Stochastic models support rapid peopling of Late Pleistocene Sahul

AbstractThe peopling of Sahul (the combined continent of Australia and New Guinea) represents the earliest continental migration and settlement event of solely anatomically modern humans, but its patterns and ecological drivers remain largely conceptual in the current literature. We present an advanced stochastic-ecological model to test the relative support for scenarios describing where and when the first humans entered Sahul, and their most probable routes of early settlement. The model supports a dominant entry via the northwest Sahul Shelf first, potentially followed by a second entry through New Guinea, with initial entry most consistent with 50,000 or 75,000 years ago based on comparison with bias-corrected archaeological map layers. The model’s emergent properties predict that peopling of the entire continent occurred rapidly across all ecological environments within 156–208 human generations (4368–5599 years) and at a plausible rate of 0.71–0.92 km year−1. More broadly, our methods and approaches can readily inform other global migration debates, with results supporting an exit of anatomically modern humans from Africa 63,000–90,000 years ago, and the peopling of Eurasia in as little as 12,000–15,000 years via inland routes.

Download Full-text

A shark-tooth ornament from Pleistocene Sahul

Antiquity ◽

10.1017/s0003598x00095193 ◽

2007 ◽

Vol 81 (312) ◽

pp. 308-315 ◽

Cited By ~ 16

Author(s):

Matthew G. Leavesley

Keyword(s):

New Guinea ◽

Tiger Shark ◽

Symbolic Language ◽

Modern Humans ◽

Anatomically Modern Humans

The tooth of a tiger shark, perforated to make a pendant, was lost in New Ireland, New Guinea between 39500 and 28000 years ago. The author argues that this has to be the work of anatomically modern humans, and implies the use of symbolic language not only across the former continent of Sahul, but also Eurasia.

Download Full-text

When didHomo sapiensfirst reach Southeast Asia and Sahul?

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences ◽

10.1073/pnas.1808385115 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 115 (34) ◽

pp. 8482-8490 ◽

Cited By ~ 57

Author(s):

James F. O’Connell ◽

Jim Allen ◽

Martin A. J. Williams ◽

Alan N. Williams ◽

Chris S. M. Turney ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Southeast Asia ◽

South China ◽

Homo Sapiens ◽

Region Of Interest ◽

New Guinea ◽

Archaeological Site ◽

Southwest Asia ◽

Modern Humans ◽

Archaeological Data ◽

Anatomically Modern Humans

Anatomically modern humans (Homo sapiens, AMH) began spreading across Eurasia from Africa and adjacent Southwest Asia about 50,000–55,000 years ago (ca. 50–55 ka). Some have argued that human genetic, fossil, and archaeological data indicate one or more prior dispersals, possibly as early as 120 ka. A recently reported age estimate of 65 ka for Madjedbebe, an archaeological site in northern Sahul (Pleistocene Australia–New Guinea), if correct, offers what might be the strongest support yet presented for a pre–55-ka African AMH exodus. We review evidence for AMH arrival on an arc spanning South China through Sahul and then evaluate data from Madjedbebe. We find that an age estimate of >50 ka for this site is unlikely to be valid. While AMH may have moved far beyond Africa well before 50–55 ka, data from the region of interest offered in support of this idea are not compelling.

Download Full-text

A Morphometric Investigation into the Origin(s) of Anatomically Modern Humans

10.30861/9781841713441 ◽

2003 ◽

Author(s):

Phillip J. Habgood

Keyword(s):

Modern Humans ◽

Morphometric Investigation ◽

Anatomically Modern Humans

Download Full-text

Review Feature: A review of The Mind in the Cave: Consciousness and the Origins of Art by David Lewis-Williams. London: Thames & Hudson, 2002. ISBN 0-500-05117-8 hardback £18.95 & US$29.95; 320 pp., 66 figs., 29 colour plates

Cambridge Archaeological Journal ◽

10.1017/s0959774303000155 ◽

2003 ◽

Vol 13 (2) ◽

pp. 263-279 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

David Lewis-Williams ◽

E. Thomas Lawson ◽

Knut Helskog ◽

David S. Whitley ◽

Paul Mellars

Keyword(s):

Rock Art ◽

David Lewis ◽

Modern Human ◽

Hominid Evolution ◽

Modern Humans ◽

Radiocarbon Dates ◽

Anatomically Modern Humans ◽

The Mind ◽

Cave Art ◽

West European

David Lewis-Williams is well-known in rock-art circles as the author of a series of articles drawing on ethnographic material and shamanism (notably connected with the San rock art of southern Africa) to gain new insights into the Palaeolithic cave art of western Europe. Some 15 years ago, with Thomas Dowson, he proposed that Palaeolithic art owed its inspiration at least in part to trance experiences (altered states of consciousness) associated with shamanistic practices. Since that article appeared, the shamanistic hypothesis has both been widely adopted and developed in the study of different rock-art traditions, and has become the subject of lively and sometimes heated controversy. In the present volume, Lewis-Williams takes the argument further, and combines the shamanistic hypothesis with an interpretation of the development of human consciousness. He thus enters another contentious area of archaeological debate, seeking to understand west European cave art in the context of (and as a marker of) the new intellectual capacities of anatomically modern humans. Radiocarbon dates for the earliest west European cave art now place it contemporary with the demise of the Neanderthals around 30,000 years ago, and cave art, along with carved or decorated portable items, appears to announce the arrival and denote the success of modern humans in this region. Lewis-Williams argues that such cave art would have been beyond the capabilities of Neanderthals, and that this kind of artistic ability is unique to anatomically modern humans. Furthermore, he concludes that the development of the new ability cannot have been the product of hundreds of thousands of years of gradual hominid evolution, but must have arisen much more abruptly, within the novel neurological structure of anatomically modern humans. The Mind in the Cave is thus the product of two hypotheses, both of them contentious — the shamanistic interpretation of west European Upper Palaeolithic cave art, and the cognitive separation of modern humans and Neanderthals. But is it as simple as that? Was cave art the hallmark of a new cognitive ability and social consciousness that were beyond the reach of previous hominids? And is shamanism an outgrowth of the hard-wired structure of the modern human brain? We begin this Review Feature with a brief summary by David Lewis-Williams of the book's principal arguments. There follows a series of comments addressing both the meaning of the west European cave art, and its wider relevance for the understanding of the Neanderthal/modern human transition.

Download Full-text

The Use of Ochre and Painting During the Upper Paleolithic of the Swabian Jura in the Context of the Development of Ochre Use in Africa and Europe

Open Archaeology ◽

10.1515/opar-2018-0012 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 4 (1) ◽

pp. 185-205 ◽

Cited By ~ 10

Author(s):

Sibylle Wolf ◽

Nicholas J. Conard ◽

Harald Floss ◽

Rimtautas Dapschauskas ◽

Elizabeth Velliky ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Central Europe ◽

Upper Paleolithic ◽

Archaeological Sites ◽

Modern Humans ◽

Anatomically Modern Humans

Abstract While the earliest evidence for ochre use is very sparse, the habitual use of ochre by hominins appeared about 140,000 years ago and accompanied them ever since. Here, we present an overview of archaeological sites in southwestern Germany, which yielded remains of ochre. We focus on the artifacts belonging exclusively to anatomically modern humans who were the inhabitants of the cave sites in the Swabian Jura during the Upper Paleolithic. The painted limestones from the Magdalenian layers of Hohle Fels Cave are a particular focus. We present these artifacts in detail and argue that they represent the beginning of a tradition of painting in Central Europe.

Download Full-text

35,000-year-old sites in the rainforests of West New Britain, Papua New Guinea

Antiquity ◽

10.1017/s0003598x00047104 ◽

1994 ◽

Vol 68 (260) ◽

pp. 604-610 ◽

Cited By ~ 63

Author(s):

Christina Pavlides ◽

Chris Gosden

Keyword(s):

Papua New Guinea ◽

Pacific Islands ◽

Tropical Rainforest ◽

New Guinea ◽

Northwest Pacific ◽

Open Site ◽

Early Settlement ◽

The World ◽

Cultural Layers ◽

New Britain

The growing story of early settlement in the northwest Pacific islands is moving from coastal sites into the rainforest. Evidence of Pleistocene cultural layers have been discovered in open-site excavations at Yombon, an area containing shifting hamlets, in West New Britain's interior tropical rainforest. These sites, the oldest in New Britain, may presently stand as the oldest open sites discovered in rainforest anywhere in the world.

Download Full-text

Revisiting the Out of Africa event with a novel Deep Learning approach

10.1101/2020.12.10.419069 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Francesco Montinaro ◽

Vasili Pankratov ◽

Burak Yelmen ◽

Luca Pagani ◽

Mayukh Mondal

Keyword(s):

Deep Learning ◽

Sequential Monte Carlo ◽

Whole Genome Sequence ◽

Learning Approach ◽

Whole Genome ◽

Modern Humans ◽

Anatomically Modern Humans ◽

Out Of Africa ◽

Approximate Bayesian ◽

Back To Africa

AbstractAnatomically modern humans evolved around 300 thousand years ago in Africa1. Modern humans started to appear in the fossil record outside of Africa about 100 thousand years ago though other hominins existed throughout Eurasia much earlier2–4. Recently, several researchers argued in favour of a single out of Africa event for modern humans based on whole-genome sequences analyses5–7. However, the single out of Africa model is in contrast with some of the findings from fossil records, which supports two out of Africa8,9, and uniparental data, which proposes back to Africa movement10,11. Here, we used a novel deep learning approach coupled with Approximate Bayesian Computation and Sequential Monte Carlo to revisit these hypotheses from the whole genome sequence perspective. Our results support the back to Africa model over other alternatives. We estimated that there are two successive splits between Africa and out of African populations happening around 60-80 thousand years ago and separated by 12-13 thousand years. One of the populations resulting from the more recent split has to a large extent replaced the older West African population while the other one has founded the out of Africa populations.

Download Full-text