Hi, Sunday, April 17, 2005, 7:58:39 PM, Graywolf wrote:
> Hum...? > Wasn't it you, Bob, who mentioned the book "Secret Civilizations > of the Stone Age" here on the list? Yes, it was. > I got a copy via inter-library loan awhile back. I hope you enjoyed it. > It points out > that most of the theories of the origination of man have been turned > topsey-turvy in in the last few years. I'm not sure about 'most'. All the same, a lot has happened in recent years. We can expect that to continue as more evidence turns up. One thing that does seem well established now is that modern humans (us) arose in Africa. > That there were pre-humans in > Asia 2.5 million years ago (1.5 million years before Lucy in > Africa). Does Rudgeley say that in the book? I don't remember it. Your timescale is mixed up, anyway. Lucy was about 3.5mya. Homo Erectus is thought to be the first species of H. to have left Africa. They were around from about 1.5 - 0.5mya. > There is also some slight evidence (that no one wants to > believe) that there may have be pre-humans in South America 4 > million years ago (boy does that upset all the theories). I've never heard that idea from a 'proper' source. It doesn't make sense in the rest of the context of that period. It probably deserves about as much attention as a claim to have invented a perpetual motion device. > Also that > our current civilization seems to have moved from Europe to the > middle east and back again rather than beginning suddenly in the > middle east as previously supposed. Nobody supposes that it began suddenly. I don't remember the idea about it moving from Europe. Sounds unlikely, but it may be that agriculture arose independently in more places than was previously realised. > And that pre-historic man was > far more advanced than was ever before believed. In fact in some > areas (medicine/psychology) more advanced than the 18-19th century > folks who formed those theories. Yes, they're starting to get more credit for being the same as us than they used to. -- Cheers, Bob
