Lecture 6 : The Palaeolithic Overview

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Lecture 6 The PalaeolithicOverview

• OBJECTIVES
• LOWER PALAEOLITHIC
• Early hominins
• Archaic hominins
• Pre-Modern Homo
• MIDDLE PALAEOLITHIC
• Neanderthals (Homo neanderthalensis)
• Homo sapiens
• UPPER PALAEOLITHIC
• Dispersal

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Objectives

• There are two reasons for taking a historical
  approach
• To explore how changes in the nature of society
  in the past created new risks from infectious
  diseases.
• To demonstrate how infectious diseases have
  influenced the course of history.

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Origins

• The world is about 4.5 to 5 billion (i.e. 5,000
  million) years old.
• The ancestors of humans (hominins) split from
  apes.
• Our nearest relatives are chimpanzees, from whom
  we split about 5-8 million years ago.
• We split from gorillas about 9-11 million years
  ago.
• Further back we split from the other great apes
  (e.g. orangutans), lesser apes (e.g. gibbons) and
  other primates (e.g. monkeys, baboons).

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Chimpanzee
Gorilla
Gibbon
Orangutan
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Hominin Evolution

• Fossil evidence suggests there were many branches
  and evolutionary dead-ends.
• Possible hominins have been found dating back to
  6-7 million years ago, but the oldest definite
  hominins (archaic hominins) date to about 4
  million years.
• The first hominins classed as belonging to our
  genus (pre-modern Homo) date to about 2 millions
  years ago.
• Modern humans (Homo sapiens) only evolved about
  200,000 years ago.

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Early And Archaic Hominins

• Our ape-like ancestors descended from trees in
  Africa about 5-9 million years ago.
• Australopithecus (southern ape) is found in
  east and southern Africa from about 4 million
  years ago.
• Australopithecus was confined to tropical and
  semi-tropical parts of Africa.
• Australopithecus could stand upright and was
  bipedal. However, it could still climb trees. It
  may have used crude tools.
• Australopithecus was succeeded by Paranthropus,
  which became extinct about 1 million years ago.

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Early And Archaic Hominins
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Pre-Modern Homo

• Paranthropus overlapped with the first Homo.
• Homo habilis evolved about 2.5 million years ago.
  Small in stature.
• Homo erectus evolved about 1.9 million years ago.
  Similar in size to modern humans. First to be
  found outside Africa in the Middle East.
• Homo erectus is found in tropical Asia about 1
  million years ago and in temperate parts of Asia
  and Europe by 500,000 years ago. Ate meat and may
  have become a hunter.

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Homo habilis
Homo erectus
Homo ergaster
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Pre-Modern Homo Sites
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Diseases

• Three major implications for diseases
• Descent from the trees exposure to new vectors
  and agents.
• Omnivorous diet exposure to zoonoses.
• Expansion into new regions new zoonoses, but
  fewer helminths.
• Low population density and mobility provided
  protection against extinction.

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Neanderthals

• H. neanderthalensis predominated in Europe and
  Middle East 200,000 to 30,000 years ago when they
  became extinct.
• Neanderthals were quite advanced. They had large
  brains, and adapted to colder climates.
• They burried their dead and hunted in groups.
• They appear to have looked after their injured
  and may have even developed medicine.

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Neanderthal Man
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Neanderthal Sites
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Modern Homo Sapiens

• Homo sapiens evolved around the same time in
  Africa.
• Around 50,000 years ago they developed weapons
  which could be used to hunt large mammals.
• They colonised the Near East by 90,000 BP and
  Western Europe by 40,000 BP (Cro-Magnon man).
• Developed cave art (e.g. Lascaux, France).
• Neanderthals disappeared shortly after emergence
  of Cro-Magnons.

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Dispersal

• Species of big game became extinct in Africa
  around 50,000 BP this may have prompted
  colonisation of Europe.
• Australia was colonised 30,000-40,000 BP. Big
  game species disappeared around the same time.
• Siberia was colonised about 20,000 BP.
• North America and South America were colonised by
  12,000 BC via Bering Straits and Alaska. Big game
  species became extinct around 11,000 BC.

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Sunda
Sahul
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Health And Disease

• Palaeolithic hunter gatherer societies had a
  balanced diet and probably enjoyed good health.
• Population densities were low. This prevented
  many diseases becoming endemic.
• Population numbers were kept in check by food
  supplies.
• Life expectancy was probably around 40.