What is a Modern Homo Sapiens Anyway?

A find from the site of Ngaloba near Laetoli and Olduvai Gorge is regarded by some as an early modern transitional form. This cranium has a capacity of 1350 ml and is relatively round in the rear and has a rather small but continuous brow ridge. The forehead is flattened and narrow and the braincase remains relatively long and low. The lower face is relatively broad and flat, a more modern characteristic.

A second group of fossils from Morocco, Jebel Irhoud has a relatively modern shape cranium. These continue to illustrate a growing degree of mixture of primitive and modern traits.


Clearly, one of the most important early sites is found in south Africa. A complex of caves near the Klasies River Mouth were occupied by a group of hunter and gatherers around 120,000 years ago. Fragmentary human bones give us glimpses of what these people looked like. A forehead fragment has a brow ridge of completely modern type. There is thin boned skull fragment and a piece of jaw with a distinctively human chin. These pieces all are very close to an anatomically modern pattern. The remains from Klasies River Mouth are perhaps the earliest known modern remains dating more than 100,000 years old. The archaeological evidence suggests that these people gathered off the sea coast and used a Middle Paleolithic stone tool technology.

The following QuickTime movie allows us to see two different hypothesized pathways from archaic Homo sapiens to Modern Homo sapiens. The first traces lines from an early Homo type through to Neanderthal in Europe followed by a transition from the same early Homo type into a Javan Homo Erectus and ultimately into a specimen from Kow Swamp in Australia. The third segment compares the cranian of modern Homo Sapiens from Europe, Asia and Australia. In these cases, regional continuity is assumed. That is European Neanderthals evolved into modern Europeans; archaic Asians evolved into modern Asians; and archaic Africans evolved into modern Africans. This view is consistent with a theory of Regional Continuity (Multiregional) set forth by Milford Wolpoff.

There is a great deal of controversy as to whether there is regional continuity as modern human evolved. Advocates of regional continuity dispute the idea of an origin of all modern humans that can be traced to an African population....

A separate hypothesis suggests a second "out of Africa" migration of a modern human population that "replaced" archaic populations. This original population is thought to have evolved in southern Africa and is represented by sites such as Klasies River Mouth Cave. Here, sometime more than 100,000 years ago, are the remains of some of the earliest known anatomically modern humans. Other anatomically moderns have been found in other areas in Africa dating to around 100,000 years ago - all the earliest fossil remains of modern humans.

Fossil evidence does point to the fact that the earliest known modern humans with anatomically distinct features are from Africa. Border Cave, lower right cranium, dates perhaps to 100,000 years ago. That places it as one of the earliest known modern skulls any where. Above it is a cranium of an African archaic (Kabwe). There are fossils that some believe are transitional to modern humans outside of Africa such as Jebel Irhoud and Qafzeh. Qafzeh may be one of the most important sites since dates from this site have been placed at 92,000 years ago. That is the earliest anywhere outside of Africa.

Qafzeh and other sites in the Middle East are significant to the story of the origins of modern humans. Finds from these sites are decidedly "modern". At Qafzeh, the braincases are high and rather short, rounded in profile with parallel sides, very unlike Neandertals. The brow ridges are moderate or small and different in shape from that of Neandertals. The face has a broad but low nasal opening and mid-facial projection is not as prominent as in Neandertals. The eye orbits are wide and the whole upper face is broad. The lower face has a primitive feel with moderate prognathism. Skeletons are even more modern in character than the crania. Body proportions are tropical rather than cold-adapted with long forearms and lower leg bones. The pelvic region appears to be exactly alike that of modern humans.

Early moderns from sites like Qafzeh probably found long distance travel easier than Neandertals. The fact that the skeletons reveal fewer signs of fractures and stress suggests that their life-style was less wearing than that of the Neandertals.

In the Middle East, both these early moderns and Neandertals have been found in close proximity. Archaeological evidence suggests that the early modern people moved around seasonally and exploited a broader range of resources. However, technology was not that different.

There are three interesting scenarios for what happened in the Middle East between 120,000 and 40,000 years ago. * The first scenario implies that this region was a zone of overlap between two evolving human lineages. One basically was European (Neanderthals) and the other African (early moderns). At any one time during this period either or both groups could be found in the region although there is not firm evidence they were actually contemporary. * The second scenario posits again that the region was an area of overlap but that modern humans settled there first (at least 100,000 years ago) with Neanderthal populations arriving only about 70,000 years ago. The arrival of the Neanderthals may have been due to a cold period in Europe that forced these people to migrate to warmer climates. * The third option is very intriguing. Because early moderns in the region possess primitive or Neanderthal-like characteristics, some argue that the area represents another regional variant. Thus, the population has its own mixture of primitive, Neanderthal, and modern traits. Finds such as those of Qafzeh, where modern traits predominate, or Kebara, where Neanderthal traits predominate, represent extremes.

According to this third scenario, gradually anatomically modern humans evolved from these two different racial groups into one larger population. In the first two scenarios, moderns would have replaced Neanderthals who appear to go extinct around 40,000 in the Middle East. Against the back-drop of these options, keep in mind that archaeologists studying the area find similar technologies among both groups but differing subsistence strategies.

Conditions in the Middle East around 100,000 years ago may have provided the springboard for a colonization of the globe by modern humans. This springboard involved changes in both behavior and anatomy. Ultimately, this successful combination would lead modern humans all the way to Australia (between 60,000 and 50,000 years ago), the western Pacific (at least 32,000 years ago), and the Americas (some time between 30,000 and 13,000 years ago). A phase of dispersal beginning around 40,000 years ago finally led the moderns to push into the Neandertal cul-de-sac of Europe. There two distinct types of people met...clashed....intermingled....

Stephen Jay Gould has recently looked at the effects of having a focus by which we look at the end result - modern humans. Read is essay on Unity.

Also watch this quicktime movie that starts with a modern European and morphs into a modern Chinese and finally into a modern Australian. Remember we are all alike in potentials, emotions, and humanity.

The argument over the origins of modern humans clearly comes down to emphasis. The Out of Africa proponents see replacement of Neandertal populations in Europe as highly likely. Proponents of Regional Continuity find data from Asia most convincing as a demonstration of a transition from archaic Homo sapiens to modern humans.

The case for a transition can be made looking at cranium from Java (Sangiran - archaic Homo sapiens) and Australia (Kow Swamp - modern Homo sapiens). The sloping forehead and flaring of the cheek bones stand out as traits that illustrate continuity.

Modern human populations are distinctive as regional characteristics differentiate us today. This QuickTime movie contrasts three of those regions using views of modern crania from Europe, China and Australia. As you watch this movie, note that there is not much difference between European and Chinese except for facial orientation. Note, as well, the dramatic changes between Asian and Australian features.

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