The Human Journey: Homo Sapiens

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archaeology, education, Human Journey, Nottingham, Nottinghamshire, WEA

In our last session of ‘The Human Journey’, we looked at the appearance of our own species, Homo sapiens, and various theories about how we spread around the world.

Further reading on this subject includes:

• Out-of-Africa versus the multiregional hypothesis (Nature)
• Recent African origin of modern humans (Wikipedia)
• Multiregional origin of modern humans (Wikipedia)
• The Great Human Migration (Smithsonian Magazine)
• Rethinking our human origins in Africa (Natural History Museum, London)

This short video clip helps to illustrate some of the proposed routes:

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The Human Journey: The Neanderthal Thorax

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archaeology, education, Human Journey, news, Nottingham, Nottinghamshire, WEA

Following on from the recent post about Neanderthals and Denisovans, comes news of a new virtual, three-dimensional reconstruction of the thorax of an adult, male Neanderthal  which is presented in Nature Communications. Analysis suggests that the Neanderthal thorax had a different shape to that of modern humans, leading the authors to propose that Neanderthals may have had a subtly different breathing mechanism.

Beginner’s Guide to Archaeology: Metal Detecting, Nighthawking and the Portable Antiquities Scheme

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archaeology, Beginners Guide, Britain, education, England, Leicestershire, Loughborough, Scotland, Wales, WEA

In our last session we looked at the Treasure Act 1996,  Treasure Trove in Scotland, metal detecting, nighthawking and the Portable Antiquities Scheme.

This video is of a lecture entitled “The Treasure Act and Portable Antiquities Scheme: experience from South of the Border” that was given by Roger Bland, Keeper of the Department of Britain, Europe and Prehistory at the British Museum joint with the National Museums Scotland, to the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland in 2014 on the application of the Treasure Act and the development of the Portable Antiquities Scheme to record discovered artefacts.

Beginner’s Guide to Archaeology: Human Remains and Archaeology

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archaeology, Beginners Guide, education, Leicestershire, Loughborough, WEA

In our last session of ‘A Beginner’s Guide’ we looked at the topic of human remains on archaeological sites.

In this episode of ‘Material World’ from BBC Radio 4, the presenter interviews two archaeologists about the impact of the Burial Act 1857 upon archaeology.

Further reading which may be of interest includes:

• Human Remains Advice (English Heritage)
• Human Osteoarchaeology (English Heritage)
• Human Remains (Church Care)
• BAJR guides including a Basic Overview for the Recovery of Human Remains from Sites Under Development and A Field Guide to the Excavation of Inhumated Remains
• Burial Act 1857 (Legislation.gov.uk)
• Disused Burial Grounds (Amendment) Act 1981 (Legislation.gov.uk)
• The Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA) (US National Parks Service)

The Human Journey: Neanderthals and Denisovans

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archaeology, education, Human Journey, Nottingham, Nottinghamshire, WEA

In our last session we looked at Neanderthals and Denisovans:

• Who were the Neanderthals? (Natural History Museum, London)
• Homo neanderthalensis (Smithsonian)
• Why am I Neanderthal? (National Geographic)
• Neanderthal (Encyclopedia Britannica)
• Why am I Denisovan? (National Geographic)
• A world map of Neanderthal and Denisovan ancestry in modern humans (Science Daily)
• Mum’s a Neanderthal, Dad’s a Denisovan: First discovery of an ancient-human hybrid (Nature)
• Ancient child from Siberia was Neanderthal and Denisovan hybrid (Natural History Museum, London)

This short video clip summarises recent research published in Cell which showed that remnants of two distinct waves of Denisovan admixture have been identified in modern-day East Asian populations in a new study from Browning and colleagues.

What’s the meaning of Stonehenge?

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archaeology, Britain, Bronze Age, education, Places to Visit, prehistory, stone age, Stonehenge, WEA, Wiltshire

In this episode of Curator’s Corner by the British Museum, Neil Wilkin is joined by Susan Greaney, Senior Properties Historian for English Heritage to discuss the history and importance of Stonehenge. Going into the heart of the monument and looking at some related Bronze Age objects, Neil and Susan explore the connections between Stonehenge, the rest of Britain and the continent.

The Human Journey: Early Homo species

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archaeology, education, Human Journey, Nottingham, Nottinghamshire, WEA

In this week’s session, we looked at some of the early species of the genus Homo: Homo habilis, Homo rudolfensis, Homo ergaster, Homo erectus, Homo heidelbergensis and Homo naledi.

We also looked at some of the first evidence for tool making with the Oldowan industry. A couple of episodes of the BBC’s ‘A History of the World in 100 Objects’ series looked at these tools: Olduvai Stone Chopping Tool and Olduvai Handaxe. These podcasts can be listened to online or downloaded to be listened to in your own time.

Other webpages that may be of interest are:

• Homo naledi, your most recently discovered human relative (Natural History Museum, London)
• Homo naledi is only 250,000 years old – here’s why that matters (New Scientist)
• Homo habilis (Smithsonian)
• Homo habilis (Australian Museum)
• Homo rudolfensis (Smithsonian)
• Homo rudolfensis (Australian Museum)
• Homo ergaster (Australian Museum)
• Homo erectus (Smithsonian)
• Homo erectus (Australian Museum)
• Homo heidelbergensis (Smithsonian)
• Homo heidelbergensis (Australian Museum)

The Human Journey: Australopithecines and Bipedalism

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archaeology, Britain, education, England, Human Journey, Nottingham, Nottinghamshire, WEA

In our last session of ‘The Human Journey’ we looked at the Australopithecines and how bipedalism can be identified in the fossil record.

This short video by the California Academy of Sciences compares the distinctive gaits of a chimpanzee, Australopithecus afarensis, and modern human, highlighting the trait of upright walking that the latter two share.

Further reading can be found at:

• Hominin Species (Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History)
• Australopithecus (Encyclopedia Britannica)
• Australopithecus and Kin (Nature)
• Human Evolution (Australian Museum)

The Human Journey – Reading List

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archaeology, Britain, education, England, evolution, Human Journey, Nottingham, Nottinghamshire, WEA

Whilst it is not essential to do any background reading before the course begins, you may find it useful to do so. The reading list below contains books and articles that you can read to gain a preliminary understanding of topics, as well as to study in more depth those parts of the course you are particularly interested in. You don’t have to read all of these and there are none that you must read. You may also want to take a look at magazines such as British Archaeology, World Archaeology and Current Archaeology.

 Further suggestions about ways you can extend your understanding of topics through books, television etc may also be posted as appropriate on this blog.

Ayala, FJ and Cela-Conde, CJ. 2017. Processes in Human Evolution: The Journey From Early Hominins To Neanderthals And Modern Humans. 2^nd edition.

Berger, L et al. 2015. Homo naledi, a new species of the genus Homo from the Dinaledi Chamber, South Africa: https://elifesciences.org/articles/09560

Berger, L et al. 2017. Homo naledi and Pleistocene hominin evolution in subequatorial Africa: https://elifesciences.org/articles/24234

Berger, L. 2017. Almost Human.

Diamond, J. 2006. ‘The Third Chimpanzee’.

Dirks, et al. 2017. The age of Homo naledi and associated sediments in the Rising Star Cave, South Africa: https://elifesciences.org/articles/24231

Finlayson, C. 2009. ‘The Humans Who Went Extinct’.

Gibbons, A. 2007. ‘The First Human’.

Hawks et al. 2017. New fossil remains of Homo naledi from the Lesedi Chamber, South Africa: https://elifesciences.org/articles/24232

Humphrey, L and Stringer, C. 2018. Our Human Story.

Johanson, D, Edgar, B & Brill, D. 2006. ‘From Lucy to Language: Revised’.

Johanson, D & Wong, K. 2009. ‘Lucy’s Legacy: The Quest for Human Origins’.

Lewin, R. 2004. ‘Human Evolution: An Illustrated Introduction’. 5^th edition.

Mithen, S. 2004. ‘After the Ice: A Global Human History 20,000 – 5,000 BC’.

Oppenheimer, S. 2004. ‘Out of Eden: The Peopling of the World’.

Reich, D. 2018. Who We Are and How We Got Here: Ancient DNA and the new science of the human past.

Roberts, A. 2009. ‘The Incredible Human Journey’. (DVD also available).

Scarre, C. 2018. ‘The Human Past’. 4^th edition.

Stringer, C. 2006. ‘Homo Britannicus: The Incredible Story of Human Life in Britain’.

Stringer, C & Andrews, P. 2012. ‘The Complete World of Human Evolution’. 2^nd edition.

Sykes. B. 2004. ‘The Seven Daughters of Eve’.

Tattersall, I. 2007. ‘The Last Human’.

Wood, B. 2017. ‘Human Evolution: A Very Short Introduction’. 2^nd edition.

Beginner’s Guide to Archaeology: Context and Stratigraphy

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archaeology, Beginners Guide, Britain, education, England, Leicestershire, Loughborough, WEA

In the second session of this course we looked at the practicalities of archaeological excavation, as well as important concepts which underpin our understanding of archaeological sites. Key amongst these was the concepts of ‘context’ and ‘stratigraphy’.

Context, to quote from the Society for American Archaeology, “refers to the relationship that artifacts have to each other and the situation in which they are found… Context is what allows archaeologists to understand the relationship between artifacts on the same site, as well as how different archaeological sites are related to each other.”

Each individual archaeological context is given an unique number to identify it and is generally recorded on a context sheet. This process is explained in this video by Archaeosoup:

Stratigraphy is “the study of layered sedimentary rocks (called strata) but may also include layered igneous rocks,” and is important to both archaeology and geology. This science follows several fundamental principles (explained in more detail in the linked webpage).

In this short video clip, UNC archaeologist Theresa McReynolds explains how studying stratigraphy helps archaeologists determine the relative ages of artifacts.

A common method of plotting archaeological contexts and their relationships to one another is using the Harris Matrix.