2015 MIDATLANTIC ARCHAEOLOGICAL RESEARCH PANEL HOMINID DIG FINDINGS

2015 MIDATLANTIC ARCHAEOLOGICAL RESEARCH PANEL: HOMINID DIG FINDINGS

Australopithecus Physical features (similar to both humans and apes) Strong brow ridge (apes) Small brain case (apes) Bipedal (humans) Beginnings of opposable thumbs and “big toe”

Homo erectus (1. 8 million-300, 000 years ago) First hominid species found outside of Africa (found in Indonesia, China, and Eastern Europe) Survived for nearly 1. 8 million years. In comparison, humans have only been around for 196, 000 years! Physical characteristics First hominid to share similar proportions to modern humans- looked more human than ape Long legs, shorter arms, larger brain than Australopithecus Pelvis and hips had developed so they could walk MORE upright/taller First species to have actively used fire

“Cooked Food Hypothesis” With fire, homo erectus could cook their food Made food tastier and easier to digest Made the extraction of energy from raw ingredients quicker and more efficient. useful for powering an over-sized, energy-hungry brain Homo erectus brain was 50% bigger than the preceding species of human, Homo habilis. Advancement in brain size attributed to development of cooked foods It gave extra energy, used for evolutionary success reduced feeding time, freeing men to hunt lowered weaning time, creating bigger families

Homo neanderthalis (lived 150, 000 -30, 000 years ago) Found in Belgium, Spain, Germany Coexisted with homo sapiens in Europe and Western Asia Huge Skeletons Short, wide hips/legs, big chest SUPER STRONG- could crush a modern-day wrestler Protruding jaw, basically no chin Effects of big muscle mass= draining for body. Required a lot of calories to maintain energy (think Michael Phelps) Evidence suggests Neanderthals may have interbred with homo sapiens As much as 4% of our DNA matches that of Neanderthals

Cultural elements of Neanderthals Limited cognitive abilities Strong evidence that all tools found at Neanderthal sites were copied from Cro-Magnon tools Replicas of knives, spears, arrowheads Possibly buried their dead?

Homo Sapiens (35, 000 -10, 000 years ago) Found in Southern Europe and Eastern Asia First appeared about 150, 000 years ago Brain size Smaller than Neanderthals; HOWEVER, proportionally to body size, homo sapiens have the larger brain Anatomically identical to modern humans

Unique behavior Hunted animals of all sizes, as well as fished Able to craft tools made of different materials and sizes so that they could hunt many different types of animals Basic knives/handaxes spears, harpoons, nets, needles, bow and arrows Symbolic behavior- evidence of this did not appear until about 47, 000 years ago