Covering the entire span of human history across the African continent, this book begins in the Garden of Eden in the highland interior of East Africa and ends with the disintegration of apartheid. In the first chapter the author introduces us to our earliest tool-making ancestor (known affectionately as "dear boy"), in the last the author ponders the changes we are likely to see as the political elites of Africa begin to review the operation of their single-party systems. The human colonization of the continent - the origins of food production, the formation and diffusion of African languages, the achievements of Ancient Egypt, the impact of Judaism, Christianity and Islam, slavery, the caravan trade, exploration and colonization, the economic, political and social developments which gave rise to the modern nation states - this book looks at all these aspects in an overview of the history of Africa.
The Olduvai Bed I archaeological sites have been at the epicenter of the debate on how early humans behaved. This book presents a new analytical approach that has produced unexpected results: the association of stone tools and faunal remains at most Olduvai Bed I sites is accidental and not related to hominid behavior. This revolutionary analysis shows that current models of reconstruction of human behavior are wrong.
At Olduvai Gorge natural erosion exposed a deep series of superimposed geological beds containing rich artefact and fossil assemblages spanning the last 1.8 million years. The sire ot famous as a rsult of excavations conducted there since 1951 under the direction of Mary Leakey and her husband, the late Louis Leakey. This volume, written largely by Mary Leakey herself, is the last of the reports and records the archaeological finds in the upper part of the Olduvai sequence from excavations carried out from the end of 1968 until 1971. The period covered here is from about 1.2 to 0.4 million years ago and th efinds include artefacts and faunal remains excavated from sites in beds II, IV na the Masek beds. The volume follows on from the archaeological record in beds I and II published in volume 3 of the series.
Olduvai is one of the most important prehistoric sites in the world; indeed, the only Middle Pleistocene site of comparable importance is Choukoutien and Olduvai can show deposits far older. The site has produced a mass of material of the highest archaeological and palaeontology importance and in this first of five volumes Dr Leakey and his collaborators make their preliminary reports. The story of the excavations initiated by Dr Leakey in 1951 is well known. Their purpose was to locate and uncover a series of living-floors of early Hand-axe man and, if possible, of the preceding Olduwan culture. The discoveries were of striking and far-reaching importance. They included, besides a mass of tools and artefacts, small animal and human remains and the famous skull of Zinjanthropus boisei, the earliest tool-making man. Against this background Leakey and his collaborators discuss the geological evidence, its relation to the fauna and other fossil evidence, the problems of climatic sequence and the use of potassium-argon dating. The purpose of this volume is to provide a context in which the fossil human remains and the Stone Age cultural sequence at Olduvai can be studied.
The newly revised and thoroughly updated standard source for mastering the human fossil record. This new edition of The Human Lineage is the best and most current guide to the morphological, geological, paleontological, and archeological evidence for the story of human evolution. This comprehensive textbook presents the history, methods, and issues of paleoanthropology through detailed analyses of the major fossils of interest to practicing scientists in the field. It will help both advanced students and practicing professionals to become involved with the lively scholarly debates that mark the field of human-origins research. Its clear and engaging chapters contain concise explanatory text and hundreds of high-quality illustrations. This thoroughly revised second edition reflects the most recent fossil discoveries and scientific analyses, offering new sections on the locomotor adaptations of Miocene hominoids, the taxonomic distinctiveness of Homo heidelbergensis, the Burtele foot, Ardipithecus, and Neandertal genomics. Updated and expanded chapters offer fresh insights on topics such as the origins of bipedality and the anatomy and evolution of early mammals and primates. Written and illustrated by established leaders in the field, The Human Lineage: Provides the background needed to study human evolution, including dating techniques, mechanics of evolution, and primate adaptations Covers the major stages in human evolution with emphasis on important fossils and their implications Offers a balanced critical assessment of conflicting ideas about key events in human evolution Includes an extensive bibliography and appendices on biological nomenclature and craniometrics Covering the entire story of human evolution from its Precambrian beginnings to the emergence of modern humanity, The Human Lineage is indispensable reading for all advanced students of biological anthropology.
Looking at a period of history 22 to 2.5 million years ago, this title examines the record of the Neogene fossil apes: their adaptive trends, their morphologies and their relationships to the environment, their evolution and their extinctions, to provideinsights into the evolution of our most distant and our most immediate fossil ancestors.
The book is the most in-depth account of the fossil skull anatomy and evolutionary significance of the 3.6-3.0 million year old early human species Australopithecus afarensis. Knowledge of this species is pivotal to understanding early human evolution, because 1) the sample of fossil remains of A. afarensis is among the most extensive for any early human species, and the majority of remains are of taxonomically inormative skulls and teeth; 2) the wealth of material makes A. afarensis an indispensable point of reference for the interpretation of other fossil discoveries; 3) the species occupies a time period that is the focus of current research to determine when, where, and why the human lineage first diversified into separate contemporaneous lines of descent. Upon publication of this book, this species will be among the most thoroughly documented extinct ancestors of humankind. The main focus of the book - its organizing principle - is the first complete skull of A. afarensis (specimen number A.L. 444-2) at the Hadar site, Ethiopia, the home of the remarkably complete 3.18 million year old skeleton known as "Lucy," found at Hadar by third author D. Johanson in 1974. Lucy and other fossils from Hadar, together with those from the site of Laetoli in Tanzania, were controversially attributed to the then brand new species A. afarensis by Johanson, T. White and Y. Coppens in 1978. However, a complete skull, which would have quickly resolved much of the early debate over the species, proved elusive until second author Y. Rak's discovery of the 444 skull in 1992. The book details the comparative anatomy of the new skull (and the cast of its brain, analyzed by R. Holloway and M. Huan) , as well as of other skull and dental finds recovered during the latest, ongoing field work at Hadar, and analyzes the evolutionary significance of A. afarensis in the context of other critically important discoveries of earliest humans made in recent years. In essence, it summarizes the state of knowledge about one of the central subjects of current paleoanthropological investigation.