Origins of 'modern' behavior might be linked to population...( BOSTON MASS.- Some unique behaviors as...)

BOSTON, MASS.- Some unique behaviors associated with modern humans--including a shift in diet and the earliest evidence of personal ornaments like beads--may be linked to an increase in human population density between 40 and 50 thousand years ago, Mary C. Stiner and Steven L. Kuhn reported today at the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) meeting.

Their study could shed light on the origin of modern humans, a contentious topic in anthropology. Some researchers think that modern humans arose as a new species in Africa around 200,000 years ago, subsequently migrating out of Africa and replacing earlier groups of humans around the world. Other researchers believe that early human populations like the Neanderthals gradually evolved into modern humans, while still others think there may be evidence of some intermingling between early and modern human populations.

Genetic, fossil, and archaeological evidence have been used to support each scenario, but archaeological data provide a unique approach to the problem, said Stiner.

"The nice thing about archaeology, something that's missing from fossil and genetic data, is that we have fairly refined information on the age and geographic location of our evidence. This level of detail in time and space has never been worked out for the genetic or fossil evidence," Stiner noted.

Stiner and Kuhn's research indicates that modern human behavior appeared at the same time in many parts of the world. Ornament traditions, in particular, seem to have developed simultaneously in Africa, Asia, and Europe, "suggesting that this phenomenon does not mark the geographic expansion of a single population," said the University of Arizona scientists.

The researchers investigated several Upper Paleolithic sites around the Mediterranean Basin to look for aspects of the archaeological record that might record evidence of modern human behavior. Their analysis uncovered a significant s
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Contact: Monica Amarelo
mamarelo@aaas.org
617-236-1550
American Association for the Advancement of Science
15-Feb-2002

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