Re: Hs living in caves three miles from the sea (Re:Hslittoral164 ka




Op 01-12-2007 16:17, in artikel
3ccf13e5-0bbf-419c-b51c-0cb1c7b079be@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx, Lee Olsen
<paleocity@xxxxxxxxxxx> schreef:

On Dec 1, 6:50 am, Marc Verhaegen <m_verhae...@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Where you find hippos & shells, you find early Homo:

On the savanna at Gona, Koobi Fora, Olduvai, etc. thanks. I'm glad to
see you are finally catching on.

There is evidence that early Homo was eating hippo, antelope, and
tortoise from the bashed-in skulls
and cut-marked bones made by stone tools found on the savanna. There
is no evidence for early Homo
eating shells or coconuts on the savanna.

My little boy, how in your delusional mind does eating hippo etc.contradict
this:

AAT (shoreline adaptations of the genus Homo) is based on the
behavior-anatomy-physiology-DNA of living humans vs. chimps & other animals.
Sea/lake-side ancestors collecting coconuts, fruits, bird eggs, turtles,
shell-, crayfish, algae etc. explains unique Homo traits (not seen in apes
or australopiths) better than plains- or forest-dwelling : brain size,
diving skills, breath control, vocality, small mouth & chewing muscles,
tongue bone descent, longer airway, projecting nose, poor sense of smell,
handiness, tool use, late puberty, long legs, aligned body, poor climbing,
fur loss, fatness, high needs of water, sodium, iodine & poly-unsaturated
fatty acids etc.
Homo & Pan split ~6-4 Ma. Most likely, Homo populations dispersed along
coasts & rivers, in savannas & elsewhere : in spite of sea level
fluctuations (difficult fossilisation), Homo tools/fossils 2.5-0.1 Ma are
found near Rift valley lakes, Indian Ocean & African coasts : Mojokerto,
Dungo V Baia Farta, Terra Amata, Table Bay, Eritrea etc. (18 km sea crossing
to reach Flores http://allserv.rug.ac.be/~mvaneech/outthere.htm ).
http://allserv.rug.ac.be/~mvaneech/Symposium.html
http://allserv.rug.ac.be/~mvaneech/Fil/Verhaegen_Human_Evolution.html
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/AAT

Homo fossils are - not occasioanlly as with ostrich shells - always found
next to shells & hippos as you might know:

At Gona, Ethiopia, 2.5 Ma-old stone tools were deposited in ³floodplain
environments, close to margins of channels that carried the volcanic cobbles
used as raw materials for tool manufacture² (Semaw et al. 1997: 333).
Nearby, in the Hata Member of the Bouri Formation, hominid fossils of a
similar age to the Gona deposits were discovered in sediments containing
sandstone with bivalve and gastropod shells ³deposited by fluvial processes
associated with floodplains along distributary channels close to a shallow
fluctuating lake² (de Heinzelin et al. 1999: 625). This Member also reveals
evidence of cut and percussion marks on bones of medium and large-sized
bovids, though stone tools have so far not been discovered.
The Homo maxilla AL 666, dated to 2.3 Ma, along with a stone tool assemblage
(though no signs of butchering), was recovered from deposits of the Hadar
Formation, suggesting a landscape which was ³predominantly open, with
wetlands and bushed or wooded grasslands, and with stands of trees close to
the water source² (Kimbel et al. 1996: 559).
At Olduvai Gorge, Plio-Pleistocene Homo remains are associated with deposits
containing ³cemented aggregates of the small benthic, freshwater clam
Corbicula² as well as crocodiles, hippos and fish (Blumenschine et al. 2003:
1220). Cut and percussion marks are found on a percentage (4.2 and 8.3%
respectively) of the long bones of larger mammals. Fish and gastropods,
judging by the remains of ?living sites¹, might have been consumed at
Olduvai Gorge, while the avian fauna included abundant waders (flamingoes,
herons, storks, rails, jacanas, plovers, sandpipers and stilts), swimmers
and divers (grebes, cormorants, pelicans and ducks) as well as marine birds
(gulls, terns and skimmers) (Leakey 1979).
The earliest occurrence of the genus Homo in the Turkana Basin is associated
with floodplain deposits in which gastropods, fish, crocodiles, bovids,
equids, suids, cercopithecids and hippopotamids occur (Pratt et al. 2005).
During Plio-Pleistocene times the Turkana Basin contained a large lake
fringed by swampy wetlands as indicated by the numerous fossils of
hippopotamids, crocodiles, fish (including a stingray, suggesting a marine
connection at the time), gastropods, bivalves, sponges and numerous
ostracods. Lung fish, water bucks, cane rats, monkeys, giraffes, buffaloes,
camels, rhinoceroses and elephants suggest a rich mosaic of wet, dry, open
and closed habitats in the vicinity of an extensive lake, or large river
(Feibel et al. 1991).
The most complete skeleton of an early Homo specimen, KNM-WT 15000, the
so-called ?Turkana Boy¹ of Nariokotome, Kenya, was discovered on the western
side of the Turkana Basin. It lay among reeds and hippopotamid footprints,
and the most abundant faunal remains associated with it were water snails,
fish and turtles (see Table 6).
The Plio-Pleistocene Shungara Formation in the Omo Basin contains an
archaeological assemblage as well as molluscs (including freshwater oyster
Etheria reefs), fish, crocodiles, hippopotamids, bovids, cercopithecids,
turtles, suids and other vertebrates. The archaeological occurrences ³are
all in proximal river settings² (Clark Howell et al. 1987: 696).
In the Western Rift Valley, the Senga 5A site (2­2.3 Ma) contains artefacts
associated with gastropods, bivalves, fish, hippopotamids, suids and bovids
in a ³low-energy littoral lacustrine setting² (Harris et al. 1987: 724).
The Plio-Pleistocene Chiwondo Beds of Malawi have yielded Homo fossils as
well as fragmented remains of fish, turtles, crocodiles and large mammals.
They also contain molluscs ³in consolidated beds of carbonate cemented
sandstone. Molluscan shell beds crop out as benches up to several meters
thick and several hundred meters wide² (Schrenk et al. 1995: 59).
The late Pliocene Chemeron hominid (KNM-BC 1) was deposited in a lake filled
basin where fish remains were abundant: ³Molluscs also lived in the lake,
and locally their remains accumulated to form shelly limestones. ? There is
little doubt that the fossil came from the Upper Fish Beds² (Martyn and
Tobias 1967).
The Dmanisi Homo fossil site, dated to 1.8 Ma, is located at the confluence
of two rivers, where at the time a lake or pond had formed due to the
blocking of a river by a lava stream. ³The hominid site itself was likely
located near a lake or pond, rich in lacustrine resources. This biome,
together with the adjacent forest-steppe formations, created a highly
productive ecotone rich in animal and plant resources² (David Lordkipanidze,
personal communication to MV). The inhabitants might have eaten hackberrys,
since abundant seeds have been found at this site (Gabunia et al. 2000).
Early Pleistocene archaeological sites from the Jordan Valley include
Erk-el-Ahmar and ¹Ubeidiya. These sites are associated with lacustrine and
fluvial deposits rich in fresh water gastropod and bivalve remains as well
as fish, turtles, hippos and birds (Bar-Yosef and Tchernov 1972).
Aïn Hanech, an archaeological site in Algeria dated to about 1.8 Ma, was
formed on an alluvial floodplain cut by a meandering river (an oxbow lake),
and may indicate repeated activities by hominids at a shallow river
embankment (Sahnouni et al. 2002).
At Pabbi Hills, Pakistan, artefacts of Pliocene age (2 Ma) have been
discovered in deposits which also contain crocodiles, turtles, aquatic
gastropods and bivalves. The molluscs suggest a large, slow-moving river
with clean, shallow water less than five meters deep, analogous to
unpolluted sections of the Ganges River (Dennell 2004).
The site of Mojokerto (Perning), on the Island of Java has been dated to
between 1.5 and 1.8 Ma. This coastal deltaic environment (Huffman 2006)
contained fresh water and marine molluscs, which would have been easily
procured and consumed by early hominid inhabitants (Frank Wesselingh,
personal communication to SM).
At Sangiran, also on Java, where H. erectus was found, ³a thin layer of
diatoms (uni-cellular marine phytoplankton) and dark clays with a marine
musselfauna was deposited by the sea, as was noticed and described before by
Professor Martin from Leiden² (von Koenigswald 1981).
Hominids on Java were using mollusc shells to butcher mammals, presumably to
gain access to nutritious meats, as early as 1.5 Ma (Choi and Driwantoro
2007).
The archaeological site of Majuangou (Nihewan), in China, recently dated to
1.66 Ma, reveals that hominids inhabited a lake filled basin, where the
remains of aquatic molluscs, and the leaves and fruits of aquatic plants
have been discovered, indicating a low energy lakeshore or marsh environment
(Zhu et al. 2004).
In the Middle Awash of Ethiopia, the Daka Member of the Bouri Formation,
dated to 1 Ma, contains artefacts, Homo erectus cranial and post cranial
bones, abundant hippo fossils, as well as gastropods and bivalves associated
with alluvial, lakeside beaches or shallow water deposits in distributary
channels (Asfaw et al. 2002).
Buia, in Ethiopia, contains Homo erectus fossils and artefacts dated to 1
Ma. These occur in deltaic deposits of the Alat Formation, which also
contains fish and freshwater gastropod (Melanoides) remains (Abbate et al.
2004). Evidence that hominids butchered medium to large-sized bovids,
hippos, and a crocodile, also come from these deposits (Fiore et al. 2004).
A partial Homo cranium from the same stratigraphic level as Acheulian
artefacts from Olorgesailie, Kenya, has been dated to between 0.97 and 0.9
Ma. The sandy silt adhered to the frontal bone of this specimen contained
amphibian bones and the tooth of the swamp rat Otomys sp., which today
inhabits thick grasses in and around the swamps, lakes and rivers of East
Africa (Potts et al. 2004).
The Angolan site of Dungo V reveals evidence for the exploitation of a large
whale (Balaenoptera sp.) on a former beach possibly more than 1 Ma. Closely
associated with the whale skeleton were numerous Lower Palaeolithic
artefacts, together with numerous molluscs, other marine invertebrates and
shark teeth (Gutierrez et al. 2001).
The earliest evidence for human activity in northern Europe comes from the
site of Pakefield, England, about 0.7 Ma, where artefacts from estuarine
silts containing marine fauna have been discovered. The majority of
artefacts derive from ?Unio bed¹ coastal river deposits (Parfitt et al.
2005).
The earliest evidence for H. sapiens in the fossil record comes from the
Ethiopian Kibish Formation in deposits dated to 195 ka. This formation
consists of ³flat-lying, tectonically undisturbed, unconsolidated sediments
deposited mainly in deltaic environments over brief periods² (McDougal et
al. 2005: 733). Human remains derive from essentially the same archeological
level that remains of the fresh water oyster Etheria have been found.
Also in Ethiopia, H. sapiens and stone artefacts occur in the Herto Member
of the Bouri Formation at 160 ka. This member contains gastropods, bivalves
and (often butchered) hippopotamus bones, testifying to a waterside setting
(Clark et al. 2003).
In Eritrea, the 125-ka-old Abdur Archaeological Site, on exposed Red Sea
reefs, indicates that humans were using tools to ³harvest shallow marine
food resources and possibly to butcher large land mammals on the ancient
shoreline² (Bruggemann et al. 2004: 180).
On the Mediterranean coast of Africa, the Haua Fteah site reveals evidence
that H. sapiens were harvesting and consuming shellfish 80­100 ka (McBurney
1967), while at the coastal sites of Gibraltar (Barton et al. 1999) and
Liguria (Stiner 1994) there is evidence that H. neanderthalensis was
collecting and consuming shellfish.
Along the African Cape coasts there are many Middle Stone Age (MSA) sites
with abundant shellfish and other marine food remains. The total number of
sites may be in the hundreds. These sites are associated with some of the
earliest modern human remains (see review in Broadhurst et al. 2002). The
best known is Klasies River Mouth, where 20 meter deep shell middens occur,
mostly dating to Oxygen Isotope Stage 5 (Grun et al. 1990, Deacon 1992).
These deposits show ³evidence for the exploitation of marine resources²
(Thackeray 1988: 27). The shell middens associated with Blombos Cave, dated
to 80­100 ka, indicate that marine molluscs were the ³most abundant category
of food waste² (Henshilwood et al. 2001: 441) and at Die Kelders the cave
deposits contain ³bones of seals, dolphins and marine birds² (Grine et al.
1991: 375).
On the Atlantic coast, the sites of Sea Harvest, Hoedjies Punt and
Ysterfontein reveal evidence that the inhabitants were harvesting marine
limpets and mussels (Volman 1978, Klein et al. 2004). Many more west coast
MSA shell middens are known, but are as yet unexcavated.
The adipose tissue and organs of seals and sea birds, and the egg yolks of
sea birds and turtles, which consume exclusively marine/littoral foods, are
rich in DHA (Broadhurst et al. 1998, Speake et al. 1999). Cape penguins
could have been scavenged or even hunted fairly easily, especially the eggs
and nestlings. Collecting fresh eggs and live flightless nestling birds in a
littoral environment could therefore have potentially provided the greatest
amount of LC-PUFA (long-chain poly-unsaturated fatty acids) for the least
amount of effort of any terrestrial food source known (Broadhurst et al.
2002).
Evidence from the Willandra Lakes in Australia confirms that at least by
50­46 ka (Bowler et al. 2003) and possibly as early as 63 ka (Thorne et al.
1999, but see also Bowler and Magee 2000, Gillespie and Roberts 2000, and
Grun et al. 2000), humans were creating shell middens dominated by the fresh
water mussel Velesunio, and hearths containing remains of the golden perch
Plectroplites (Bowler et al. 1970). The earliest evidence of human
occupation from New Guinea comes from uplifted coral reef terraces on the
Huon Peninsula, which reveal some of the earliest (possibly 45­53 ka)
examples of hafted axes known anywhere in the world (Groube et al. 1986).
Significantly, coastal fossil and archaeological sites older than about 125
ka are extremely rare because most coastal caves are younger than 125 ka, or
have been flushed of older deposits by wave action or other erosion (Klein
et al. 2004). Sea levels for much of the Pleistocene were lower than today,
so the vast majority of Pleistocene coasts are now under water. Despite
this, a number of Homo fossil sites older than 125 ka are known, such as the
1.5- or 1.8-Ma-old Indonesian site of Mojokerto, the whale butchering site
of Angola, and the 700-ka-old Pakefield site from England. The non-coastal
sites are generally associated with permanent water bodies such as rivers
and lakes, that in most cases appear to have been connected, at least for a
time, with the coast, for instance Turkana, Dmanisi, Nihewan, Erq el-Ahmar,
Aïn Hanech, and Pabbi Hills.
H. sapiens appears to have a strong correlation with shellfish, starting
with its earliest appearance in the fossil record, and continuing throughout
the Pleistocene and Holocene to modern times. Huge shell midden and evidence
of aquatic exploitation are known from coasts, rivers and lakeside settings
all over the world from recent times well back into the Pleistocene (see
Fairbridge 1976, Meehan 1982, Shackleton and van Andel 1986, Waselkov 1987,
Erlandson 2001).


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