Modern Behavior of Early Humans Found Half-Million Years Earlier Than Previously Thought

Evidence of sophisticated, human behavior has been discovered by Hebrew University of Jerusalem researchers as early as 750,000 years ago -- some half a million years earlier than has previously been estimated by archaeologists.

Has 2009 been THE year for physical anthropology or what!?! First the announcement of Ardi, then the announcement that Homo Floresiensis is a distinct species, now this! I just think it's awesome. I think the fish deposits are also great backup evidence that solidifies this a bit. But geez 500,000 years is a large gap when only speaking of behaviorally modern humans. Great stuff.

SOURCE: www.sciencedaily.com...

As a side note, in approximately half an hour, I'll have been a member of ATS for 5 years. Every day is a learning experience and it's truly a privilege to be part of this website and part of its history. Thanks to all my friends and foes on ATS who have encouraged more learning and thinking. Keep up the amazing work ATS staff, you are all kings and queens among the internet for your work on this website.

[edit on 12/22/2009 by Schmidt1989]

Great find, early modern humans displaying the traits that would lead to civilization, yet look at the time frame - that's a looong time to go without making the actual leap. A lot of finds this year has pushed the time frame back on human development.

Even the Cro-Magnon man is now no longer considered by science to be separate species but examples of modern man (albeit those examples had hardier and more robust frames, which led to the confusion). That left modern man to interact with Neanderthals and Erectus for a very long time.

I spend a good bit of time at the Oriental Institute (UC) and there really has been a lot of excitement/talk over the level of discoveries, both archeological and anthropological lately.

paranormal.about.com...

Quite interesting indeed.

great find indeed and happy 5th Birthday

and as to the poster above me well a lot of those artifacts have been debunked

Stone Age Pantry: Archaeologist Unearths Earliest Evidence of Modern Humans Using Wild Grains and Tubers for Food

Also take a look at this article:

The consumption of wild cereals among prehistoric hunters and gatherers appears to be far more ancient than previously thought, according to a University of Calgary archaeologist who has found the oldest example of extensive reliance on cereal and root staples in the diet of early Homo sapiens more than 100,000 years ago.

"This broadens the timeline for the use of grass seeds by our species, and is proof of an expanded and sophisticated diet much earlier than we believed," Mercader said. "This happened during the Middle Stone Age, a time when the collecting of wild grains has conventionally been perceived as an irrelevant activity and not as important as that of roots, fruits and nuts."

In 2007, Mercader and colleagues from Mozambique's University of Eduardo Mondlane excavated a limestone cave near Lake Niassa that was used intermittently by ancient foragers over the course of more than 60,000 years. Deep in this cave, they uncovered dozens of stone tools, animal bones and plant remains indicative of prehistoric dietary practices. The discovery of several thousand starch grains on the excavated plant grinders and scrapers showed that wild sorghum was being brought to the cave and processed systematically.

Even though they were "pre-domesticated" grains, they collaborative effort to collect these grains and then process them at a central point is indicative of a communal effort.

Thanks for posting that. This is why I never take what archeologists, anthropologists etc say about human origins for granted, because their conclusions are based on their findings and these conclusions change when new finds are made.

As far as I am concerned human may have been around for millions of years on this planet. And I strongly suspect this is true, and that they reached high levels of civilisation.

National Geographic has a piece on a current dig that is leading scientists to think that H. Erectus had also developed what we call "modern behavior".

Homo Erectus Invented "Modern" Living?

It’s long been thought that so-called modern human behavior first arose during the middle Stone Age, in “modern” humans—Homo sapiens.

But a new study suggests modern living may have originated roughly 500,000 years earlier—courtesy of one of our hairy, heavy-browed ancestor species.

It's thought that behaviorally modern humans left Africa about 40,000 years ago, but now we have examples of behaviorally modern H. Erectus!