RE: Human speech 350,000 years ago?

> -----Original Message-----
> From: asa-owner@lists.calvin.edu
> [mailto:asa-owner@lists.calvin.edu] On Behalf Of D. F. Siemens, Jr.
> Sent: Friday, July 02, 2004 10:45 PM
> Dick,
> I would suggest that you check Blombos Cave, South Africa,
> which has many
> Internet sites devoted to it. Its inhabitants had bone awls, bifacial
> points, shell beads and carved stones at least 75,000 years
> ago. There is
> rather clear evidence that they painted themselves with
> ochre. This comes
> from the Middle Paleolithic, which will be followed by the Upper
> Paleolithic before reaching the Neolithic. Of course, you may
> prefer to
> claim that the Upper Paleolithic arrived at Blombos Cave 30,000 years
> early.

People so underestimate the abilities of the ancient hominids. They
successfully lived in an environment we domesticated humans would find
too harsh for existence. Consider the fact that Homo erectus crossed
the oceans 840 kyr ago!

"In summary, our work has yielded unambiguous and relatively
precise dates for the arrival of H. erectus on Flores by
840,000 years BP. Stone artefacts do not seem to occur in
deposits slightly older." M. J. Morwood et al,
"Archaeological and Palaeontological Research in Central
Flores, East Indonesia: results of Fieldwork 1997-1998,"
Antiquity, 73(1999):273-286, p. 284
**
        "Even at times of low sea level, when Sumatra, Java and
Bali were connected to mainland Southeast Asia, at least two
sea crossings were required to reach Flores. The first of
these deep-water barriers, between the islands of Bali and
Lombok, is about 25 km wide and constitutes a major
biogeographical boundary, the Wallace Line. Prior to human
intervention, only animals capable of crossing substantial
water barriers by swimming, flying or rafting on flotsam
were able to establish populations on Flores (e.g.
elephants, rats). In fact, the impoverished nature of the
fauna on the island in the Early and Middle Pleistocene
rules out the possibility of temporary landbridges from
continental Southeast Asia. The presence of hominids on
Flores in the Early Pleistocene therefore provides the
oldest inferred date for human maritime technology anywhere
in the world. Elsewhere, dates for such capabilities are
much more recent. These findings indicate that the
intelligence and technological capabilities of H. erectus
may have been seriously underestimated. An accumulating
body of evidence from elsewhere supports this conclusion
(e.g. Thieme 1997).
         "The complex logistic organization needed for people to
build water-craft capable of transporting a biologically and
socially viable group across significant water barriers,
also implies that people had language. Previously the
organizational and linguistic capacity required for sea
voyaging was thought to be the prerogative of modern humans
and to have only appeared in the late Pleistocene. It now
seems that humans had this capacity 840,000 years ago." M.
J. Morwood et al, "Archaeological and Palaeontological
Research in Central Flores, East Indonesia: results of
Fieldwork 1997-1998," Antiquity, 73(1999):273-286, p.
285,286

Note what they say in that last paragraph about linguistic abilities. I
have had personal conversations with Robert Bednarik, an archaeologist
who has been involved in the Flores work. He re-iterated to me that
having tried to build a raft that would perform the task of crossing the
ocean there by Flores, he is convinced it can't be done without
language.

As to ochre, the evidence of ochre usage goes way way back. There is
Lion Cave in Swaziland which was mined for red ochre 70-100 years ago or
more. And there is much evidence of coloring use longer ago than that.
See http://home.entouch.net/dmd/mining.htm

>
> It strikes me that it would be impossible to have the sophisticated
> artifacts of the cave without fairly advanced language. I
> grant that they
> did not speak of plows, crops and smiths, but such terms are not the
> _sine qua non_ of competent communication.
> Dave

One must always keep in mind that the perishable technology is gone.
Things like spider web fishing lines suspended from kites used in the
South Pacific will never be preserved.
 
Received on Sat Jul 3 10:38:09 2004