To understand hominid biocultural evolution, it is important to consider the very first founds in materials that could communicate how people lived at a certain time, how they interacted with each other and how they were socially organized. There are many methods responsible for finds evidence of early human life, and each method plays an important role all with the same goal and provides pieces of information that are useful and help have a better understanding of where we came from and how we got here.
Paleoanthropology is divided in several disciplines and most
times the work of one discipline depends on the work of another discipline.
Some of the disciplines or methods used are:
Geologists:
They work on the mapping and surveying the area and through satellite imagery
they are able to identify if the area was once habited by hominids.
Archeologists: Once
possibility for hominid sites are found, the archeologist starts looking for
artifacts and remains left by the society that represented the people who lived
at that location at specific time. These findings are dates, analyzed and
organized in a chronological matter.
Paleontologists: Usually
this field is divided in many other fields, but basically their job is to study
the fossil founds to be able to understand the past, learn about the human evolution,
and about our place, as humans, in the world.
Physical
Anthropologists: They are usually focused on how humans used to live and
their evolution, studying the anatomy of hominid fossils.
Paleoanthropological field is very time consuming because finding sites, analyzing materials and dating samples can take several years.
Anthropologists usually come to play when the site is
already set up. Each location is carefully examined to make sure excavations
are safe and to make sure minimal disturbance is cause to the archeological
record. On archeological site, there are usually four elements that could help
the research about ancient humans:
- Artifacts: These are tangible objects used at a certain period, mostly tools and pottery.
- Features: This is an element that represents a certain cultural organization or belief and the organization of the groups. Given the value and size of such feature, they are kept in place and researched on site. Ex. Hindu Temple or the evidence of human burial.
- Ecofacts: Are based on the remains of the natural environment that was present at the time, it allows for understanding how humans lived with the resources they had.
- Contexts: This element involves the place where things are happening with the time they happened.
The fossil:
The fossil is the remains of any living organisms that have habited
Earth during earlier periods; they can be humans, animals, plants and so on.
These remains are usually petrified through time and preserve in a cast. The
process of fossilization is a combination of various processes and specific
conditions like for examples deprivation of oxygen and continued sediment
accumulation as opposed to an eroding surface. Alkaline conditions are also
helpful to preserve the remains.
The artifact:
The artifact is the object found that can give some
information regarding cultural organization and habits. Artifacts are mostly
tools, pottery, remains of tool making and items of personal adornment. Stone
tools objects tend to be preserved throughout time, but some copper and metal
materials are sometimes oxidized.
Many elements are a threat to the survival of such precious
evidence of ancient humanity. Such elements are decay, erosion, weathering,
actions of scavengers and natural disasters.
Once evidence early human life at a location, there are a
series of actions that take place in order to use all the information found in
the best way possible. The first few steps consist in finding a site, surveying
the site, excavating and then one of the most important phases of the
exploration is dating the finds.
There are two types of dating:
Absolute which consists in providing a computed numeric
date.
Relative, which puts the past events into a relative order,
but without providing a specific numeric date to them.
The whole purpose of going through such an elaborated research,
that could take several years, depending on the situation, is to understand how
we evolved to what we are today, by
reconstructing past human life and understanding why they created their
products, how they lived with each other and
how they organized themselves.
They are stories behind each element that is found in
archeological sites, if it’s a fossil or an artifact, researchers are able to
see things and make hypothesis based on evidences.
From the skeleton it is possible to identify the sex of the
person by looking at some of the characteristics that are unique to female
skeleton (broader pelvic bones) or characteristics that are unique for males
( limb bones are larger and have more marked muscle attachments), eating habits, the diseases and sometimes how that person died.
( limb bones are larger and have more marked muscle attachments), eating habits, the diseases and sometimes how that person died.
Personal Input:
When I was in high school I remember we studied about dinosaurs
fossils found that dated over 3.5 million years. I remember thinking about that
for a few days and trying to understand how would a fossil would be preserved
for so long, what kind of people was out there looking for these things and
once found, how could you really tell the age of the animal or what conditions
it lived in.
Well, I can say I learned a bit more about it as the time
passed and my respect for paleontologists has grown immensely. But during the
study of this chapter and this class, I was able to understand that the paleontologist
is a small part of a bigger organism, especially when considering hominid
explorations. The role of the geologist is just as important. Not to mention
the work of the archeologist who gathers information from artifacts that are
crucial in the understanding of how these people lived and what were their
habits.
Additional
Information
Considering I am a very visual person, always when trying to
understand a subject I look for visual aids such as images or videos.
This first video I found interesting because it shows the work of archeologists who found the first ropes ever used by Egyptians. They used to store the ropes just like we do today, and that is how they were found. It is interesting the similarity of something that happened over 4 thousand years ago.
This first video I found interesting because it shows the work of archeologists who found the first ropes ever used by Egyptians. They used to store the ropes just like we do today, and that is how they were found. It is interesting the similarity of something that happened over 4 thousand years ago.
http://science.howstuffworks.com/environmental/31975-archaeology-worlds-oldest-ropes-found-video.htm
This second link I added just because it’s something I have
never heard of, but apparently it exists. It’s a major in art & archeology
from Princeton University. Apparently students learn the importance of art in
the ancient human society and they can go in excavations offered by Princeton
University to search for artifacts. I added this link that has more information
about this major.
This following link is about 7 amazing archeological
discoveries that changed the archeological world. In fact, I found lots of
interesting information in this particular website, but decided to share this
article because for each finding these is a brief explanation about it with
links to more in depth history.
This last link takes you to a fossil currently owned by the
Smithsonian, but was found in an archeological site located in Brazil (my home
country). The archeological site is called Lapa Vermelha IV and this skull was
discovered in 1976.
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