on the volcanic ashes of the north eastern slope of Roccamonfina volcano was announced to the world. They were dated to through 40Ar/39Ar to 349±3 ka. For this reason they are still among the oldest ichnological issues known up to now. Furthermore, they are, more specifically, among the rarest ichnological evidence left by Middle-Pleistocene man. These fossil footprints are not randomly located but, on the contrary, they are patterned to form at least two trackways (called "Trackway A" and "Trackway B") whose general shapes have not found comparisons in the world so far. Both trackways branch off from another unique fossil structure, which is the oldest human fossil pathway identified so far. All directly collectable data from these structures has been analysed and published in a series of reports. Although the high antiquity of the footprints has been for a long time the leitmotiv and the most attractive el...

Die Geschichte der Lehrsammlung des Lehrstuhls für Ur- und Frühgeschichte (Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin) reicht zurück bis an den Beginn universitärer Urgeschichtsforschung in Berlin am Anfang des 20. Jahrhunderts. Bereits unter Gustaf Kossinna begann man eine Sammlung von archäologischen Objekten anzulegen. Unter Hans Reinerth, der seit 1935 das neu gegründete Institut für Vor- und germanische Frühgeschichte an der damaligen Friedrich-Wilhelm-Universität zu Berlin leitete, erfolgte der planmäßige Ausbau des Sammlungsbestands. Aus dieser Zeit erhaltene Rechnungsunterlagen geben ein recht detailliertes Bild darüber ab, welche Summen in den Jahren des Institut-Aufbaus für die Lehrsammlung zur Verfügung gestanden haben und welche Objekte gekauft worden sind. (…) Im Folgenden soll eine repräsentative Auswahl an Sammlungen und Einzelobjekten vorgestellt werden, um aufzuzeigen, dass das Spektrum an vorhanden Material durchaus in der Lage ist, den qualitativen Mangel in Bezug auf den Befundkontext aufzuwiegen. (…) Die Vielschichtigkeit der Sammlungsobjekte eröffnet ein breites Feld für Ideen und Möglichkeiten. Als universitäre Einrichtung liegt es m. E. nahe, die Lehrsammlung als regelmäßig wiederkehrendes Forum, eine Begegnungsstätte oder allgemein einen Ort aufzufassen, auf dem in verstärktem Maß dem Dialog zwischen Archäologie und Öffentlichkeit Rechnung getragen wird.

H. heidelbergensis is a critical human
species in the Middle Pleistocene
(~130–780 thousand years ago (ka)). We
know from several beautifully preserved
crania that this species had a large
brain, within the lower range of modern
human variation, and a less robust face
than early fossil humans. We know from
their long bones that they were tall,
strong people. From their associated
archaeology we know they were
capable of producing beautiful tools
such as the large handaxes found in
huge numbers at Boxgrove in Sussex.
But there are many unanswered
questions: who exactly belongs to
the species Homo heidelbergensis,
where did they live, how do they fit into
the human family tree, and are they a
separate species at all?

The existence of calcanei in the fossil record prior to modern humans and Neandertals is very scarce. This skeletal element is fundamental to understanding the evolution of the morphology of the foot in human evolution. Here we present and metrically and comparatively describe 29 calcaneus remains from the Middle Pleistocene site of Sima de los Huesos (SH) (Sierra de Atapuerca, Burgos, Spain). These calcanei belong to 15 individuals (nine adults, two adolescents and four immature individuals). The metric and morphological differences in the calcanei among Middle and Late Pleistocene hominins tend to be subtle. However, the calcanei from SH are broad and robust with large articular surfaces and most significantly, exhibit a very projected sustentaculum tali. A biomechanical and phylogenetic interpretation is proffered to explain the observed morphology of these calcanei. It has been possible to propose tentative sex assignments for the SH calcanei based on size, using methods similar to those used to establish sex from the talus bones from SH. The estimation of stature based on the calcaneus provides a mean of 175.3 cm for males and 160.6 for females, which is similar to that obtained using other skeletal parts from the site. In sum, the SH calcanei are robust with a proportionally long tubercle and a projected sustentaculum tali, which are traits shared by Neandertals.

Archaic Homo refers to the human populations or species that were chronologically and anatomically intermediate between Homo erectus and modern Homo sapiens. Archaic Homo can be further subdivided into two chronological groupings, Early and Late Archaics. Anatomically, Archaic Homo exhibit larger braincases than H. erectus as well as greater body mass, among other features. Archaic Homo had controlled and regular use of fire and colonized temperate regions of Eurasia for the first time. In some regions, Archaic Homo populations appear to have directly contributed to the ancestry of modern humans, while the evidence for this in other regions is limited. The overall pattern of evolutionary relationships among Archaic Homo, as elucidated by the available fossil and paleogenomic evidence, indicates that not all archaics and modern humans were reproductively isolated from each other.

F. Altamura, M.R. Bennett, K. D’Août, S. Gaudzinski-Windheuser, R.T. Melis, S.C. Reynolds, M. Mussi, 2018. Fossil footprints in the Gombore Gully (Melka Kunture, Upper Awash, Ethiopia): A rare snapshot of Pleistocene life and environments, in PESHE 7, Proceedings of the European Society for the study of Human Evolution Vol. 7, Faro, Portugal, 13th-15th September, 2018, p. 5.

Archaic and modern human frontal bones are known to be quite distinct externally, by both conventional visual and metric evaluation. Internally this area of the skull has been considerably less well-studied. Here we present results from a comparison of interior, as well as exterior, frontal bone profiles from CT scans of five mid-Pleistocene and Neanderthal crania and 16 modern humans. Analysis was by a new morphometric method, Procrustes analysis of semi-landmarks, that permits the statistical comparison of curves between landmarks. As expected, we found substantial external differences between archaic and modern samples, differences that are mainly confined to the region around the brow ridge. However, in the inner median-sagittal profile, the shape remained remarkably stable over all 21 specimens. This implies that no significant alteration in this region has taken place over a period of a half-million years or more of evolution, even as considerable external change occurred within the hominid clade spanning several species. This confirms that the forms of the inner and outer aspects of the human frontal bone are determined by entirely independent factors, and further indicates unexpected stability in anterior brain morphology over the period during which modern human cognitive capacities emerged. Anat Rec (New Anat): 257:217-224, 1999.

Efectivamente, son las coordenadas de longitud y latitud de la localización de los yacimientos de Atapuerca, y así figuran en la inscripción como bien Patrimonio de la Humanidad de la UNESCO (World Heritage) desde el 2 de diciembre del año 2000.

Archaic and modern human frontal bones are known to be quite distinct externally, by both conventional visual and metric evaluation. Internally this area of the skull has been considerably less well-studied. Here we present results from a comparison of interior, as well as exterior, frontal bone profiles from CT scans of five mid-Pleistocene and Neanderthal crania and 16 modern humans. Analysis was by a new morphometric method, Procrustes analysis of semi-landmarks, that permits the statistical comparison of curves between landmarks. As expected, we found substantial external differences between archaic and modern samples, differences that are mainly confined to the region around the brow ridge. However, in the inner median-sagittal profile, the shape remained remarkably stable over all 21 specimens. This implies that no significant alteration in this region has taken place over a period of a half-million years or more of evolution, even as considerable external change occurred within the hominid clade spanning several species. This confirms that the forms of the inner and outer aspects of the human frontal bone are determined by entirely independent factors, and further indicates unexpected stability in anterior brain morphology over the period during which modern human cognitive capacities emerged.

Stone-tipped weapons were a significant innovation for Middle Pleistocene hominins. Hafted hunting technology represents the development of new cognitive and social learning mechanisms within the genus Homo, and may have provided a foraging advantage over simpler forms of hunting technology, such as a sharpened wooden spear. However, the nature of this foraging advantage has not been confirmed. Experimental studies and ethnographic reports provide conflicting results regarding the relative importance of the functional, economic, and social roles of hafted hunting technology. The controlled experiment reported here was designed to test the functional hypothesis for stone-tipped weapons using spears and ballistics gelatin. It differs from previous investigations of this type because it includes a quantitative analysis of wound track profiles and focuses specifically on hand-delivered spear technology. Our results do not support the hypothesis that tipped spears penetrate deeper than u...

In drei Horizonten wurde in den Mauerer Sanden nach Kleinsäugerresten gesucht. Zusätzlich zu einer bisher schon bekannten Waldmaus-Art sowie mehreren Wühlmaus-Arten wurde erst­ mals die Spitzmaus-Gattung Sorex gefunden. Damit wird die Existenz einer 'Mauerer Waldzeit', in welcher der Homo heidelbergensis lebte, auch durch weitere Kleinsäuger bestätigt.

[On the micromammal fauna in the Middle Pleistoecene 'Mauer Sands']
We searched three horizons of the ' Mauer Sands' for micromammal remnants, In addition to a previously known species of wood mouse as well as several vole species we found the shrew mouse Sorex for the tirst time. Therewith the existence or a warm period named 'Mauer forest time' du ring which Homo heidelbergensis lived is confirmed by additional micro mammals.

El trabajo aborda una revisión del registro europeo correspondiente al Paleolítico inferior europeo hasta el estadio isotópico 8, a fin de determinar cuándo y como se produjo el proceso de primer poblamiento del continente, así como las rutas de dispersión hacia el continente; su relación con el primer poblamiento de Asia, en el que debe contextualizarse el de Europa, y la especie humanas implicadas en el proceso. Una vez diagnosticada la validez de los diferentes yacimientos considerados, el registro inferopaleolítico de Europa permite establecer un mínimo de tres fases de poblamiento del subcontinente. La evidencias seguras de actividad antrópica más antigua, localizadas todas ellas en la Península Ibérica, son escasas y se datan entre 1,5 y 1,25 ma. BP. No existen datos que indiquen su continuidad. Las similitudes de estos conjuntos líticos con las colecciones documentadas circa 1,8 ma. BP en Dmanisi (Georgia) invitan a considerar la posibilidad de que todos estos yacimientos manifiestan una dispersión de homínidos con origen en África oriental. La mixta parece estar relacionada con las transformaciones de faunas apreciadas en el Cáucaso, Próximo Oriente y Europa en tramo al límite Plio-Pleistoceno convencional, episodio que implicó la difusión de especies africanas en estos ecosistemas. Una segunda fase de poblacimiento del continente, restringido al área mediterráneas, está representada por una nómina de yacimientos algo más nutrida. La misma parece no prolongarse más allá de la transición Pleistoceno inferior/Pleistoceno, datándose entre las trasiciones OIS 25/OIS 24 y OIS 19/OIS 18. Los datos paleoantropológicos y arqueológicos y paleontológicos de estos yacimientos parecen señalar un origen asiático para estas poblaciones, cuya penetración en Europa coincide con el episodio de reemplazo faunístico Galeriense, que implicó la difusión de taxa asiáticos en los ecosistemas europeos.

The site of La Polledrara di Cecanibbio (Rome): a window on the past of the Campagna Romana.
The site of La Polledrara di Cecanibbio (Latium, Italy) is located about 22 kilometers north-west of Rome. The excavation campaigns conducted from 1985 to 2013 revealed 1200 square meters of deposits of a river active in the middle Pleistocene. Two main sedimentary phases have been recognized. First a fluvial episode led to the deposition of thousands of skeletal remains mainly mammals, but also amphibians, reptiles and birds along with lithic and
bone artefacts. Then a swampy phase occurred during which some elephants (Palaeoloxodon antiquus) became trapped in muddy ponds. One of these was surrounded by lithic implements knapped on the site. The tafonomic analysis of this context, including the use-wear analysis, indicates that the elephant’s carcass had been subjected to a butchering activity aimed to collect meat for
food and bones as raw material for tools too.
Keywords: Homo heidelbergensis; Palaeoloxodon antiquus; butchering activities; taphonomy.

Abstract
Angel s Cave (Lucena - Córdoba) is a new Palaeolithic site at the south of the Iberian
Peninsula. The sedimentary deposits were discovered in 1995. We have worked
during four summers. Actually it show a stratigraphy profile with five metres of
potency. Actually we go on working fundamentally with the tipology of the lithic
industries, the fauna and the geology of the cave. The fauna and the lithic industries
that have been recuperated, like the made datations, permit us to show Angel s Cave
like a site of the Middle Pleistocenic and the Old Upper Pleistocenic, for that this cave
is exceptional in the Iberian Peninsula.
Key words
Angel´s Cave. Fauna. Geology. Lithic industries. Acheulean. Lucena. Iberian Peninsula.
Middle Pleistocenic and Old Upper Pleistocenic.

Recent developments in the field of palaeoanthropology necessitate the suppression of two hominin taxa and the introduction of a new species of hominins to help resolve the current nebulous state of Middle Pleistocene (Chibanian) hominin taxonomy. In particular, the poorly defined and variably understood hominin taxa Homo heidelbergensis (both sensu stricto and sensu lato) and Homo rhodesiensis need to be abandoned as they fail to reflect the full range of hominin variability in the Middle Pleistocene. Instead, we propose: (1) introduction of a new taxon, Homo bodoensis sp. nov., as an early Middle Pleistocene ancestor of the Homo sapiens lineage, with a pan-African distribution that extends into the eastern Mediterranean (Southeast Europe and the Levant); (2) that many of the fossils from Western Europe (e.g. Sima de los Huesos) currently assigned to H. heidelbergensis s.s. be reassigned to Homo neanderthalensis to reflect the early appearance of Neanderthal derived traits in the M...

Spain's Murcia University, scientists suggest that early humans who lived in the Cueva Negra (Black Cave) rock-shelter of southeastern Spain about 800,000 years ago used fire, and that they exhibited behaviors that indicated a cognitively sophisticated late early Pleistocene use of resources and tools in their environment. The detailed report is published in the upcoming Volume 15 of Popular Archaeology Magazine.

Archaic and modern human frontal bones are known to be quite distinct externally, by both conventional visual and metric evaluation. Internally this area of the skull has been considerably less well-studied. Here we present results from a comparison of interior, as well as exterior, frontal bone profiles from CT scans of five mid-Pleistocene and Neanderthal crania and 16 modern humans. Analysis was by a new morphometric method, Procrustes analysis of semi-landmarks, that permits the statistical comparison of curves between landmarks. As expected, we found substantial external differences between archaic and modern samples, differences that are mainly confined to the region around the brow ridge. However, in the inner median-sagittal profile, the shape remained remarkably stable over all 21 specimens. This implies that no significant alteration in this region has taken place over a period of a half-million years or more of evolution, even as considerable external change occurred within the hominid clade spanning several species. This confirms that the forms of the inner and outer aspects of the human frontal bone are determined by entirely independent factors, and further indicates unexpected stability in anterior brain morphology over the period during which modern human cognitive capacities emerged. Anat Rec (New Anat): 257:217-224, 1999.