James, mentions Atapuerca. THere are several interesting features of this
site which Christians need to pay attention to when building an apologetic.
I have previously posted on various aspects of Atapuerca. It is one of the
older well documented European sites.
They have brain sizes which are only slightly smaller than the modern human
average. Their brains average 1250 cc and modern human skulls average 1370
cc. Their brains are most assuredly within the modern range for normal
brains. One skull has a capacity of 1390 cc (Paul Bahn, "Treasure of the
Sierra Atapuerca," Archaeology Jan/Feb 1996, p. 45-48, p. 48
And one of the items found there which has yet to be described is the
Atapuercan hyoid bone. This bone will tell us whether or not these people
300,000 years ago had a vocal tract like ours. Neanderthal had a modern
hyoid, and thus could probably speak like us. It will be interesting to see
what the older hyoid shows. Here are my former posts.
Atapuerca has one of the oldest pieces of evidence for religious belief.
http://www.calvin.edu/archive/asa/199710/0431.html
It is at Atapuerca that the first fossil with a modern human face is found
http://www.calvin.edu/archive/asa/199806/0027.html
At Gran Dolina, stratigraphically below and geographically very near
Atapuerca, there is evidence of the earliest burial or body disposal.
http://www.calvin.edu/archive/asa/199706/0103.html and
http://www.calvin.edu/archive/asa/199808/0084.html
There is an interesting case for ancient men in Europe from stone tool works
which involves Atapuerca (Ignore the case for paternal mitochondria
inheritance as it has been disproven. The rest I will still stand by)
http://www.calvin.edu/archive/asa/199908/0103.html
They are the oldest ACCEPTED men in Europe although there are good cases to
be made for other sites which are older
http://www.calvin.edu/archive/asa/199908/0084.html
The morphology of these fossil men have caused one anthropologist to argue
for the union on H. erectus and H. sapiens
http://www.calvin.edu/archive/asa/200003/0149.html
At one time it was the oldest evidence of toothpick use
http://www.calvin.edu/archive/asa/200004/0142.html
>-----Original Message-----
>From: James Mahaffy [mailto:Mahaffy@dordt.edu]
>Sent: Tuesday, November 27, 2001 4:51 AM
>To: asa@calvin.edu
>Cc: glenn.morton@btinternet.com; acg-l@cc.dordt.edu
>Subject: Nifty looking hominoid fossil site from Spain.
>
>
>I received the following on a pleistocene site in Spain with
>hominoid fossils. I just glanced at it but it looks well done.
>Thought it might be of interest to some of you. For the ASA folks
>I will cc this to Glenn. He could tell us if it is any good. I
>work with fossil a bit older (Pennsylvanian).
>
>From: patd@nhm.ac.uk
>To: <paleonet@nhm.ac.uk>
>Date: 11/26/01 7:23AM
>Subject: paleonet new palaeontological website: Atapuerca,
>Human Heritage Site
>
>Dear All:
>
>I just upload the English version of the "Atapuerca, Human Heritage Site",
>a website devoted to the Middle Pleistocene Atapuerca palaeontological
>sites. The site was published previously in Spanish, my native language.
>
>It contains about 1400 files, several hundreds of medium-high resolution
>images, several QuicktimeVR panoramas of the sites, 3D models of
>pelvis and
>crania of Homo heidelbergensis and almost one hour of video in high
>resolution mpg format.
>
>The site includes also some virtual fossils (VRML language) based on
>medical tomography and 3D computerized reconstruction. Although these
>virtual fossils are very simplified models of those used for research
>purposes, they show the potential of VRML for educational purposes.
>
>The Sierra de Atapuerca is an isolated hill of Cretaceous
>limestones in the
>Northern part of Spain and, because of the importance of the
>palaeontological Pleistocene sites, has been declared a Human
>Heritage site
>by UNESCO last year. Since 1978, three sites (Sima de los Huesos, Gran
>Dolina and Galerķa) have been excavated by several research institutions,
>yielding one of the best collections of human remains and tools in the
>world belonging to two different hominid species: Homo antecessor
>(800.000
>yrs BP) and Homo heidelbergensis (300.000 yrs BP)
>
>The Sima de Huesos site contains a bone-bearing breccia with a clay matrix
>full of human fossils and carnivores. To date, more than 2000
>human fossils
>have been found in the Sima de los Huesos, including three very well
>preserved crania, one of them a complete skull. These remains belong to at
>least 32 individuals.
>
>The web site is in http://www.ucm.es/info/paleo/ata/ and the english
>version at: http://www.ucm.es/info/paleo/ata/english/
>
>James Mahaffy (mahaffy@dordt.edu) Phone: 712 722-6279
>Biology Department FAX : 712 722-1198
>Dordt College, Sioux Center IA 51250
>
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