From 100th century BCE
Africa
The fossil record discussed here documents the emergence and spread of anatomically modern human forms across Africa during the Middle and Upper Pleistocene. Remains from the Maghrib, the Nile Valley, Ethiopia, East Africa, and southern Africa display mixtures of modern, robust, and archaic characteristics. Their relationships remain unresolved: some may reflect local evolution from archaic populations, while others could represent early modern forms that later contributed to Khoisan and other African lineages.
Continue exploring
The Story
Human fossils associated with Middle Palaeolithic and Middle Stone Age industries occur across several African regions. Dar es-Soltan and Temara in the Maghrib yielded remains associated with Aterian levels and were interpreted as early representatives of modern man. Fossils from the Upper Nile and Ethiopia were described as combining neanderthaloid and non-neanderthaloid characteristics, leaving open whether they reflected hybridization or an emerging modern form.
East African remains from Kanjera and the Omo, in the Kibish Formation, were among the earliest examples of modern man known from the continent in the account. The Omo industry was unknown, while Kanjera was more probably associated with a Middle Stone Age assemblage than with the Acheulian. The quoted thorium-uranium age of approximately 130,000 years for the Omo fossils was treated cautiously, though an early Upper Pleistocene attribution was considered probable.
Southern African fossils provide especially important evidence for early modern variation. Border Cave, Klasies River, Florisbad, Cave of Hearths, and other sites preserve jaws, cranial fragments, and skeletons with combinations of modern and robust traits. Border Cave and Tuinplaats were interpreted as possible early, unspecialized forms of Homo sapiens sapiens, while Florisbad was regarded as an early relatively robust Homo sapiens form.
The evolutionary relationships among these fossils were explicitly unresolved. One hypothesis envisaged modern humans evolving through a Neanderthal stage from a late Homo erectus or rhodesioid gene pool. Another proposed that fossils such as those from Omo and Border Cave descended more directly from an archaic sapiens form represented by Florisbad. Further stratified, well-dated fossils and associated cultural remains were considered necessary to evaluate these possibilities.
From 100th century BCE
Africa
The fossil record discussed here documents the emergence and spread of anatomically modern human forms across Africa during the Middle and Upper Pleistocene. Remains from the Maghrib, the Nile Valley, Ethiopia, East Africa, and southern Africa display mixtures of modern, robust, and archaic characteristics. Their relationships remain unresolved: some may reflect local evolution from archaic populations, while others could represent early modern forms that later contributed to Khoisan and other African lineages.
Continue exploring
The Story
Human fossils associated with Middle Palaeolithic and Middle Stone Age industries occur across several African regions. Dar es-Soltan and Temara in the Maghrib yielded remains associated with Aterian levels and were interpreted as early representatives of modern man. Fossils from the Upper Nile and Ethiopia were described as combining neanderthaloid and non-neanderthaloid characteristics, leaving open whether they reflected hybridization or an emerging modern form.
East African remains from Kanjera and the Omo, in the Kibish Formation, were among the earliest examples of modern man known from the continent in the account. The Omo industry was unknown, while Kanjera was more probably associated with a Middle Stone Age assemblage than with the Acheulian. The quoted thorium-uranium age of approximately 130,000 years for the Omo fossils was treated cautiously, though an early Upper Pleistocene attribution was considered probable.
Southern African fossils provide especially important evidence for early modern variation. Border Cave, Klasies River, Florisbad, Cave of Hearths, and other sites preserve jaws, cranial fragments, and skeletons with combinations of modern and robust traits. Border Cave and Tuinplaats were interpreted as possible early, unspecialized forms of Homo sapiens sapiens, while Florisbad was regarded as an early relatively robust Homo sapiens form.
The evolutionary relationships among these fossils were explicitly unresolved. One hypothesis envisaged modern humans evolving through a Neanderthal stage from a late Homo erectus or rhodesioid gene pool. Another proposed that fossils such as those from Omo and Border Cave descended more directly from an archaic sapiens form represented by Florisbad. Further stratified, well-dated fossils and associated cultural remains were considered necessary to evaluate these possibilities.
Continue the journey
Other paths related to this story.