From HubeyH at Mail.Montclair.edu Fri Aug 11 16:14:09 2000 From: HubeyH at Mail.Montclair.edu (H. Mark Hubey) Date: Fri, 11 Aug 2000 12:14:09 -0400 Subject: [language] [Fwd: [evol-psych] Site in Israel older than thought] Message-ID: <><><><><><><><><><><><>--This is the Language List--<><><><><><><><><><><><><> August 11, 2000 SITE IN ISRAEL OLDER THAN THOUGHT from Newsday Harnessing a quirky aspect of the Earth's magnetic field, American and Israeli scientists have dated an archaeological site along the Jordan River in northern Israel to about 780,000 years ago,250,000 years older than previously thought. The new evidence helps fill an important gap in the early archaeological record of Homo erectus, considered the immediate ancestor of modern humans. The age revision also raises new questions about a wave of early migration from Africa to Europe and Asia through Israel and the accompanying spread of a surprisingly sophisticated stone tool technology. Exposed sediment layers at the Gesher Benot Ya'aqov site, which means "Bridge of the Daughters of Jacob" in Hebrew, have revealed preserved wood, seeds, fossils and a collection of stone tools, including hand axes and cleavers fashioned from volcanic basalt. Full text: http://www.newsday.com/coverage/current/health/friday/nd5753.htm> ---<><><><><><><><><><><><>----Language----<><><><><><><><><><><><><> Copyrights/"Fair Use": http://www.templetons.com/brad/copymyths.html The "fair use" exemption to copyright law was created to allow things such as commentary, parody, news reporting, research and education about copyrighted works without the permission of the author. That's important so that copyright law doesn't block your freedom to express your own works -- only the ability to express other people's. Intent, and damage to the commercial value of the work are important considerations. You are currently subscribed to language as: language at listserv.linguistlist.org To unsubscribe send a blank email to leave-language-4283Y at csam-lists.montclair.edu From HubeyH at Mail.Montclair.edu Sat Aug 12 00:26:12 2000 From: HubeyH at Mail.Montclair.edu (H. Mark Hubey) Date: Fri, 11 Aug 2000 20:26:12 -0400 Subject: [language] New Technology Out Of Africa In Early Ice Age] Message-ID: <><><><><><><><><><><><>--This is the Language List--<><><><><><><><><><><><><> New Technology Out Of Africa In Early Ice Age Using geological clues from an ancient shift in the Earth's magnetic field, scientists working in Israel have significantly pushed back the date of an "out of Africa" migration of early humans that brought new technologies to Eurasia in the midst of the early Ice Age. Their findings also indicate that our ancestors' tool-making skills were more sophisticated for that time than previously believed. In an article in today's issue of Science, a team working at the archaeologically rich site of Gesher Benot Ya'aqov (GBY) in the Dead Sea Rift of northern Israel reports that early humans belonging to the species Homo erectus traversed the corridor between Africa and Eurasia 780,000 years ago, bringing with them new technologies. According to co-author Craig Feibel, a geologist and assistant professor of anthropology and geology at Rutgers, the findings indicate this migration occurred some 250,000 years earlier than had been suspected. They also confirm that the site's abundant trove of stone tools, including handaxes and cleavers, reflects a higher level of skill and sophistication than scientists thought existed at that time. Feibel, who was one of two geologists on the team, reconstructed the geological sequence from sediments at GBY. The sediments showed clear evidence dating them to the most recent reversal in the Earth's magnetic field 780,000 years ago, says Feibel. "Until this recent work, we didn't have a clear age estimate. Scientists had estimated the technology and associated flora and fauna at a half million years, but that was conservative," Feibel said. "This time, we were fortunate to find in the sediments a record of the shift in the Earth's magnetic field, which is a well-dated phenomenon." Feibel noted the discovery was a serendipitous one that the team had not been seeking, but one that solved a long-standing mystery regarding the site's true age. Thousands of extremely well-preserved artifacts along with fossils have been fo und at GBY, which is a "wet" site. Organic matter is well preserved at GBY, in contrast to sites in Africa where much evidence of hominin occupation and flora and fauna has disintegrated over time. GBY was discovered in the 1930s and has been the site of many excavations. The article's authors note that the "archaeological data from the site portray strong affinities with African stone tool traditions. It also reflects adroit technical skills and in-depth planning abilities." Early Pleistocene hominins were bringing with them their lithic technologies that would eventually be found throughout Eurasia. "What we see at GBY is a whole new technology that also was found at Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania. All of the technological breakthroughs seem to have been made in Africa, and they came out of Africa," Feibel said. The migration through GBY was occurring during the Pleistocene Epoch, when the climate would have concentrated movement near the equator. The article notes that more than a dozen "archaeological occurrences" are identified in the geological sequence, showing repeated occupations of the same area over a prolonged period. The interdisciplinary team included two archaeologists, two geologists, one paleontologist and two paleobotanists. The project began at GBY in 1989. In addition to Feibel, the article's authors are Naama Goren-Inbar and Idit Saragusti of the Institute of Archaeology at Hebrew University, Jerusalem, Israel; Kenneth L. Verosub of the department of geology at the University of California at Davis; Yoel Melamed and Mordechai E. Kislev of the department of life sciences at Bar-Ilan University in Ramat Gan, Israel; and Eitan Tchernov of the department of evolution, systematics and ecology at Hebrew University. Goren-Inbar is the lead author and project leader. The project is supported by the L.S.B. Leakey Foundation and the National Geographic Society. - By Sandra Lanman Related websites: Photos of the archaeological site http://ur.rutgers.edu/medrel/photos/gby/ GBY Website http://www.hum.huji.ac.il/archaeology/GBY/english.htm Rutgers Website http://ur.rutgers.edu/ [Contact: Craig Feibel, Sandra Lanman] feibel at rci.rutgers.edu slanman at ur.rutgers.edu 11-Aug-2000 _______ Volume 289, Number 5481, Issue of 11 Aug 2000, pp. 944-947 http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/abstract/289/5481/944 Pleistocene Milestones on the Out-of-Africa Corridor at Gesher Benot Ya'aqov, Israel Naama Goren-Inbar,1* Craig S. Feibel,2 Kenneth L. Verosub,3 Yoel Melamed,4 Mordechai E. Kislev,4 Eitan Tchernov,5 Idit Saragusti1 The Acheulean site of Gesher Benot Ya'aqov in the Dead Sea Rift of Israel documents hominin movements and technological development on a corridor between Africa and Eurasia. New age data place the site at 780,000 years ago (oxygen isotope stage 19), considerably older than previous estimates. The archaeological data from the site portray strong affinities with African stone tool traditions. The findings also reflect adroit technical skills and in-depth planning abilities, more advanced and complex than those of earlier archaeological occurrences in the Levant. 1 Institute of Archaeology, Hebrew University, Mt. Scopus, Jerusalem 91905, Israel. 2 Department of Anthropology, Rutgers University, 131 George Street, New Brunswick, NJ 08901, USA. 3 Department of Geology, University of California, Davis, CA 95616, USA. 4 Department of Life Sciences, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat Gan 52900, Israel. 5 Department of Evolution, Systematics and Ecology, Hebrew University, Givat Ram, Jerusalem 91904, Israel. * To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: goren at cc.huji.ac.il Full text, pay per view: http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/289/5481/944 PDF: http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/reprint/289/5481/944 ______ ABC NEWS Israel Fossils Change Record Evidence Puts Hominid Migration 250,000 Years Earlier The Associated Press W A S H I N G T O N, Aug. 11 — New findings in the sediments of a dried lake bed in Israel show that early hominids migrated into the region some 780,000 years ago, bringing with them sophisticated stone tool-making skills developed in Africa. Craig S. Feibel, a Rutgers University geologist, said that the findings show that a hominid called Homo erectus migrated from Africa and settled at a site called Gesher Benot Ya’aqov some 250,000 years earlier than previous studies had suggested. Gesher Benot Ya’aqov is located in the Dead Sea rift of northern Israel. The site is dry now, but once it was the center of a freshwater lake, surrounded by trees and lively with game, said Feibel, the co-author of a studying appearing today in the journal Science. Full text: http://abcnews.go.com/sections/science/DailyNews/hominid_000811.html ______ Friday August 11 4:20 PM ET Study Shows Out-Of-Africa Migration to Israel By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Correspondent WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Magnetic dating has showed that pre-humans living in what is now Israel exported the latest Stone Age technology out of Africa much earlier than believed, scientists said Friday. Their study adds to evidence that humans and their ancestors came out of Africa in successive waves, each time bringing better and better technology with them. Full text: http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20000811/sc/humans_stoneage_dc_1.html ---<><><><><><><><><><><><>----Language----<><><><><><><><><><><><><> Copyrights/"Fair Use": http://www.templetons.com/brad/copymyths.html The "fair use" exemption to copyright law was created to allow things such as commentary, parody, news reporting, research and education about copyrighted works without the permission of the author. That's important so that copyright law doesn't block your freedom to express your own works -- only the ability to express other people's. Intent, and damage to the commercial value of the work are important considerations. You are currently subscribed to language as: language at listserv.linguistlist.org To unsubscribe send a blank email to leave-language-4283Y at csam-lists.montclair.edu From HubeyH at Mail.Montclair.edu Fri Aug 11 16:14:09 2000 From: HubeyH at Mail.Montclair.edu (H. Mark Hubey) Date: Fri, 11 Aug 2000 12:14:09 -0400 Subject: [language] [Fwd: [evol-psych] Site in Israel older than thought] Message-ID: <><><><><><><><><><><><>--This is the Language List--<><><><><><><><><><><><><> August 11, 2000 SITE IN ISRAEL OLDER THAN THOUGHT from Newsday Harnessing a quirky aspect of the Earth's magnetic field, American and Israeli scientists have dated an archaeological site along the Jordan River in northern Israel to about 780,000 years ago,250,000 years older than previously thought. The new evidence helps fill an important gap in the early archaeological record of Homo erectus, considered the immediate ancestor of modern humans. The age revision also raises new questions about a wave of early migration from Africa to Europe and Asia through Israel and the accompanying spread of a surprisingly sophisticated stone tool technology. Exposed sediment layers at the Gesher Benot Ya'aqov site, which means "Bridge of the Daughters of Jacob" in Hebrew, have revealed preserved wood, seeds, fossils and a collection of stone tools, including hand axes and cleavers fashioned from volcanic basalt. Full text: http://www.newsday.com/coverage/current/health/friday/nd5753.htm> ---<><><><><><><><><><><><>----Language----<><><><><><><><><><><><><> Copyrights/"Fair Use": http://www.templetons.com/brad/copymyths.html The "fair use" exemption to copyright law was created to allow things such as commentary, parody, news reporting, research and education about copyrighted works without the permission of the author. That's important so that copyright law doesn't block your freedom to express your own works -- only the ability to express other people's. Intent, and damage to the commercial value of the work are important considerations. You are currently subscribed to language as: language at listserv.linguistlist.org To unsubscribe send a blank email to leave-language-4283Y at csam-lists.montclair.edu From HubeyH at Mail.Montclair.edu Sat Aug 12 00:26:12 2000 From: HubeyH at Mail.Montclair.edu (H. Mark Hubey) Date: Fri, 11 Aug 2000 20:26:12 -0400 Subject: [language] New Technology Out Of Africa In Early Ice Age] Message-ID: <><><><><><><><><><><><>--This is the Language List--<><><><><><><><><><><><><> New Technology Out Of Africa In Early Ice Age Using geological clues from an ancient shift in the Earth's magnetic field, scientists working in Israel have significantly pushed back the date of an "out of Africa" migration of early humans that brought new technologies to Eurasia in the midst of the early Ice Age. Their findings also indicate that our ancestors' tool-making skills were more sophisticated for that time than previously believed. In an article in today's issue of Science, a team working at the archaeologically rich site of Gesher Benot Ya'aqov (GBY) in the Dead Sea Rift of northern Israel reports that early humans belonging to the species Homo erectus traversed the corridor between Africa and Eurasia 780,000 years ago, bringing with them new technologies. According to co-author Craig Feibel, a geologist and assistant professor of anthropology and geology at Rutgers, the findings indicate this migration occurred some 250,000 years earlier than had been suspected. They also confirm that the site's abundant trove of stone tools, including handaxes and cleavers, reflects a higher level of skill and sophistication than scientists thought existed at that time. Feibel, who was one of two geologists on the team, reconstructed the geological sequence from sediments at GBY. The sediments showed clear evidence dating them to the most recent reversal in the Earth's magnetic field 780,000 years ago, says Feibel. "Until this recent work, we didn't have a clear age estimate. Scientists had estimated the technology and associated flora and fauna at a half million years, but that was conservative," Feibel said. "This time, we were fortunate to find in the sediments a record of the shift in the Earth's magnetic field, which is a well-dated phenomenon." Feibel noted the discovery was a serendipitous one that the team had not been seeking, but one that solved a long-standing mystery regarding the site's true age. Thousands of extremely well-preserved artifacts along with fossils have been fo und at GBY, which is a "wet" site. Organic matter is well preserved at GBY, in contrast to sites in Africa where much evidence of hominin occupation and flora and fauna has disintegrated over time. GBY was discovered in the 1930s and has been the site of many excavations. The article's authors note that the "archaeological data from the site portray strong affinities with African stone tool traditions. It also reflects adroit technical skills and in-depth planning abilities." Early Pleistocene hominins were bringing with them their lithic technologies that would eventually be found throughout Eurasia. "What we see at GBY is a whole new technology that also was found at Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania. All of the technological breakthroughs seem to have been made in Africa, and they came out of Africa," Feibel said. The migration through GBY was occurring during the Pleistocene Epoch, when the climate would have concentrated movement near the equator. The article notes that more than a dozen "archaeological occurrences" are identified in the geological sequence, showing repeated occupations of the same area over a prolonged period. The interdisciplinary team included two archaeologists, two geologists, one paleontologist and two paleobotanists. The project began at GBY in 1989. In addition to Feibel, the article's authors are Naama Goren-Inbar and Idit Saragusti of the Institute of Archaeology at Hebrew University, Jerusalem, Israel; Kenneth L. Verosub of the department of geology at the University of California at Davis; Yoel Melamed and Mordechai E. Kislev of the department of life sciences at Bar-Ilan University in Ramat Gan, Israel; and Eitan Tchernov of the department of evolution, systematics and ecology at Hebrew University. Goren-Inbar is the lead author and project leader. The project is supported by the L.S.B. Leakey Foundation and the National Geographic Society. - By Sandra Lanman Related websites: Photos of the archaeological site http://ur.rutgers.edu/medrel/photos/gby/ GBY Website http://www.hum.huji.ac.il/archaeology/GBY/english.htm Rutgers Website http://ur.rutgers.edu/ [Contact: Craig Feibel, Sandra Lanman] feibel at rci.rutgers.edu slanman at ur.rutgers.edu 11-Aug-2000 _______ Volume 289, Number 5481, Issue of 11 Aug 2000, pp. 944-947 http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/abstract/289/5481/944 Pleistocene Milestones on the Out-of-Africa Corridor at Gesher Benot Ya'aqov, Israel Naama Goren-Inbar,1* Craig S. Feibel,2 Kenneth L. Verosub,3 Yoel Melamed,4 Mordechai E. Kislev,4 Eitan Tchernov,5 Idit Saragusti1 The Acheulean site of Gesher Benot Ya'aqov in the Dead Sea Rift of Israel documents hominin movements and technological development on a corridor between Africa and Eurasia. New age data place the site at 780,000 years ago (oxygen isotope stage 19), considerably older than previous estimates. The archaeological data from the site portray strong affinities with African stone tool traditions. The findings also reflect adroit technical skills and in-depth planning abilities, more advanced and complex than those of earlier archaeological occurrences in the Levant. 1 Institute of Archaeology, Hebrew University, Mt. Scopus, Jerusalem 91905, Israel. 2 Department of Anthropology, Rutgers University, 131 George Street, New Brunswick, NJ 08901, USA. 3 Department of Geology, University of California, Davis, CA 95616, USA. 4 Department of Life Sciences, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat Gan 52900, Israel. 5 Department of Evolution, Systematics and Ecology, Hebrew University, Givat Ram, Jerusalem 91904, Israel. * To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: goren at cc.huji.ac.il Full text, pay per view: http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/289/5481/944 PDF: http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/reprint/289/5481/944 ______ ABC NEWS Israel Fossils Change Record Evidence Puts Hominid Migration 250,000 Years Earlier The Associated Press W A S H I N G T O N, Aug. 11 ? New findings in the sediments of a dried lake bed in Israel show that early hominids migrated into the region some 780,000 years ago, bringing with them sophisticated stone tool-making skills developed in Africa. Craig S. Feibel, a Rutgers University geologist, said that the findings show that a hominid called Homo erectus migrated from Africa and settled at a site called Gesher Benot Ya?aqov some 250,000 years earlier than previous studies had suggested. Gesher Benot Ya?aqov is located in the Dead Sea rift of northern Israel. The site is dry now, but once it was the center of a freshwater lake, surrounded by trees and lively with game, said Feibel, the co-author of a studying appearing today in the journal Science. Full text: http://abcnews.go.com/sections/science/DailyNews/hominid_000811.html ______ Friday August 11 4:20 PM ET Study Shows Out-Of-Africa Migration to Israel By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Correspondent WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Magnetic dating has showed that pre-humans living in what is now Israel exported the latest Stone Age technology out of Africa much earlier than believed, scientists said Friday. Their study adds to evidence that humans and their ancestors came out of Africa in successive waves, each time bringing better and better technology with them. Full text: http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20000811/sc/humans_stoneage_dc_1.html ---<><><><><><><><><><><><>----Language----<><><><><><><><><><><><><> Copyrights/"Fair Use": http://www.templetons.com/brad/copymyths.html The "fair use" exemption to copyright law was created to allow things such as commentary, parody, news reporting, research and education about copyrighted works without the permission of the author. That's important so that copyright law doesn't block your freedom to express your own works -- only the ability to express other people's. Intent, and damage to the commercial value of the work are important considerations. You are currently subscribed to language as: language at listserv.linguistlist.org To unsubscribe send a blank email to leave-language-4283Y at csam-lists.montclair.edu