Anthro Lecture 11 2.24

"Go outside naked today." -Dr Eubanks
Did H. erectus have clothes? Worldbuilding ideas
- Cold nighttime temperatures & cooler climates meant that H. erectus probably needed clothes, fire, or both
- Did H. erectus have clothes?
  - Cold nighttime temperatures & cooler climates meant that H. erectus probably needed clothes, fire, or both
  - Indirect Evidence:
    - 90-120 kya, leather-working bone tools from Morocco
    - Elephant tusks and small objects at the site of Castel di Guido, Italy
  - Proposed dates for the first clothes range between 2-3 mya and 90 kya
Skulls of H. erectus (1.8 mya) have recently been discovered at Dmanisi in the country of Georgia. This find is important because it represents the earliest known evidence of a hominin species migrating out of Africa
- Most likely bc climate, migrating w/changing eco zones like other mammals
- Eventually H. erectus colonized cooler environments that would have required cultural adaptations heretofore unseen in any hominin species
First H. erectus fossils found on Java in Indonesia by Eugene Dubois in the 1890, named it "Java Man"
- Dates between 700 kya-1 mya, or slightly older. Took several decades for the theory to be accepted
- Burned soil & wood found near fossils
- Zhoukoudian Cave: Home to "Peking Man"
  - The H. erectus finds at Zhoukoudian Cave likely date 800-200 kya. Included are stone tools & debris, and skeletal remains of men, women, and children
    - Gradual increase of cranial capacity
  - Possible Evidence of burned soil & ash at Zhoukoudian Cave
  - For most of the history of our genus, we shared the planet with other human species
    - Depending on who you ask, there were abt 12 human species
    - Denisova Cave:
      - 250-50 kya
    - Hominin Skull from Northeast CHina was recently analyzed and named H. longi or "Dragon Man." Perhaps related to the Denisovans, or even more closely related to H. sapiens than Neanderthals
      - Cranial capacity overlaps w/both H. sapiens and Neanderthals
    - Between abt 600,000 & 200,000 yrs ago, w/species like H. heidelbergensis, archaic humans were evolving toward more modern forms throughout the Old World
    - H. heidelbergensis split into us, Neanderthals, & Denisovans
    - Neanderthals:
      - 200 kya-40 kya
      - Shorter & stockier than us, larger cranial capacity, occipital bun, larger aw, overall more "robust"
      - How "human" were they?
        
        Cave art
        
        Caring for sick & elderly
        
        Mothers being helped to give birth
        
        Perhaps rituals for the dead
        
        Mousterian tools
        
        Replaced by H. sapiens
        
        not 100% sure why
        
        Beforehand, the climate starts to fluctuate wildly
        
        around 40 ka, volcanic eruption in Ital ruined the climate and Neanderthals' ability to find food
        
        H. sapiens, w/smaller brains, would have needed 100-350 fewer calories per day to survive
    - H. sapiens:
      - 300 kya
      - Out of Africa vs Multiregional
      - H. sapiens are not very genetically diverse
        
        Abt 73,000 yrs ago, Mt. Toba in Indonesia exploded in the largest volcanic event of the past 25 million yrs. It's possible that the explosion and the subsequent volcanic winter had a dramatic effect on our ability to survive
        
        If many H. sapiens died, that could at least partially explain lack of genetic diversity Worldbuilding ideas