For those who might still believe that there was a sudden change aoubt
40,000-60000 years ago to modern humans you might want to consider the work
going on at IdlIu22. There is no sudden change in technology that would
mark the creation of modern man. The change in technologies was very
gradual. This idea that mankind was suddenly created at that time receives
no observational support.
"Genetic and fossil evidence suggest that anatomically modern Homo sapiens
evolved in Africa during the Middle Stone Age (MSA), sometime between
200,000 and 30,000 to 40,000 years ago. However, many archaeologists
suggest that behavioural modernity, as measured by European Upper
Palaeolithic innovations, only developed during the subsequent Later Stone
Age (LSA), less than 30,000 to 40,000 years ago. Since few African sites
contain a record of the MSA-LSA transition, it is hard to test the
hypothesis of a radical transformation of technology and adaptation at this
time.
This paper reports on results from test excavations at IdIu22 (33°12'E,
8°46'S), a collapsed volcanic rockshelter located east of the Songwe River
in the Lake Rukwa Rift Valley of southwestern Tanzania. About 65,000
artifacts were recovered during excavations in 1995 and 1997, and a series
of both typological and technological attributes were recorded for each. A
continuous, extensive archaeological deposit was revealed which has both
Pleistocene and Holocene components.
Sites like IdIu22 offer the potential to address the whole question of the
onset of behavioural modernity. Instead of abrupt change, the lithic
material excavated here shows a gradual transformation from a flake based
LSA or LSA/MSA transitional industry to a bladelet and microlithic one,
culminating with a Holocene LSA employing microburin production techniques.
Added to regional information provided from surface MSA and LSA sites
nearby, a picture of decreasing mobility and catchment area over time is
developing. At no point can a sudden change from the MSA to the LSA be
documented."
Pamela R. Willoughby "Investigating the origins of modern human behaviour
in southwestern Tanzania: a Middle or a Later Stone Age event?" Abstracts
for the Paleoanthropology Society Meeting, The University of Pennsylvania
Museum, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S.A., April 4-5, 2000
**
glenn
Foundation, Fall and Flood
Adam, Apes and Anthropology
http://www.flash.net/~mortongr/dmd.htm
Lots of information on creation/evolution
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