Teaching

IN NORMAL TIMES, we would spend the last class day talking about the same thing we talked about on the first day of class: What makes us human? Over the semester we have tackled this from numerous angles and interrogated the idea of how we can define something so complex yet also so integral to anthropology. Reading the news it is easy to get sad, depressed, and fairly pessimistic about our species.

How we can respond to pandemics Goal Learn about previous responses to pandemics and how biological anthropology can help us to respond to covid-1919. As a team we want to think about what the response to other pandemics tells us and how it can be used. Tasks Questions to answer before this assignment Don’t worry if you don’t know the answers here. This is just to get you thinking…

advent-of-hominins-day-twentyfour-Altamura Sometimes called “Alatmura Man”, this fossil is a Neandertal skeleton discovered in 1993 by cavers exploring a 26-foot-deep well. The fossil was found in a tunnel which lead to a cave full of stalagmites. Inside this cave, the explorers stumbled upon a skeleton that was covered in coralloid formations, cave formations which resemble coral. This explains why it looks so odd. {“x”:{“options”:{“crs”:{“crsClass”:“L.CRS.EPSG3857”,“code”:null,“proj4def”:null,“projectedBounds”:null,“options”:{}}},“calls”:[{“method”:“addTiles”,“args”:[“//{s}.tile.openstreetmap.org/{z}/{x}/{y}.png”,null,null,{“minZoom”:0,“maxZoom”:18,“tileSize”:256,“subdomains”:“abc”,“errorTileUrl”:“”,“tms”:false,“noWrap”:false,“zoomOffset”:0,“zoomReverse”:false,“opacity”:1,“zIndex”:1,“detectRetina”:false,“attribution”:”© OpenStreetMap contributors, CC-BY-SA”

Saccopastore 1 & 2 These 2 skulls were found in 1929 and 1935, within gravel beds exposed by quarrying along a River Valley north of Rome. {“x”:{“options”:{“crs”:{“crsClass”:“L.CRS.EPSG3857”,“code”:null,“proj4def”:null,“projectedBounds”:null,“options”:{}}},“calls”:[{“method”:“addTiles”,“args”:[“//{s}.tile.openstreetmap.org/{z}/{x}/{y}.png”,null,null,{“minZoom”:0,“maxZoom”:18,“tileSize”:256,“subdomains”:“abc”,“errorTileUrl”:“”,“tms”:false,“noWrap”:false,“zoomOffset”:0,“zoomReverse”:false,“opacity”:1,“zIndex”:1,“detectRetina”:false,“attribution”:”© OpenStreetMap contributors, CC-BY-SA”}]},{“method”:“addMarkers”,“args”:[41.9,12.716667,null,null,null,{“interactive”:true,“draggable”:false,“keyboard”:true,“title”:“”,“alt”:“”,“zIndexOffset”:0,“opacity”:1,“riseOnHover”:false,“riseOffset”:250},“aprox location of Saccopastore”,null,null,null,null,{“interactive”:false,“permanent”:false,“direction”:“auto”,“opacity”:1,“offset”:[0,0],“textsize”:“10px”,“textOnly”:false,“className”:“”,“sticky”:true},null]}],“limits”:{“lat”:[41.9,41.9],“lng”:[12.716667,12.716667]},“setView”:[[41.9,12.716667],2,[]]},“evals”:[],“jsHooks”:[]} SCP 1 is an adult female. It is missing both zygomatic arches but otherwise fairly complete. Interestingly some damage was caused when it was discovered by the people working in the quarry.

ATD6-15 and ATD6-69 These two fossils (a frontal and a maxilla) are from the site of Gran Dolina in the Sierra de Atapuerca of northern Spain. They come from the TD6 layer, recently dated to ~949–772 kya. . {“x”:{“options”:{“crs”:{“crsClass”:“L.CRS.EPSG3857”,“code”:null,“proj4def”:null,“projectedBounds”:null,“options”:{}}},“calls”:[{“method”:“addTiles”,“args”:[“//{s}.tile.openstreetmap.org/{z}/{x}/{y}.png”,null,null,{“minZoom”:0,“maxZoom”:18,“tileSize”:256,“subdomains”:“abc”,“errorTileUrl”:“”,“tms”:false,“noWrap”:false,“zoomOffset”:0,“zoomReverse”:false,“opacity”:1,“zIndex”:1,“detectRetina”:false,“attribution”:”© OpenStreetMap contributors, CC-BY-SA”}]},{“method”:“addMarkers”,“args”:[42.366667,-3.522222,null,null,null,{“interactive”:true,“draggable”:false,“keyboard”:true,“title”:“”,“alt”:“”,“zIndexOffset”:0,“opacity”:1,“riseOnHover”:false,“riseOffset”:250},“aprox location of Gran Dolina”,null,null,null,null,{“interactive”:false,“permanent”:false,“direction”:“auto”,“opacity”:1,“offset”:[0,0],“textsize”:“10px”,“textOnly”:false,“className”:“”,“sticky”:true},null]}],“limits”:{“lat”:[42.366667,42.366667],“lng”:[-3.522222,-3.522222]},“setView”:[[42.366667,-3.522222],2,[]]},“evals”:[],“jsHooks”:[]} ATD6-15 (the frontal) may have been from an individual between 10-12 years old at death. It has a projecting, yet somewhat thin, browridge that is ‘double-arched’, a pattern is seen in later Neandertals.

Florisbad Today’s fossil were found in 1932 near Bloemfontein, South Africa by Thomas Dryer. {“x”:{“options”:{“crs”:{“crsClass”:“L.CRS.EPSG3857”,“code”:null,“proj4def”:null,“projectedBounds”:null,“options”:{}}},“calls”:[{“method”:“addTiles”,“args”:[“//{s}.tile.openstreetmap.org/{z}/{x}/{y}.png”,null,null,{“minZoom”:0,“maxZoom”:18,“tileSize”:256,“subdomains”:“abc”,“errorTileUrl”:“”,“tms”:false,“noWrap”:false,“zoomOffset”:0,“zoomReverse”:false,“opacity”:1,“zIndex”:1,“detectRetina”:false,“attribution”:”© OpenStreetMap contributors, CC-BY-SA”}]},{“method”:“addMarkers”,“args”:[-28.766667,26.066667,null,null,null,{“interactive”:true,“draggable”:false,“keyboard”:true,“title”:“”,“alt”:“”,“zIndexOffset”:0,“opacity”:1,“riseOnHover”:false,“riseOffset”:250},“aprox location of Florisbad”,null,null,null,null,{“interactive”:false,“permanent”:false,“direction”:“auto”,“opacity”:1,“offset”:[0,0],“textsize”:“10px”,“textOnly”:false,“className”:“”,“sticky”:true},null]}],“limits”:{“lat”:[-28.766667,-28.766667],“lng”:[26.066667,26.066667]},“setView”:[[-28.766667,26.066667],2,[]]},“evals”:[],“jsHooks”:[]} The frontal bone of the cranium is fairly intact. While the left supraorbital portion is gone, the right side is undamaged (the right zygomatic was also recovered, though it is damaged and can not be contacted with the main part of the fossil1).

Kabwe The Kabwe fossil comes from the site of Broken Hill, Zambia (the nearby town is now known as Kabwe, and thus some prefer this term to refer to the site and cultural remains). The site was located on a small hill (referred to as a kopje) that was originally around 15 meters high. However, mining for zinc and copper had erased the hill from the landscape by 1930.

The sample from Ngandong consists of the cranial vaults and 2 lower leg bones of about a dozen hominins. They were found in the 1930s near the Solo River in Ngandong, Java and are sometimes refered to as “Solo Man. St one point were given the species name Homo soloensis. The majority of researchers follow the work of Santa Luca who suggested that they belong to the Homo erectus group, though some experts suggest the name Homo erectus soloensis.

ATE9-1 This mandible was found in 2007 and comes from the site of Sima del Elefante, in the Sierra de Atapuerca of northern Spain. The sites from the caves in this region are World Heritage Sites and have provided a lot of data on hominin behavior (especially the Sima de los Huesos which has ~28 individuals dated to over 400,000 years ago). {“x”:{“options”:{“crs”:{“crsClass”:“L.CRS.EPSG3857”,“code”:null,“proj4def”:null,“projectedBounds”:null,“options”:{}}},“calls”:[{“method”:“addTiles”,“args”:[“//{s}.tile.openstreetmap.org/{z}/{x}/{y}.png”,null,null,{“minZoom”:0,“maxZoom”:18,“tileSize”:256,“subdomains”:“abc”,“errorTileUrl”:“”,“tms”:false,“noWrap”:false,“zoomOffset”:0,“zoomReverse”:false,“opacity”:1,“zIndex”:1,“detectRetina”:false,“attribution”:”© OpenStreetMap contributors, CC-BY-SA”

Mojokerto This fossil of a juvenile Homo erectus comes from near Perning in East Java, Indonesia. The calvaria is almost complete. It is known “Mojokerto” or “Perning 1” and is ~ 630 cm3. The age at death of the individual is unknown. Some suggest it might be ~8 years old but others put it around 6-18 months. Its species status is also debated and has been placed in Homo soloensis, Pithecanthropus modjokertensis, Homo erectus, & Australopithecus.