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Homo sapiens (100,000 years ago to present)
Species Description:
The modern form of Homo sapiens first appeared about
100,000 years ago. This species is distinguished by large brain size, a forehead
that rises sharply, eyebrow ridges that are very small, a prominent chin, and
lighter bone structure than H. heidelbergensis.
Even in those 100,000 years, anatomical trends toward smaller
molars and decreased bone mass can be seen in the Homo sapiens fossil
record. For example, contemporary humans in Europe and Asia have bones that are
20 to 30 percent thinner and lighter than those of upper Paleolithic humans
dating from about 30,000 years ago.
About 40,000 years ago, with the appearance of the Cro-Magnon
culture, tools became markedly more sophisticated, incorporating a wider variety
of raw materials such as bone and antler. They also included new implements for
making clothing, engravings, and sculptures. Fine artwork, in the form of decorated
tools, beads, ivory carvings of humans and animals, clay figurines, musical
instruments, and cave paintings, appeared over the next 20,000 years.
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Fossil Finds:
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Qafzeh IX
Estimated age: 100,000 to 90,000 years
Location: Qafzeh Cave, Israel
This specimen is one of about 21 individuals found in
Qafzeh Cave. The skull and nearly complete skeleton that accompanied it
belonged to a male Homo sapiens who was about 20 years old when
he died. It was found buried next to the remains of a small child. |
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Klasies River mouth
Estimated age: 90,000 years
Location: Klasies River, South Africa
The name of this find refers to the mouth of the Klasies
River where the fossils were found. This is the best-dated South African
specimen from the Upper Pleistocene. If all of these fossil fragments belong
to H. sapiens, they demonstrate that early members of our species
varied in size more than contemporary humans. |
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Cro-Magnon 1
Estimated age: 28,000 years
Date of discovery: 1868
Location: Les Ezyies, France
This specimen is a skull that is nearly identical to that
of a modern human. It came from a site that has yielded a half dozen skeletons,
along with stone tools, carved reindeer antlers, ivory pendants, and shells. |
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Evidence of Culture:
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Aurignacian stone tools
Estimated age: 40,000 years
Location: La Ferrassie, France
This technology consists of sharp-edged blade tools used
for cutting and scraping. Homo sapiens employed a wide variety of
materials during this period, including stone, ivory, bone, and antler, to
create knives, scrapers, and spear points. People also began using these
materials to make non-utilitarian items, such as jewelry. |
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Magdalenian stone tools
Estimated age: 15,000 years
Location: Le Morin, France
This technology produced the widest variety of tools
yet known, including bone needles, harpoons, and microliths (small blades
1-3 cm). The people who employed the technology were reindeer hunters
during the last Ice Age. When the glaciers receded, the culture and the
industry dissipated. |
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Cro-Magnon culture
Estimated age: 32,000 years
Location: Vogelherd, Germany
Cro-Magnon people were nomadic hunter/gatherers
and had elaborate rituals for hunting, birth, and death. Artifacts they
left behind include carvings of people and animals. Symbolic representation
through adornment of the dead also became more common during this period. |
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Chauvet cave art
Estimated age: 32,000 years
Date of discovery: 1994
Location: Ardeche Region, France
Chauvet Cave holds some of the oldest and most sophisticated
examples of cave art in the world. The age and advanced nature of the paintings
suggest that carved and engraved objects did not necessarily precede painted
images, as archaeologists once believed. |
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Altamira cave paintings
Estimated age: 19,000 to 11,000 years
Location: Northern Spain
The paintings at Altamira in northern Spain are unique
among cave paintings in many ways. Artists employed many different colors
and often used facets of the rock to give their designs more dimension. The
technical skill of the Magdalenian people set the Altamira paintings apart
from other early human art that has been found. |
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