Re: Evolution of Modern H. sapiens
Royden Yates (rjy@beattie.uct.ac.za)
Wed, 21 Jun 1995 20:35:18 GMT
herwin@gmu.edu (Harry Erwin) wrote:
>In article <DAF9rx.7wn@watserv3.uwaterloo.ca>, Cameron Shelley
><cpshelle@watarts.uwaterloo.ca> wrote:
>> I'm curious. Weren't "anatomically modern" human remains found in
>> caves in South Africa (the name escapes me at the moment) dated roughly
>> 100,000 BP?
>>
>Klasies River Caves. The individuals had been prepared and eaten.
Um...prepared and eaten "Cordon Bleu (sp?)" style? Not sure if we can
say that yet; there are signs of cutmarks on one of the specimens,
and burning - apparently not post depositional - is indicated on some
of the other bits 'n pieces. Nutritional cannabalism? Ritual of some
sort? We do not know exactly, but these observations are interesting
nonetheless.
Early modern-ish specimens are also present in Border Cave (S.A.)
where, in sharp contrast to Klasies, burial of the dead is claimed,
including that of an infant. Also, note that there appears to be a
very large degree of dimorphism among the Klasies River Mouth Cave
hominids, if they are in fact all one population. " Anatomically near
modern" is felt by some to be more appropriate than simply modern.
My 0.02c worth
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