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JournalISSN: 0892-7537

Journal of World Prehistory 

Springer Nature
About: Journal of World Prehistory is an academic journal published by Springer Nature. The journal publishes majorly in the area(s): Prehistory & Population. It has an ISSN identifier of 0892-7537. Over the lifetime, 326 publications have been published receiving 20079 citations.


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Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, a critical reappraisal contradicts the hypothesis of a symbolic revolution coinciding with the arrival of anatomically modern humans in Europe some 40,000 years ago.
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.

493 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In Africa, cattle were domesticated during the tenth millennium BP by delayed-return Saharan hunter-gatherers in unstable, marginal environments where predictable access to resources was a more significant problem than absolute abundance as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: In many areas of the world, current theories for agricultural origins emphasize yield as a major concern during intensification. In Africa, however, the need for scheduled consumption shaped the development of food production. African cattle were domesticated during the tenth millennium BP by delayed-return Saharan hunter-gatherers in unstable, marginal environments where predictable access to resources was a more significant problem than absolute abundance. Pastoralism spread patchily across the continent according to regional variations in the relative predictability of herding versus hunting and gathering. Domestication of African plants was late (after 4000 BP) because of the high mobility of herders, and risk associated with cultivation in arid environments. Renewed attention to predictability may contribute to understanding the circumstances that led to domestication in other regions of the world.

398 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: However, the cultural meaning of the dated samples is dubious, either because they were collected from palimpsests containing other archaeological components or because the definition of the associated artifact suites as Aurignacian is not warranted as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: The view that the Châtelperronian is the acculturation of late Neandertals brought about by contact with nearby moderns assumes an age of ca. 40,000 years ago for the earliest Aurignacian. However, the cultural meaning of the dated samples is dubious, either because they were collected from palimpsests containing other archaeological components or because the definition of the associated artifact suites as Aurignacian is not warranted. Wherever sample context is archaeologically secure, the earliest occurrences of the Aurignacian date to no earlier than ca. 36,500 B.P. This is in accordance with the strati-graphic pattern demonstrating the precedence of the Châtelperronian and equivalent technocomplexes of central and eastern Europe, consistently dated by various methods to before ca. 38,000 B.P. Given the Neandertal authorship of the Châtelperronian, it must be concluded that Neandertals had already accomplished their own Middle-to-Upper Paleolithic transition when the first Aurignacian moderns arrived in Europe. Therefore, such a transition occurred simultaneously and independently among European Neandertals and sub-Saharan moderns, across biological boundaries and irrespective of geographical proximity. This suggests that its causes lie in the domain of social process, not in that of putative biological mutations that would have bestowed symbolism upon a lineage of “chosen people.”

363 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The history of this famous argument suggests that it is better seen as a statement of faith about the past rather than as an appeal to reason, and burgeoning knowledge of past human impacts on animals has important implications for the conservation biology of the future.
Abstract: Recent archaeological research has fundamentally altered our understanding of the scope of past human impacts on nondomesticated animal populations. Predictions derived from foraging theory concerning the abundance histories of high-return human prey and diet breadth have been met in many parts of the world. People are known to have introduced a broad variety of nondomesticated animals, from sponges to agoutis and rats, to a remarkably broad set of contexts, in turn causing a wide variety of secondary impacts. By increasing the incidence of fire, human colonists have in some cases transformed the nature of the vegetation on the colonized landscape, in turn dramatically affecting animal populations on those landscapes. In island settings, these triple threats--predation, biotic introductions, and vegetation alteration--routinely led to extinctions but there is no archaeological evidence that small-scale societies caused extinction by predation alone on islands or continents. Indeed, the recent history of this famous argument suggests that it is better seen as a statement of faith about the past rather than as an appeal to reason. Perhaps most importantly, our burgeoning knowledge of past human impacts on animals has important implications for the conservation biology of the future.

362 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The transition from foraging to farming of the Neolithic periods is one of, if not, the most important cultural processes in recent human prehistory as mentioned in this paper, integrating previously published archaeological materials with archaeological research conducted since 1980, synthesizes our current understanding of archaeological data for the Pre-Pottery Neolithic period (ca. 11,700-ca. 8400 B.P.).
Abstract: The transition from foraging to farming of the Neolithic periods is one of, if not, the most important cultural processes in recent human prehistory. Integrating previously published archaeological materials with archaeological research conducted since 1980, the first half of this essay synthesizes our current understanding of archaeological data for the Pre-Pottery Neolithic period (ca. 11,700–ca. 8400 B.P.) of the southern Levant, generally defined as including southern Syria and Lebanon, Israel, the Palestinian Autonomous Authority, Jordan, and the Sinai peninsula of Egypt. The second half of the essay explores how these data inform archaeologists about the processes by which social differentiation emerged, the nature of regional and interregional connections, and the mechanisms and processes by which the transition from foraging to food production first occurred in the Neolithic.

345 citations

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No. of papers from the Journal in previous years
YearPapers
20233
202210
20219
202011
201912
201813