In talking about my post on the 1st wave out of Africa,
> > First wave out of Africa - East through the tropics to Sundaland -
> > cultural invention - ability to speer and catch fish, making of
string.
> > These were litorial cultures, creating shell middens (now beneath
the
> > sea).
Alexander wrote
> Is this a pure supposition or there are archaeological evidences? IMO
the
> description fits well to the Mesolithic way of life. Is not too early?
Nope, they were not mesolithic at all - it was a big stone tool
tradition. Evidence of a 59,000 year arrival has recently been found
at Finchaven on the North Coast of Papua New Guinea (the only place
where sea-levels of that early period are above sea level today, thanks
to plate techtonic movements). I also know evidence of early middens
has been found beneath sea level in North East Autralia. To have had
humans in Australia out of Africa so early would mean that they would
have had to cross probably out of Africa through the Afar triangle, and
across the Red Sea (above sea level for selected periods at this time)
and across the Persian Gulf from Oman to Iran (also above sea level at
this time). These were mid-to-late Paleolithic peoples, and there has
not been much work done on the intervening places (between Africa and
Australia) of this period. Mousterian-like technologies abound,
although two pieces of evidence are interesting. One is the finding of
an appearance of early harpoon technology using non-lithic traditions
in Zaire recently (fish eating is rare to non-existent amongst
pre-modern erectus and Neanderthalers), and the second is the
suggestion that string making was the technological advantage that gave
homo-saps the edge over the archaic Homo (Mousterian Neanderthalers et
al).
Recently there has been evidence that the Javan homo erectus fossils
may be only 23,000 years old. If this is true then Homo-sapiens and
erectus were living side by side in Java for nearly 50,000 years! This
would suggest very different lifestyles and not much competition for
food sources. If homo-saps were fisherfolk, this would explain their
fossil absence and the survival of the non-fisher erectus side by side
for such a depth of time.
> > Second wave out of Africa - North onto the Steppes - this is the
Upper
> > Paleolithic Assemblage of Big Game Hunters (see any Europo-centric
book
> > on "the origins of man" and the stories of these cultures will be
> > rammed down your neck. These are the Ice Age Cro-Magnon cultures
who
> > developed a facility living in Steppe-Tundra cultures.
> >
>
> I think again about America. IMO this corresponds to early Amerindian
> hunters rather than to Na-Dene fishermen. If so, we hardly may
associate
> this 2nd wave with the (only) Dene-Caucasian groups.
Yup, this second wave (unlike the first) definitely took off via the
Palestine-Egyptian bridge. Aurignacian cultures spread rapidly north
and west, through Anatolia, and the Balkans onto the Eurasian steppe.
They were in Siberia north of Mongolia at Malaya Cave near Baikal by
about 35,000 BCE. The Mal'ta site, also near Baikal, from about 14,000
BCE shows more sophisticated dwellings at gathering places for large
groups, and which shows evidence of artwork similar to that of the
earlier Gravetian traditions of the Ukraine, circa 25,000 BCE. The
Dyukhtai culture, circa, 20-18,000 BCE, from east and north of Lake
Baikal, shows clear similarities with the earliest cultures of North
America. Differences between Eastern and Western Siberia show that
these late Paleolithic cultures derived from different directions,
divided along the Lena and Yenisei Rivers. Those to the East came from
the south, developing out of the Upper Paleolithic traditions of China
and Mongolia, those west of that line seem to have come over the
Eurasiatic steppe from the Ukraine.
This ties in well with genetic (and linguistic) evidence too (I
suspect).
> > Third wave out of Africa - microlithic mesolithic cultures - This
was
> > associated with the warming phase at the end of the Ice Age, and the
> > spread of forests throughout Europe. These people specialised in
> > hunting and trapping small game, and the domestication of the dog.
As
> > Europe warmed, so they could move further and further north.
> >
>
> IMO the typical feature of "Eastern" (Asiatic) microlithic groups was
using
> of sickles with microliths for harvesting (wild and then domesticated)
> cereals. (+ hunting and fishing, of course). I don't know if "Western"
> (European, Atlantic) microlithic groups used sickles at all. Do you?
Nope they didn't. It was Altlantic shell middens with the Swidderian
and Maglemosian (which seem derived from the Upper Paleolithic steppe
big game hunters), and forest hunting for small game and red deer and
gathering of fruits and acorns, for the Tardenoisian cultures of
Western Europe and the Pontic region.
> > Similar kinds of waves can be seen with the movements in America.
> > Except there Big Game Hunters were the first wave, litorial
fisherfolk
> > (Na Dene) second wave,
>
> It seems to me that Big Game Hunters as a part of the Old World 2nd
wave and
> Na-Dene as a part of the 3rd wave look much more natural (even if
this can
> force us to modify a really beautiful scheme). Don't you think so?
Possible, there is much argument about "how early into the Americas".
> >and kayak-seal cultures were the Thule Third
> > Wave, again associated with warmings and coolings of climate.
Innuit
> > replaced Viking in Greenland only in the 13th - 14th century "Little
> > Ice Age".
>
> Did the Thule (or its ancestral) culture have any connections with
> microliths?
Yup, but only fairly laterly, and via many intermediaries.
Much of this work has only become available to the west with the end of
the Cold War. I would suspect the Russian contributers on this list
would have the best access to the research for the Steppes and Siberia
(though obviously not for 1st and 3rd waves in other parts of the
world).
Regards
John