1957, Old dewey Gorge, East Africa. Mary carefully probing back and forth along the newly explored hillside, and suddenly she saw a bone looming in the dirt in front of her, and Mary gently turned the soil over to reveal two teeth. At this time, she realized that today may have been a treasure...
It was an early morning in July 1959, and when the first round of sunlight poured into Oldaway Canyon, the whole canyon was as quiet as ever. Louis chose to stay in the tent to rest because of a cold, and Mary went alone to the excavation site in the canyon to search for the remains of ancient humans.
Procedurally, she carefully probing back and forth along the slope of the hill she had recently explored, when suddenly she saw a bone looming out of the lump of soil in front of her, which, from the outline, seemed to be different from the animal bones found before. Mary gently turned the soil over, and two more teeth were exposed. At this time, she realized that today may have been a treasure...
Mary did not dare to act rashly, so she carefully marked the ground and immediately drove back to the camp.
Louis, who was resting in the camp, heard the roar of the car returning to the camp early, and thought that Mary had encountered an accident halfway through, and vaguely, he heard Mary shouting from afar: "Louis! I found it! I found it! ”
Decades of tacit understanding made Louis understand the meaning of this sentence at once. So excited that he forgot his headache, he hurriedly jumped into the car and rushed to the fossil site.
After more than ten days of hard work, they excavated and screened more than 400 bone fragments. They carefully repaired and spliced these bones, and finally restored a relatively complete male skull.
The skull is particularly stout, with large molars on the gum bed. To thank Bois, Louise, who once supported them in their work in East Africa. Niche named this race the "East African Bows Species".
Later, scholars believed that the "East African Boucher species" was different from the Australopithecus found in the past, but it was also a species of the Australopithecus system, so today's academic community changed the "East African Boucher species" to "Australopithecus Boucha species".
However, doubts continue, and just in terms of brain volume, the skull of the Australopithecus species is too small, only 600 milliliters. To complete the complex act of making stone tools and even hunting, it seems a bit "inadequate". So, who made these stone tools found in Oldaway Canyon?
Speaking of which, history really cares a lot about the big kid of the niche. In the 1960s, Louis Leakey's son Jonathan Leakey discovered some skulls and mandibles with teeth near the site where the "East African" skull was discovered.
These skull fragments are relatively thin compared to known Australopithecus, indicating that their bodies are lighter, their cheek teeth are smaller, and most importantly, the fossils have brain capacity that is almost 50% larger than that of "East Africans".
Louis Leakey believed that the stone tools previously discovered were made by these races, so he named them "capable people", that is, "skilled people", implying that this species was capable of making tools.
So, what is the significance of the discovery of capable people?
When academics discuss the origin of human beings, there are actually two different concepts. One is the origin of early man, and the other is the origin of modern man. In the study of the origin of early human beings, "able people" is a very important part.
During the Paleocene period 65 million years ago, primates began to appear. Primate ancestors evolved over tens of millions of years and differentiated into apes and monkeys. Later, with the change of climate and environment, the ancient apes that grew in East Africa began to live on the ground, which is the earliest known member of the family, the ground ape and the Australopithecus australopithecus.
In order to adapt to the new living environment, they have developed new skills such as upright walking, using and making tools. Among them, one of the Australopithecus developed into Homo sapiens, then evolved into Homo erectus, and about 2 million years ago, it left Africa and spread to Asia and Europe, which is the origin of early humans.
There is no doubt that in this long evolution from ape to man, the capable man is a key human race.
Speaking of which, you must be curious about how the able people of that time lived. It is a pity that the time span of nearly 2 million years is enough to destroy most of the material, and those who are fortunate to be preserved, in addition to the scattered skulls, are left with the stone tools that have been used by capable people. So archaeologists, they racked their brains to get some information on these stone tools.
The production of Old dewey stone tools is actually very simple. First of all, you have to choose two suitable stones, and then use one of the stones, which is called a stone hammer in archaeology, tilt the hammer at a certain angle to another stone, which is called a stone core archaeologically, and if the force is right, you can peel off a stone piece with sharp edges on the core. These simple nucleus and silica represent the earliest stages of stone tool generation, the so-called Old dewey model.
Although the Old dewey stone tools look very simple, they are a big step in epoch-making significance for humans. Compared with Australopithecus, the Noboros no longer has to use his bare hands to tear apart animal carcasses, but can use tools to cut pieces of meat, obtain animal skins, and even break bones and suck bone marrow, greatly increasing the amount of meat and broadening the source of food. This omnivorous diet promotes the development of the able human brain and other bodily functions, which eventually leads to the further evolution of humans.
#ARCHAEOLOGY#
#I'm doing creation in headlines#
【Qingfeng Literature and History Collection】
Perhaps, tens of thousands of years ago, ancient humans, facing the bright stars and moons that only belonged to themselves, began to think bitterly, where did I come from?
The discovery of the Louis Leakey family is the strongest evidence that humans evolved from ancient apes.
In 1859, Darwin published On the Origin of Species, unveiling "the greatest, progressive change man has ever experienced."
Darwin's idea of evolution is epoch-making, revealing that living things were not created by God, and that humans are not God's masterpieces, but evolved from apes.
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