What were ancient Africans like?

prehistoric africans

It is much easier to restore the prehistory of mankind or the history of humanoid animals (primitive people) in sub-Saharan Africa than in many other parts of the world. First of all, the tropical climate is suitable for hunting and gathering life, and human beings have thrived here from the beginning; Secondly, besides the equatorial forest area, rift valley, ancient lake bed and volcanic ash provide good conditions for bone preservation; Third, most of the stone tools found and even the living surface are intact. According to radiocarbon dating, the Early Stone Age (ESA) in Africa may have lasted until about 55,000 BC. Followed by the Mesolithic Age (MSA) in Africa, which lasted from the first 40,000 years to the first 1000 years.

The skull of Homo erectus (1230 Chellian) unearthed in the upper part of the second floor of Audoye I Canyon was determined by potassium-argon method. Its age is about 500 thousand years ago. From this period to the late Early Stone Age in Africa, there was a gap in the fossil record for a long time, and it was only recently filled by new discoveries. According to the preliminary determination by U-Th method, the newly discovered human ossification stone in Omo Valley in southern Ethiopia can be traced back to 6.5438+0.3 million years ago. It is the earliest known Homo sapiens fossil newly discovered in Africa and represents a stage when Homo sapiens just differentiated from Homo erectus. From Sudan to the Cape of Good Hope, it has been 65438+ ten thousand years. 6? Only about ten sites have unearthed human bone fossils from 520,000 years ago.

The main fossil features and its accompanying unearthed objects, Omo Skull: 1967, three skulls belonging to different individuals were unearthed in the Bianao Valley of Rudolph, Ethiopia, with a wide range of variation, which is very noticeable. The animal fossils preserved with human bones are typical middle Pleistocene fauna; Its age is 654.38+300,000 years ago. Among them, the skull numbered Omo II belongs to a male individual. The skull vault is flat, the frontal bone is tilted backwards, the back of the neck is flat, and the occipital bone is thick, indicating that the neck muscles attached to it are large. The skull numbered Omo I obviously belongs to a female individual, and its shape is similar to that of modern people. Although the skull still looks very thick, the whole structure is slender, the occipital region is smoother than the No.2 skull, and surprisingly, the chin protuberance of this skull is very developed. Although Omo skull definitely belongs to a subspecies of Homo sapiens, it also has a few characteristics of its ancestor Homo erectus, so it may be a type of direct evolution from Homo erectus to Homo sapiens.

Kanjeraman: 1932 Four broken human skulls unearthed in Kanjera, near Kannan, were dated by uranium analysis method and confirmed to be the same age as the Middle Pleistocene fossil fauna in this area, so it is estimated to be the same age as the hand axe unearthed in acheulian period. The age of these human bone fossils is at least 55,000 BC.

Rhodesian: The era of Rhodesian Homo sapiens may not be much later than that of Gera in Bican, but it is quite different. 192 1 year, a human skull was unearthed in a deep hole of lead mine and zinc mine in Brokenshire, which is the largest skull ever discovered. There is a huge bone ridge (supraorbital ridge) above the eye socket. The facial bone is very long, the forehead is cut off, and there is a obviously narrowed part behind the eyebrow ridge. The animal fossils unearthed with human bones are composed of modern animals, of which only one giant buffalo has become extinct. Together with the unearthed stone tools, it is a typical stone assemblage (Sangoan-Proto-Still Bay culture) in the early Middle Stone Age in Africa, and its age is about 40,000 BC.

Nigro-Bushman fossil remains: 1932, a deformed human skull was found in the flores Bader mineral spring near bloemfontein, Orange Free State. May be a representative of nigro-Buschman type, unearthed in Kanjela. The skulls of Florespa people were unearthed on the sand in a peat soil. According to radiocarbon determination, its age is 33000 BC, as well as fossil animals and some rough stone tools. This skull is very big, the skull vault is very low, and the forehead is very wide; Some people estimate that this morphological feature may be the result of some congenital malformation or developmental malformation. The brow ridge is very obvious, the eye socket is rectangular, the position is low, the face is wide, and the upper jaw is raised.

Throughout the early Stone Age, African hunter-gatherers camped in open savanna and open grassland to avoid living in dense forest areas. It was not until about 50 thousand years ago, at the end of the early Stone Age in Africa, that semi-permanent residential sites such as caves and stone sheds appeared in sub-Saharan Africa. Fauresmith culture and Mangosteen culture following the Asherie period are smaller than those in the Asherie period, usually almond-shaped. There were other types of stone tools during the Faust culture period, including wide-edged scraper, top scraper, trimmed sharp device, long stone knife and chisel, and stone balls. The distribution area of traditional mountain fruit culture is far beyond the distribution range of French Smith culture, and its heavy stone tools include stone axe, stone pick and stone scraper. The typical stone craft developed in the open areas of East Africa and South Africa is the cultural tradition of Jingwan. In Central Africa and West Africa, Lupeng culture developed after Mangosteen culture. The leaf-shaped sharp objects of Jingwan culture and the long and narrow Shi Mao of Rubenba culture are all exquisite. The technology of installing handles on stone tools may be an extremely important step in technological development, which led to the invention of bows and arrows.

Modern indigenous people in sub-Saharan Africa can be divided into three groups: black people, Khoisan people (12300: hottentots [12300: Hottentot] and Bushmen) and Caucasians (Caucasians in the east [12300: Hamite]). It is easy to distinguish these three types of people according to their skin color and hair style, but it is not easy to distinguish them simply according to their skeletal characteristics, because even though they are more and more different from their distant ancestors, many of the skeletal characteristics of these three types of people are similar. Therefore, it is difficult to distinguish them only by the remaining bone fossil fragments.