ANT201H5 Lecture Notes - Lecture 6: Hohle Fels, Paleolithic Dog, Venus Figurines
Document Summary
Up until quite recently, the earliest securely dated evidence of anatomically modern humans came from herto in ethiopia 160,000 years ago. Irhoud reconstructed from remains dated to 300,000 years ago - oldest. Stone tools found with skeletal remains of five individuals include bifacial points similar to later. Middle stone age sites in many regions of africa. Congo, are also suspected to have been mounted on spears and used as harpoons in catching giant catfish as early as 90,000 years ago. Fish bones recovered at site support this idea. Blombus cave in south africa, dated to 77,000 years ago, was earliest evidence of "marking of a pattern" by humans. However, we now know that earlier abstract designs may have been marked on a 500,000 year old shell at trinil, java by homo erectus. Nevertheless, 8000 pieces of red ochre and 1000s of pierced shells found at blombus cave, present evidence of intensive symbolling and perhaps pigment processing.
