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The relationship between Earlier Stone Age (ESA) hominins and the southern African coastal environment has been poorly investigated, despite the high concentration of open-air sites in marine and fluvial terraces of the coastal plain from c. 1Ma onward during the Mid-Pleistocene Transition. Southern Africa provides some of the earliest evidence of coastal subsistence strategies since the end of the Middle Pleistocene, during the Middle Stone Age (MSA). These coastal MSA sites showcase the role of coastal environments in the emergence and development of modern human behaviors. Given the high prevalence of coastal ESA sites throughout the region, we seek to question the relationship between hominins and coastal landscapes much earlier in time. In this regard, the +100 m raised beaches of the Benguela Province, Angola, are key areas as they are well-preserved and contain a dense record of prehistoric occupation from the beginning of the Middle Pleistocene, including sites like Dungo, Mormolo, Sombreiro, Macaca and Punta das Vacas. Accordingly, this paper provides a critical review of the coastal ESA record of southern Africa and a detailed presentation of the Dungo IV site, through a qualitative technological analysis coupled with a quantitative inter-site comparison with contemporary southern African coastal plain sites. Through our detailed technological analyses, we highlight the influence of coastal lithological resources on the technical behaviors of hominin groups, and we propose the existence of a “regional adaptive strategy” in a coastal landscape more than 600 000 years ago. Finally, we argue for the integration of coastal landscapes into hominins’ territories, suggesting that adaptation to coastal environments is actually a slower process which begins with “territorialization” well before the emergence and development of Homo sapiens.

Flat feet (pes planus) are considered a postural defect caused by the collapse of the longitudinal arch, producing complete or near-complete contact of the sole of the foot with the ground. Pes planus has been well-studied in clinical literature and paleoanthropology but has not been approached extensively in bioarchaeology. The main difficulty is related to the diagnosis of this pathology based exclusively on bone remains. In this work, we propose a metric and morphological method to discriminate flat foot in dry bones. Thus, we studied 390 pairs of adult feet in a fair state of preservation from archaeological contexts from Spain, Italy, and Oman. Morphological variability, angles, and dimensions of both the normal bones and the bones displaying flat foot characteristics were analyzed. We found a correlation between the presence of flat foot and some morphological and metric features, mainly in the subtalar and Chopart joints. These results are expressed through a combination of morphological and metric variables, which are useful to discriminate between these two groups. No markedly significant differences of flat foot frequencies between the Spanish and Italian series were found across centuries. However, we noticed a notable increase of the prevalence of flat foot in the contemporary collection, possibly due to the consequences of a rise in life expectancy and modern styles of footwear.

This study was based on the material of two anthropological series originating from the territory of the kurgan cemetery sites at Volna 1 and the Starokorsunskaya settlement 2. Volna 1 is located 10 km from the village of Taman, and according to archaeologists, it could have been a previously unknown Greek Apoykia. To this date, the excavations of the monument have been fully completed, which gives us the opportunity to speak with confidence that 6th–2nd centuries BC is the period it dates back to. The second kurgan cemetery we examined belongs to Starokorsunskaya settlement No. 2 located 6 km from the village. The settlement and the adjacent necropolis have been studied by the Krasnodar archaeological expedition for almost 35 years, as a result we have an extensive anthropological collection, and a part of it became the subject of our study. The monument dates back to the period of 6th century BC – 3rd century AD and is considered to be a reference one of the largest Meotian settlements in the Kuban region. Both sites are characterized by poor preservation of bone tissue and strong skeletons fragmentation. In spite of that, we used the craniophenetic program and studied 81 skulls obtained during excavations of Volna 1 and 60 skulls from the Starokorsunskaya settlement. As a result of pairwise intragroup comparison using the chi-square of the two population groups of Volna 1 6th–4th centuries BC and 4th–2nd centuries BC we cannot speak of a statistically significant difference. When comparing the two sample population groups from Volna 1 and the Meots from the Starokorsunskaya settlement No. 2, a high similarity of the inhabitants of the Black Sea territories with the Meotes from the Kuban region was noted. Probably, this allows us to assume predominance of Meotian groups in Volna 1 population.

The paper presents the results of the anthropological study of a mass grave located in the grounds of the kremlin of Pereslavl-Zalessky (European Russia). It has been preliminary dated to the 13th — first half of the 14th century. This study is aimed at craniological investigation and establishing anthropological connections of the Medieval population of Pereslavl-Zalessky, as well as clarification of the circumstances of appearance of the mass burial within the town territory with the aid of anthropological methods. The human remains were analyzed to identify the number of individuals and to determine their sex and age. Determination of sex and age and recording of injuries were carried out on the craniological material. The craniological program was used to study 28 male and 16 female skulls. A canonical discriminant analysis was used for the intergroup analysis. The mass burial contained separated bones of 80 adults and 19 children. It was possible to identify 30 males and 24 females. The male component of the group was represented by virtually all age groups. The female part comprised mainly women aged 20–35. Therefore, the interred were placed in the grave spontaneously, considerably later after their death; the bodies had time to decompose completely. Eleven instances of skull injuries without signs of necrotic process and healing were recorded. The location and characteristics of the burial and presence of several instances of fatal lacerated wounds indicate that the city residents died in the course of a military clash. Therefore, the studied series represents a time slice of the population of the medieval city. The canonical discriminant analy-sis on the craniological series of 53 revealed that the studied series is distinct from the territorially and chronologically close series of Yaroslavl and Kostroma Krivichs. It also showed that the formation of the population of Pereslavl-Zalessky was strongly influenced by the migration of the Ilmen Slovens and Smolensk-Polotsk Krivichs. Among the specifics of the Pereslavl series, also noteworthy is the strong influence of southern Russian migrants. On the contrary, the influence of the Finno-Ugric morphological component on the urban population of the 13th–14th centuries was very insignificant.

This paper presents an updated view on the morphological and functional significance of the human respiratory system in the context of human evolutionary anatomy. While usually the respiratory system is treated either from a craniofacial perspective, mostly in the context of nasal evolution and air-conditioning, or from a postcranial perspective featuring on overall thoracic shape changes, here we pursue a holistic perspective on the form, function, integration, and evolutionary change of the entire organismal system in hominins. We first present a brief review of the most important morphological structures, their function, and its potential integration and interaction with the nasal cavity and thoracic skeleton. This is followed by an overview of the most important improvements in methods for the comparative study in recent humans and fossil hominins. We then overview and list a compendium of hominin fossil material currently available for the study. We propose four functional categories of hominin respiratory system configurations that differ potentially with respect to size, shape, biomechanics and/or bioenergetics. Finally, we discuss these and speculate on possible ways for future research into an anatomical system that, despite its under-investigated status, is central to the understanding of the form and functions of the hominin organism and its paleobiology., Grant PID2020-115854GB-I00 to MB is funded by MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033 of the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation and the European Union and is linked to PRE2021- 097584 FPI dissertation grant to JMLRP. Grants PID2019-105097RB I00/AEI/10.13039/501100011033) and PDC2022-133532-I00 are funded to MAB. MLC is funded by a FPU21/02087 Dissertation grant. Grant IIPPITD-2021 is funded to APR for stays of UMA researchers in quality research centers.

Before Europeans arrived to Eastern North America, prehistoric, indigenous peoples experienced a number of changes that culminated in the development of sedentary, maize agricultural lifeways of varying complexity. Inherent to these lifeways were several triggers of social stress including population nucleation and increase, intergroup conflict (warfare), and increased territoriality. Here, we examine whether this period of social stress co-varied with deadlier weaponry, specifically, the design of the most commonly found prehistoric archery component in late pre-contact North America: triangular stone arrow tips (TSAT). The examination of modern metal or carbon projectiles, arrows, and arrowheads has demonstrated that smaller arrow tips penetrate deeper into a target than do larger ones. We first experimentally confirm that this relationship applies to arrow tips made from stone hafted onto shafts made from wood. We then statistically assess a large sample (n = 742) of late pre-contact TSAT and show that these specimens are extraordinarily small. Thus, by miniaturizing their arrow tips, prehistoric people in Eastern North America optimized their projectile weaponry for maximum penetration and killing power in warfare and hunting. Finally, we verify that these functional advantages were selected across environmental and cultural boundaries. Thus, while we cannot and should not rule out stochastic, production economizing, or non-adaptive cultural processes as an explanation for TSAT, overall our results are consistent with the hypothesis that broad, socially stressful demographic changes in late pre-contact Eastern North America resulted in the miniaturization–and augmented lethality–of stone tools across the region.

The ROCEEH Out of Africa Database (ROAD; www.roceeh.uni-tuebingen.de/roadweb/) contains data about archaeological, paleoanthropological, paleontological and paleobotanical localities in Africa and Eurasia spanning from three million to 20,000 years ago. The database was conceived in 2008 as the ROCEEH project (www.roceeh.net/) began, and data entry started in 2009. Since then, the multidisciplinary team has integrated over 2,200 localities containing more than 20,000 assemblages collected from over 4,700 publications written in English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Russian and Chinese, among others. ROAD serves as a valuable resource for archaeologists and other paleoscientists because it contains vast amounts of information that can be explored using innovative methods in data science. ROAD is a relational database managed with a PostgreSQL database management system. The database allows user interaction through its application called ROADWeb, which is a web-based application written in .php, javascript and .html (Fig. 1). ROAD and its applications are hosted on a server located at the University of Tübingen. The ROCEEH team purposely chose to use open access software with the intention of increasing the database’s longevity. To make ROAD data more FAIR in the future, the research team is working to incorporate its data into the Semantic Web and Linked Data. Almost all data in the Semantic Web are distributed using Resource Description Framework (RDF), a highly interoperable standard developed by the World International Conference on Cultural Heritage and New Technologies | Vienna | 2022 2 Andrew W. KANDEL et al. Wide Web Consortium (W3C) to describe data or metadata. In 2021, the ROCEEH team completed the development of an RDF data model (i.e. ontology) and the RDF export of ROAD data. In accordance with overriding developments towards open science, ROCEEH registered ROAD with the repository re3data (www.re3data.org/), and published it under an open Creative Commons license (CC BY-SA 4.0). Based on our experience with data models, thesauri and data synthesis, we worked to promote sustainability of the database by developing standardized practices. Our work was complemented by networks of collaboration with ARIADNE, the Coalition for Archaeological Synthesis, and the German National Research Data Infrastructure (NFDI4Objects), among other agencies. ROCEEH first met with the ARIADNEplus team in Prato in January 2020, to plan out a timeline for data integration. After this, ROCEEH began to use ARIADNE’s data infrastructure (portal.ariadneinfrastructure.eu/) in order to map the data contained in ROAD onto ARIADNE’s scheme. With the help of standardized vocabularies such as the Getty Art & Architecture Thesaurus (AAT) and PeriodO, which stores our defined chrono-cultural entities, ROCEEH successfully completed the first round of data integration in September 2021 (Fig. 2). Since then, users are able to search ARIADNE to find the prehistoric data contained in ROAD, a function which enhances the use of both databases. The first update occurred in March 2022, and additional updates are planned every six months. In this presentation we report on some of the pitfalls and successes our team encountered as we tried to make ROAD data available in the ARIADNE portal. For example, one setback occurred when we tried to map ROAD attributes to those of ARIADNE using their 3M tool (Mapping Memory Manager). We could not bring the geological ages of finds in ROAD into ARIADNE’s graph database. The issue was that the model which describes the datasets contained in the ARIADNE catalog (AOCat), offered no appropriate resource class for establishing the geological age of the finds, while this feature was present in ROAD. Another setback occurred during the mapping phase, when we discovered that the Getty AAT lacked certain entries better suited for prehistoric artifacts and cultures. We had to homogenize ROAD data to overcome this. Another issue was the regionalization of ROAD’s cultural entities, as these did not conform well with those in PeriodO. We used alternative labels to solve this. Despite these setbacks, we succeeded in integrating ROAD data and continue to update ARIADNE periodically. We also highlight our ongoing efforts to make the data FAIR (findable, accessible, interoperable, reusable), a philosophy that has become increasingly important in securing the future of Big Data in science. This last topic dovetails nicely into another of ROCEEH’s successes, namely in making ROAD data findable through ARIADNE. Finally, we touch upon some of the recent advances the research team made with regard to the database, and expound briefly on the way in which the team innovated methods, designed applications, developed products and gained perspectives, as these issues may have relevance for the other partners of ARIADNE. To explore the full potential of ROAD and ARIADNE, we encourage you to visit our respective websites (www.roceeh.uni-tuebingen.de/roadweb/ and portal.ariadne-infrastructure.eu/) to discover what else these databases have to offer. Should you wish to explore ROAD further, ROCEEH provides expanded access for anyone interested., {"references":["Bolus, M., A. Bruch, M. Haidle, C. Hertler, J. Heß, Z. Kanaeva, A. Kandel, M. Malina & C. Sommer (2020). Explore the History of Humanity with the new ROAD Summary Data Sheet / Durch die Menschheitsgeschichte mit dem neuen ROAD Summary Data Sheet. Mitteilungen der Gesellschaft für Urgeschichte 29, 145-147. https://doi.org/10.51315/mgfu.2020.29008","Haidle, M.N., M. Bolus, A.A. Bruch, C. Hertler, V. Hochschild, Z. Kanaeva, C. Sommer & A.W. Kandel (2020). Human Origins – Digital Future, an International Conference about the Future of Archaeological and Paleoanthropological Databases (Summary). Evolutionary Anthropology 29, 289-292. https://doi.org/10.1002/evan.21870","Kandel, A.W., M.H. Haidle & C. Sommer (Eds.) In press. Human Origins – Digital Future: An International Conference about the Future of Archaeological and Paleoanthropological Databases, 91 pp. Heidelberg, Propylaeum. https://doi.org/10.11588/propylaeum.882"]}

We review the state of paleoanthropology research in Asia. We survey the fossil record, articulate the current understanding, and delineate the points of contention. Although Asia received less attention than Europe and Africa did in the second half of the twentieth century, an increase in reliably dated fossil materials and the advances in genetics have fueled new research. The long and complex evolutionary history of humans in Asia throughout the Pleistocene can be explained by a balance of mechanisms, between gene flow among different populations and continuity of regional ancestry. This pattern is reflected in fossil morphology and paleogenomics. Critical understanding of the sociocultural forces that shaped the history of hominin fossil research in Asia is important in charting the way forward.

Modern human dispersal to Asia is drawing more researchers' attention as more Asian records become available in archaeology, paleoanthropology and genetics. The ecocultural range expansion model, based on ecological competition between archaic and modern humans and on a population-culture feedback loop, predicts two types of modern human range expansion, namely the first wave and the second wave. This ‘two-wave model’ has been applied to dispersal from the Levant to Europe. Here, in order to apply this model to dispersal in Asia, we modify the model to allow multiple origins of ‘high culture’, which is defined as something that increases carrying capacity and corresponds to the Early Upper Paleolithic in context of Europe. Comparing with empirical records, we suggest that the multiple-origin model explains dispersal to North Asia better than the single-origin model. As for dispersal to South-Southeast Asia and Wallacea, we propose forest or maritime adaptations as 'skills' of the model. We will discuss how empirical records can be interpreted, including pre- and post-50 ka dispersal hypotheses, if we adopt the ecocultural model.

A central goal of paleoanthropology is understanding the role of ecological change in hominin evolution. Over the past several decades researchers have expanded the hominin fossil record and assembled detailed late Cenozoic paleoclimatic, paleoenvironmental, and paleoecological archives. However, effective use of these data is precluded by the limitations of pattern-matching strategies for inferring causal relationships between ecological and evolutionary change. We examine several obstacles that have hindered progress, and highlight recent research that is addressing them by (i) confronting an incomplete fossil record, (ii) contending with datasets spanning varied spatiotemporal scales, and (iii) using theoretical frameworks to build stronger inferences. Expanding on this work promises to transform challenges into opportunities and set the stage for a new phase of paleoanthropological research.

Questions surrounding the timing, extent, and evolutionary consequences of archaic admixture into human populations have a long history in evolutionary anthropology. More recently, advances in human genetics, particularly in the field of ancient DNA, have shed new light on the question of whether or not Homo sapiens interbred with other hominin groups. By the late 1990s, published genetic work had largely concluded that archaic groups made no lasting genetic contribution to modern humans; less than a decade later, this conclusion was reversed following the successful DNA sequencing of an ancient Neanderthal. This reversal of consensus is noteworthy, but the reasoning behind it is not widely understood across all academic communities. There remains a communication gap between population geneticists and paleoanthropologists. In this review, we endeavor to bridge this gap by outlining how technological advancements, new statistical methods, and notable controversies ultimately led to the current consensus.

Bipedalism is a defining feature of the human lineage, but not all hominin species walked in the same way. New data from a famous palaeoanthropology site reveal that at least two differently bipedal hominins roamed eastern Africa. Ancient footprints at Laetoli now assigned to a cross-stepping hominin.

Dissertation ist gesperrt bis zum 31.12.2023 ! Homo sapiens und Homo neanderthalensis sind die am Besten erforschten fossilen menschlichen Gruppen. Viele Fragen bleiben dennoch bezüglich ihrer Evolution, Verwandtschaft und potenzieller Interaktionen offen. In drei Fallstudien wurden daher virtuelle Methoden zur Analyse bisher kaum erforschter Fossilen eingesetzt, um vorhandene Wissenslücken zu verkleinern. Diese bestehen vor allem im östlichen mediterranen Raum, da dieser von der Wissenschaft bisher stark vernachlässigt wurde. Im Fokus der ersten Fallstudie stehen zwei mittelpleistozäne Schädel aus Apidima, Griechenland. Deren Analyse umfasste lineare Metrik, virtuelle Schädelrekonstruktionen und Landmark-basierte Formanalysen des Ektocraniums. Die Ergebnisse bekräftigten die früheren Zuschreibungen von Apidima 2 zur Linie der Neanderthaler und suggerierten eine Zuordnung von Apidima 1 zur Abstammungslinie des modernen Menschen. Letzteres ist ein bedeutender Beitrag zur wissenschaftlichen Debatte über den Zeitpunkt und die Reichweite der Ausbreitung früher moderner Menschen und über die temporären sowie räumlichen Möglichkeiten zur Interaktion zwischen modernen Menschen und Neanderthalern. Die zweite Fallstudie befasst sich mit der taxonomischen Zugehörigkeit eines isolierten oberen Weisheitszahnes aus dem Megalopolis Becken in Griechenland. Frühere taxonomische Zuordnungen wurden durch den fehlenden Kontext und den Erhaltungszustand des Zahnes eingeschränkt. Die Analysen der Form und Gestalt (Form plus Größe) des Umrisses der Zahnkrone zeigten Ähnlichkeiten zu unserer Neanderthaler-Stichprobe auf und reihten den Molaren damit in die zunehmende Anzahl menschlicher Fossilien aus dem pleistozänen Griechenland ein. Im Mittelpunkt der dritten Fallstudie steht die morphologische Zugehörigkeit eines spätpleistozänen juvenilen Oberkieferfragments aus Mugharet el’Aliya, Marokko. In früheren Studien wurde dieses Individuum sowohl als moderner Mensch als auch als Neanderthaler angesprochen. Die innovative Oberflächenregistrierungs-methode ermöglichte erstmals eine Gesamtanalyse der erhaltenen externen Morphologie. Deren Ergebnisse verbinden Mugharet el’Aliya zwar mit einem juvenilen frühen H. sapiens Individuum aus Qafzeh, konnten jedoch keine größenunabhängigen Ähnlichkeiten zu Neanderthalern im vergleichbaren Alter aufzeigen. Dies ist einen wichtigen Beitrag zu unserem Wissen über die faziale Ontogenie in Neanderthalern und H. sapiens und den sich verdichtenden Hinweisen über Ähnlichkeiten in kranial-dentaler Morphologie zwischen Nordwest Afrika und der Levante in der Mittelsteinzeit. Diese Dissertation verwendet virtuelle Methoden zur Studie fragmentarischer menschlicher Fossilien und integriert diese in die wissenschaftliche Diskussion über fossile H. sapiens und Neanderthaler, deren fazialer Evolution und Ontogenie sowie Ausbreitungen von frühen H. sapiens außerhalb von Afrika. Homo sapiens and Homo neanderthalensis are the best studied hominin groups. However, many questions remain regarding their evolution, relationships and potential interaction. To reduce existing knowledge gaps three virtual anthropological case studies focused on so far poorly studied fossil materials from understudied Mediterranean regions. In the first case study, the two partial Middle Pleistocene crania from Apidima were analyzed via metrics, virtual cranial reconstruction and ectocranial landmark-based shape analysis. The results supported previous attributions of Apidima 2 to the Neanderthal lineage and suggested an association of Apidima 1 with the H. sapiens lineage. The latter contributed to the scientific debate about the timing and range of early H. sapiens dispersals out of Africa and the temporal and spatial possibilities for interaction between H. sapiens and Neanderthals. The second case study was concerned with the taxonomic affiliation of an isolated upper wisdom tooth from the Megalopolis Basin, Greece. Its lack of context and state of preservation limited previous taxonomic attributions. The analyses of dental crown outline shape and form (shape plus size) showed similarities to our Neanderthal sample and thereby, are in agreement with including the molar into the growing Pleistocene Greek hominin fossil record. The morphological affinities of a Late Pleistocene juvenile maxillary fragment from Mugharet el’Aliya, Morocco, were in focus of the third case study. This individual has previously been assigned to both the modern human and Neanderthal lineage. Analyses of the entire preserved external morphology via the novel surface registration method showed no size-independent affinities of Mugharet el’Aliya to Neanderthals of comparable age, while linking it with a juvenile early H. sapiens individual from Qafzeh. The results contributed to our knowledge about the ontogeny of adult Neanderthal and fossil H. sapiens morphology, and the growing evidence connecting cranio-dental morphology from the Levant and the Northwest African Middle Stone Age. This dissertation employed virtual methods to the study of fragmentary hominin fossil remains and thereby, placed them into to the scientific discussion about fossil H. sapiens and Neanderthals, their facial ontogeny and evolution, as well as early H. sapiens dispersals out of Africa.

Understand what makes us humans has been a topic of intense discussion in the last decades. Currently, the characteristic that better sets us apart from the other animals is the symbolic thinking capacity. Nonetheless, understand when and how the development of this element happened is still an open question. The book allows us to look to the archaeological record and see the construction of our current knowledge about this topic, adding a few perspectives for new debates. In "The origin of meaning – a paleoanthropological approach." Walter Neves, Eliane Rapchan, and Lukas Blumrich propose to review the knowledge built until here, searching to unravel the emergence of symbolism. Entender qué nos hace humanos ha sido objeto de un intenso debate en las últimas décadas. Actualmente, la característica que mejor nos diferencia de otros animales es la capacidad de pensamiento simbólico, sin embargo, entender cuándo y cómo se desarrolló este elemento sigue siendo una cuestión abierta. El libro nos permite enfrentar el registro arqueológico y ver la construcción de nuestra comprensión actual del tema, agregando algunas perspectivas para nuevos debates. En “El origen del significado: un enfoque paleoantropológico”, Walter Neves, Eliane Rapchan y Lukas Blumrich se propusieron revisar el conocimiento producido hasta el momento, en la búsqueda de desentrañar la emergencia del simbolismo. Entender o que nos torna humanos tem sido tema de intensa discussão nas últimas décadas. Atualmente a característica que melhor nos difere dos demais animais é a capacidade de pensamento simbólico, no entanto compreender quando e como se deu o desenvolvimento deste elemento ainda é uma questão em aberto. O livro nos permite encarar o registro arqueológico e enxergar a construção do nosso entendimento atual acerca do tema, somando um pouco das perspectivas para novos debates. Em “A origem do significado – uma abordagem paleoantropológica” Walter Neves, Eliane Rapchan e Lukas Blumrich se propõem a revisitar o conhecimento produzido até aqui, na busca por desvendar o surgimento do simbolismo.

Purpose: Paleoanthropologists link the discovery of the modern human-like hyoid bone (HB) in Neanderthal skeleton remains at Kebara Cave (Israel) as the pivotal evolutionary step associated with speech development. This finding is cited as evidence Neanderthals produced complex speech, yet this association remains controversial. Conclusion: Here, we present clinical and scientific evidence challenging the pivotal role of the HB in producing speech, and suggest that CNS development was more fundamental than the presence of HB to speech production.

El Molí d’Espígol is the most important Iberian site within the historical territory of the Ilergetes. A critical Anthropological study of the already known human remains, as well as the discovery of new material coming from recent excavations conducted at the site, has resulted not only in an increase of the perinatal burials, but also in the identification of bone fragments belonging to adult individuals. Synthesis of the evidence coming from the Ilergetan territory permits us to advance some hypotheses on the social meaning of those practices among this Iberian people are advanced., El Molí d’Espígol es el hábitat ibérico más destacado del territorio histórico del pueblo ilergete. El estudio de los restos humanos ya anteriormente conocidos, sumado a la identificación de nuevas evidencias, ha permitido no solo aumentar el elenco de las inhumaciones perinatales del asentamiento, sino también confirmar la existencia de restos humanos de adulto. A partir del estudio de síntesis sobre la presencia de restos humanos en contextos de hábitat hallados en el territorio histórico de los Ilergetes, se plantea la significación social de tales prácticas en el ámbito de dicho pueblo ibero.

Summary: The research of the features of variant anatomy, as an integral part of paleoanthropological exploration, is an extremely important source of additional information about the anatomical structure of humans. Рatterns of variability and frequency distribution of discrete variational features in variant anatomy remain important. Cranioscopic variational (or non-metric) features - anatomical variations in the skeleton structure, registered according to the “presence-absence” principle, are an important source of information in studying the origin and ethnogenetic relationships of paleopopulations. These features include inconstant (additional) skull bones. By modern classification, there are three types of inconstant bones of the human skull: wormian (sutural) bones, fontanelle bones and insular bones. They have various causes: genetic factors, chronic high intracranial pressure, skull deformation, disturbances of the skull symmetry, different pathological processes, etc. The purpose of the work was to research the variant anatomy of inconstant bones of the human skull. The objective to research is the variant anatomy of inconstant skull bones of the human on the anthropological materials from the Scythian grave field. It located near Kolomak village in the Kharkiv region and dates back to IX – IV century BC. The 88 skulls of adult persons has been researched. The inconstant additional bones of skull were present in the structures of 16 skulls out of 88 (18.1%). Results. The sutural (wormian) bones were present in 12 skulls (13.6%), fontanelle bones – in 6 skulls (6.8%), insular bones were absent. In the anatomical structures of 10 skulls (11.4%) were only wormian bones, in 4 skulls (4.5%) were only fontanelle bones, in the structures of 2 skulls (2.3%) were combination of sutural and fontanelle additional bones. Often the inconstant bones were located in several sutures at the same time. The most common sutural bones were lambdoid suture bones - 9 skulls (10.2%). The inconstant bones of the coronal suture and sagittal suture were found in 2 skulls (2.3%). The additional bones of the occipital-mastoid, parietal-mastoid and squamosal sutures were absent on the examined osteological materials. The fontanelle bones most often located at the place of the occipital fontanellele and they were present in 4 skulls (4.5%). The additional fontanelle bones of the mastoid fontanellele were found in 2 skulls (2.3%). The frontal fontanelle bone was in 1 skull (1.1%). The additional fontanelle bones of the sphenoid fontanellele and interparietal bones were not found in the researched skulls. Conclusion. It is interesting to consider the case of combination in one skull a large inconstant bone of the sagittal suture with complete metopic (frontal) suture and occipital bone of sufficiently large size. The results of the research expanded and updated the existing data on the variant anatomy of inconstant cranial bones. Also, the results obtained maybe required in the further research of individual variability in the structure of the human’s skull.

The extinct human relatives known as Neanderthals (Homo neanderthalensis) have long been described as brutish and dumb. This conception is often traced to paleontologist Marcellin Boule (1861-1942), who published a detailed analysis on a Neanderthal skeleton in the early twentieth century. The conventional historical narrative claims that Boule made an error in his analysis, causing the Neanderthals to be considered brutish. This essay challenges the narrative of "Boule's error," arguing instead that the brutish Neanderthal concept originated much earlier in the history of Neanderthal research and was, in fact, an invention of the earliest analyses of the first specimen recognized as a Neanderthal in the mid-nineteenth century. I argue that temporally relocating this conception of Neanderthals allows for a better understanding of the interconnected nature of the study of fossil humans and the science of living human races during the nineteenth century. This new view of the brutish Neanderthal sheds light on the earliest phases of the science that became paleoanthropology, while examining the racial, cultural, and political attitudes about race and extinction that accompanied the science at that time. By inspecting the ways in which the Neanderthals' image was a product of a particular time and place, we gain a perspective that provides a new basis for thinking about the conceptions of hominin fossil species.

The present paper represents an anthropological study performed on a sample of 79 skeletons, originated from inhumation tombs and reburials, discovered in the necropolis of Aroneanu Monastery of Iași (Iași county, Romania). The necropolis, dating from the 16th-19th centuries, was discovered in 2014. After estimating the age at death and sex, followed by metric data analysis, a typological and paleodemographic study was done. Most skeletons were recorded in the maturus category (59.49%), followed by infans I and II (21.52%), adultus (11.39%), senilis (5.06%) and juvenis (2.53%). The estimated average lifespan for the entire sample subjected to study (0–x years) is 37.07 years, while the values recorded for sex (20-x years) were of 47.73 years in male and 41.97 years in female subjects, respectively. Distribution by sex categories indicates a higher masculinity index. Typologically, the skeletal sample analysed corresponds to the general tendency of population mixture in the medieval period. Thus, we observed the predominance of the Mediterranido-Dynaric elements, to which Alpinoid and Nordoid influences were added.

We provide a comprehensive summary of data relating to the origin, chronology, and culture of the Denisovans— a separate hominin population, fi rst described in 2010 on the basis of aDNA extracted from fossils found in Denisova Cave, in the northwestern part of the Russian Altai. We cite the results of morphological and genomic studies of the teeth and postcranial bones of those hominins. On the basis of a large series of optical and radiocarbon dates of the Pleistocene strata of Denisova Cave, the timeline for the hominin evolution in that region is reconstructed. The chronology of the evolutionary events based on aDNA is discussed. We provide a detailed description of stone and bone tools, and ornaments made of various materials, from Denisova habitation horizons. It is demonstrated that the Paleolithic cultural sequence in that cave is the most complete in North and Central Asia, spanning the principal stages of human evolutionary history over the last 300 thousand years. Denisovan origins and their role in the emergence of anatomically modern humans are reconstructed on the basis of a large body of archaeological, skeletal, and genetic data relating to Africa and Eurasia. It is concluded that the Neanderthal and Denisovan genetic legacy in the modern human gene pool indicates the existence of several zones in Africa and Eurasia where H. erectus evolution proceeded independently. The same applies to the evolution of lithic technologies.

3D imaging techniques, which started to be exact in regard to the current study with photogrammetry, have brought to development of measurement method – automated digital odontometry (aDo) – with wider opportunities in terms of understanding morphological characteristics of human (or, non-human) teeth and dentition. Revealing them through odontometric parameters, not as visual descriptions, as it has been accepted for decades and is widespread till today, digital measurement methods provide for various previously unattainable detailed objective studies including descriptions or comparisons. These types of studies, carried out for dental and anthropological applications, are of high demand in palaeoanthropology, especially in cases of rare combination of finding uniqueness and preservation degree with considerations of unusual morphology. Thus odontological samples from the Upper Palaeolithic Sunghir’ (individual C2) are of particular interest in the current study which is aimed to detect distinctive parameters related to morphological features and to compare the degree of feature expression on antimere teeth and teeth with lower degree of that feature expression.

Recent developments in evolutionary biology have led to a call for an extension of standard evolutionary theory, with its emphasis on processes such as selection and drift, into a much larger theoretical framework that includes processes such as niche construction, developmental plasticity, inclusive inheritance, and developmental bias. Skeptics argue that these processes are already subsumed within the standard theory and thus an extension is not required. Here, we outline what this evolutionary "rethink" might mean for the study of human origins. Specifically, can paleoanthropologists benefit from an extended theoretical toolkit? The papers in this special issue suggest it can be useful but may not be necessary, depending on the kinds of questions that are being asked.

Texas is home to four of the largest metropolitan areas in the U.S. As would be expected, several large universities in Texas, public and private, offer courses in which the topic of human evolution is covered. What might be more surprising to some, given the politics of the state, is that two major Texas public museums (the Houston Museum of Natural Science and the Perot Museum of Nature and Science in Dallas) display substantial human evolution content. Here I review content related to human evolution in five major science museums in Texas and explore the reasons for the differences among these museums. Among the most important factors are money, museum location, museum history and mission, and what can be called “intentionality.” Unsurprisingly, if we want to see more human evolution museum displays, we must convince museum administrators that adding this content is consistent with their mission and will attract more visitors. We (and our students) can, in addition, be more proactive in reaching out to our local museums.

To understand the ways in which past stone knappers controlled the morphology of the flakes they produced, archaeologists have focused on examining the effects of striking platform attributes on flake size and shape. Among the variables commonly considered, platform width has routinely been noted to correlate with flake size and hence used to explain past knapping behaviors. Yet, the influence of platform width on flake variation remains equivocal due to the fact that the attribute is not under the direct control of the knapper. Instead, platform width tends to be treated as a by-product of other independent knapping parameters, such as platform depth. In this study, we hypothesize that platform width acts as an intermediary that intervenes the effect of other independent variables on flake attributes. By analyzing experimental flakes produced under both controlled and replicative settings, the results support the hypothesis that platform width mediates the effect of platform depth on flake width, such that flakes with relatively larger platform widths are generally wider but no longer. This finding provides a way to incorporate platform width into discussions of the interrelationships among knapping variables, and highlights the importance of platform width for investigating how past knappers controlled flake production through platform manipulation.

The Early Pleistocene was a critical time period in the evolution of eastern African mammal faunas, but fossil assemblages sampling this interval are poorly known from Ethiopia’s Afar Depression. Field work by the Hadar Research Project in the Busidima Formation exposures (~2.7–0.8 Ma) of Hadar in the lower Awash Valley, resulted in the recovery of an earlyHomomaxilla (A.L. 666-1) with associated stone tools and fauna from the Maka’amitalu basin in the 1990s. These assemblages are dated to ~2.35 Ma by the Bouroukie Tuff 3 (BKT-3). Continued work by the Hadar Research Project over the last two decades has greatly expanded the faunal collection. Here, we provide a comprehensive account of the Maka’amitalu large mammals (Artiodactyla, Carnivora, Perissodactyla, Primates, and Proboscidea) and discuss their paleoecological and biochronological significance. The size of the Maka’amitalu assemblage is small compared to those from the Hadar Formation (3.45–2.95 Ma) and Ledi-Geraru (2.8–2.6 Ma) but includes at least 20 taxa. Bovids, suids, andTheropithecusare common in terms of both species richness and abundance, whereas carnivorans, equids, and megaherbivores are rare. While the taxonomic composition of the Maka’amitalu fauna indicates significant species turnover from the Hadar Formation and Ledi-Geraru deposits, turnover seems to have occurred at a constant rate through time as taxonomic dissimilarity between adjacent fossil assemblages is strongly predicted by their age difference. A similar pattern characterizes functional ecological turnover, with only subtle changes in dietary proportions, body size proportions, and bovid abundances across the composite lower Awash sequence. Biochronological comparisons with other sites in eastern Africa suggest that the taxa recovered from the Maka’amitalu are broadly consistent with the reported age of the BKT-3 tuff. Considering the age of BKT-3 and biochronology, a range of 2.4–1.9 Ma is most likely for the faunal assemblage.

The aim of this paper is to perform a tourist assessment of the representative speleoarchaeological geoheritage in Serbia for the purposes of establishing new cave tourism destinations in Serbia. Seven caves have been selected based on their speleoarcheological values. However, only two of them are currently available for visiting. The research results were obtained by using the M-GAM model and they indicate exceptional tourist potential which still remains mainly untapped. To maximize this potential and develop this type of tourism in the future, an initiative strategy for the inclusion of speleoarchaeological values into contemporary tourism flows was also proposed. The focus is set on the establishment of speleoarchaeological visitor centers and a unique tourist affirmation of the researched scientific and educational potential. The presented strategy must be set as a priority in the future in order to contribute to further sustainability of scientific and socio-economic progress through speleotourism development. © 2022 Elsevier B.V.

In: VIth Pan-African Congress on Prehistory and Quaternary Studies, Dakar

The Late Mesolithic in Southern Europe is dated to the 7th and the first part of the 6th millennia BCE and is marked by profound changes which are mostly evident in the technical know-how and tool-kit of the last hunter-fisher-gatherer societies. The significance of this phase also relates to the fact that it precedes the Early Neolithic, another period of major transformations of human societies. Nonetheless, the Late Mesolithic still remains a poorly known age in this area. A burial discovered at Mondeval de Sora (Northern Italy) in 1987, represents a unique window into this period. In this paper, we provide a detailed analysis of more than 50 lithic and osseous artifacts associated with this burial. We highlight important contextual data regarding the techno-economic dimension and the notion of personal burial possessions. Based on the association and location of some items, we propose a new interpretation of the social status of this individual and the possible impact of technological innovation on the social organization and symbolic sphere of Late Mesolithic groups.

In: Königsson L.K. (ed.), Current Argument on Early Man. Proceedings of A Nobel Symposium Sweden 21-27 May 1978. University of Uppsala, Sweden

В статье представлены результаты палеоантропологического исследования посткраниальных материалов хуннского времени. Были исследованы костяки, которые ранее не подвергались антропологическому изучению. Все материалы хранятся в лаборатории археологии, этнологии и антропологии Института монголоведения, буддологии и тибетологии Сибирского отделения Российской академии наук (ЛАЭиА ИМБТ СО РАН) и происходят из могильников, расположенных на территории Бурятии. По состоянию на 2021 г. в хранилище лаборатории находится 24 костяка этого исторического периода. В ходе исследования костяков были определены пол, возраст, пропорции и длина тела, рост и вес. Из-за плохой сохранности пять костяков измерить не удалось. Из имеющихся посткраниальных материалов было идентифицировано шесть женских, девять мужских и два детских костяка. Средний рост женщин составил 156,5 см, вес — 60,7 кг, у мужчин — 166,7 см и 67,7 кг соответственно., The article presents the results of a paleoanthropological study of postcranial materials from the Xiongnu period. The skeletons were examined, which had not previously been subjected to anthropological study. All materials are stored in the laboratory of archeology, ethnology and anthropology of the Institute for Mongolian, Buddhist and Tibetan Studies of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences (IMBTS SB RAS) and come from burial grounds located on the territory of Buryatia. As of 2021, 24 skeletons of this historical period are stored in the laboratory’s repository. During the study of the bones, gender, age, proportions and body length, height and weight were determined. Due to poor preservation, it was not possible to measure five skeletons. From the available postcranial materials, six female and nine male and two child skeletons were identified. The average height of women was 156.5 cm, and the weight was 60.7 kg, for men it was 166.7 cm and 67.7 kg, respectively.

Palaeobiological and archeological excavations at the site of Ewass Oldupa, found in the western Plio-Pleistocene rift basin of Oldupai Gorge (also Olduvai Gorge), Tanzania, revealed rich fossiliferous levels and the earliest remains of human activity at Oldupai Gorge, dated to 2 million years ago. This paper provides zooarchaeological taxonomic, taphonomic, and behavioral analyses, applying several methods to explore the setting in which the assemblage was formed. We identified agency behind bone surface modifications, such as cut, tooth and percussion marks, and determined the frequency of carnivore tooth marks as well as their distribution on both discrete specimens and across species. In addition, our work revealed co-occurrence of modifications to include butchering marks and carnivore tooth marks. Ravaging levels were estimated as percentage. The faunal accumulation from Ewass Oldupa contains two cut marked specimens, together with low degrees of percussion and carnivore tooth marks, moderate ravaging, and diagenetic changes suggestive of water flow. Thus, multiple lines of evidence indicate a palimpsest accumulation. Taxonomic diversity is high, with up to 22 taxa representing diverse habitats, ranging from open grassland to wooded bushlands, as well as moist mosaics during Bed I. Overall, this archaeo-faunal assemblage speaks to increased behavioral versatility among Oldowan hominins and interactions with the carnivore guild., This work was supported by the Canadian Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council under its Partnership Grant Program No. 895-2016-1017. PA and PS are supported by AGAUR (project no. 2017 SGR-1040) and the URV (2018PFR-URV-B2-91). PA’s doctoral program was funded by the Canadian Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council as well as the Leakey Foundation Franklin Mosher Baldwin Fellowship.

ST8SIA2 is an important molecule regulating expression of the phenotype involved in schizophrenia. Lowered promoter activity of the ST8SIA2 gene is considered to be protective against schizophrenia by conferring tolerance to psychosocial stress. Here, we examined the promoter-type composition of anatomically modern humans (AMHs) and archaic humans (AHs; Neanderthals and Denisovans), and compared the promoter activity at the population level (population promoter activity; PPA) between them. In AMHs, the TCT-type, showing the second lowest promoter activity, was most prevalent in the ancestral population of non-Africans. However, the detection of only the CGT-type from AH samples and recombination tracts in AH sequences showed that the CGT- and TGT-types, exhibiting the two highest promoter activities, were common in AH populations. Furthermore, interspecies gene flow occurred into AMHs from AHs and into Denisovans from Neanderthals, influencing promoter-type compositions independently in both AMHs and AHs. The difference of promoter-type composition makes PPA unique in each population. East and Southeast Asian populations show the lowest PPA. This results from the selective increase of the CGC-type, showing the lowest promoter activity, in these populations. Every non-African population shows significantly lower PPA than African populations, resulting from the TCT-type having the highest prevalence in the ancestral population of non-Africans. In addition, PPA reduction is also found among subpopulations within Africa via a slight increase of the TCT-type. These findings indicate a trend toward lower PPA in the spread of AMHs, interpreted as a continuous adaptation to psychosocial stress arising in migration. This trend is considered as genetic tuning for the evolution of collective brains. The inferred promoter-type composition of AHs differed markedly from that of AMHs, resulting in higher PPA in AHs than in AMHs. This suggests that the trend toward lower PPA is a unique feature in AMH spread.

How do we know that we can trust our viewpoints, our dogmatic principles and our religious convictions to constitute veracity, if not truth? Where can an arbiter be found for our deliberations to establish the trustworthiness of our viewpoints or belief systems, when we differ one from the other on religious matters, and in the context of religious conviction also differ in political and social endeavours? Van Huyssteen deserves commendation for his contribution to this discourse in developing the concept of a postfoundationalist epistemology in an attempt to justify theology’s integrity, and endorse theology’s public voice within our highly complex and challenging world. He suggests that the concept of human uniqueness might be the common denominator in the contributions of theology (in its specific understanding of the unique status of humans in God’s creation) and science (in its understanding of the unique stature of Homo sapiens in terms of biological evolution). However, the author, in this article, argues that given the radically diverse disciplines of science in our highly developed technological – and indeed within our current Covid-dominated context (on the one hand) and the pre-scientific context of religion (on the other hand), it becomes increasingly difficult to imagine how it can remain possible to find something like a common issue, a shared problem, a kind of mutual concern or even a shared overlapping research trajectory that might benefit precisely from this envisaged interdisciplinary dialogue. Is it possible that ‘alone in this world’ could mean something different than what Van Huyssteen suggests? Intradisciplinary and/or interdisciplinary implications: How do we know that we can trust our viewpoints, and our religious convictions to constitute truth? Van Huyssteen develops the concept of a postfoundationalist epistemology in an attempt to justify theology’s integrity within the discourse with science. However, the author in this article argues that it has become increasingly difficult for systematic theology to find a shared overlapping research trajectory that might benefit this interdisciplinary dialogue.

Adaptations of the lower back to bipedalism are frequently discussed but infrequently demonstrated in early fossil hominins. Newly discovered lumbar vertebrae contribute to a near-complete lower back of Malapa Hominin 2 (MH2), offering additional insights into posture and locomotion in Australopithecus sediba. We show that MH2 possessed a lower back consistent with lumbar lordosis and other adaptations to bipedalism, including an increase in the width of intervertebral articular facets from the upper to lower lumbar column (‘pyramidal configuration’). These results contrast with some recent work on lordosis in fossil hominins, where MH2 was argued to demonstrate no appreciable lordosis (‘hypolordosis’) similar to Neandertals. Our three-dimensional geometric morphometric (3D GM) analyses show that MH2’s nearly complete middle lumbar vertebra is human-like in overall shape but its vertebral body is somewhat intermediate in shape between modern humans and great apes. Additionally, it bears long, cranially and ventrally oriented costal (transverse) processes, implying powerful trunk musculature. We interpret this combination of features to indicate that A. sediba used its lower back in both bipedal and arboreal positional behaviors, as previously suggested based on multiple lines of evidence from other parts of the skeleton and reconstructed paleobiology of A. sediba., Funding: Leakey Foundation, Scott A Williams; Agencia Estatal de Investigación (Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales CSIC PID2020-115854GB-I00), Markus Bastir.

International audience; Red cell blood group systems are crucial for safe transfusion, transplantation, and pregnancy monitoring. In addition, blood groups have long been investigated to decipher the origin of human populations, migration, adaptation, and admixture. However, since the extensive use of DNA polymorphisms in Anthropology, blood groups have been relegated to their primary application, blood transfusion. The finer genomic mapping of some Neanderthal and Denisova individuals about modern humans has provided significant evidence on the evolutionary history of both archaic and modern humans. However, despite their medical and anthropological interest, little is known about blood groups in archaic populations. To better understand the origin, expansion and encounter with Homo sapiens, we reappraised the available high-quality sequences of three Neanderthals (Vindija 33.19, Chagyrskaya 8, Altai Neandertal) and one Denisovan (Denisova 3) for 11 genes of the 7 blood group systems that are routinely screened in transfusion: ABO including H/ Se, Rh (Rhesus), Kell, Duffy, Kidd, MNS, and Diego. We show that Neanderthals and Denisova were polymorphic for ABO and shared blood group alleles recurrent in modern Sub-Saharan populations. Furthermore, we found ABO-related alleles currently preventing viral gut infection and all Neanderthal shared RHD and RHCE alleles nowadays associated with a high risk of hemolytic disease of the fetus and newborn. Such a common blood group pattern across time and space is coherent with a Neanderthal population of low genetic diversity exposed to possible pregnancies with complications. Lastly, we connect the Neanderthal RHD allele to two present-day Aboriginal Australians and Papuan, suggesting that a segment of the archaic genome was introgressed in this gene in non-Eurasian populations before their expansion towards Oceania. While contributing to both the origin and late evolutionary history of Neanderthal and Denisova, our results further illustrate that blood group systems remain effective anthropological markers.

We are interested here in the central organ of our thoughts: the brain. Advances in neuroscience have made it possible to obtain increasing information on the anatomy of this organ, at ever-higher resolutions, with different imaging techniques, on ever-larger samples. At the same time, paleoanthropology has to deal with partial reflections on the shape of the brain, on fragmentary specimens and small samples in an attempt to approach the morphology of the brain of past human species. It undeniably emerges from the perspective we propose here that paleoanthropology has much to gain from interacting more with the field of neuroimaging. Improving our understanding of the morphology of the endocast necessarily involves studying the external surface of the brain and the link it maintains with the internal surface of the skull. The contribution of neuroimaging will allow us to better define the relationship between brain and endocast. Models of intra- and inter-species variability in brain morphology inferred from large neuroimaging databases will help make the most of the rare endocasts of extinct species. We also conclude that exchanges between these two disciplines will also be beneficial to our knowledge of the Homo sapiens brain. Documenting the anatomy among other human species and including the variation over time within our own species are approaches that offer us a new perspective through which to appreciate what really characterizes the brain of humanity today.

Submitted by Leda Lopes (ledacplopes@hotmail.com) on 2022-06-02T18:38:37Z No. of bitstreams: 2 license_rdf: 0 bytes, checksum: d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e (MD5) Tamires_Carolina_Campos_Dissertação.pdf: 16548320 bytes, checksum: 6457da3e9d937e5f9a5b8b32808e25ea (MD5) Approved for entry into archive by Aline Batista (alinehb.ufpel@gmail.com) on 2022-06-06T17:53:24Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 2 Tamires_Carolina_Campos_Dissertação.pdf: 16548320 bytes, checksum: 6457da3e9d937e5f9a5b8b32808e25ea (MD5) license_rdf: 0 bytes, checksum: d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e (MD5) Made available in DSpace on 2022-06-06T17:53:24Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2 Tamires_Carolina_Campos_Dissertação.pdf: 16548320 bytes, checksum: 6457da3e9d937e5f9a5b8b32808e25ea (MD5) license_rdf: 0 bytes, checksum: d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e (MD5) Previous issue date: 2021-10-11 Desde a sua divulgação, em 1964, a espécie H. habilis, vem sofrendo com diversas críticas quanto ao seu lugar dentro da linhagem humana. Sua classificação, desencadeou dentro da Paleoantropologia, uma série de debates quanto a origem, e definição, do gênero Homo. Através da compilação de dados métricos da morfologia hominínia, retirados de diferentes publicações e planilhas disponíveis na web. Buscou-se realizar diferentes análises, a partir de uma abordagem fenético-comparativa, onde os dados métricos da morfologia de crânios, dentes e membros, foram transformados em matrizes de distância morfológica, e correlacionados, através de teste de Mantel, com matrizes geográficas e filogenéticas, a fim de testar sua validade. Como resultado, as matrizes de membros demonstraram as maiores correlações, sendo seguidas pelas matrizes de dentes mandibulares. Ambas relacionadas as matrizes filogenéticas. Esse resultado demonstrou, que os dados de membros e dentes mandibulares, são bons para a realização de inferências filogenéticas. Em contrapartida, as matrizes cranianas mostraram maior correlação com as matrizes geográficas. Em conclusão, todos os dendrogramas gerados, que apontaram maiores e significativas correlações (r ≥ 0,5 e p ≤ 0,05), evidenciaram relações diretas, entre H. habilis e H. rudolfensis, com membros de australopitecíneos. Através dos resultados obtidos, sugere-se que ambos os hominínios sejam reclassificados como pertencentes ao gênero Australopithecus. Since its disclosure in 1964, the species H. habilis has been suffering from several criticisms as to its place within the human lineage. Its classification, within Paleoanthropology, triggered a series of debates regarding the origin, and definition, of the genus Homo. Through the compilation of metric data of hominid morphology, taken from different publications and spreadsheets available on the web. We sought to carry out different analyses, from a pheneticcomparative approach, where the metric data of the morphology of skulls, teeth and limbs were transformed into morphological distance matrices, and correlated, through the Mantel test, with geographic and phylogenetic matrices in order to test their validity. As a result, limb matrices showed the highest correlations, followed by mandibular tooth matrices. Both related to phylogenetic matrices. This result showed that data from limbs and mandibular teeth are good for making phylogenetic inferences. On the other hand, cranial matrices showed greater correlation with geographic matrices, which shows their greater response to phenotypic plasticity. In conclusion, all the dendrograms generated, which showed higher and significant correlations (r ≥ 0.5 and p ≤ 0.05), showed direct relationships between H. habilis and H. rudolfensis, with members of australopithecines. Through the results obtained, it is suggested that both hominins be reclassified as belonging to the genus Australopithecus.

Herein as a preface to Jukar's ongoing comprehensive systematic review, we introduce the fossil vertebrate collection made by G. Edward Lewis in 1932 as part of the Yale-North India Expedition to British India, and briefly discuss its historical and scientific significance. The collection, which consists of approximately 1,300 specimens collected from 106 sites, was made 100 years after the first fossils were reported by Europeans in the Siwalik deposits of the Indian subcontinent, and includes several important specimens, most notably fossil primates. Studies of the fossils collected by Lewis on this 1932 expedition have had a substantial and long-lasting influence on Siwalik paleontology, and motivated much subsequent work in this region by both western and local Indian and Pakistani researchers. Studies of primate specimens collected and first described by Lewis have also heavily influenced the field of paleoanthropology and debates surrounding the origin of our species.

The identification of the use of stone tools through use-wear analysis was one the major methodological advances in Prehistoric Archaeology during the second half of the 20th century. Studies of use-wear analysis have decisively contributed to a better understanding of the cognitive capacities and the socio-economic organization of Prehistoric societies. Among use-wear traces, microwear polish is the most relevant evidence, as it allows the identification of the worked materials (i.e. wood, antler, hide, bone, stone…). This identification is currently carried out through the qualitative and visual comparison of experimental and archaeological tools. During the last decade, confocal microscopy is allowing the quantitative identification of the worked material through the texture analysis of microwear polish. Previous tests have accounted for the variability of use-wear traces as caused by different types of worked material. However, how the intensity of use, which is widely recognized as an important factor conditioning microwear polish characteristics, affects our capacity to identify the worked materials is poorly understood. This research addresses the dynamic nature of microwear polish through confocal microscopy and texture analysis. This research shows that use-wear polishing is a dynamic process and surface texture evolves continuously during the working time. The evolution fits a logarithmic function, so most texture modification takes place during the first phases of work. The way in which polish texture evolves through time differs from one contact material to the other. We demonstrate that, despite the dynamic nature of use-wear polish, different worked materials can be discriminated. However, some overlapping between used and unused surfaces and between worked materials occurs in the first stages of use. Moreover, polishes of similar characteristics (i.e. bone and antler) can show similar texture at advanced stages of use. These problems in identification can be in good measure overcome by creating dynamic models of polish texture in which not only the worked material but also the time of use is considered., This research is part of a Marie Sklodowska Curie Individual Fellowship (Grant Number 792544) (NM). Funding was also provided by the project PID2019-105767GB-I00 (JJI) of the Spanish Ministry of Economy. We acknowledge support of the publication fee by the CSIC Open Access Publication Support Initiative through its Unit of Information Resources for Research (URICI). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.

Projectile technology is commonly viewed as a significant contributor to past human subsistence and, consequently, to our evolution. Due to the allegedly central role of projectile weapons in the food-getting strategies of Upper Palaeolithic people, typo-technological changes in the European lithic record have often been linked to supposed developments in hunting weaponry. Yet, relatively little reliable functional data is currently available that would aid the detailed reconstruction of past weapon designs. In this paper, we take a use-wear approach to the backed tool assemblages from the Recent and Final Gravettian layers (Levels 3 and 2) of Abri Pataud (Dordogne, France). Our use of strict projectile identification criteria relying on combinations of low and high magnification features and our critical view of the overlap between production and use-related fractures permitted us to confidently identify a large number of used armatures in both collections. By isolating lithic projectiles with the strongest evidence of impact and by recording wear attributes on them in detail, we could establish that the hunting equipment used during the Level 3 occupations involved both lithic weapon tips and composite points armed with lithic inserts. By contrast, the Level 2 assemblage reflects a heavy reliance on composite points in hunting reindeer and other game. Instead of an entirely new weapon design, the Level 2 collection therefore marks a shift in weapon preferences. Using recent faunal data, we discuss the significance of the observed diachronic change from the point of view of prey choice, seasonality, and social organisation of hunting activities. Our analysis shows that to understand their behavioural significance, typo-technological changes in the lithic record must be viewed in the light of functional data and detailed contextual information.

Traumatic injuries in human skeletal remains provide crucial insights for reconstructing lifestyles, behaviours, and living environments of past humans. This cumulative dissertation aimed at furthering our understanding of cranial trauma in fossil remains of Neanderthals and Paleolithic modern humans using qualitative and quantitative approaches and addressed three major objectives. First, the cranial breakage patterns of two late Middle Pleistocene crania from the Apidima caves, Greece, were investigated to assess the timing of breakage. Second, the cranial trauma prevalence of Neanderthals was contrasted with that of early to mid-Upper Paleolithic humans to test the common perception that Neanderthals experienced exceptional high levels of trauma. Third, the cranial trauma prevalence throughout the entire Upper Paleolithic period was characterized, and it was investigated whether stressors likely associated with environmental changes after the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) are reflected in different levels of trauma. To address the first objective, I employed virtual methods using CT scanning to differentiate fresh from dry bone breakage. Most fracture lines of the Apidima crania gave inconclusive results regarding the timing of breakage, suggesting that the criteria used for differentiation were insufficient or may not be readily applicable to fossil remains, especially when their depositional and taphonomic history is complex. To address the second and third objectives, I compiled a large dataset of Eurasian cranial fossil specimens (ca. 80–10 ka BP) through an extensive literature review and statistically compared trauma prevalence between samples using generalized linear mixed models (GLMMs). This approach allowed me to assess trauma prevalence in relation to multiple contextual variables and to account for differential preservation. Results indicated similar prevalence of cranial trauma in Neanderthals and Upper Paleolithic modern humans, contradicting previous suggestions of exceptionally high trauma rates in Neanderthals. In both taxa, trauma prevalence was higher for males than females, but results showed differences between the taxa in age-specific trauma prevalence. Trauma prevalence throughout the Upper Paleolithic period was similar to trauma rates found in Mesolithic and Neolithic samples. Moreover, males were slightly more often injured than females, and both sexes exhibited more trauma among the old age group. Environmental stressors likely associated with climatic changes after the LGM are not reflected in cranial trauma prevalence. The statistical approach using GLMMs provides a powerful alternative to conventional crude trauma frequencies for investigations of past trauma prevalence, especially when skeletal preservation is poor as in the fossil record.

The Arene Candide Cave is a renowned site on the northwestern Italian coast that has yielded numerous burials dating back to the terminal phases of the Pleistocene (Epigravettian culture). Thanks to the exceptional preservation of the remains, and to the information collected during the excavations that begun in the 1940s, researchers were able to reconstruct a complex pattern of manipulation of older burials that consistently occurred when interring new individuals. Therefore, the Epigravettian necropolis provides a rare glimpse into the modalities, and possibly the motives, of funerary behavior in the Late Upper Paleolithic, a period during which formal burial was highly selective. The reasons for this selection are still unclear, but it has been proposed that they may be related to “exceptional events” (violence and trauma) and “exceptional people” (disease and deformities due to congenital conditions). This study presents an assemblage of hundreds of skeletal elements and fragments belonging to two new individuals, and to individuals of the necropolis that were already known. The remains, which had never been described since their excavation in 1940–42, were discovered during the reassessment of the collections kept at the Museum of Natural History, Section of Anthropology and Ethnology of the University of Florence. The analysis extends our knowledge of the biological profile of the individuals buried at the site, which is fundamental for our understanding of Late Upper Paleolithic funerary behavior. The inclusion of two new individuals in the skeletal series, both children aged around 1–1.5 years, suggests that age may have not been a significant factor in determining funerary treatment. New radiocarbon dates on human bone – together with the cross-referencing of the available dates with the stratigraphic relations between burials and clusters of bones in secondary deposit – suggest that the entire necropolis is bracketed within a millennium corresponding to the Younger Dryas cooling event (i.e. between ca. 12,900 and 11,600 cal BP). Arene Candide Cave was a highly-visible landmark in the landscape, and funerary gestures in the Epigravettian necropolis emphasized the ties with the ancestors. It is possible that funerary behavior at Arene Candide was a means of claiming territorial access to resources, as well as reinforcing and transmitting communal identity and values, through a period of climate-induced resource stress and competition. Isolation and small refugia during cooling events may have contributed to exacerbating genetic drift, and increased the frequency of cultural means to sanction “exceptional people and events”.

Recent developments in the field of palaeoanthropology necessitate the suppression of two hominin taxa and the introduction of a new species of hominins to help resolve the current nebulous state of Middle Pleistocene (Chibanian) hominin taxonomy. In particular, the poorly defined and variably understood hominin taxa Homo heidelbergensis (both sensu stricto and sensu lato) and Homo rhodesiensis need to be abandoned as they fail to reflect the full range of hominin variability in the Middle Pleistocene. Instead, we propose: (1) introduction of a new taxon, Homo bodoensis sp. nov., as an early Middle Pleistocene ancestor of the Homo sapiens lineage, with a pan-African distribution that extends into the eastern Mediterranean (Southeast Europe and the Levant); (2) that many of the fossils from Western Europe (e.g. Sima de los Huesos) currently assigned to H. heidelbergensis s.s. be reassigned to Homo neanderthalensis to reflect the early appearance of Neanderthal derived traits in the Middle Pleistocene in the region; and (3) that the Middle Pleistocene Asian fossils, particularly from China, likely represent a different lineage altogether.