Terms / Concepts / Features

• "Behavioral Moderns" vs. "Anatomical Moderns"
• "multiregional hypothesis"
  • aka "Complete Replacement model"
• "Out of Africa hypothesis"
  • aka "Eve model"
• Neanderthal "diagnostics": low forehead, high brow ridges, large nasal opening, prognathasm, recessed chin, and "teardrop shaped head."
• Carbon 14 (radiocarbon dating: measures the amount of carbon 14 remaining in fossils)
• ESR
  • electron spin resonance dating
  • measures the amount of radiation trapped in animal teeth
• TL
  • thermoluminescence dating
  • measures the radiation trapped in flints used to keep cooking fires together
• mitochondria
• mitochondrial DNA
• "mitochondrial Eve"
• mutation: alteration of the genetic structure of the DNA
• PCR (polymerase chain reaction: enzyme reproduces genetic sequences)

• Homo erectus left Africa ca. 1.8 -- 2 mya, not 1 mya.
• 100,000 ybp Qafzeh boy is one of the oldest examples of an anatomically modern human being ever found.
• Milford Wolpoof: "We are descendents of Neanderthals." Others say no.
• One problem is deciding the relationship between Qafzeh and Cro-Magnon. For Qafzeh we have modern forms but no evidence of modern behavior. They looked like us, but their behavior evidences an earlier organization. But some aregue that the Qafzeh boy clutching horns suggests ritual burial. Philip Lieberman thinks these are grave goods. But, in general, "they have pre-modern behavior." Between 100,000 and 40,000 important changes may have taken place in the soft tissues (the brain). Standardization of most of the tools suggest that Cro-Magnons were conceptualizing things in "a whole different way."
• The extinction of Neanderthals may have been brought about by a process of marginalization by Cro-Magnon.
• Philip Lieberman:
  • up to 20% of a population has impacted molars
  • Impacted molars was a fatal disease prehistorically

Cultures

• Neanderthal
• Cro-Magnon

Sites

• Cave sites
  • Qafzeh
  • Skhûl (is "100 yards from Tabûn")
  • Tabûn (is "100 yards from Skhûl")
  • Kebara
  • Amud (near Sea of Galilee; inbreeding)
  • Jebel Irhoud
  • La Ferrassie

Individuals

• Milford Wolpoof
  • "Multiregional Hypothesis"
• Christopher Stringer
  • "Out of Africa hypothesis" ("Eve model")
• Rebecca Cann
• "Out of Africa hypothesis" ("Eve model")
• Philip Lieberman
• Qafzeh boy
• Yoel Rak
• Paul Mellars
• Lawrence Keeley
• De Rienza

Question(s)

• When did we become modern?
• Where did we become modern?