Homo sapiens Corridor 1 Cradle of our species & emergence of our culture Tracking our 200,000 year epic journey From Cape to Rio 10 Africa Alive Corridors Homo sapiens Corridor J.M. Anderson & M. de Wit 1st-person short stories
3 PINNACLE POINT 162,000 years ago Earliest use of ochre, shellfjsh, bladelets Of the growing number of sites along the southern Cape coast, this is perhaps the single most prolifjc. Discovered only recently, in 1997 by Peter Nilssen, it includes beds going back to 166,000 BP (the oldest known occupation level along the HSC Corridor). Pinnacle Point These levels yield the earliest evidence of shell- fjsh collecting (diet), heat-treated silcrete blades (technology), & use of ochre pigment (culture). ka Climate curve 140 162,000 years ago Fire as an Typical seashells engineering tool collected from 150 Pinnacle Point 160 early MSA 162,000 BP 170 180 cold hot Pinnacle Point 10ºC swing 1st-person short stories
5 LANGEBAAN 120,000 years ago Earliest known human footprints Langebaan, with our earliest known human footprints dating to 120,000 years ago is of the greatest interest. They have been fondly dubbed ‘Eve’s footprints’. Dave Roberts, who discovered the prints, interprets them as those of a pregnant female (or Langebaan Lagoon one with particularly large buttocks) descending with waddling gait diagonally down the side of an ancient sand dune. It is an evocative picture. ka Climate curve 100 110 Eve’s footprints Klasies River 120 120,000 BP 130 140 cold hot Langebaan 10ºC swing 1st-person short stories
7 KLASIES RIVER 115,000 years ago Earliest reliably dated H sapiens skeletal remains. It’s foremost signifjcance is that it has yielded far more early-human skeletal fragments (>30 specimens, 7 individuals) than any other site. These date to 90,000 & 115,000 BP. Interestingly, this unique sample has been Klasies River attributed to cannibalism—its earliest known occurrence. The whole sequence shows that the coastal resources, 1 parietal fragment e.g., shell fjsh & seals, were systematically exploited. 2 maxillary 5 mandibles fragments 1 ulna ka Climate curve 100 Klasies River 110 Klasies 115,000 BP 90,000 BP 2 individuals 5 individuals 115,000 BP Klasies River 120 130 140 cold hot Klasies River 10ºC swing 1st-person short stories
9 BLOMBOS CAVE 75,000 years ago Earliest known artwork globally, cross-hatched ochre. Excavations have uncovered a series of fjnds opening new vistas on our behavioural evolution. From occupation levels dated ca 75 ka have come the earliest evidence of personal ornaments (a supposed shell-bead necklace) & abstract art (geometric designs on ochre Blombos Cave & bone). And from those dated 100 ka come abalone shell containers in which were evidently mixed ochre rich pigment. sharpened bone tool ka punctured beads Climate curve 60 Howieson’s Poort 70 Nassarius beads engraved ochre Still Bay 75,000 BP 80 Pre-Still Bay 90 cold hot Blombos Cave 10ºC swing 1st-person short stories
11 PINNACLE POINT 71,000 years ago Earliest evidence of the bow & arrow. Of the growing number of sites along the southern Cape coast, this is perhaps the single most prolifjc. Discovered only recently, in 1997 by Peter Nilssen. The younger 71,000 BP occupation levels have Pinnacle Point yielded the evidence for the bow & arrow. silcrete blades experimentally Climate curve ka attached to shaft 50 Sibudu 1cm microlithic blades 60 Howieson’s Poort made from silcrete 70 71,000 BP Still Bay 80 Pre-Still Bay 90 cold hot Pinnacle Point 10ºC swing 1st-person short stories
13 DIEPKLOOF 60,000 years ago Engraved ostrich eggshell water containers are at the heart of this rock shelter’s signifjcance. A unique tally of 270 fragments of these EOES represent a minimum number of 25 containers. They ‘appear in 18 sequential Diepkloof shelter stratigraphic levels’, thus representing a tradition that very likely persisted for ‘several thousand years’. These are some of the earliest known symbols thought to identify individuals within a group. ka Climate curve 50 Sibudu engraved ostrich eggshells 60 Howieson’s 60,000 BP Poort 70 Still Bay Diepkloof 80 Pre-Still Bay cold hot 10ºC swing 1st-person short stories
15 KLEIN SWARTBERG 2,000 years ago Numerous rock-art sites depicting therianthropes. The Klein Swartberg and adjacent ranges are rich with San rock art sites. The paintings echo a world of social relationships, mythology, rituals & beliefs— offering a special glimpse of our human past. The common depiction of therianthropes—half human half animal, fjsh or bird—suggests the spiritual leaning of the people. Ostrich men and watermeide Klein Swartberg portray transformation during trance, altered states of consciousness. ka 0 fjnal LSA 2,000 BP Wilton 10 Oakhurst Frieze of 24 ostrich-men Robberg Watermeide 20 early LSA 30 40 Klein Swartberg cold hot 10ºC swing 9. Klein Swartberg 1st-person short stories 9. Klein Swartberg
CHANGING CLIMATE SHIFTING COASTLINES 17 2. The last 65 million years 6. The last 350,000 years 18,000 years ago Today Glacials-interglacials From dinosaurs to mammals Across the divide to Homo sapiens Our world is a hugely differ- ka Ma 5 4 3 5 4 3 2 1 0 ent place during glacial & in- 0 0 terglacial epochs. At 18,000 Pleistocene 1 12 years ago & at 135,000 Courtesy Richard Cowling ca 2 Ma-12Ka years ago, the ice-caps H. sapiens 2.2 Pliocene 20 24 2 were far more extensive 5,5 Ma than now; with the Arctic ice reglaciation Antarctic Woolly mammoth covering the greater part of 3.1 40 North America and Western 3 Europe. 10 3.3 60 4 Miocene -8 -6 -4 -2 0 2 Equivalent Sea-level fmuctuation 18,000 Today 80 a 5.1 Pinnacle Point Vostok ∆T(°C) years ago Hunter-gatherers occupying b 5.2 5 Pinnacle Point on the Cape 100 c 5.3 coast during these same 20 5.4 glacial & interglacial epochs, d Courtesy Curtis Marean Antarctic thawing would have seen all-togeth- 5.5 120 H. neanderthalesis er different scenes—from landscape with a diversity of antelope to seascape with Oligocene 140 6.2 whales & seals. Antarctic 6 glaciation 30 ca 34 Ma 6.3 Cold 160 Hot 270-190 Ma Vegetation biomes 18,000 years 6.5 Today Antarctica African vegetation During intervals of maxi- 180 190 mum glaciation, Africa was a 7.1 a parched and far grimmer Cold 200 ka Hot 200 place for humans to eke b out an existence. The Cape 40 pre 34 Ma 7.3 c coastal region would have 7 220 been one of the few plac- d Eocene Antarctica es where the climate and food resources (terrestrial e 7.5 H. heidelbergensis 240 & marine) would have been manageable. 8.2 8 Eocene Optimum 50 8.3 260 542 Ma– At 18 000 & again at around 138 000 years ago, the 280 world was very different Paleocene Eocene a 8.5 56 Homo erectus PETM Thermal Maximum from how we know it today. The ice caps were far more b 300 Paleocene extensive, the continental 9 9.1 60 shelves largely exposed, the deserts way more expansive c 320 & the tropical forests much 9.3 Polar Ocean reduced. Equivalent ∆T(°C) isotype 65,5 340 stages Cretaceous 4 6 8 10 12 Adopted from Compton (2011) 350,000 ice volume 70 Ma °C °C years ago glacial interglacial 20°C swing 10°C swing On this graph, we home in on the last three major interglaci- The dinosaurs were cold-blooded creatures & thrived in hot al-glacial cycles . Each spanning ca 100,000 years and refmect - temperatures (a hothouse world); mammals are warm-blooded ing a swing of ca 10°C. Homo sapiens (anatomically modern animals & thrive in cold temperatures (an icehouse world). The humans) fjrst appeared somewhere, at around 200 ka, on the mammals became the dominant land animals after the extinc- tion of the dinosaurs at the end of the Cretaceous (65 myr). They cooling curve from the interglacial MIS 7 to the glacial MIS 6. Expanded continental shelf with sea level ca 120 m lower than today; The compelling thing from this time on is how closely our major have evolved to great diversity in a cooling world —through Southern Coastal Plain expanded by ca twice the area of the Kruger National Park cultural breakthroughs — our genius moments — parallel the cli- a drop of 20°C. If things return to the hothouse world of the dino- 1st-person short stories mate curve. We will consider this further in the following graph. saurs, the mammals, including ourselves, will not survive.
THE ANTHROPOCENE (6 th EXTINCTION) 19 TSWAING TOBA GOBEKLI TEPE Volcanic explosion Human megaliths Asteroid impact 220,000 years ago 75,000 years ago 9,600 years ago Pretoria, South Africa Sumatra, Indonesia Turkey, Middle-East Genetic mutation Population bottleneck Organised Religion Mitochondrial Eve (50 - 100,000 humans) Towns (Our mutual great-great Bow & Arrow Farming, Domestication great ...... granny) Global colonisation Global colonisation (1 st Wave, Out of Africa) (2 nd Wave, Out of Mid.-East) 1st-person short stories
CAPE FOLD BELT FYNBOS 21 6 Plant Kingdoms Worldwide Cape Floral Kingdom, 9,000 species (British Isles, 3,5x larger, 1,500 species) Ericaceae ( Erica ) Proteaceae ( Protea ) 627 species 330 species 1st-person short stories
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