Breaking the Chains
Page 15
The next oldest hominid remains found in Europe date to about 800 000 years ago, and were discovered at Gran Dolina (an area of Atapuerca) in Spain. The find, a lone tibia, has been called Homo antecessor, and researchers claim Homo antecessor was the last common ancestor between modern humans and Neanderthals. Homo antecessor’s tibia (the inner of the two bones extending from the knee to the ankle) was found amongst tools from the later stages of the lower Palaeolithic hand-axe tradition known as Acheulean - the lower Palaeolithic ended about 120 000 years ago; Acheulean hand-axe industries are dated to between 1.5 million and 150 000 years ago. Atapuerca was the scene, in 1976, of an incredible hominid fossil discovery. These remains make up nearly 70 percent of the post cranial remains from the Middle Pleistocene - the Pleistocene lasted from about 1.6 million to about 10 000 years ago, and contained several ice ages. Excavators unearthed over 700 hominid bones that date to about 300 000 years ago. Every bone in the human skeleton was found at the site: Pit of Bones (Sima de los Huesos). The ‘Pit of Bones’ hominid received the designation Homo heidelbergensis. Evidence of Homo heidelbergensis was first discovered in 1907 in the great sand pit at Mauer (south-east of Heidelberg) in Germany. It is thought that Homo heidelbergensis was more like modern humans than any other species that had gone before, and some researchers assert Homo heidelbergensis was the last common ancestor between modern humans and Neanderthals. The ‘Pit of Bones’ fossils display traits that foreshadow European Neanderthal characteristics.
Understanding of any evolutionary relationship between Homo ergaster, Homo erectus, and Homo heidelbergensis is uncertain. Nevertheless, various remains and skulls with ‘mixed features’ (archaic and modern) share the designation heidelbergensis. In general heidelbergensis skulls of both sexes are strong boned with big browridges, jutting faces, long sloping brain cases, and a large dental anatomy - two hominid incisors found at Boxgrove (near Chichester, England) are about 50 percent longer than a modern incisor, and may have been employed as a ‘third hand’. Other evidence from Boxgrove shows that heidelbergensis man and woman were big powerful hominids with robust skeletons, and it has been estimated, from the left tibia found there in 1993, that Boxgrove man stood over six feet tall.
Homo heidelbergensis had a larger brain than Homo erectus, spoke, made better tools, and was a more efficient hunter: sixty miles from Hanover (in Germany) four spears were found in association with Homo heidelbergensis; they date to about 400 000 years ago, and are the oldest hunting weapons ever found - scholars had assumed modern humans invented hunting a mere 40 000 years ago. The Boxgrove fossils, which include the butchered remains of rhino, bear, horse, and dear, date to about 500 000 years ago. Acheulean tools were used to butcher the animals.
Neanderthals succeeded Homo heidelbergensis in Europe sometime after 200 000 years ago, and were replaced in Europe by modern humans about 30 000 years ago. Some scholars believe Neanderthal man was an ancestor of modern humans and little different from Homo heildelbergensis, from whom it is assumed Neanderthal man descended. Other scholars believe Neanderthal man is unrelated to modern humans, even though he was the first hominid to intentionally bury his dead. Unlike Homo erectus and Homo heidelbergensis, Neanderthals used a Mousterian tool kit, and as they had domesticated fire they were able to live in caves - where most Neanderthal fossils come from. Neanderthal remains were first unearthed, during 1856, in a cave in the Neander Valley (near Dusseldorf) in Germany. The brain case of Neanderthal man was longer and lower than in modern humans, but Neanderthal cranial capacity equalled or surpassed that of modern humans - their brains were larger than those of modern humans. Neanderthals and modern humans may have coexisted for thousands of years, and their is evidence from Lisbon, in Portugal, that may provide proof of interbreeding between Neanderthals and modern humans.
Human remains discovered in a rock shelter in the Cro-Magnon hill (near Les Eyzies in the Dordogne area of France) during 1868 proved to be between 10 000 and 35 000 years old. These remains engendered the term Cro-Magnon man. Some scientists believe Cro-Magnon man was little different from Neanderthal man. Like Neanderthal man, Cro-Magnon man buried his dead and used flake tools. Neanderthals are associated with a flake tool industry called Mousterian, Cro-Magnons are associated with a more sophisticated flake tool industry called Aurignacian - some Neanderthal remains have been found in association with Aurignacian tools. Although Cro-Magnons are thought to have been between five feet five inches and five feet seven inches tall, it is generally agreed that they were tall compared to other early humans; it was originally claimed that one individual from the Cro-Magnon hill find was six feet three inches tall, and several Cro-Magnon skeletons from the Grimaldi Caves in Italy were found to have an average height of five feet ten inches. Cro-Magnon people were muscular and powerful. Their skulls were long and narrow, their molars large, and their cranial capacity (1600 cubic centimetres) was larger than the average for modern humans. Cro-Magnons appear to have been a settled people with social networks throughout Europe. They are associated with shelters of skin and shelters of stone (which were intended for year round use), and statuettes of a corpulent woman (like the so-called Venus of Willendorf) which seem to be a phenomenon related to the appearance of humankind’s first religion.