An Update on my Homo Sapiens Origin story:
As any of my readers may know I have been writing
about how our ancestors barely survived the Toba eruption and went on to live
near the coastlines of Africa to survive. This is still historically accurate
but as with any story on ancient human origins we must be ready to change our
stories if a significant find has been made. There has been a significant find,
not to disrupt my timeline or story but one that pushes Homo Sapiens origins
back a full 100,000 years! Archaeologists unearthed some Sapiens remains in Morocco
that date back to 300,000 years ago! Pushing back our origin story back a full
100,000 years! It was this find that has sparked a new conversation in the
world of Ancient Human origins. I will explain it briefly below.
Up until this latest
discovery most scholars involved with ancient human origins were happy with the
fact that Homo Sapiens probably descended from Homo Erectus while our Neanderthal
cousins most likely evolved from Homo heidelbergensis. This happened according
to researchers about 500,000 years ago for Neanderthal in or around Europe or
east Asia, while homo Sapiens supposedly came on the scene about 200,000 in or
near the Rift Valley in Eastern Africa. Not all scholars believed this theory,
the other faction believed that sapiens, Neanderthal and heidelbergensis were
all evolved from Homo Erectus. Erectus was after all our most hardy and long
lived human cousin arriving in Africa around 2 million years ago and surviving
up until as early as 50,000 years ago. These scholars pointed to the fact that
Erectus had left Africa sometime around 1 mya and settled into Asia and Europe. When
archaeologists pulled that Homo Sapiens jawbone from the sands of Morocco they
not only changed Homo sapiens origins but they brought back the debate as to
who did we evolve from and when. If Sapiens were around in Morocco 100,000
years earlier than expected then what does that say about
our origins exactly? Now researchers are claiming that it proves Homo sapiens evolved at different times in different parts of the world. That may be true and that is another debate for another post. I am going to continue with this post in the beliefs that sapiens and Neanderthals evolved from a common ancestor around 500,000 years ago in Southern Europe or Northern Africa, for now. Information that comes from this or other finds may change my view but until then this is the course of action I chose to research and believe. That is what makes researching our ancient ancestors so intriguing, it is all really just speculation, no one is right or wrong until a grand unified theory like in pyhscis can be achieved and that won't happen unless there is concrete proof found in separate areas that say the same thing. That may happen and it may not, that is truly the mystery.
Some researchers have
been postulating that Sapiens and Neanderthals split from the same branch
(either Heidelbegensis or Erectus) around 500,000 years ago. This theory has
gained a lot of momentum since the findings in Northern Africa this year. It
could very well be possible that we Sapiens did branch off from the same line
as Neanderthal around the same time, in the same area! Did Sapiens evolve in
Europe and the Middle East and then go back to Africa? Did two or three separate
branches of Erectus evolve in Africa, Europe and Asia? Unfortunately, when it
comes to the Human Origin story every new discovery throws all of our theories
into chaos. You would think finding Sapiens remains in Northern Africa a full
100,000 years earlier than any other would shed more light on our evolution but
in fact discoveries like this one and the mass grave of australopithecus sediba
(an ancient human from 1.5 mya that may have intentionally threw their dead in
a pit, signifying a belief in the afterlife, again a post for a different day.)
in Southern Africa actually convoluted our origins more than clear it up. I have
been researching human origins for over ten years now and there have been at
least five or six significant finds that have thrown every theory for a loop.
This new finding is only going to make the human origin story more open to
debate and push researchers to think a little differently.
In conclusion, as a
researcher into this subject I am fascinated by this new find and look forward
to what it could mean to our story as humans. I believe that Homo Sapiens have
been around for as long as Neanderthal and that we probably did split from
Erectus at or around the same time. I think that those Sapiens that evolved
from Erectus first showed up in North Africa or around the Mediterranean and
the reason we have not found any remains is that the sea levels were much, much
lower than they are now. Our 500,000 year old Sapiens brothers and sisters
lived on or near the shoreline and as the Ice ages came and went it pushed our
ancestors back into Africa, the rising sea levels slowly creeping up and
washing all evidence of ancient sapiens away, while Northern Africa was being
turned into a giant desert blocking their way back North for hundreds of
thousands of years.. If we want to find 500,000 year old Sapiens to prove the
erectus theory than we have to look in the waters of the Mediterranean and
buried deep beneath the sands of the Sahara. It is this kind of find and the
implications it brings to my research that make studying ancient human origins
so fascinating because it literally is the greatest unsolved mystery of our
species and it is weird thinking we may never know the real truth. Whether that
is by design or just a bad break I will never know. I, myself look at these new
findings with wide eyed anticipation, it’s like nature gave us another piece to
the puzzle and although we have a long way to put it together every little
piece helps shape our understanding a little more. I cannot wait to follow all
of the news in regards to this Moroccan find and the implications it will have
on the mystery of us. Have a great day and weekend and as always, PEACE!!!!!!!
above image: The sight in Morocco where the now famous remains were found.
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