Paleoanthropology

Currently, one of the research center’s main focuses is the study of cultural innovations. A theoretical study examined the development of the capacity for cumulative culture over the course of human evolution. The phenomenon—now characteristic of humans—of building upon and further developing cultural achievements is often attributed to a genetically acquired special social competence.

A detailed examination of the phenomenon, however, revealed necessary factors in the individual, social, and environmental spheres that influence one another. The emergence of cumulative culture cannot therefore be viewed as an event occurring at a specific point in human history, but rather as the interplay of gradual processes across evolutionary, individual, and historical-social dimensions of development, with mutually reinforcing elements. A developmental model describes various stages of cumulative cultural capacity, ranging from the accumulation of traditions through cultural modifications to simple and extended mediated culture. While increasing capacities for cumulative culture allow for more complex forms of cultural expression, they do not necessarily lead, in each individual case, to increasingly efficient and complex solutions.

The newsletter, which is available on the research center’s website, provides updates on current developments.

The question of how (cumulatively?) innovative the makers of the earliest Oldowan stone tools and their precursors—dating from approximately 3.3 to 1.7 million years ago—were was approached from two angles. A comparison of behavioral patterns involving percussion instruments used by various monkey species with different manufacturing techniques for early cutting stone tools—in terms of focal points of attention, technological steps, and effects—points not only to greater complexity but also to a cultural variability in early human behavior that has scarcely been investigated to date. Furthermore, altered mechanisms of cultural transmission are suspected. These early changes in cultural behavior are now being examined in terms of the opportunities they opened up for spatial expansion, and whether and to what extent such expansions might have promoted human tool use and the development of tool technologies. Case studies on innovative behavior in the areas of technical fire use and bone tools during the Middle Stone Age in South Africa, on the spread of ochre use during the Middle Paleolithic and Middle Stone Age, and on the innovative nature of the approximately 250,000-year-old worked tuff fragment from Berekhat Ram—whose shape resembles a female figurine—complemented the focus on innovation.

Another focus of the current research is how cultural and natural dimensions interact and influence various forms of expansion. A classification system for different concepts of the environment has been developed, and the relationships among them have been clarified. In particular, within the “resource space,” the concept of the environment is expanded to include cultural components. Agent-based modeling allows for the investigation of interactions among many very different factors. ROCEEH applies agent-based models to different research questions within the framework of two doctoral theses. On the one hand, a comparison of different “Out of Africa” hypotheses aims to develop an integrative approach that encompasses cultural, population-dynamic, and environmental factors. On the other hand, island migration and the evolution of mammals on islands are being modeled. As the discovery of hominids on the Indonesian island of Flores shows, hominids were also affected by such processes and were not exempt from them due to their cultural diversity, flexibility, and adaptability.

The concept of subsistence systems, which originated in the social sciences and was further developed by ROCEEH in 2016 for the study of human evolutionary history, allows for a better understanding of the interconnections between various material, social, behavioral, and cognitive components, as well as the wide-ranging effects of changes in any one component. A case study on the diet of Homo erectus and the reconstruction of its environment, specifically at Indonesia’s most important hominid site in Sangiran, focused on the food supply system. The stratigraphic sequence there spans at least 500,000 years with no major gaps. Since most of these layers also contain fossils, they illustrate—unlike all other hominid sites in Indonesia—not only a specific segment but both the evolution of Homo erectus and the dynamics of environmental changes over this period.

Together with colleagues from the Center for Biodiversity and Climate Research in Frankfurt am Main, ROCEEH researchers developed a method to distinguish the proportion of breast milk in the diet from other food sources. The diet of Homo erectus in Sangiran proved to be surprisingly variable overall, particularly during the weaning phase. An analysis of the diet of fossil antelopes—contemporaries and potential food sources of Homo erectus—revealed similar variability in the food spectrum. In the case of the antelopes, however, this variability decreases in later time periods. Whether the diet of Homo erectus changes in the same way will only become clear in future studies. In the case of the antelopes, the change is not directly attributable to corresponding changes in climate and vegetation.

In order to base climate and vegetation analyses on a broader data set, fossil small mammal faunas are also being included, following an approach co-developed by ROCEEH researchers. To use this data to quantify spatial and temporal climate patterns and changes and correlate them with the spread of early humans during the Pleistocene, information currently available on Middle Pleistocene European sites is being collected. In collaboration with Dr. Lutz Maul of Senckenberg Weimar, in addition to faunal lists, stratigraphic and sedimentological information as well as published paleoenvironmental data for these sites are being compiled in a ROAD-compatible format.

The field of paleobiology is extremely diverse: By analyzing the ecological relationships between organisms and their environment, we can draw conclusions about animal behavior on the one hand and specific environmental conditions on the other.

In principle, all animal and plant fossils can be used for this purpose. However, we focus particularly on mammals. In this way, we reconstruct the habitats of Pleistocene humans and gain insight into their way of life and the resources they utilized.

In particular, we reconstruct the diets of herbivorous (plant-eating) large mammals and their seasonal dynamics. Using the Mesowear method, we can quickly and non-destructively determine diet even from small samples. Determining additional paleoecological parameters, such as body mass, allows us to further analyze behavior and, for example, draw conclusions about migration strategies.

In addition, we reconstruct the ecological relationships within carnivore guilds. This makes specializations in the prey spectrum discernible and provides insight into the flexibility of competition and its dynamics.

Unlike other large mammals, early humans already exhibited great regional diversity and flexibility in adapting to their respective environments as early as the Pleistocene. The use of tools opened up unique avenues for expanding their range of resources. We reconstruct the diets of groups that differed regionally and ecologically. This comparison highlights just how diverse and flexible the lifestyles of early humans were.

We use simulations to conduct in-depth studies of fossil habitats, their inhabitants, and their interactions. Simulation-based approaches, such as agent-based modeling, allow us to experiment with fossil ecosystems and their inhabitants. This approach provides us with the tools to better understand early humans and their specific ways of life within their habitats.

Our work focuses primarily on East Africa, South and Southeast Asia, and the Mediterranean region.

To paint a comprehensive picture of the environment and landscape that constituted the habitat of early humans, and to identify environmental influences on their adaptation, biocultural development, and expansion, the department’s paleobotanical research group draws on the full range of fossil plant material and paleobotanical methods.

Fossil plants from Africa and Eurasia, drawn from natural and archaeological archives, provide baseline data for quantifying the spatial patterns of climate and vegetation. Profile data from natural archives in key regions are important sources for investigating the temporal evolution of climate and vegetation at high resolution and for quantifying the amplitudes of observed changes. Archaeobotanical material provides direct evidence of hominins’ interaction with vegetation. Ethnobotanical information links the hominins’ environment to the availability and exploitation of plant resources.

With the oldest fossil remains of early Homo outside Africa, the Caucasus plays a significant role in human evolution. As one of the few non-tropical biodiversity hotspots, the region also offers abundant food resources that served as the foundation for human development and expansion. The scientific objective of this international project is to reconstruct the vegetation history of the spatially complex South Caucasus region since the first human settlement, in relation to climatic changes. The development of an internal project database on the uses of wild plants highlights the role of vegetation as a resource for humans.

Angela A. Bruch, Ivan Gabrielyan (Yerevan, Armenia), and Eliso Kvavadze (Tbilisi, Georgia)

Funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (2017–2019)

Reconstructing large-scale changes in vegetation makes it possible to identify potential corridors for early human expansion into Europe. Based on high-resolution pollen analyses of core samples from southern Spain, including the application of quantitative methods for climate and vegetation reconstructions, detailed insights into the regional response of vegetation in the western Mediterranean to global climate change during the climate cycles of the early Pleistocene are possible. Comparison with other contemporaneous vegetation cycles from Western Eurasia provides insights into larger-scale atmospheric circulation patterns in the Mediterranean region and their orbital control. This yields important implications for spatial and temporal fluctuations in resource availability and their influence on early human expansion in Europe.

Yul Altolaguirre, Angela A. Bruch

Supported by the Heidelberg Academy of Sciences

Southwestern Ethiopia is a key region for research into the cultural development of early modern humans (Homo sapiens) and their dispersal across Eurasia (Out of Africa 2). Well-preserved plant remains (charcoal and phytoliths) from archaeological sites in the montane forest zone offer the opportunity to reconstruct local vegetation and its changes in relation to global and regional climate fluctuations over the past 50,000 years. They also allow us to demonstrate early human influence on vegetation (specifically bushfires). Ethnobotanical data on the edible plants of the Afro-montane forest and adjacent vegetation zones are used to model the potential use of various landscapes by hunter-gatherers during the Late Pleistocene and Holocene.

Katharina Neumann, Karen Hahn

Koobi Fora (Kenya) is one of the most important sites for studying the evolution of early Homo and related hominins. Fossilized wood from Koobi Fora, dating between 4.5 and 1.9 million years old, is contemporaneous with the hominin fossil finds. The excellent preservation of the fossilized wood allows for identification down to the genus level; thus, the wood provides valuable insights into the environmental conditions during a critical phase of hominin evolution.

Katharina Neumann

The development of cognitive abilities is a significant aspect of human evolution. We examine this development from a biocultural-ecological perspective.

Past forms of behavior are reconstructed based on archaeological findings. By comparing these findings with modern animal and human examples, we identify cognitive aspects such as an understanding of cause and effect, expert shortcuts, attention span and breadth, as well as learning and teaching. Studies spanning different time periods provide insights into the development of these aspects; various studies within a single time period shed light on their diversity and the conditions under which they occur. Based on these studies, we develop integrative models of cultural and cognitive evolution that incorporate interacting biological, social, and ecological factors.