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Wonderwerk Cave (Northern Cape Province, South Africa) is an example of a natural locality that, in the past as in the present, was imbued with meaning and symbolism. Today, local communities associate the cave with a snake spirit, while rock art adorning the cave walls attests to the special status of the cave during the Later Stone Age. In the terminal Acheulean (over 180,000 years ago), hominins introduced manuports with special sensory properties into the back of the cave, a locality with singular acoustic and visual qualities. Thus, the archaeological record of Wonderwerk Cave serves as a unique and extensive diachronic record of milestones in the development of symbolic behaviour. It provides evidence to support the position that elements of symbolic behaviour emerged long before the dispersal of modern humans out of Africa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

About 4500 years ago, during the Late Archaic period, nine explorers reconnoitered several passages within a large cave in north central Tennessee. Although prehistoric cave exploration was not unusual in eastern North America, this particular trip is unique because 274 footprints of these ancient cavers are preserved in the damp floor sediment of a side passage. Analyses of the route taken by the explorers, and of their footprint trail significantly enhance our knowledge of cave use in prehistoric eastern North America. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on a South African cave overlooking the Indian Ocean which is said to provide rich evidence for the early use of color and marine resources by the early humans. According to the author, one of their writers presents a strong evidence that early humans displayed key elements of modern behavior at the Pinnacle Point on the coast of South Africa. This evidence is said to be in the form of shellfish, haematite used as a coloring agent and small stone bladelets. It is also said that the site provides an uncommon glimpse into human adaptation to coastal conditions during a time which most evidence has been scuttled by subsequent rise in sea level.

Reports on the discovery of more evidence about the origin of ancient hobbit people of Indonesia. Physical description of Homo floresiensis; Historical background of Homo floresiensis; Cultural habits of the human species discovered on Flores.

The article reports on the discovery of diminutive fossils of Homo sapiens in two caves of Palau in the Philippines. These fossils represent several tens of individuals wherein it ranges from about 3000 to 1500 years who thought to have arrived in the country about 1000 years earlier. The artifacts include several complete, small crania still encased in flowstone and its preliminary measurements suggest a brain size near the low end of extant Homo sapiens and close to that of Homo erectus. Although they discovered many traits which are consistent with Homo sapiens, some fossils exhibit more primitive traits.