Episode 2 - The First Near Easterners

Written By Nicholas Camferdam
Ruins of the medieval Dmanisi castle, with the hominin archaeological site visible in the trees in the background. Note the convergence of the two river valleys just beyond the site, as well as the low trees and brush which characterize the modern e…

Ruins of the medieval Dmanisi castle, with the hominin archaeological site visible in the trees in the background. Note the convergence of the two river valleys just beyond the site, as well as the low trees and brush which characterize the modern environment of this part of Georgia. (Credit: Larry V. Dumlao; Source Link)

Take a deep dive into the (so far) earliest known hominin site outside Africa, and what is arguably the most important archaeological find from the Early Paleolithic: the Georgian site of Dmanisi. Here, around 1.8 million years ago, hominins left us with more than enough evidence to get Near Eastern prehistory started: their food, their tools, and even their skulls. With these remains we learn more about daily life for early Homo, and get even more confused about who early Homo might have been.

Skull 4, the fourth hominin skull found at Dmanisi. This individual was an elderly male, probably in his late fifties, who seems to have lost all of his teeth well before death. Currently located at the David H. Koch Hall of Human Origins at the Smi…

Skull 4, the fourth hominin skull found at Dmanisi. This individual was an elderly male, probably in his late fifties, who seems to have lost all of his teeth well before death. Currently located at the David H. Koch Hall of Human Origins at the Smithsonian Natural History Museum. (Credit: Ryan Somma; Source Link)

Sources

Books

  1. Ayala, F. J., & Conde, C. J. C. (2017). Processes in Human Evolution: The Journey from Early Hominins to Neanderthals and Modern Humans. Oxford University Press.

  2. Dennell, R. (2008). The Palaeolithic Settlement of Asia. Cambridge University Press.

  3. Herrera, R. J., & Garcia-Bertrand, R. (2018). Ancestral DNA, Human Origins, and Migrations. Elsevier Academic Press.

  4. Heyes, C. M., & Huber, L. (Eds.). (2000). The Evolution of Cognition. MIT Press.

  5. Renfrew, C., & Bahn, P. (Eds.). (2014). The Cambridge World Prehistory. Cambridge university Press.

  6. Roberts, J. M., & Westad, O. M. (2014). The Penguin History of the World, 6th Edition. Penguin Random House

  7. Stringer, C. (2012). Lone Survivors: How We Came to be the Only Humans on Earth. Macmillan.

  8. Wenke, R. J., & Olszewski, D. (2006). Patterns in Prehistory: Humankind's First Three Million Years. New York: Oxford University Press.

Research Papers

  1. Agustí, J., & Lordkipanidze, D. (2011). How “African” was the early human dispersal out of Africa?. Quaternary Science Reviews, 30(11-12), 1338-1342.

  2. Lordkipanidze, D., de León, M. S. P., Margvelashvili, A., Rak, Y., Rightmire, G. P., Vekua, A., & Zollikofer, C. P. (2013). A complete skull from Dmanisi, Georgia, and the evolutionary biology of early Homo. Science, 342(6156), 326-331.

  3. Messager, E., Lordkipanidze, D., Kvavadze, E., Ferring, C. R., & Voinchet, P. (2010). Palaeoenvironmental reconstruction of Dmanisi site (Georgia) based on palaeobotanical data. Quaternary International, 223, 20-27.

  4. Rightmire, G. P., de Leon, M. S. P., Lordkipanidze, D., Margvelashvili, A., & Zollikofer, C. P. (2017). Skull 5 from Dmanisi: Descriptive anatomy, comparative studies, and evolutionary significance. Journal of Human Evolution, 104, 50-79.

  5. Rightmire, G. P., Margvelashvili, A., & Lordkipanidze, D. (2019). Variation among the Dmanisi hominins: Multiple taxa or one species?. American Journal of Physical Anthropology, 168(3), 481-495.

  6. Vaesen, K. (2012). The cognitive bases of human tool use. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 35(4), 203-218.

  7. Williams, A. C., & Hill, L. J. (2017). Meat and nicotinamide: a causal role in human evolution, history, and demographics. International Journal of Tryptophan Research, 10, 1178646917704661.

  8. Wood, B. (2011). Did early Homo migrate “out of” or “in to” Africa?. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 108(26), 10375-10376.

  9. Zink, K. D., & Lieberman, D. E. (2016). Impact of meat and Lower Palaeolithic food processing techniques on chewing in humans. Nature, 531(7595), 500.

Articles

  1. Gibbons, A. (November 22, 2016). Meet the frail, small-brained people who first trekked out of Africa. Science Magazine. Retrieved from https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2016/11/meet-frail-small-brained-people-who-first-trekked-out-africa

  2. Ireland, C. (April 3, 2008). Eating meat led to smaller stomachs, bigger brains. The Harvard Gazette. Retrieved from https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2008/04/eating-meat-led-to-smaller-stomachs-bigger-brains/

  3. News Staff (April 7, 2005). Early hominid ‘cared for elderly’. BBC. Retrieved from http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/4418363.stm

  4. News Staff (October 18, 2013). Dmanisi Human: Skull from Georgia Implies All Early Homo Species were One. Sci-News. Retrieved from http://www.sci-news.com/othersciences/anthropology/science-dmanisi-human-skull-georgia-01474.html

  5. Pobiner, B. (2013). Evidence for Meat-Eating by Early Humans. Nature. Retrieved from https://www.nature.com/scitable/knowledge/library/evidence-for-meat-eating-by-early-humans-103874273/

  6. Switek, B. (October 19, 2013). Beautiful Skull Spurs Debate on Human History. National Geographic. Retrieved from https://www.nationalgeographic.com/news/2013/10/131017-skull-human-origins-dmanisi-georgia-erectus/

Useful Links

Main website of Dmanisi archaeological site: http://www.dmanisi.ge/?lang=en

Brief look at Skull 2 (D2282) and Skull 4 (D3444) on Smithsonian website: http://humanorigins.si.edu/evidence/human-fossils/fossils

Nicholas Camferdam
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Episode 3 - Invention and Retention
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Episode 1 - Before the Beginning