Anne-Marie Tillier

Bio: Anne-Marie Tillier is an academic researcher from University of Bordeaux. The author has contributed to research in topics: Neanderthal & Mousterian. The author has an hindex of 24, co-authored 84 publications receiving 2543 citations.

Archaeological Evidence for the Emergence of Language, Symbolism, and Music–An Alternative Multidisciplinary Perspective

Abstract: In recent years, there has been a tendency to correlate the origin of modern culture and language with that of anatomically modern humans. Here we discuss this correlation in the light of results provided by our first hand analysis of ancient and recently discovered relevant archaeological and paleontological material from Africa and Europe. We focus in particular on the evolutionary significance of lithic and bone technology, the emergence of symbolism, Neandertal behavioral patterns, the identification of early mortuary practices, the anatomical evidence for the acquisition of language, the development of conscious symbolic storage, the emergence of musical traditions, and the archaeological evidence for the diversification of languages during the Upper Paleolithic. This critical reappraisal contradicts the hypothesis of a symbolic revolution coinciding with the arrival of anatomically modern humans in Europe some 40,000 years ago, but also highlights inconsistencies in the anatomically–culturally modern equation and the potential contribution of anatomically “pre-modern” human populations to the emergence of these abilities. No firm evidence of conscious symbolic storage and musical traditions are found before the Upper Paleolithic. However, the oldest known European objects that testify to these practices already show a high degree of complexity and geographic variability suggestive of possible earlier, and still unrecorded, phases of development.

L'Anthropologie « de terrain » : reconnaissance et interprétation des gestes funéraires

Abstract: Resume. — La reconnaissance des gestes funeraires impose une methodologie qui accorde une place privilegiee aux restes osseux et a la taphonomie du cadavre. L'ordre des dislocations articulaires durant la decomposition du cadavre constitue l'une des bases fondamentales de la discussion : les articulations labiles, plus precocement rompues, apportent les meilleurs arguments pour demontrer le caractere primaire d'une sepulture et discuter son evolution. L'anthropologie de terrain vise a restituer l'attitude originelle du corps, l'agencement des pieces d'habillement, des elements de parure et du mobilier ; elle contribue aussi a definir l'architecture de la tombe en precisant le milieu de decomposition (espace vide ou colmate) et en montrant les effets du contenant sur la position des ossements. Sont egalement discutes dans cet article les criteres d'identification de depots secondaires, les reinterventions consecutives a la reouverture de la tombe, et les methodes specifiques d'analyse des sepultures multiples et collectives.

Thermoluminescence dates for the Neanderthal burial site at Kebara in Israel

Abstract: The origins of modern man are a subject of controversy among palaeoanthropologists concerned with human evolution1–3 Particularly heavily debated is the dating of hominid remains uncovered in southwestern Asia, because middle palaeolithic sites have provided skeletal remains classified as representing Neanderthals (Homo sapiens neanderthalensis at Tabun, Amud, Kebara and Shanidar caves) and proto-Cro-Magnons (Homo sapiens sapiens at Skhul and Qafzeh caves) This situation differs considerably from that of Western Europe, where only Neanderthal remains are known from archaeological deposits of this period, or that of the African continent, where no Neanderthal remains have so far been found Two opposing hypotheses have been offered to explain the relations between Neanderthals and the earliest modern Homo sapiens: first that modern Homo sapiens appeared very early in the Mediterranean Levant and coexisted with a population of Neanderthals who had arrived at a later date; and second that modern humans developed from the local Neanderthal population in southwestern Asia Recent excavations at the Kebara cave yielded Neanderthal burial in a well-documented stratigraphic and cultural Mousterian sequence4,5 We now report that ther-moluminescence dates from 38 specimens of burnt flint recovered from 4 m of Kebara deposits range from about 60,000 to 48,000 years before present (BP), indicating that Neanderthals were present in the Levant in the latter part of the middle Palaeolithic

A Middle Palaeolithic human hyoid bone

Abstract: The origin of human language, and in particular the question of whether or not Neanderthal man was capable of language/speech, is of major interest to anthropologists but remains an area of great controversy. Despite palaeoneurological evidence to the contrary, many researchers hold to the view that Neanderthals were incapable of language/speech, basing their arguments largely on studies of laryngeal/basicranial morphology. Studies, however, have been hampered by the absence of unambiguous fossil evidence. We now report the discovery of a well-preserved human hyoid bone from Middle Palaeolithic layers of Kebara Cave, Mount Carmel, Israel, dating from about 60,000 years BP. The bone is almost identical in size and shape to the hyoid of present-day populations, suggesting that there has been little or no change in the visceral skeleton (including the hyoid, middle ear ossicles, and inferentially the larynx) during the past 60,000 years of human evolution. We conclude that the morphological basis for human speech capability appears to have been fully developed during the Middle Palaeolithic.

A reappraisal of the anatomical basis for speech in Middle Palaeolithic hominids

Abstract: The recovery of a fossil hominid skeleton with a complete hyoid bone from Mousterian deposits in Kebara Cave, Israel, provides new evidence pertaining to the evolution of speech. Previous studies of speech in the Middle Palaeolithic (most notably those on Neandertals) have focused on the basicranium as an indicator of speech capabilities. This work critiques the use of the basicranium and instead presents the anatomical relations of the hyoid and adjacent structures in living humans as a basis for understanding the form of the vocal tract. The size and morphology of the hyoid from Kebara and its relations to other anatomical components are almost identical to those in modern humans, suggesting that Middle Palaeolithic populations were anatomically capable of fully modern speech.

Origins of the Modern Mind: Three Stages in the Evolution of Culture and Cognition

Abstract: Prologue PART 1: The Need for a Theory of Cognitive Evolution Mental Architecture as an Emergent Phenomenon Culture as Evidence for Cognitive Structure The Organization of This Book PART 2:

The human Y chromosome: an evolutionary marker comes of age

Abstract: Until recently, the Y chromosome seemed to fulfil the role of juvenile delinquent among human chromosomes — rich in junk, poor in useful attributes, reluctant to socialize with its neighbours and with an inescapable tendency to degenerate. The availability of the near-complete chromosome sequence, plus many new polymorphisms, a highly resolved phylogeny and insights into its mutation processes, now provide new avenues for investigating human evolution. Y-chromosome research is growing up.

Late Pleistocene Demography and the Appearance of Modern Human Behavior

Abstract: The origins of modern human behavior are marked by increased symbolic and technological complexity in the archaeological record. In western Eurasia this transition, the Upper Paleolithic, occurred about 45,000 years ago, but many of its features appear transiently in southern Africa about 45,000 years earlier. We show that demography is a major determinant in the maintenance of cultural complexity and that variation in regional subpopulation density and/or migratory activity results in spatial structuring of cultural skill accumulation. Genetic estimates of regional population size over time show that densities in early Upper Paleolithic Europe were similar to those in sub-Saharan Africa when modern behavior first appeared. Demographic factors can thus explain geographic variation in the timing of the first appearance of modern behavior without invoking increased cognitive capacity.