All,
In the hope that the Forum will not be totally infected by the ongoing media driven hype surrounding the highly speculative controversy concerning the relative taxonomic significance of Sahelanthropus tchadensis and Orrorin tugenensis, I take the liberty of bringing to your attention a recent report on the dating and corollary palaeoanthropological and human biogeographical implications of one of Dmanisi’s earliest hominid find:
Comptes Rendus Palevol
ISSN : 1631-0683
2002 - Volume 1 - Numéro 3 - pp: 181-189
Datation par la méthode 40Ar/39Ar de la couche de cendres volcaniques (couche VI) de Dmanissi (Géorgie) qui a livré des restes d'hominidés fossiles de 1,81 Ma
Henry de Lumley, David Lordkipanidze, Gilbert Féraud, Tristan Garcia, Christian Perrenoud, Christophe Falguères et al.
The exceptional prehistoric site of Dmanisi, in the South of Georgia, has yielded several hominid fossil remains, including three skulls and three mandibles assigned to Homo ergaster, in volcanic ashes and fluvio-lacustrine sands lying directly on a basalt flow. These levels also contain an archaic lithic industry consisting of pebble tools, cores and flakes, and large mammal remains attributed to the beginning of the Lower Pleistocene (Biharian). The basalt flow has been previously dated to about 1.85 Ma, but the overlying volcanic ash level had not yet been dated. In this paper, we present 40Ar/39Ar dating of plagioclase and glass from the volcanic ash level that has yielded Quaternary fauna, lithic artefacts and several human remains, which gives an age of 1.81±0.05 Ma. The subcontemporaneity of Hominid presence and volcanic ash deposition makes Dmanisi the oldest prehistoric site currently known in Europe and proves human presence at the gates of Europe 1.81 Ma ago.
To cite this article: H. de Lumley et al., C. R. Palevol 1 (2002) 181-189.
Dmanisi / Georgia / Homo ergaster / earliest occupation of Europe / 40Ar/39Ar dating
© 2002 - Académie des Sciences/ Éditions Scientifiques et Médicales Elsevier SAS
Tous droits réservés / All rights reserved.
And for those of you you have not seen it before, here is the URL for the Dmanisi Web site which -- even if it can be, at times, unbearably slow -- is worth having a look at:
http://www.dmanisi.org.ge/Finally, for people who can read French or have access to a good “translator”, today’s issue of Le Monde contains a somewhat complete and rather reasonable summary of what it all means. It can be read at
http://www.lemonde.fr/ (in the Sciences section , under Homo georgicus) .
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And in passing, here are a few more Palevol Abstracts that could be of interest to some of you:
Comptes Rendus Palevol
ISSN : 1631-0683
2002 - Volume 1 - Numéro 2 - pp: 129-134
La parole à la portée du conduit vocal de l'homme de Neandertal. Nouvelles recherches, nouvelles perspectives
Jean-Louis Heim, Louis-Jean Boë, Christian Abry
Investigations about the origin of articulated language result in different interpretations dealing with the phonetic capacity of our ancestors, namely after the discovery of the Neandertals. According to anatomic arguments now called to question, principally the position of the larynx as regard to the basis of skull, some authors claimed that these fossil humans could not be endowed with speech. From a new reconstruction of the estimated position of the larynx and the vocal tract, articulatory simulations were undertaken in order to propose some potential vocalic [i a u] prototypes for Neandertals. And we can show Neandertals could pronounce vowels as differentiated as those of modern humans. To cite this article: J.-L. Heim et al., C. R. Palevol 1 (2002) 129-134.
vocal tract / larynx / speech / acoustic simulation / Neandertals
© 2002 - Académie des Sciences/ Éditions Scientifiques et Médicales Elsevier SAS
Tous droits réservés / All rights reserved.
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Comptes Rendus Palevol
ISSN : 1631-0683
2002 - Volume 1 - Numéro 1 - pp: 11-17
Végétation et climat au Pléistocène inférieur et moyen à La Pineta (Isernia, Italie)
Vincent Lebreton
Palynological investigation from the Lower Palaeolithic site of La Pineta (Isernia, Molise) reports the environmental and climatic conditions of an old human occupation site in Italy, between the end of the Lower Pleistocene and the beginning of the Middle Pleistocene. The pollen record shows that the end of the Lower Pleistocene was marked by an arid episode. This is related to change in the climatic cycles periodicity from 41 to 100 ka, which occurred between 900 and 800 ka. The post-archaeological layers show new favourable moisture conditions at the beginning of the Middle Pleistocene, when the 100 ka cycles prevail. To cite this article: V. Lebreton, C. R. Palevol 1 (2002) 11-17.
palynology / palaeoenvironment / palaeoclimate / Lower Pleistocene / Middle Pleistocene / prehistory / Italy
© 2002 - Académie des Sciences/ Éditions Scientifiques et Médicales Elsevier SAS
Tous droits réservés / All rights reserved.
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Comptes Rendus Palevol
ISSN : 1631-0683
2002 - Volume 1 - Numéro 1 - pp: 27-33
Anatomical study of the skull of the Kenyan specimen KNM-ER 1805: a re-evaluation of its taxonomic allocation?
Sandrine Prat
Since the discovery of KNM-ER 1805 in 1974, its taxonomic assignment is widely discussed. The aim of this paper is to re-evaluate the attribution of this fossil after comparison with a sample of original Plio-Pleistocene hominids. This specimen possesses a combination of traits that differentiate it from other hominids. In a cladistic analysis, with the operational taxonomic unit defined by the specimen, KNM-ER 1805 has a peculiar position; it is not linked with the Homo clade. KNM-ER 1805 should not be considered as an average male of Homo habilis in cladistic and morphological analyses. To cite this article: S. Prat, C. R. Palevol 1 (2002) 27-33.
skull / Homo / Australopithecus boisei / Kenya / Pleistocene
© 2002 - Académie des Sciences/ Éditions Scientifiques et Médicales Elsevier SAS
Tous droits réservés / All rights reserved.
