1 / 22

Lecture 6 : The Palaeolithic Overview

Lecture 6 : The Palaeolithic Overview. OBJECTIVES SOURCES LOWER PALAEOLITHIC Early hominins Archaic hominins Pre-Modern Homo MIDDLE PALAEOLITHIC Neanderthals ( Homo neanderthalensis ) Homo sapiens UPPER PALAEOLITHIC Dispersal. Objectives.

fran
Download Presentation

Lecture 6 : The Palaeolithic Overview

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. Lecture 6 : The PalaeolithicOverview OBJECTIVES SOURCES LOWER PALAEOLITHIC • Early hominins • Archaic hominins • Pre-Modern Homo MIDDLE PALAEOLITHIC • Neanderthals (Homo neanderthalensis) • Homo sapiens UPPER PALAEOLITHIC • Dispersal

  2. Objectives There are two reasons for taking a historical approach: • To explore how changes in the nature of society in the past created new risks from infectious diseases. • To demonstrate how infectious diseases have influenced the course of history.

  3. Sources • Traditionally our understanding was based on archaeology, palaeontology, physical anthropology, etc. – studies of fossils, skeletal fragments, artefacts, etc. • This has been supplemented in recent years by genetic analysis of DNA. Two main types of study: • Analysis of fossil DNA • Analysis of modern populations • Two types of DNA especially important: • Mitochrondial mtDNA (female line) • Y chromosome Y-DNA (male line)

  4. Origins • The world is about 4.5 to 5 billion (i.e. 5,000 million) years old. • The ancestors of humans (hominins) split from apes. • Our nearest relatives are chimpanzees, from whom we split about 5-8 million years ago. • We split from gorillas about 9-11 million years ago. • Further back we split from the other great apes (e.g. orangutans), lesser apes (e.g. gibbons) and other primates (e.g. monkeys, baboons).

  5. Chimpanzee Gorilla Gibbon Orangutan

  6. Hominin Evolution • Fossil evidence suggests there were many branches and evolutionary dead-ends. • Possible hominins have been found dating back to 6-7 million years ago, but the oldest definite hominins (archaic hominins) date to about 4 million years. • The first hominins classed as belonging to our genus (pre-modern Homo) date to about 2 millions years ago. • Modern humans (Homo sapiens) only evolved about 200,000 years ago.

  7. Early And Archaic Hominins • Our ape-like ancestors descended from trees in Africa about 5-9 million years ago. • Australopithecus (‘southern ape’) is found in east and southern Africa from about 4 million years ago. • Australopithecus was confined to tropical and semi-tropical parts of Africa. • Australopithecus could stand upright and was bipedal. However, it could still climb trees. It may have used crude tools. • Australopithecus was succeeded by Paranthropus, which became extinct about 1 million years ago.

  8. Early And Archaic Hominins

  9. Pre-Modern Homo • Paranthropus overlapped with the first Homo which evolved down a different line. • Homo habilis evolved about 2.5 million years ago. Small in stature. • Homo ergaster is thought to have evolved from H. habilis. • Homo erectusevolved about 1.9 million years ago. Similar in size to modern humans. First to be found outside Africa in the Middle East. • Homo erectus is found in tropical Asia about 1 million years ago and in temperate parts of Asia and Europe by 500,000 years ago. Ate meat and may have become a hunter.

  10. Homo habilis Homo erectus Homo ergaster

  11. Pre-Modern Homo Sites

  12. Diseases Three major implications for diseases: • Descent from the trees – exposure to new vectors and agents. • Omnivorous diet – exposure to zoonoses. • Expansion into new regions – new zoonoses, but fewer helminths. Low population density and mobility provided protection against extinction.

  13. Neanderthals • H. neanderthalensis predominated in Europe and Middle East 200,000 to 30,000 years ago when they became extinct. • Neanderthals were quite advanced. They had large brains, and adapted to colder climates. • They buried their dead and hunted in groups. • They appear to have looked after their injured and may have even developed medicine.

  14. Neanderthal Man

  15. Neanderthal Sites

  16. Modern Homo Sapiens • Homo sapiens evolved around the same time in Africa. • Around 50,000 years ago they developed weapons which could be used to hunt large mammals. • They colonised the Near East by 90,000 BP and Western Europe by 40,000 BP (Cro-Magnon man). • Developed cave art (e.g. Lascaux, France). • Neanderthals disappeared shortly after emergence of Cro-Magnons.

  17. Dispersal • Species of big game became extinct in Africa around 50,000 BP – this may have prompted colonisation of Europe. • Australia was colonised 30,000-40,000 BP. Big game species disappeared around the same time. • Siberia was colonised about 20,000 BP. • North America and South America were colonised by 12,000 BC via Bering Straits and Alaska. Big game species became extinct around 11,000 BC.

  18. Sunda Sahul

  19. Health And Disease • Palaeolithic hunter gatherer societies had a balanced diet and probably enjoyed good health. • Population densities were low. This prevented many diseases becoming endemic. • Population numbers were kept in check by food supplies. • Life expectancy was probably around 40.

More Related