Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-rcrh6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-27T18:15:21.809Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Tectonics and human evolution

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2015

Geoffrey King  and
Geoff Bailey
Geoffrey King
Affiliation:
1Laboratoire Tectonique, Institut de Physique du Globe Paris, 4 place Jussieu, 75252 Paris, France (Email: [email protected])
Geoff Bailey
Affiliation:
2Department of Archaeology, University of York, King's Manor, York, YO1 7EP, UK (Email: [email protected])
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

The authors propose a new model for the origins of humans and their ecological adaptation. The evolutionary stimulus lies not in the savannah but in broken, hilly rough country where the early hominins could hunt and hide. Such ‘roughness’, generated by tectonic and volcanic movement characterises not only the African rift valley but probably the whole route of early hominin dispersal.

Keywords

AfricaRift Valleyhuman originshomininsH. erectusH. ergaster
Type
Research
Information
Antiquity , Volume 80 , Issue 308 , 1 June 2006 , pp. 265 - 286
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd. 2006

References

Aiello, L.C. & Wheeler, P.. 1995. The expensive tissue hypothesis: the brain and the digestive system in human and primate evolution. Current Anthropology 36 (2): 199–221.Google Scholar
Anderson, D.L. 1982. Hotspots, polar wander, Mesozoic convection, and the geoid. Nature 297: 391–3.Google Scholar
Antón, S.C., Leonard, W.R. & Robertson, M.L.. 2002. An ecomorphological model of the initial hominid dispersal from Africa. Journal of Human Evolution 43: 773–85.Google Scholar
Armijo, R., Meyer, B., King, G.C.P., Rigo, A. & Papanastassiou, D.. 1996. Quaternary evolution of the Corinth Rift and its implications for the Late Cenozoic evolution of the Aegean. Geophysical Journal International 126 (1): 1–53.Google Scholar
Bailey, G.N., King, G.C.P. & Sturdy, D.A.. 1993. Active tectonics and land-use strategies: a Palaeolithic example from northwest Greece. Antiquity 67: 292–312.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bailey, G., King, G. & Manighetti, I.. 2000. Tectonics, volcanism, landscape structure and human evolution in the African Rift, in Bailey, G.N., Charles, R. & Winder, N. (ed.) Human Ecodynamics: Proceedings of the Association for Environmental Archaeology Conference 1998 held at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne: 31–46. Oxford: Oxbow.Google Scholar
Bailey, G.N. 2005. Site catchment analysis, in Renfrew, C. & Bahn, P. (ed.) Archaeology: the Key Concepts: 230–5. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Bar-YOSEF, O. 1998. Early colonizations and cultural continuities in the Lower Palaeolithic of western Asia, in Petraglia, M.D. & Korisettar, R. (ed.) Early Human Behaviour in Global Context: 221–79. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Bar-YOSEF, O. & Belfer-COHEN, A.. 2001. From Africa to Eurasia — early dispersals, in Straus, L.G. & Bar-Yosef, O. (ed.) Out of Africa in the Pleistocene: an introduction. Quaternary International 75: 19–28.Google Scholar
Ben-AVRAHAM, Z. & Hough, S.. 2003. Promised Land. Natural History, October: 44–9.Google Scholar
Binford, L.R. 1981. Bones: Ancient Men andModern Myths. London & New York: Academic.Google Scholar
Blumenschine, R.J. & Peters, C.R.. 1998. Archaeological predictions for hominid land use in the paleo–Olduvai Basin, Tanzania, during lowermost Bed II times. Journal of Human Evolution 34: 565–607.Google Scholar
Brown, F.H. & Feibel, C.S.. 1991. Stratigraphy, depositional environments, and palaeogeography of the Koobi Fora formation, in Harris, J.M. (ed.) Koobi Fora Research Project, Volume 3, The Fossil Ungulates: Geology, Fossil Artiodactyls, and Palaeoenvironments: 1–30. Oxford: Clarendon.Google Scholar
Brown, F.H. & Mcdougall, I.. 1993. Geologic setting and age, in Walker, A. & Leakey, R. (ed.) The Nariokotome Homo Erectus Skeleton: 9–20. Berlin: Springer-Verlag.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brunet, M., Guy, F., Pilbeam, D., Mackaye, H.T., Likius, A., Djimboumalbaye, A. ET AL. 2002. A new hominid from the Upper Miocene of Chad, Central Africa. Nature 418: 145–51.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bunn, H.T. 1994. Early Pleistocene hominid foraging strategies along the ancestral Omo River at Koobi Fora, Kenya. Journal of Human Evolution 27: 247–66.Google Scholar
Bunn, H., Harris, J.W.K., Isaac, G., Kaufulu, Z., Kroll, E., Schick, K., Toth, N. & Behrensmeyer, A.K.. 1980. FxJj50: an early Pleistocene site in northern Kenya. World Archaeology 12: 109–36.Google Scholar
Burke, K. 1996. The African plate. South African Journal of Geology 99 (4): 341–410.Google Scholar
Cachel, S. & Harris, J.W.K.. 1998. The lifeways of Homo erectus inferred from archaeology and evolutionary ecology: a perspective from East Africa, in Petraglia, M.D. & Korisettar, R. (ed.) Early Human Behaviour in Global Context: 108–32. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Clutton-BROCK, J. 1999. 2nd ed. A Natural History of Domesticated Mammals. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Coppens, Y. 1994. East side story: the origin of humankind. Scientific American 270: 62–9.Google Scholar
Davidson, J.P., Reed, W.E. & Davis, P.M.. 2002. Exploring Earth. New Jersey: Prentice Hall.Google Scholar
Delson, E., Tattersall, I., Van COUVERING, J.A. & Brooks, A.S. (ed.). 2000. 2nd ed. Encyclopedia of Human Evolution and Prehistory. New York: Garland.Google Scholar
Dennell, R.W. 1998. Grasslands, tool-making and the hominid colonization of southern Asia: a reconsideration, in Petraglia, M.D. & Korisettar, R. (ed.) Early Human Behaviour in Global Context: 280–303. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Dennell, R.W. 2003. Dispersal and colonisation, long and short chronologies: how continuous is the Early Pleistocene record for hominids outside East Africa. Journal of Human Evolution 45: 421–40.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Dixon, E.J. 2001. Human colonization of the Americas: timing, technology and process. Quaternary Science Reviews 20: 277–99.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Erlandson, J.M. 2001. The archaeology of aquatic adaptations: paradigms for a new millennium. Journal of Archaeological Research 9: 287–350.Google Scholar
Feibel, C.S. & Brown, F.H.. 1993. Microstratigraphy and paleoenvironments, in Walker, A. & Leakey, R. (ed.) The Nariokotome Homo Erectus Skeleton: 21–39. Berlin: Springer-Verlag.Google Scholar
Feibel, C.S., Harris, J.M. & Brown, F.H.. 1991. Palaeoenvironmental context for the late Neogene of the Turkana Basin, in Harris, J.M. (ed.) Koobi Fora Research Project, Volume 3, The FossilUngulates: Geology, Fossil Artiodactyls, and Palaeoenvironments: 321–46. Oxford: Clarendon.Google Scholar
Flannery, K.V. (ed.). 1976. The Early MesoAmerican Village. London & New York: Academic.Google Scholar
Flemming, N., Bailey, G., Courtillot, V., King, G., Lambeck, K., Ryerson, F. & Vita-FINZI, C.. 2003. Coastal and marine palaeo-environments and human dispersal points across the Africa-Eurasia boundary, in Brebbia, C.A. & Gambin, T. (ed.) The Maritime and Underwater Heritage: 61–74. Southampton: Wessex Institute of Technology Press.Google Scholar
Foley, R. 1977. Space and energy: a method for analysing habitat value and utilization in relation to archaeological sites, in Clarke, D.L. (ed.) Spatial Archaeology: 163–87. London & NY: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Foley, R. 1987. Another Unique Species: Patterns in Human Evolutionary Ecology. Harlow: Longman.Google Scholar
Foley, R. 1995. Humans before Humanity. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Freund, R. 1965. A model of the structural development of Israel and adjacent areas since Upper Cretaceous times. Geology Magazine 102: 189–205.Google Scholar
Gabunia, L., Vekua, A. & Lordkipanidze, D.. 2000. The environmental contexts of early human occupation of Georgia (Transcaucasia). Journal of Human Evolution 38: 785–802.Google Scholar
Gamble, C. 1993. Timewalkers: The Prehistory of Global Colonization. London: Sutton.Google Scholar
Gamble, C. 1998. Concluding remarks: archaeology’s fifth big question, in Petraglia, M.D. & Korisettar, R. (ed.) Early Human Behaviour in Global Context: 451–68. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Garfunkel, Z., Zak, I. & Freund, R.. 1981. Active faulting in the Dead Sea Rift. Tectonophysics 80: 1–26.Google Scholar
Hubert-Ferrari, A., Armijo, R., King, G.C.P., Meyer, B. & Barka, A.. 2002a. Morphology, displacement and slip rates along the North Anatolian Fault, Turkey. Journal of Geophysical Research 107,0,10.1029/2001JB000393, 2002.Google Scholar
Hubert-Ferrari, A., King, G.C.P., Manighetti, I., Armijo, R., Meyer, B. & Tapponnier, P.. 2002b. Long-term elasticity in the continental lithosphere; modelling the Aden Ridge propagation and the Anatolian extrusion process. Geophysical Journal International 15: 111–32.Google Scholar
Isaac, G.L. 1978. The food-sharing behaviour of protohuman hominids. Scientific American 238: 90–108.Google Scholar
Keegan, J. 1993. A History of Warfare. London: Random House.Google Scholar
King, G.C.P. & Bailey, G.N.. 1985. The palaeoenvironment of some archaeological sites in Greece: the influence of accumulated uplift in a seismically active region. Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society 51: 273–82.Google Scholar
King, G.C.P. & Ellis, M.. 1990. The origin of large local uplift in extensional regions. Nature 348: 20–7.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
King, G.C.P. & Vita-Finzi, C.. 1981. Active folding in the Algerian earthquake of 10 October, 1980. Nature 292: 22–6.Google Scholar
King, G. & Yielding, G.. 1984. The evolution of a thrust fault system: processes of rupture initiation, propagation and termination in the 1980 El Asnam (Algeria) earthquake. Geophysical Journal of the Royal Astro nomical Society 77: 915–33.Google Scholar
King, G., Bailey, G. & Sturdy, D.. 1994. Active tectonics, complex topography and human survival strategies. Journal of Geophysical Research 99, B10: 20063–78.Google Scholar
King, G., Sturdy, D. & Bailey, G.. 1997. The tectonic background to the Epirus landscape, in Bailey, G.N. (ed.) Klithi: Palaeolithic Settlement and Quaternary Landscapes in Northwest Greece: Volume 2: Klithi in its Local and Regional Setting: 541–59. Cambridge: McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research.Google Scholar
King, G., Sturdy, D. & Whitney, J.. 1993. The landscape geometry and active tectonics of Northwest Greece. Geological Society of America Bulletin 105: 37–161.Google Scholar
Klein, R.G. 1999. 2nd Edition. The Human Career. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Kuman, K. 1998. The earliest South African industries, in Petraglia, M.D. & Korisettar, R. (ed.) Early Human Behaviour in Global Context: 451–68. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Lordkipanidze, D., Bar-Yosef, O. & Otte, M. (ed.). 2000. Early Humans at the Gates ofEurope: Proceedings ofthe First International Symposium, Dmanisi, Tbilisi (Georgia) September 1998. Liège: Etudes et Recherches Archéologiques de l’Université de Liège (E.R.A.U.L.) 92.Google Scholar
Macaulay, V., Hill, C., Achilli, A., Rengo, C., Clarke, D., Meehan, W., Blackburn, J., Semino, O., Scozzari, R., Cruciani, F., Taha, A., Kassim SHAARI, N., Maripa RAJA, J., Ismail, P., Zainuddin, Z., Goodwin, W., Bulbeck, D., Bandelt, H.-J., Oppenheimer, S., Torroni, A. & Richards, M.. 2005. Single, rapid coastal settlement of Asia revealed by analysis of complete mitochondrial genomes. Science 308: 1034–36.Google Scholar
Manighetti, I., King, G., Gaudemer, Y., Scholz, C. & Doubre, C.. 2001. Slip accumulation and lateral propagation of active normal fault in Afar. Journal of Geophysical Research 106: 13667–96.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mithen, S.J.M. & Reed, M.. 2002. Stepping out: a computer simulation of hominid dispersal from Africa. Journal of Human Evolution 43: 433–62.Google Scholar
Moctar Doucoure, C. & De WIT MAARTEN, J.. 2003. Old inherited origin of the present near-bimodal topography of Africa. Journal of African Earth Science 36: 371–88.Google Scholar
Partridge, T.C., Bond, G.C., Hartnady, C.J.H., Demenocal, P.B. & Ruddiman, W.F.. 1995a. Climatic effects of late Neogene tectonism and volcanism, in Vrba, E.S., Denton, G.H., Partridge, T.C. & Burckle, L.H. (ed.) Paleoclimate and Evolution, with emphasis on Human Origins: 8–23. New Haven (CT) & London: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Partridge, T.C., Wood, B.A. & Demenocal, P.B.. 1995b. The influence of global climatic change and regional uplift on large-mammalian evolution in east and southern Africa, in Vrba, E.S., Denton, G.H., Partridge, T.C. & Burckle, L.H. (ed.) Paleoclimate and Evolution, with emphasis on Human Origins: 331–55. New Haven (CT) & London: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Partridge, T.C. 1997. L.H. Late Neogene uplift in eastern and southern Africa and its paleoclimatic implications, in Ruddyman, W.F. (ed.) Tectonic Uplift and Climate Change: 63–86. NY & London: Plenum Press.Google Scholar
Petraglia, M.D. 2003. The Lower Palaeolithic of the Arabian Peninsula: occupations, adaptations, and dispersals. Journal of World Prehistory 17: 141–79.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Potts, R. 1988. Early Hominid Activities at Olduvai. New York: Aldine.Google Scholar
Potts, R. 1996. Humanity’s Descent: the Consequences of Ecological Instability. New York: William Morrow.Google Scholar
Potts, R., Behrensmeyer, A.K. & Ditchfield, P.. 1999. Palaeolandscape variation and Early Pleistocene hominid activities: Members 1 and 7, Olorgesailie Formation, Kenya. Journal of Human Evolution 37: 747–88.Google Scholar
Raynal, J.P., Sbihi ALAOUI, F.Z., Gerards, D., Magoga, L. & Mohi, A.. 2001. The earliest occupation of North Africa: the Moroccan perspective, in Straus, L.G. & Bar-Yosef, O. (ed.) Out of Africa in the Pleistocene: An Introduction. Quaternary International 75: 65–75.Google Scholar
Redfield, T.F., Wheeler, W.H. & Often, M.. 2004. A kinematic model for the development of the Afar depression and its palaeogeographic implications. Earth and PlanetaryScience Letters 216 (3): 383–98.Google Scholar
Reed, K.E. 1997. Early hominid evolution and ecological change through the African Plio-Pleistocene. Journal of Human Evolution 32: 289–322.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Rogers, M.J., Harris, J.W.K. & Feibel, C.S.. 1994. Changing patterns of land use by Plio-Pleistocene hominids in the Lake Turkana Basin. Journal of Human Evolution 27: 139–58.Google Scholar
Rolland, N. 1998. The Lower Palaeolithic settlement of Eurasia, with special reference to Europe, in Petraglia, M.D. & Korisettar, R. (ed.) Early Human Behaviour in Global Context: 187–220. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Ron, H. & Levi, S.. 2001. When did hominids first leave Africa? New high-resolution paleomagnetic evidence from the Erk-El-Ahmar formation, Israel. Geology 29: 887–90.Google Scholar
Ruddiman, W.F. & Raymo, M.E.. 1988. Northern Hemisphere climate regimes during the past 3Ma: possible tectonic connections, in Shackleton, N.J., West, R.W. & Bowen, D.Q. (ed.) The Past Three Million Years: Evolution oof Climatic Variability in the North Atlantic Region: 1–20. London: Royal Society.Google Scholar
Sauer, C.O. 1962. Seashore -primitive home of man? Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society 106:41–7.Google Scholar
Salabi, K.M. 1988. A House of Many Mansions. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Scotese, C.R. & Mckerrow, W.S.. 1991. Revised world maps and introduction. Paleozoic Paleogeography and Biogeography: 1–21. Geological Society Memoir 12.Google Scholar
Senut, B., Pickford, M., Gommery, D., Mein, P., Cheboi, C. & Coppens, Y.. 2001. First hominid from the Mocene (Lukeino Formation, Kenya). Comptes rendus des sciences d l’academie des sciences 3332: 137–44.Google Scholar
Sneh, A., Bartov, Y. & Rosensaft, M.. 1998. Geological Map of Israel. Jerusalem: Geological Survey of Israel.Google Scholar
Stern, N. 1993. The structure of the Lower Pleistocene archaeological record: a case study from the Koobi Fora Formation. Current Anthropology 34: 201–25.Google Scholar
Stern, N. 1994. The implications of time-averaging for reconstructing the land-use patterns of early tool-using hominids. Journal of Human Evolution 27: 89–105.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Straus, L.G. 2001. Africa and Iberia in the Pleistocene, in Straus, L.G. & O., Bar-Yosef (ed.) Out of Africa in the Pleistocene: An Introduction. Quaternary International l75: 91–102.Google Scholar
Stringer, C. 2000. Coasting out of Africa. Nature 405: 53–5.Google Scholar
Sturdy, D., Webley, D. & Bailey, G.. 1997. The palaeolithic geography of Epirus, in Bailey, G. (ed.) Klithi: Palaeolithic Settlement and Quaternary Landscapes in Northwest Greece: Volume 2: Klithi in its local and regional setting: 587–614. Cambridge: McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research.Google Scholar
Swisher, C.C., Curtis, G.H., Jacob, T., Getty, A.G., Suprijo, A. & Widiasmoro, . 1994. Age of earliest known hominids in Java, Indonesia. Science 263: 1118–21.Google Scholar
Tapponnier, P., Zhiqin, X., Roger, F., Meyer, B., Arnaud, N., Wittlinger, G. & Jingsui, Y.. 2001. Oblique stepwise rise and growth of the Tibet plateau. Science 294: 1671–77.Google Scholar
Thomas, H. 1985. The Early and Middle Miocene land connection of the Afro-Arabian plate and Asia: a major event for hominoid dispersal?, in Delson, E. (ed.) Ancestors: the Hard Evidence: 42–50. New York: Alan Liss.Google Scholar
Turner, A.. 1992. Large carnivores and earliest European hominids: changing determinants of resource availability during the Lower and Middle Pleistocene. Journal of Human Evolution 22: 109–26.Google Scholar
Turner, A.. 1999. Assessing earliest human settlement of Eurasia: late Pliocene dispersions from Africa. Antiquity 73: 563–70.Google Scholar
Vermeersch, P.M. 2001. ‘Out of Africa’ from an Egyptian point of view, in Straus, L.G. & Bar-Yosef, O. (ed.) Out of Africa in the Pleistocene: an introduction. Quaternary International 75: 103–12.Google Scholar
Walters, R.C., Buffler, R.T., Bruggemann, J.J., Guillaume, M.M.M., Berhe, S.M., Negassi, B., Libsekal, Y., Cheng, H., Edwards, R.L., Von GOSEL, R., Neraudeau, D. & Gagnon, M.. 2000. Early human occupation of the Red Sea coast of Eritrea during the Last Interglacial. Nature 405: 65–9.Google Scholar
Whalen, N.M. & Fritz, G.A.. 2004. The Oldowan in Arabia. Adumatu 9: 7–18.Google Scholar
Wheeler, P.E. 1991. The thermoregulatory advantages of hominid bipedalism in open equatorial environments: the contribution of increased convective heat loss and cutaneous evaporative cooling. Journal of Human Evolution 21:107–15.Google Scholar
Woldegabriel, G., Renne, P.R., Hart, W.K., Ambrose, S., Asfaw, B. & White, T.D.. 2004. Geoscience methods lead to paleo-anthropological discoveries in Afar Rift, Ethiopia. EOS, Transactions, American Geophysical Union 85 (29): 273–7.Google Scholar
Zhu, R.X., Potts, R., Xie, F., Hoffman, K.A., Deng, C.L., Shi, C.D., Pan, Y.X., Wang, H.Q., Shi, R.P., Wang, Y.C., Shi, G.H. & Wu, N.Q.. 2004. New evidence on the earliest human presence at high northern latitudes in northeast Asia. Nature 431: 559–62.Google Scholar