Human Origins Research

This teaching aid reviews the major evolutionary landmarks that over the last sixty million years marked the development of intelligence in Homo sapiens. The discussion begins with social primates and charts the adaptations that ultimately led to the emergence of modern humans including the growth of the brain, increased manual dexterity, and evolution of language. Also considered are adaptations to allow for the digestion of starch, and their impact on early agriculture, the first use of fire and cooking. Discussion includes consideration of the following gene mutations: RNF213 GENE, HAR1 GENE, ARHGAP11B GENE, SLC2A1 GENE, SLC2A4 GENE, HACNS1 GENE, MYH16 GENE, SRGAP2 GENE, FOXP2 GENE, AMY1 GENE

KEYWORDS
ARCHAEOLOGY, BIOLOGICAL ANTHROPOLOGY, HUMAN EVOLUTION, EVOLUTIONARY BIOLOGY, LANGUAGE, GENETICS, HOMO SAPIEN, HOMO HABILIS, AUSTRALOPITHECINES, PRIMATES, CHIMPANZEE, GORILLA, GELADA, MOYAMOYA DISEASE, CAROTID ARTERY, HOMININ, WONDERWERK CAVE, SOUTH AFRICA, STARCH DIET, MEAT DIET, RNF213 GENE MUTATIONS, HAR1 GENE, ARHGAP11B GENE, SLC2A1 GENE, SLC2A4 GENE, HACNS1 GENE, MYH16 GENE, SRGAP2 GENE, FOXP2 GENE, AMY1 GENE

Since the 1960's there has been an idea, a literal illustration of how we evolved. For all of Human time, we have tried to discover our Origins, and illustrate them in a way that makes sense for us.

The March of Progress has been that illustration for over 5 decades now.. But more and more scientists and laymen are finally coming around to the idea that this may not be the best model.

But what do we do to replace it?

Mark Laplume is an artist and independent researcher who has been engaged in making reconstruction drawings of ancient people with elongated skulls. I have already had the pleasure of showcasing his remarkable work in a gallery on fetuses and children with elongated heads, and in a post on the visualization of ancient populations. Mark’s reconstructions were also illustrated in an article on suppressed evidence challenging the Artificial Cranial Deformation paradigm as the only way of explaining elongated skulls. Mark now shares some of his insights into the mystery of elongated skulls with the readers of Ancient Origins.
- See more at: http://www.ancient-origins.net/unexplained-phenomena/story-elongated-skulls-and-denied-history-ancient-people-020143#sthash.VOyADLfY.dpuf

There is no consensus on the chronology of fire use, with suggestions ranging from earliest use by Homo erectus 1.8 mya to relatively recent Anatomically Modern Humans. While it is widely agreed that fire would have been of great assistance in moving into areas with a temperate climate, early sites from middle latitudes across Eurasia lack convincing evidence for fire use before about 400,000 years ago. It is not clear whether this represents a real pattern, or a limitation to past research methods and survival. Establishing a firm chronology for the use of fire requires refined interpretation of fire residues at early sites. An alternative approach, taking the pattern (provisionally) as real, is to investigate how hominins could have solved important survival problems at middle latitudes without using fire. This article addresses strategies for thermoregulation in the absence of fire in conditions experienced by hominins in northwest Europe before 400,000 years ago. Four main hypotheses are proposed, involving strategies based primarily on 1) winter fur and subcutaneous fat, 2) hibernation, 3) enhanced heat production, and 4) a combination of cultural insulation particularly clothing and insulative baby carriers with enhanced heat production. Given the trade-offs of these strategies, I will consider their plausibility for the early occupants of Europe, and discuss how the most plausible strategies could be detected in future research.

Data for the dating of the earliest human art from cave sites at Maros in Sulawesi, Indonesia; Lascaux, Pech Merle, and Chauvet in southern France, and Altamira and El Castillo in Spain are reviewed. Arguments that western Europe was the locus for the development of artistic expression are evaluated and challenged in the light of the dates obtained for Maros cave. The weight of evidence now points to the widespread presence of parietal art across the Eurasian continent from c.40,000 BP, the ultimate origin of which may lie in the African continent c.60,000 BP. This contradicts the Eurocentric notion that a creative explosion took place uniquely in western Europe c.40,000, leading to the establishment of human culture. A further consequence of the dating evidence from Maros cave is to undermine the theory that Neanderthals were the creator of the earliest cave art. As the distribution of Neanderthals was limited to Europe they cannot be relied upon to explain paintings in Asia, which either predate or are contemporary with those found in Europe.

KEYWORDS
PLEISTOCENE, UPPER PALAEOLITHIC, ORIGINS OF ART, PARIETAL ART, CAVE ART, MAROS CAVE, LASCAUX CAVE, PECH MERLE CAVE, CHAUVET CAVE, ALTAMIRA CAVE, EL CASTILLO CAVE, NEANDERTHAL, CREATIVE EXPLOSION, COGNITION

Open-Ended Book Proposal
An American Wellspring
Expanding the Search for Humankind Origins:
A Reexamination of the Western Hemisphere
Abstract:
Please find for your reviewing pleasure my Attachment of the “Book Proposal” as an academia.edu Discussion. The https://www.academia.edu/s/a7ca00a3e2  link takes you to an ongoing Discussion (as of June 2, 2022), at academia.edu. The Discussion includes the "Introduction" a “General Review”, "Chapter Outline", and the First 8 pages of the manuscript. This ‘Book Proposal’ HERE follows a broad standard university-based format, one I originally organized for submission to Princeton University Press. Should a prospective Publisher wish to contact the Author regarding Publishing the manuscript then this Discussion has met its primary intended outcome. A few pages/examples of the content are drawn from the beginning of the manuscript near the end of the "Book Proposal/ Discussion". It represents an example of the general appeal to the readership set in the onset as a historical narrative. The Premise is Centuries-old, far-ranging, and well thought out with over 40 years of personal and corroborative interdisciplinary research contained within the transcript. Geneticist Alan Templeton recently corresponded finding the genetic chapter as being “very stimulating and thought-provoking, and indeed well argued” while archaeologist James Adovasio was in agreement noting; “I carefully read your link and like Dr. Templeton, I am impressed by both your writing style and the manner in which you develop your argument!” They hold strict reservations as to agree with the ‘basic premise’ however while noting that in science it is well and good to keep an “open mind”. The implications attend to the scope of a recent University of Nebraska Press Publication; by Paulette Steeves, The Indigenous Paleolithic of the Western Hemisphere, July 2021, suggesting another level uncompromised by the articulation of the significance beyond the 130-thousand year boundaries established in The Cerruti Mammoth site (Holen et al 2017), the 250 thousand year Central Mexico Hueyatlaco, Valsequillo finds, and even beyond the limitations described in 256 Human Footprints likely dating to 1.3 Million years past (Renne, Nature 2005). Anatomically Sapient Humans (ASH) research from the Western Hemisphere should apply similar timeframes concordant with hominid evolution in the Eastern Hemisphere. This articulation finds that human fossils and footprints have and will be dutifully discovered and optimistically pursued to facilitate this Hypothesis. An inter-disciplinary research strategy is called for, one that initiates a ‘paradigm’ to guide this emerging theory the scope of which was presented 110 years ago by Alfred Russel Wallace and Florentino Ameghino and many others as, “there are those who advance reasons which in their judgment are equally adequate to prove that he was autochthonous in America, whence he spread to the Old World.” (Holmes 1910)
(Keywords: Hypothesis and Hypothesis testing, Human origins, Paleolithic stages(s), Paleoamerican, Paleoindian, pre-Clovis as Reduced Paleolithic, Mousterian Problem, species identification and species concepts in Human Evolution

Lugar: llibreria Documenta, Carrer de Pau Claris, 144, 08009 Barcelona
Fecha: 1 de Junio, a las 19 horas
ciclo "Divulgar al Carrer"

En esta sesión queremos aproximarnos al que hasta ahora es el proyecto de investigación prehistórico mas famoso de España: Atapuerca. Desde hace mas de veinte años sus hallazgos de fósiles humanos producen grandes titulares. La relación de los arqueólogos y paleoantropólogos con los medios de comunicación es casi simbiótica. Los investigadores proclaman no solo haber encontrado al primer europeo, sino también el primer caso de canibalismo, el primer asesinato, el primer entierro y el primer acto simbólico conocido en la historia de la humanidad. En este sentido, Atapuerca puede considerarse una máquina de producir relatos sobre nuestros orígenes y, a la vez, un fenómeno que define el ser humano. ¿Somos violentos y territoriales por naturaleza? O bien, ¿solidarios y compasivos? En esta ocasión vamos a analizar cómo la divulgación científica concurre de forma significativa en la legitimación de las afirmaciones del equipo de investigación de Atapuerca; cómo la ciencia necesita al público.

Where science and myth become one and the same.

It has often been said that humanity’s history is a fabrication, littered with lies and omissions, but this has never been conclusively proven, until now. What has been recently found in Australia is unequivocal in rewriting convenient versions of ancient history and the genesis of modern humans.

We can now verify that Original Elders and Custodians of the Old Way are correct in insisting that Australia is the cradle of humanity, and “that all peoples of the world come from us.” But it doesn’t end there. Religion, art, burial, sailing, astronomy, navigation, democracy, gender equality and all the nobler hallmarks of civilised behaviour, are Original blessings exported from Australia.

There is ample archaeological evidence of the highest pedigree of an ancient sophisticated technology operating in Australia that is still unequalled by today’s standards. And in seeking out the inspiration behind an Australian genesis of modern humans and the rise and fall of some very sophisticated technology, the Original Dreaming Stories and Keepers of the Old Ways stand united behind one non-Earthly standard bearer: the Pleiades.

Between a Rock and a Hard Place focuses on one incredibly profound site and a collection of sacred marked rocks. In combination, this archaeology redefines our collective past and repositions Homo sapiens sapiens ancestry, reminding us that the time is upon us to stop behaving like global vandals and realise that we are indeed, galactic citizens.