Comments on: The earliest well dated human fossil in Europe

By: charlie

charlie — Sun, 30 Mar 2008 16:13:12 +0000

Parts of North America are African as well as European. Tectonics is a slut that way, topographical DNA is found all over the place in the most unusual nooks and crannies. The point being the Red sea spreading zone and the Dead Sea transform fault are the geological divides. Processes determine classification not provenance. Just saying.

By: Archaeozoo

Archaeozoo — Sun, 30 Mar 2008 07:56:52 +0000

Thank you for explaining the dating methods. I hadn’t heard of them using Aluminium isotopes for that sort of thing before, although I had come across others. I presume they all work in a similar fashion, but on different atomic ‘clocks’?And Martin is correct, the Straits of Gibraltar were swum recently for charity. Sports Relief, if I’m remembering correctly.

By: the real cmf

the real cmf — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 21:31:46 +0000

I like your inclusion of the terms ‘historically and biogeographically’…that will throw her off for sure;-)But…dare I mention those ‘other, less likely to be implicated in international terrorist conspiracy’ Jews of Northern Africa?http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Judaism/ejtoc.htmlThat will really flip her lid…er..yamulka…

By: Greg Laden

Greg Laden — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 20:45:33 +0000

CMF: I know you know enough about the issue at hand (where does Africa end, historically, archaeologically, biogeographically, etc.) … so I fully expect you to handle Elenah when she comes back.

By: the real cmf

the real cmf — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 19:16:42 +0000

(Except the ones that are trolls, of course). I resemble that remark!

By: SteveF

SteveF — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 18:06:46 +0000

Whilst, it may not be one of the hot topics in palaeoanthropology, it’s still a subject that has raised a fair amount of debate and can tell us a fair bit about hominid ecology and behaviour. In particular, there is Wil Roebroeks work with the short chronology stuff (“The earliest occupation of Europe: a short chronology” and “The earliest colonization of Europe: The short chronology revisited”) and the early British material (“The earliest record of human activity in northern Europe”).This is a decent summary, from a plenary lecture Wil gave a couple of years ago:Roebroeks, W. (2006) The human colonisation of Europe: where are we? Journal of Quaternary Science, 21,425-435.This paper focuses on the earlier parts of the human colonisation of Europe and its wider setting and addresses the two basic tasks of archaeologists working in this field: (1) to identify the spatio-temporal patterns of human presence and absence, i.e. getting the pattern ‘right’; (2) to explain these patterns. Archaeologists have invested mostly in the first task, while the second one takes us to the field of biogeography. Study of biogeographical limits of hominins necessitates integration of many aspects of a species, e.g. diet, life history and social organisation, and the way environmental factors shape these. Palaeoanthropologists need to combine these with establishing data on the chronology of hominin presence, on palaeoenvironment and climatic oscillations, on emergence and disappearance of land bridges, and so on. They further have to acknowledge the fact that only very small parts of the former ranges of the species have been sampled ‘adequately’. The paper explores some of the key issues at stake in dealing with the human colonisation of Europe.

By: Greg Laden

Greg Laden — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 16:45:33 +0000

Eleanor, you’ve got one chance to explain yourself and it better be good. My readers are very much annoyed by trolls.(Except the ones that are trolls, of course).Before you answer, look at a map. On by the way, I’m going to throw the Arabian Peninsula in. That’s Africa too. It is hard to draw a certain line in the upper reaches of the twin rivers and the zagros.

By: eleanor

eleanor — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 15:57:31 +0000

You claim:Lebenon, Jordon and Israel are in Africa.It's Lebanon and Jordan. And you're wrong.

By: Athena

Athena — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 12:55:21 +0000

The timing of the earliest occupation of Europe is a hot topic for a reason beyond European ego: it concerns the question of how many human migrations occurred, when/where they started and which particular branch of Homo undertook them.This brings in other fraught yet interesting questions — the biological/cultural/technological status of these hominids, the possibility of branches mingling, etc. Since we don’t have molecular information (mitochondrial or Y-chromosomal), we have to rely on the methods that you outline in your synopsis.

By: Greg Laden

Greg Laden — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 12:29:41 +0000

The med has been virtually empty because of evaporation but that was millions of years before humans, and the crossing points would have been in the Eastern Med.Regarding the centrality of England … you inspired me to put up a new post on exactly that topic (well, actually, an old post from my earlier blog).