Monday 3 September 2012

Class work

What do Historians do?

-          Collect evidence

-          Create theories

Theories change over time

-           New evidence

-           New ways of looking at old evidence e.g. carbon dating

-          Advanced technology and science

         Human origin

species	earliest and latest date (where known)	continent/country	earliest date of discovery	skull size in cc	height in cm
Homo Sapiens	130 000 BP	Germany, Europe	August 1856	1450	150
Australopithecus Afarinsis	3.2 million BP	Ethiopia, Africa	1974	400	90-120
Homo Erectus	200 000 BP - 900 000 BP	Indonesia, Asia	1891	900	140
Homo Sapiens modern	75 000 BP - 115 000 BP	South Africa, Africa	1967	1400	157
Homo Habilis	100 000 BP - 7 million BP	Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, Mozambique, Africa	1962 - 1964	650	104
Homo Sapien (archaic)	200 000 BP - 500 000 BP	Australia, Oceania	1972	1200	150
Australopithecus Africanus	2 million BP	South Africa, Africa	1924	485	107

Questions:

1.       Based on the evidence available in the 1860’s our ancestors would be thought to have originated from Europe because the first Homo sapiens remains were discovered in Dusseldorf, Germany, which is in the European continent.

2.       Based on the evidence available in the 1890’s our ancestors would be thought to have originated from Asia because the Homo erectus remains were found in the Asian country Indonesia. These later discovery changed the theory that our ancestors originated from Europe.

3.       Based on the evidence available in the 1930’s our ancestors would be thought to have originated from Africa because the Australopithecus Africanus remains were found in South Africa. This discovery of 1924 changed the theory that our ancestors originated from Asia.

  Chronologically organized table:

species	earliest and latest date (where known)	continent/country	earliest date of discovery	skull size in cc	height in cm
Australopithecus Afarinsis	3.2 million BP	Ethiopia, Africa	1974	400	90-120
Australopithecus Africanus	2 million BP	South Africa, Africa	1924	485	107
Homo Habilis	1.5 million BP – 2 million BP	Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, Mozambique, Africa	1962 - 1964	650	104
Homo Erectus	900 000 BP – 200 000 BP	Indonesia, Asia	1891	900	140
Homo Sapiens (archaic)	500 000 BP - 200 000 BP	Australia, Oceania	1972	1200	150
Homo sapiens neanderthalis	130 000 BP	Germany, Europe	August 1856	1450	150
Homo sapiens modern	115 000 BP - 75 000 BP	South Africa, Africa	1967	1400	157

One pattern noticeable is that the species’ height increases the closer it gets to a modern Homo sapiens. Another pattern is that the skull size increases up to Homo sapiens, but then decreases for Homo sapiens modern.

Theories of where Homo sapien modern originate from:

Theory 1.

Based on the evidence from the map, Homo sapiens modern originate from South Africa. This is because the earliest human ancestral remains, Australopithecus, were discovered in southern east Africa. We believe that the earliest remains connect to the latest remains because they come from the same part of the same continent. We therefore assume southern east Africa has the conditions for humans to evolve and develop to what Homo sapiens are today.

Theory 2.

All different parts of the world assisted in developing the Homo species in different ways, but the species evolved in Africa because the conditions were right there for survival. When they had developed more they moved around in Africa, but eventually they moved abroad. We think this is because the Homo species differed too much from the Australopithecus to live together. When the homo species were developed enough to be called Homo sapiens modern they retreated back to the place where they first evolved, South Africa, because the conditions were, as mentioned earlier, right there for development.

- Filippa