22. Finlayson, The Humans Who Went Extinct; Finlayson, Neanderthals and Modern Humans.
23. M. I. Eren and S. J. Lycett, ‘Why Levallois? A Morphometric Comparison of Experimental “Preferential” Levallois Flakes versus Debitage Flakes’, PLoS One (2012): 10.1371/journal. pone.0029273.
24. See a recent article supporting this view: N. Boivin et al., ‘Human Dispersal Across Diverse Environments of Asia during the Upper Pleistocene’, Quaternary International (2013):
25. Pearson, ‘Postcranial Remains’.
26. D. A. Raichlen et al., ‘Calcaneus Length Determines Running Economy: Implications for Endurance Running Performance in Modern Humans and Neandertals’, Journal of Human Evolution 60 (2011): 299–308.
CHAPTER 9
1. Out-of-Africa 2 to distinguish it from the earlier expansion of erectus. See, for example, C. Stringer and R. McKie, African Exodus: The Origins of Modern Humanity (London: Jonathan Cape, 1996) for the consensus view.
2. Finlayson, The Humans Who Went Extinct.
3. The Sahara was a land of lakes and large river networks, rich in fauna; Drake et al., ‘Ancient Watercourses’.
4. For a useful recent discussion of the subject see N. Boivin et al., ‘Human Dispersal across Diverse Environments of Asia during the Upper Pleistocene’, Quaternary International (2013):
5. Stewart and Stringer, ‘Human Evolution Out of Africa’.
6. See discussion of the way in which geographical range expansions and contractions take place in Finlayson, The Humans Who Went Extinct.
7. The enigmatic Denisovans have, mercifully, not been given a scientific name that would add further to the confusion. These people seem to have shared a common origin with neanderthalensis but did not contribute to the neanderthalensis gene flow into Eurasian sapiens. They did contribute between 4 and 6 per cent of their genetic material to the genomes of present-day Melanesians but not Australians. It is suggested that the Denisovans had an evolutionary history which was distinct from neanderthalensis and sapiens. J. Krause et al., ‘The Complete Mitochondrial DNA Genome of an Unknown Hominin from Southern Siberia’, Nature 464 (2010): 894–7; D. Reich et al., ‘Genetic History of an Archaic Hominin Group from Denisova Cave in Siberia’, Nature 468 (2010): 1053–60.
8. G. Barker, ‘The “Human Revolution” in Lowland Tropical Southeast Asia: The Antiquity and Behavior of Anatomically Modern Humans at Niah Cave (Sarawak, Borneo)’, Journal of Human Evolution 52 (2007): 243–61.
9. J. Bowler et al., ‘New Ages for Human Occupation and Climatic Change at Lake Mungo, Australia’, Nature 421 (2003): 837–40.
10. Finlayson et al., ‘Biogeography of Human Colonizations’.
11. The Palaearctic is the biogeographical region that encompasses Eurasia, from the British Isles to Japan, southwards to include North Africa and the Middle East. The patterns described are in Finlayson, Avian Survivors.
12. Altitude replicates the climatic effects of latitude.
13. I use the term Himalayas loosely to mean all East Asian high mountain chains.
14. Finlayson et al., ‘Biogeography of Human Colonizations’.
15. M. D. Petraglia and A. Alsharekh, ‘The Middle Palaeolithic of Arabia: Implications for Modern Human Origins, Behaviours and Dispersals’, Antiquity 77 (2003): 671–84.
16. L. V. Golovanova and V. B. Doronichev, ‘The Middle Paleolithic of the Caucasus’, Journal of World Prehistory 17 (2003): 71–140.
17. H. V. Nasab, ‘Paleolithic Archaeology in Iran’, International Journal of Humanities 18 (2011): 63–87.
18. The major difference between the stone-tool making technology on the northern and southern sides of the Caucasus Mountains indicates that the highest peaks marked a cultural boundary for neanderthalensis. O. Bar-Yosef et al., ‘The Implications of the Middle-Upper Paleolithic Chronological Boundary in the Caucasus to Eurasian Prehistory’, Anthropologie 44 (2006): 49–60.
19. R. Pinhasi et al., ‘Revised Age of Late Neanderthal Occupation and the End of the Middle Paleolithic in the Northern Caucasus’, PNAS 108 (2011): 8611–16.
20. Finlayson, Neanderthals and Modern Humans.
21. Finlayson, The Humans Who Went Extinct.
22. Finlayson, The Humans Who Went Extinct.
23. Finlayson, Avian Survivors.
24. Examples include many corvids, such as the choughs Pyrrhocorax and ravens, doves, eagles, creepers Tichodroma, and many others.
25. Finlayson, The Humans Who Went Extinct.
26. M. D. Petraglia et al., ‘The Toba Volcanic Super-Eruption, Environmental Change, and Hominin Occupation History in India over the Last 140,000 Years’, Quaternary International 258 (2012): 119–34.
27. Petraglia et al., ‘The Toba Volcanic Super-Eruption’, have argued for the survival of the Toba eruption by south-east Asian populations, citing the persistence of the Hobbit Homo floresiensis in the vicinity. The Hobbit may be an exception. Being small may have permitted its population to survive in isolation, by exploiting resources that would not have permitted the persistence of the larger erectus. In any case, our knowledge of erectus is limited, with a presence in the area around 100 kyr and a controversial claim down to 50 kyr.
28. Following from the Himalayan and Caucasus-Zagros launchpads, I extend the paradigm here to a different type of launchpad; in this case the Indo-Malayan launchpad would have worked through the opening of rainforest in cold and dry periods, linked to significant exposure of previously submerged land.
29. A. S. Mijares et al., ‘New Evidence for a 67,000-Year-Old Human Presence at Callao Cave, Luzon, Philippines’, Journal of Human Evolution 59 (2010): 123–32.
30. C. Finlayson, ‘The Water Optimisation Hypothesis and the Human Occupation of the Mid-Latitude Belt in the Pleistocene’, Quaternary International 300 (2013): 22–31.
31. Humid regime: rainfall range falls between 1,000 and 1,500 mm/year with 250–300 days of rain/year.
32. Semi-arid regime: rainfall range falls between 400 and 600 mm/year with 160–210 days of rain/year. Arid regime: rainfall range falls between 100 and 400 mm/year with 5–160 days of rain/year.
33. C. Lévi-Strauss, Structural Anthropology (New York: Basic Books).
34. Finlayson, ‘The Water Optimisation Hypothesis’.
35. Three hundred and fifty-seven sites were identified as having had potential source populations. They covered all continents and the period 200–10 kyr. Several variables were recorded for each of the sites: whether it was a cave or an open air site; its proximity to lake, river, marsh, coast, or other wetland (within 5 km), that is sources of fresh water;and whether large terrestrial mammals, small terrestrial game, rocky habitat mammals, marine/freshwater mammals, or marine/freshwater small game were recorded. The last category included molluscs. In the case of coastline, the distance was estimated to the coastline when the site was occupied. The identified hot spots were southern Africa; the Levant; south-western Iberia; central Mediterranean; north-west Iberia/south-west France; the Circum-Alpine region; the Northern Caucasus/Black Sea; southern Siberia; southern Australia; coastal California; coastal Peru; and coastal Chile.
36. Inland wetlands were close to human occupation sites in 276 cases (77.3 per cent) and the remaining 81 sites (22.7 per cent) were all close to the coast. Coastal sites would have had access to sources of fresh water, particularly in cases of lowered sea levels when coastal oases would have dotted the emerged coastal shelf (Ch. 7).
37. G. Finlayson et al., ‘Dynamics of a Thermo-Mediterranean Coastal Environment—the Coto Doñana National Park’, Quaternary Science Reviews 27 (2008): 2145–52.
38. There is increasing evidence supporting the view that large areas that are today’s Sahara Desert, Arabian Desert, and Thar Desert in India, were once wetter and populated. H. Groucutt and M. D. Petraglia, ‘The Prehistory of the Arabian Peninsula: Deserts, Dispersals, and Demography’, Evolutionary Anthropol
ogy 21 (2012): 113–25; H. V. A. James and M. D. Petraglia, ‘Modern Human Origins and the Evolution of Behavior in the Later Pleistocene Record of South Asia’, Current Anthropology 46 (2005): S3–27; M. Petraglia et al., ‘Middle Paleolithic Occupation on a Marine Isotope Stage 5 Lakeshore in the Nefud Desert, Saudi Arabia’, Quaternary Science Reviews 30 (2011): 1555–9; J. Rose, ‘The Role of the Saharo-Arabian Arid Belt in the Modern Human Expansion’, Acta IV Congress Pen. (2004): 57–67; P. van Peer et al., ‘The Early to Middle Stone Age Transition and the Emergence of Modern Human Behaviour at site 8-B-11, Sai Island, Sudan’, Journal of Human Evolution 45 (2003): 187–93.
39. M. I. Bird, D. Taylor, and C. Hunt, ‘Palaeoenvironments of Insular Southeast Asia during the Last Glacial Period: A Savanna Corridor in Sundaland?’, Quaternary Science Reviews 24 (2005): 2228–42.
40. These were groups concentrated around the central Mediterranean and the Pacific Rim and they were also linked to freshwater or coastal locations.
CHAPTER 10
1. J. Flood, Archaeology of the Dreamtime: The Story of Prehistoric Australia and Its People (Marleston, SA: J. B. Publishing, 2004).
2. L. Beaufort et al., ‘Biomass Burning and Oceanic Primary Production Estimates in the Sulu Sea Area over the last 380 kyr and the East Asian Monsoon Dynamics’, Mar. Geol. 201 (2003): 53–65; G. Anshari et al., ‘Environmental Change and Peatland Forest Dynamics in the Lake Sentarum Area, West Kalimantan, Indonesia’, J. Quat. Sci. 19 (2004): 637–55; Finlayson, The Humans Who Went Extinct, 87.
3. Rapid Inland Expansion view: J. B. Birdsell, ‘The Recalibration of a Paradigm for the First Peopling of Greater Australia’, in J. Allen, J. Golson, and R. Jones (eds.), Sunda and Sahul: Prehistoric Studies in South East Asia, Melanesia and Australia (London: Academic Press, 1977), 113–67. Coastal and Riverine Expansion view: S. Bowdler, ‘The Coastal Colonization of Australia’, in Allen et al. (eds.), Sunda and Sahul, 205–46; Entry via Well-Watered Areas view: D. R. Horton, ‘Water and Woodland: The Peopling of Australia’, Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies Newsletter 16 (1981): 21–7.
4. Smith first reported dates of ~22 kyr but has now extended the date of first occupation to -35 kyr. M. A. Smith, ‘Pleistocene Occupation in Arid Central Australia’, Nature 328 (1987): 710–11; M. A. Smith, ‘Characterizing Late Pleistocene and Holocene Stone Artefact Assemblages from Puritjarra Rock Shelter: A Long Sequence from the Australian Desert’, Records of the Australian Museum 58 (2006): 371–410.
5. S. Bowdler, ‘Homo sapiens in Southeast Asia and the Antipodes: Archaeological Versus Biological Interpretations’, in T. Akazawa, K. Aoki, and T. Kimura (eds.), The Evolution and Dispersal of Modern Humans in Asia (Tokyo: Hokusen-sha, 1992).
6. Finlayson, The Humans Who Went Extinct; Boivin et al., ‘Human Dispersal Across Diverse Environments of Asia’.
7. P. Veth, ‘Islands in the Interior: A Model for the Colonization of Australia’s Arid Zone’, Archaeology in Oceania 24 (1989): 81–92.
8. Kulpi Mara rock shelter: P. B. Thorley, ‘Pleistocene Settlement in the Australian Arid Zone: Occupation of an Inland Riverine Landscape in the Central Australian Ranges’, Antiquity 72 (1998): 34–45. Serpent’s Glen rock shelter: S. O’Connor et al., ‘Serpent’s Glen Rockshelter: Report of the First Pleistocene-Aged Occupation Sequence from the Western Desert’, Australian Archaeology 46 (1998): 12–22.
9. M. A. Smith, ‘The Case for a Resident Human Population in the Central Australian Ranges during Full Glacial Aridity’, Archaeology in Oceania 24 (1989): 93–105.
10. Smith, ‘Characterizing Late Pleistocene and Holocene Stone Artefact Assemblages’.
11. P. Clarke, Where the Ancestors Walked (Crows Nest, NSW: Allen and Unwin, 2003).
12. P. Hiscock, Archaeology of Ancient Australia (London, Routledge, 2008).
13. The crowning achievement of Homo sapiens: the ability of a water-dependent hominid to survive and succeed in some of the most water-deficient environments on Earth.
14. R. Tonkinson, The Mardu Aborigines: Living the Dream in Australia’s Desert (Mason, O.: Cengage Learning, 2008).
15. Lerp: a sweet secretion left by scale insects on leaves.
16. Following R. A. Gould, ‘The Anthropology of Human Residues’, American Anthropologist 80 (1978): 815–35.
17. The Mardu, who were strong advocates of a mixed diet, were adequately nourished, had well-balanced diets, and showed no evidence of vitamin or protein deficiency.
18. The Mardu seasons: Dulbarra, akin to spring; Yalijarra, the hottest part of the year; and Wandajarra, the coldest time of the year. Each season was identified with particular resources that became available.
19. A. Radcliffe-Brown, ‘Notes on the Social Organization of Australian Tribes’, Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland 48 (1918): 222–53.
20. The account of the Murray-Darling people is derived largely from C. Pardoe, ‘The Cemetery as Symbol: The Distribution of Prehistoric Aboriginal Burial Grounds in southeastern Australia’, Archaeology in Oceania 23 (1988): 1–16; C. Pardoe, ‘Riverine, Biological and Cultural Evolution in Southeastern Australia’, Antiquity 69 (1995): 696–713.
21. Skull deformation is the practice of tightly binding a baby’s head with cloth, elongating the skull. In the case of the Murray-Darling people, deformation seems to have been done by the adults applying constant pressure with thumbs and palms to the foreheads of the newborn children. Tooth avulsion is the practice of knocking out specific teeth during a rite of passage from adolescence to adulthood.
CHAPTER 11
1. H. M. Monroe, ‘Australia: The Land Where Time Began. A Biography of the Australian Continent: Puritjarra Cave Rock Shelter’,
2. An ancient lake in the heart of Middle Earth alludes to Lake Chad where Toumaï lived. We do not know if this is where the story started but it would certainly have been a wetland within the core area of Middle Earth. The second story refers to the start of agriculture in the Fertile Crescent, possibly on the banks of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in ancient Mesopotamia, also in the heart of Middle Earth.
3. See, for example, I. Herbinger et al., ‘Territory Characteristics among Three Neighboring Chimpanzee Communities in the Taï National Park, Côte d’Ivoire’, International Journal of Primatology 22 (2001): 143–67.
4. Stringer et al., ‘Neanderthal Exploitation of Marine Mammals in Gibraltar’.
5. C. Shipton et al., ‘Variation in Lithic Technological Strategies among the Neanderthals of Gibraltar’, PLoS One 8 (2013): e65185.
6. The Younger Dryas; Finlayson, The Humans Who Went Extinct, 197.
7. By people staying in wet upland refuges during arid periods and spreading along lowland corridors, associated with water, during wet periods; P. Veth, ‘Islands in the Interior: A Model for the Colonization of Australia’s Arid Zone’, Archaeology in Oceania 24 (1989): 81–92; M. A. Smith, ‘Biogeography, Human Ecology and Prehistory in the Sandridge Deserts’, Australian Archaeology 37 (1993): 35–50.
8. P. Bellwood, First Farmers: The Origins of Agricultural Societies (Oxford, Blackwell, 2005); T. Denham and P. White, The Emergence of Agriculture: A Global View (London: Routledge, 2007); J. Diamond, Guns, Germs and Steel: A Short History of Everybody for the Last 13,000 Years (London, Jonathan Cape, 1997).
9. Canadian biologist Doug Larson has advocated the close links between the modern urban human habitat and the rocky places that we frequented in our past; D. Larson et al., The Urban Cliff Revolution: New Findings on the Origins and Evolution of Human Habitats (Markham, Ont.: Fitzhenry and Whiteside, 2004).
INDEX
Abric Romani, Spain xv
Acheulian technology 58–9, 62, 70–1, 71 Fig. 4, 77, 87, 88, 167n
late arrival in Europe 65
and mobility 52–3, 58, 65, 68
Aduma, Ethiopia 93
aestivation 28
Africa:
australopithecines 29–40<
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changes in relief caused by geological activity 38
cooling and drying 13, 36, 38, 39, 42–3, 60–1, 70, 79–80, 84, 94, 149
earliest recorded humans 46, 54
early hominids 13–19, 21–6, 58
erectus 41–53, 54, 60, 62
habilis/rudolfensis distribution 35
heidelbergensis/rhodesiensis 80–1
as human source area 78
intercontinental population isolation 79–80
intracontinental population isolation and reunification 86
Middle Pleistocene 70, 79–80
Paranthropus distribution 33
paternal (Y chromosome) lineage xvii
wet-dry oscillations 70, 84, 94
see also East Africa; Out-of-Africa models
agriculture 147, 150–2
Aguirre, Emiliano ix
Ain Hanech, Algeria 63–4, 66, 149
Algeria 63, 64, 91
allopatric populations viii
Alps 106
The Improbable Primate Page 18