http://popups.lib.uliege.be/3041-5527/index.php?id=5513 Numéros en texte intégral fr Wed, 22 Oct 2025 13:47:56 +0200 Wed, 22 Oct 2025 13:47:56 +0200 http://popups.lib.uliege.be/3041-5527/index.php?id=5513 0 http://popups.lib.uliege.be/3041-5527/index.php?id=5515 Wed, 22 Oct 2025 13:49:09 +0200 http://popups.lib.uliege.be/3041-5527/index.php?id=5515 http://popups.lib.uliege.be/3041-5527/index.php?id=5516 Wed, 22 Oct 2025 13:50:03 +0200 http://popups.lib.uliege.be/3041-5527/index.php?id=5516 http://popups.lib.uliege.be/3041-5527/index.php?id=5979 The evolution of the Hominidae takes place over some five million years. It involves perhaps as many as a dozen species of hominid, and is in itself a major development by any standards. However, that same period also witnesses a complete revolution in the larger mammal fauna during a time of massive climatic changes, and it is important that our investigations of the Hominidae take sufficient account of the wider perspective. Without such a framework of understanding we risk interpreting every feature of hominid evolution as a special event, separated from the development of life on earth, whereas rates of macro- and micro-evolution among the Hominidae, including speciation, extinction, patterns of dispersion and within-species changes, are better understood as part of that larger whole. This paper gives some examples of evolutionary changes and developments across a range of other mammalian families and attempts to place hominid evolution in a clearer perspective. Wed, 28 Jan 2026 15:29:09 +0100 http://popups.lib.uliege.be/3041-5527/index.php?id=5979 http://popups.lib.uliege.be/3041-5527/index.php?id=5984 The systematic morphological variation between human geographic groups is widely and quite correctly attributed to climatic and cultural adaptations. Certainly, the main distinguishing characters of race as socially defined have clear adaptive significance. These features include skin color, hair color and form, and stature and body proportions. However, the forensic bases for racial identifications involve skeletal features whose variation is often without obvious adaptive significance. The adaptive advantage prognathism vs. orthognathic faces, shoveled vs. flattened incisors, rounded vs. squared orbits, and others remain unknown. Multiregional evolution provides an explanation for the distribution of these non-adaptive variants. This paper discusses the Multiregional explanation, focusing on the center and edge hypothesis to account for the initial distribution of regional features such as these, and tracing the evolutionary history of regional continuities in several different areas. The point we wish to establish is that history as well as adaptation is an important cause of modern human variation. Wed, 28 Jan 2026 15:34:44 +0100 http://popups.lib.uliege.be/3041-5527/index.php?id=5984 http://popups.lib.uliege.be/3041-5527/index.php?id=5990 In seeking to build up a picture of human evolution, we use abilities which have themselves evolved, and which are unique to human beings. As a matter of scientific epistemology we can benefit from examining those abilities to see how they condition our view of the past ; at the same time we can seek to document their emergence, using archaeological and fossil evidence. My paper examines the way in which we label time and entities, and the difficulties which we have in modelling change when hampered by poor sampling. It then reviews psychological approaches which can be used for evaluating early archaeological evidence. It finishes by drawing examples from the record, considering the ancient environments in which we map hominid activity, and weighing the alternative interpretations of controversial evidence. Special consideration is given to questions of raw material transport and its significance, and to sequences of operations. The paper addresses the question : How important should « deliberateness » or « intentionality » be in our assessment of the capabilities if early hominids ? Wed, 28 Jan 2026 15:41:25 +0100 http://popups.lib.uliege.be/3041-5527/index.php?id=5990 http://popups.lib.uliege.be/3041-5527/index.php?id=5997 Pleistocene is the period during which the hominization process dit not yet begin to influence the ecological conditions of man and his area. Therefore his rise to modern man was merely an adaptation to life conditions given in his habitation area. The most important ecological factors influencing adaptations in the hominization process are : geological structure of the area, topography of the region, climatic conditions, vegetational cover and animal biomass distribution. Except for the geological stucture of the substratum all are - at least in the earliest phases of the hominization process - common with the postulates of higher animal life : food, protection against enemies and climatic endowments. Geological conditions are primarily influencing the first and most definitive human activity, the artefact production and use. The most important steps in ecological adaptation are in a very generalized form as follows : Equatorial forest regions (Central Africa, SE Asian islands) with very low rate of higher animal biomass (+- 200 kg/km²) and lack of lithic raw material provided the rise of a primitive, alithic gatherer-culture (surviving in these areas until present times). Subtropical lightforest savanna-semidesert belts made by a very high rate of biomass accumulation(10,000 - 30,000 kg/km²) a very broad gatherer-scavenger activity, with rich access to hard material produced by mechanical of the rocks reaching the surface (pebble cultures - naking artefacts, not weapons - of the Homo erectus groups). The broad limestone belt of the Alpidic system provided (complementing and replacing pebble material - of limited tool-making variability) broad possibilities of making tools and weapons by the humans occupying this Mediterranean-temperate karstic, decidous-forest belt of mountains (with a biomass production of 400 - 600 kg/km²) and of hunting-collecting habits under climatically deteriorating conditions of the southward periglacial zone in Europe. The same belt under lowered climatic conditions was occupied by the Homo sapiens wave - coming from South - inventing the arrow (the first machine) and as an artist of the admirable cave illustrations, discoverer ofthe script, i.e. the separating of thought from the oral transmittion. With the climatic and drastic faunal-floral changes in the Early Holocene a new southern population of Homo sapiens occupied the Mediterranean-temparate belt of Eurasia, introducing Neolithic culture making use of the sandstone raw material of his original living area in North Africa - Southwest Asia and starting with increasing transformation of his natural living area by agriculture and animal husbandry. Wed, 28 Jan 2026 15:58:04 +0100 http://popups.lib.uliege.be/3041-5527/index.php?id=5997 http://popups.lib.uliege.be/3041-5527/index.php?id=6001 There are only a very few sites or archaeological horizons which are appropriate for the reconstruction of former environments and the recognition of man's relationship to these conditions. First, it is very important to dispose of some deposits rich in fossiles and, if possible, to have many geological and geomorphological phenomenons as well as an archaeological culture preserved in its primary situation. A necessary precondition for this research are some archaeological horizons of travertine and some limnic-telmatic deposits containing various plant and animal fossil groups, in particular macro plant remains, molluscs, ostracods, micro and macro vertebrates, and special indications for the existence of former biotopes. In a larger range, they enable the reconstruction of environments beyond the biotope in wandering ranges and hunting districts. The preserved cultural evidence allows the inference of behavioural and reactive patterns towards this environment. This is demonstated by the travertine site of Bilzingsleben, Lower Palaeolithic, Middle Pleistocene/Holstein complex. Wed, 28 Jan 2026 16:07:39 +0100 http://popups.lib.uliege.be/3041-5527/index.php?id=6001 http://popups.lib.uliege.be/3041-5527/index.php?id=6008 Under the conditions of the ultimate glacial, i.e. the Weichselian respectively Vistulian in the northern part of Central Europe and the Würmian of the Alpine area in the southern part the range of territory that was accessible and utilizable to man has been narrowly confined. The narrowing was on either side - by inland glaciation in the lowlands adjoining the Baltic Sea and by Alpine glaciers in the southern belt. On the other hand the glacial sea lowering has provided expansion of land, especially in the present North Sea, enabling a land connection to the British Islands. Above all the environmental record within the interposing belt between the glaciated areas can be based on palaeontological observations. Suitable findings are available due to the preservation of skeletal remains evidencing fossil mammals and of mollusc shells in calcareous sediments. Frequently they occur as in the basin areas in the northern foreland of the Central European highlands. They permit, moreover, correlations to the manifold and differentiated evidences of regional loess stratigraphy. The deposition of Central European loess covers took place under the conditions of glacial cold steppes, and the report circulates that actually no equivalent ecosystem can be found. However, detailed investigations prove a suitable actualistic model of the glacial environmental conditions in the non‑glaciated belt of Central Europe, deduced from present Central Asia. Such comparison may be enabled by the well‑known and intensively studied ecology of recent animals comparable with species recorded by Central European loess sequences. The actualistic model of glacial environmental conditions in Central Europe may be connected with a chronological resolution by means of mollusc shells reflecting changing of faunal assemblages due to the variations of environment in the course of glacial periods as recorded by loess stratigraphy. There, alternating loess covers and buried soils record climatic oscillations analogous to those during the Holocene. However, a superordinated trend of increasing continentality as a rule has effected and increasing inclemency of mean climatic conditions in a comparison of consecutive stadial phases or interstadial ones. The most extreme continentality took place immediately before the transition from the ultimate glacial to the Holocene warming. Thu, 29 Jan 2026 16:24:34 +0100 http://popups.lib.uliege.be/3041-5527/index.php?id=6008 http://popups.lib.uliege.be/3041-5527/index.php?id=6015 By far the most important species in the faunal assemblages of many Upper Palaeolithic sites in Central Eruope are reindeer and horse. In contrast to previous therories of long-distance reindeer following and loose-herding (reindeer), a territorial model of animal exploitation is proposed. As for the reindeer, the possibilities of a close and controlled exploitative relationship with the horse are discussed. The archaeological data do not confinn the hypothesis of a close relationship between man and horse. New evidence of the taming of wolves in the Gravettian is presented and the earliest finds of domestic dog are reviewed. Thu, 29 Jan 2026 16:29:08 +0100 http://popups.lib.uliege.be/3041-5527/index.php?id=6015 http://popups.lib.uliege.be/3041-5527/index.php?id=6021 The family Hominidae, starting with the split of the Panidae from the common ancestors Hominoidea, are comprising the two subfamilies Australopithecinae and Homininae. Because of the geographic division of their ancestors into a western and into an eastern group, the Panidae and Hominidae were never together. The eastern solution was the adaptation to an open habitat and the story of this adaptation is the story of the Hominidae – I have called it East Side Story ; it is a cladogenesis, a discontinuity. The Australopithecinae with three possible genera (Motopithecus, Pre‑Australopithecus, Australopithecus) and six possible species is more complex than it was thought. The origin of Homo is a product of discontinuity and “environmentalism” again. Their oldest remains could be 2.5 to 3 m.y. old. The evolution of this genus is passing through 3 main steps : Homo habilis, Homo erectus, Homo sapiens, which are more looking like grades than true species and the evolution of Homo is looking like a continuum, an anagenesis, a phyletic gradualism. Tool‑making activity preceded Homo. With Homo, the cultural evolution which is also a continuity, is going successively, shown than biology, first, and then faster. The speeds of the biological and of the technological evolution are different and reverse. Thu, 29 Jan 2026 16:33:36 +0100 http://popups.lib.uliege.be/3041-5527/index.php?id=6021 http://popups.lib.uliege.be/3041-5527/index.php?id=6027 The fact that evolution took place within the genus Homo postulates special features on which the mechanisms of selection could act. Just through the last time a lot of publications are concerned with DNA substitutions through geochronological times (for example mitochondrial DNA) to reconstruct the phylogenetic tree of the species Homo. Unfortunately no comments are given on the adaptive character of these features.Therefore the main attention of this paper is thrown on those characters that are : 1. responsable at the fossil remains, 2. provable at the next evolutionary step with special regard to the kind of their changes, and 3. able to make comparisons to features corresponding with features of known function in modern times. By these conditions one can only reconstruct the way where evolution took place and which features are best adapted to their environment. Inborn characters of behaviour in contrast to those which can be learned concerning the best adaptation to the social interactions of man within and between members of a group could be relevant, too. But these characters cannot be analysed in a stringed biological sence. That will mean that one cannot find a direct correlation between the behaviour and features that alter the morphology of the skeleton. Therefore in this paper only morphological features of the human skeleton that can give some traceable informations about the adaptation to a special natural environment or activities will be analysed. Thu, 29 Jan 2026 16:37:48 +0100 http://popups.lib.uliege.be/3041-5527/index.php?id=6027 http://popups.lib.uliege.be/3041-5527/index.php?id=6034 It has been known since Herodot (484–425 B.C.) that the differentiation of human populations depends to a high degree on climatic factors. Furthermore it is well understood that, as a result of the interrelationships between heat loss, body volume and surface area, cold environments favour large-bodied individuals with reduced limb proportions. Several authors have pointed out that the Neandertals show very short distal limb segments relative to body size. The relative shortness of the forearm and the lower leg and the limbs in general may have been an adaptation to the cold climate that many Neandertals faced (Allen’s Rule). Cranial features on the other hand, e.g. the relatively high cranial capacity and the size and shape of the nasal skeleton, are not commonly regarded as cold adaptation. This is also true for modern populations. Due to the unsolved controversies concerning a recent African origin of anatomically modern man or a gradualistic multi‑regional evolution, a comparison of the late Pleistocene and early Holocene populations of anatomically modern man from Europe (Upper Paleolithics, Early and Late Mesolithics) and Northern Africa (Iberomaurusians, Columnatians, Capsians) has been done by uni‑ and multivariate statistics, based on a sample of n = 546 skulls (and a smaller sample of postcrania). It has been tested, whether the observable uni‑ and bivariate differences and the main discriminators in the discriminant function analyses for diachronical and regional comparisons are in agreement with those patterns that have been described in the literature as related to specific environmental factors. The Late Pleistocene and Early Holocene Europeans differ markedly in their cranial features from the NW‑African sample, but their special pattern cannot concisely be explained in terms of climatic adaptations. There are good arguments to submit the conclusion, that the so‑called ‘cromagnoid’ populations of NW‑Africa are autochthone. It seems plausible that the ‘Mechtoids’ developed their unique morphological pattern in isolation from European populations, but the role of their climatic adaptations in their morphology remains still unclear and ‘troublesome’, except the nasal index whose overall distribution is explicable in terms of (plausible) climatic adaptations. The findings demonstrate that the differences in the cranial features seem to be the result of a regionalization process in which climatic adaptations may have played a minor part besides socioecological influences (e.g. technological innovations, subsistence strategies). Thu, 29 Jan 2026 16:42:01 +0100 http://popups.lib.uliege.be/3041-5527/index.php?id=6034 http://popups.lib.uliege.be/3041-5527/index.php?id=6039 Palaeolithic populations displayed a strong morphological differentiation. The average biological distance between groups from Europe is much more higher in the Palaeolithic than in subsequent periods. Palaeolithic populations differ from post‑Palaeolithic ones on mortality structure, fertility structure, population size and density, biological state and dynamics etc., and also on response intensity to various environmental and cultural factors, i.e. the level of adaptability reactions (ecosensitive ones). A great deal of anthropological papers showed biological consequences of “Neolithic revolution”. Research objects were chiefly characteristics displaying a high level of reactions to ecological (environmental) factors such as nutrition, diseases, climate, soil composition etc. Individuals’ responses to agents altering phenotypic formation of morphological traits were mainly analysed. Relatively few works concerned to the role of natural selection in morphological variability formation of Palaeolithic and post‑Palaeolithic populations. The paper deals with an estimation of opportunity for natural selection operating by differential mortality and differentiating fertility (differential reproduction) in Palaeolithic and post‑Palaeolithic populations. On the ground of palaeodemographical and biodemographical data analysis of modern hunter‑gatherers and agriculturalists’ groups and morphological data it was shown, that in Palaeolithic differential death‑rate (if occured: indirect evidence is an occurrence of a strong races origination process), particularly in the reproductive period, could be the main field of natural selection activity. In post‑Palaeolithic populations severe decline of mortality is not observed, but rather intensification of this process in the first phase of neolithisation. At the same time processes of races origination are subject to diminution. Rapid increase of Neolithic populations density as in subsequent periods suggests considerable increase of fertility. We consider that just differential fertility and differential reproduction should be the field of natural selection activity in these populations. Differentiated mortality in reproductive period in Palaeolithic could be an effect of the following factors: change of ecological zone; radical alteration in occupied ecological zone caused (through differential mortality: fertility was relatively low, by the way) changes in biological state of population; intensification of morphological structure. Distinctions between groups inhabiting various ecological zones, what for Palaeolithic populations are the main factors have well‑defined adaptive significance. In post‑Palaeolithic populations change in populations density and structures caused differences in selective pressure on the natural selection, so differentiation appeared anew. Different “ways” of these populations’ development in these ecological conditions, after certain period of stabilisation of their adaptive structure (population size and dynamics), caused changes in phenotypic structure of morphological traits and created new morphological distinctions of regional level. The morphological structure of Palaeolithic populations is the result of: 1) the adaptation to their ecological conditions, as the response of natural selection, 2) the rearrangement of basic traits in situation of scarce population density, and 3) a great fertility in reproductive period. In the initial stage of the population density increase there was an effect of post‑Palaeolithic populations with distinctive morphological structure formed by natural selection. In stabilisation period effects of natural selection were of minor importance. In this stage morphological distinctions become the result of their ecological and social conditions. During Neolithic and post‑Neolithic times population density increased and post‑Neolithic groups represent that previously autochthonic (in adaptive morphological features “lost” their differentiation) but in changed conditions new cultural equipment of nutrients adapt the population being under different selective pressure. Common adaptive structure, new morphological processes were mutually independent. Palaeolithic “racial” distinctions became an essential adaptive distinction, so morphological processes of natural reduction (body size reduction, gracilisation, sexual dimorphism etc.) increased. Thu, 29 Jan 2026 16:46:40 +0100 http://popups.lib.uliege.be/3041-5527/index.php?id=6039 http://popups.lib.uliege.be/3041-5527/index.php?id=6045 As early as in human remains of the Middle Palaeolithic some instances of skeletal deformation are known, which can be of genetic (mutational) origin. Their number is slightly growing in Upper Palaeolithic and Epipalaeolithic respectively Mesolithic groups. The question is, if within the factors of "background" mutation (active in all living organisms) is there a complex specific for the environment of man. This may be a special use of fire : We know of artificial holes in rocks, which could be used like mortars to crush roots and fruits or molluscs or little reptiles and mammals for a meal. As a mutagen, heavy metals (e.g. Zn) from the stone (walls or pestle) could be incorporated with this form of nutrition, still without thermal influences. More, a form of "cooking" by throwing in hot stones must have brought in a lot of splinters from these "cooking stones" by the thermal difference. Additional to the resorption of mutagenes via tractus digestivus we have to think for fire-bound chemical complexes (e.g. benzpyrene), coming to activity via tractus respiratorius. It is not only breathing, which may incorporate mutagenic substances. There is a second way of influence by the fluid of tears, produced by sitting near a smoking fire, via canalis nasolacrimalis to the pharynx. Corresponding reports are always given — from Carolus Linnaeus 1732 to the recent volumes of "Circumpolar health" from the Lapponic region to ancient and modern Greenland and Alaska. Early Eskimo had to live with the seal-oil or fish-oil soot of their lamps. Man in the Palaeolithic — could he (respectively his gametes) likewise have been loaded with mutagenic matter ? There is no proof for such a possibility. Anyhow, now tasks are given for archaeochemistry and "experimental archaeology". We should not think, searching for mutagenic substances in "cooking stones" and lamp soot may be the most important problem. But answers could be very interesting because some mutants in the history of Palaeolithic mankind could be "man-made" ! However, we would win some knowledge more of the relation between man and his environment. Fri, 30 Jan 2026 13:56:53 +0100 http://popups.lib.uliege.be/3041-5527/index.php?id=6045 http://popups.lib.uliege.be/3041-5527/index.php?id=6051 Biorhythms are present in all organic life and probably evolve very slowly. The suggestion is made in this paper that there has probably not been much change in the biorhythms of Paleolithic Man and modern peoples. Therefore, through an understanding of the biorhythms of modern peoples, we can extrapolate that similar patterns would have been present in earlier members of Homo sapiens. This provides us with new possibilities in reconstructing the behavioral patterns of our near ancestors. In addition, the biological similarity between Paleolithic peoples and modern peoples would lead us to search for some of the causes of modern illnesses in disrupted biorhythmical patterns that have come about relatively recently in our evolutionary history, because of overwhelmingly large changes in our everyday environment. Fri, 30 Jan 2026 14:00:07 +0100 http://popups.lib.uliege.be/3041-5527/index.php?id=6051 http://popups.lib.uliege.be/3041-5527/index.php?id=6054 In the penultimate interglacial (Holstein complex) forms existed with erectoid features (finds from Bilzingsleben, Arago and Vértesszöllös) along with those already bearing typical sapiens-like characteristics (Swanscombe and Steinheim). In the following glacial period (Saale complex) these differences can be traced to new combinations. The skull from Petralona is characterized by erectoid (neurocranium) and typical sapiens-like features (splanchnocranium and endocranium). The finds from Weimar-Ehringsdorf have been distinctly developed in the direction to early Homo sapiens. In the finds from Gánovce, Gibraltar and Krapina the base for the development of the Neandertal man during the last glacial can be considered. At the beginning of the last glacial (Weichselian) only sapiens-like forms such as the classical Neandertals in West Europe, forms to transitional Neandertals and finds of modern sapiens type existed, e.g. Šala, Ochoz, Kůlna, Šipka, Subalyuk. Chronologically and morphologically, the Central European finds correspond to the types from Near East (Amud, Galilea, Skhul, Kafzeh). Since the middle phase of the last glacial (Weichselian) only modern forms of Homo sapiens have existed : Crô-Magnon, Brno or Combe-Capelle type and Dolní Věstonice. Fri, 30 Jan 2026 14:06:17 +0100 http://popups.lib.uliege.be/3041-5527/index.php?id=6054 http://popups.lib.uliege.be/3041-5527/index.php?id=6060 The earliest record of the postcranial remains of Homo erectus was provided by Dubois who recovered a femur from Trinil in Java. Dubois believed this Trinil femur was associated with the Trinil calotte now attributed also to Homo erectus. Doubts about the attribution of this femur to Homo erectus have echoed the findings of anatomists, over many years, who could not distinguish the Trinil femur from that of Homo sapiens on anatomical grounds. Weidenreich in 1941 described the Zhoukoudian femora as distinct in their morphology and Olduvai Hominid 28 was shown to share features with these remains. Later work on the Koobi Fora hominids has shown similar results. Pelvic remains of Homo erectus are now known from Olduvai, Koobi Fora and Arago. The new skeleton of Homo erectus (WT 15,000) from West Turkana, North Kenya, shows similar femoro-pelvic features but they are less well expressed owing to the juvenility of the specimen. Fri, 30 Jan 2026 14:10:10 +0100 http://popups.lib.uliege.be/3041-5527/index.php?id=6060 http://popups.lib.uliege.be/3041-5527/index.php?id=6066 Professor M.M. Gerasimov's method, modified by the author according to our new data on the relations between morphological traits of the face and the skull, was used to reconstruct the face of the late Homo erectus Arago XXI, Tautavel, France. The reconstruction was based on a plaster cast of the skull. Its examination revealed a considerable postmortem deformation. Additional remolding of the cast was therefore performed in order to overcome the consequences of post-mortem deformation. Whenever possible, bones of the face were adjusted to their anatomical position. The reconstruction of the missing mandible was done using correlations between mandibular dimensions and upper facial structures in a sample of archaic Homo sapiens crania. Earlier finds could not be used because of their fragmentary nature. However, there are reasons to believe that Neanderthals, being descendents of the late Homo erectus, were morphologically similar to them. Traits were found showing a high degree of interdependence. Indices were calculated and used to reconstruct the mandible. Principal stages of the reconstruction process of the skull will be demonstrated, with a brief description of the reconstruction techniques. Fri, 30 Jan 2026 14:14:01 +0100 http://popups.lib.uliege.be/3041-5527/index.php?id=6066 http://popups.lib.uliege.be/3041-5527/index.php?id=6071 The isolation of human populations in Europe and in Africa is critical for models of modern human origins based on speciation events and total replacement of Neandertals and other archaic human groups by modern humans. Pleistocene human samples from Africa, west Asia and Europe are investigated to assess the morphological evidence for both isolation and regional interconnections. Four types of data are utilized : (1) results of a multivariate analysis of frontal bone shape, (2) distribution of patterns of supraorbital torus/brow ridge shape, (3) incidence of "cladistic" markers for Neandertals, and (4) occurrence of occipital buns. Environmental factors possibly influencing middle and late Pleistocene human evolution are also discussed. It is concluded that enough evidence exists for biological interconnections around the Mediterranean during this period to rule out regional isolation extensive enough to foster speciation. Thus, Homo sapiens has been a single, polytypic species since the Middle Pleistocene. Fri, 30 Jan 2026 14:19:41 +0100 http://popups.lib.uliege.be/3041-5527/index.php?id=6071 http://popups.lib.uliege.be/3041-5527/index.php?id=6079 In 1986 and 1987 there were made exceptionally important finds of burials of a late Palaeolithic population at the locality Dolní Věstonice in Moravia. These finds compensate the losses that occured in our collections at the end of World War II. Remains of 31 individuals were found at Dolní Věstonice during the years 1924–1988. Scholars and interested public have already been informed about this population in publications and exhibitions. The present paper is devoted to the problem of family relations, which have been given only limited attention, as well as to the palaeoethnographic aspects studied on the skeletal material from the graves. Genetic relation. 1. On three individuals (DV XIII, XIV and XV) from the common grave of three persons were found the following specific features that point to very close family relations : siblings. – Specific shape of the scapulae, on which the spina scapulae is bent at an angle at the point of the tuberositas triangularis and the lower margin of the tuberostias is turned upwards in the shape of a lobe. The inner margin of the scapula (margo medialis) has a concave shape, and on the outer margin (margo lateralis) there are two edges, labium anterior and posterior, that is facies axillaris bisulcata, sec. Trinkaus. In situ in the grave the scapulae of all three individuals were in the so called upper position. – Flattening of the bodies of the clavicles. – Aplasia sinus frontalis on the right side in all three individuals. 2. In the individuals DV XXXI and XXXII there were found striking identity in the structure of the same category of molars (nutritive channels under the crown, separation of mesial roots by a groove etc.). 3. In individuals from the collective grave at Předmostí from the year 1894 there are repeated two identical characteristics in several individuals (both foramina parietalia are missing, deflection of the sinus sagittalis superior to the right, one foramen parietale in the left parietal bone). Palaeoethnographic findings. 1. Use of a bone object between jaws, to bite into in case of pain (Schmerzbeißer) in individual DV XV. 2. Preparation of a cult bowl from the skull, with intentionally worked rims and typical retouching in individual DV XII. 3. Healed surface scars on frontal and parietal bones in male individuals. Injuries caused by typical blows with blunt objects against the head from the front – perhaps the result of initiation rituals (DV XI–XII, XIV, XV). 4. Intentional grinding of tooth enamel on buccal sides of the crowns, caused by flat pebbles that were put into the mouth with the intention to provoke the mucous membrane in the mouth to increased salivation to suppress thirst (numerous finds from Dolní Věstonice, Předmostí, Brno). 5. Pendants made of drilled human teeth (DV VIII). The burial ritual is a separate subject that is out of scope of the present paper. Fri, 30 Jan 2026 14:26:05 +0100 http://popups.lib.uliege.be/3041-5527/index.php?id=6079 http://popups.lib.uliege.be/3041-5527/index.php?id=6084 Contrary to the relatively extensive and impressive research on the development of form and structure of the brain (respectively endocasts) from Homo sapiens neanderthalensis through the first representatives of anatomically modern man (Homo sapiens sapiens) to recent mankind, research on the hand seems to be neglected. There is a wide gap between the results of morphometric studies on hand-bones of Neandertals and our knowledge of the hand of recent living man, which is very extensively fixed in anatomical text-books and numerous anthropological papers. The intended critical review asks for facts and possibilities which can be used to fill this gap. Fri, 30 Jan 2026 14:29:33 +0100 http://popups.lib.uliege.be/3041-5527/index.php?id=6084 http://popups.lib.uliege.be/3041-5527/index.php?id=6090 Homo erectus used different kinds of stone-tools : handaxes, choppers, borers and cutting-tools. He also had wooden “spears”, antler clubs, hearths and dwellings. It can be shown that heavy-duty choppers and light-duty cutting-tools generally were made of different kinds of raw materials. Antler, bones, ivory and wood were taken for different types of tools. This shows that Homo erectus had well defined traditions with fixed symbols in the common mind of social groups. The system of tools and artifacts s.l. has strong correlations to the system of classified ideas or word symbols. Therefore there is no doubt that Homo erectus had spoken. Fri, 30 Jan 2026 14:45:26 +0100 http://popups.lib.uliege.be/3041-5527/index.php?id=6090 http://popups.lib.uliege.be/3041-5527/index.php?id=6095 The selection of raw material used for the production and utilisation of tools constitutes an important relationship of early man to his environment. His knowledge of the nature of the raw materials, of their physical reactions plays a big part at the preparation or the usage of implements. The Lower Palaeolithic man of Bilzingsleben demonstrates this relationship in various ways. There is, e.g. a deliberate selection of raw material which was conducted for artefact-specific reasons. Dependent on their corresponding future function, different raw materials had been selected according to their specific qualities : 1. Tough, solid large pebbles (quartzite, limestone, travertine, kristalline) appropriate for the execution of rough work. 2. Hard, brittle silex stones (flint, more rarely quartz, chert), appropriate for the production of small special tools, such as cutting, scratching, scraping, boring implements. 3. Antlers used as percussion instruments. 4. Bones (more rarely ivory) used for the production of big special tools. 5. With the tools produced from these materials wood and other organic matters were worked. Because of the special aspect of the bones in the Bilzingsleben inventory I am going to treat bones here. The thick compacta of the elephant extremity bones served as raw material for the production of special tools: the working features and use wear indicate that and how the Bilzingsleben man used bones as raw material. He did not only smash the bones in order to obtain handy compacta pieces, but also cut them up deliberately: the joints were cut off, the bones split with a wedge and a hammerstone. Then the bone piece was trimmed in the way stone tools were prepared, i.e. with the help of a hammerstone. Even retouched edges were produced. The result was a differentiated usage of the bones as scrapers, back-knives, wedges, chopper-like tools, dagger-like tools, bodkins, working support. It is evident that the raw material was especially selected. The thick compacta of the extremity bones of adult animals was prefered : tibia, femur and humerus. The other extremity bones are rare. Pelvis and scapula are more frequent among the remaining skeleton. They were used as working support. It seems that they are bones from death sites and they were macerated because it was more convenient and practical for usage when they were in a state without fat and without periosteum, sinew and other connective tissue. Fri, 30 Jan 2026 14:51:12 +0100 http://popups.lib.uliege.be/3041-5527/index.php?id=6095 http://popups.lib.uliege.be/3041-5527/index.php?id=6098 This paper aims at summarizing the main chronological framework and characteristics of the cultural entities recognized today within the Lower and Middle Palaeolithic in the Mediterranean Levant. The Lower Palaeolithic incorporates several of the oldest sites, such as ‘Ubeidiya, that can be compared in part to Dmanisi in Georgia. Numerous assemblages and a few samples are recorded in Syria, Lebanon, and Jordan. The Upper Acheulian is better known and seems to date from the early Middle Pleistocene. The Acheulo-Yabrudian entity is a special culture known only from the northern and central Levant. The Levantine Mousterian is currently at the center of the debate over the origins of modern humans. New TL dates indicate that the early Mousterian manifestations may be 270 kyr old and that the latest are 50–48 kyr old. Middle Palaeolithic sites provide information concerning prehistoric diets, hearths, and human mortuary practices. Mineralogical studies decipher the differences in bone preservation in various caves. Fri, 30 Jan 2026 14:54:28 +0100 http://popups.lib.uliege.be/3041-5527/index.php?id=6098 http://popups.lib.uliege.be/3041-5527/index.php?id=6104 Detailed geoarchaeological studies of the lowermost sediments (layer G and the base of F) at Tabun allow a more detailed interpretation of environmental changes in the Lower Palaeolithic. Micromorphological techniques coupled with SEM observations in the most ancient beds (G) attest to a strong pedogenesis under warm and humid conditions, with at some point a gley formation. This was followed by an increase in aeolian sand accumulation, and ended (lower layer F) with a new phase of biological activity, more limited than the former. New TL and ESR dates, and preliminary paleomagnetic measurements, place this palaeoenvironmental record between Isotope stages 11 and 19. The cultural remains, the anthropogenic features and the considerable time scale sustain the key position of Tabun as a prehistoric yardstick and a Quaternary type-section. Fri, 30 Jan 2026 15:51:07 +0100 http://popups.lib.uliege.be/3041-5527/index.php?id=6104 http://popups.lib.uliege.be/3041-5527/index.php?id=6108 The stability of settlement is characterized by the link of Palaeolithic populations either to a given microregion or to one site – both within a single cultural-chronological phase and during a long period of time including various techno-typological complexes. Evidence of such behaviour can be more easily found in regions outside western Europe, whose occupation density was, in the course of the Upper Pleistocene, considerably high and where the same sites had always been repeatedly settled. Moreover, the links to a given microregion or site are much more obvious in the open countryside than in regions with frequent caves which provided natural shelters.The Aurignacian settlement of central Moravia can be quoted as an example of the link of a technocomplex to a given microregion. There, on an area of no more than 10 × 10 kilometers, several scores of sites have been discovered, some of them qualified as huge ones with hundreds and even thousands of artifacts – despite the fact that there is no important source of raw material in this region. On the contrary, the principal material used there was flint-stone imported from a minimum of 100 kilometers. The most interesting concentration of settlements is, however, in Kostienki on the Don river, where eight settlements have been discovered in the lower part of the small valley called Pokrovskij Log, most of them being multilayered and in some cases situated in close proximity of each other. Although they represent different technocomplexes, all of them had originated during a relatively brief period of time. A striking phenomenon is the link of various populations during longer periods of time to certain locations, quite banal within the countryside and with no outstanding features. Willendorf on the Danube river, Moldova V on the Dniester or Mitoc on the Prut can be quoted here. Also some “abri”, located in hardly accessible or otherwise unfavourable areas, belong to this group. Let us remind here the “abri” Fumane in the Italian Dolomites or the “abri” Crvena stijena in Montenegro, settled from the interglacial till the Mesolithic. These examples document certain stability in the links of Palaeolithic populations to settlement regions and even to individual sites. However, the motifs of such behaviour can hardly be explained. Tue, 03 Feb 2026 14:17:53 +0100 http://popups.lib.uliege.be/3041-5527/index.php?id=6108 http://popups.lib.uliege.be/3041-5527/index.php?id=6110 Recently, environmental studies in Moravia concentrate on the Dolní Věstonice–Pavlov project, and the related period of 30,000 – 20,000 B.P. The sites of Dolní Věstonice, Předmostí, and the peat-bog at Bulhary were continuously studied by methods of palynology (E. Rybnǐčková, H. Svobodová), palaeopedology (L. Smolíková), and malacozoology (V. Ložek, J. Kovanda). The cultural layers developed in an unstable period of climatic oscillations between the relatively temperate Wurmian Interglacial, and the Upper Pleniglacial maximum. Archaeology reflects changing behavioural patterns: an intensive land-use in the Aurignacian, resulting in a network of sites, and preference of marginal highlands, where deposition of the last loess cover was limited. The Gravettian, partly contemporary, is usually found in extended side-clusters under loess deposits near river valleys. By the end of the Gravettian, a horizon of sites with eastern-reminiscent articulated elements, emerges on strategic points along the passage from the Danube valley to the North European Plain. After 20,000 B.P., the Epigravettian constitutes a thin network of small sites, mostly in sheltered valley locations. Further inter-cultural differences are observed in strategies of subsistence, raw material exploitation, and transport. Tue, 03 Feb 2026 14:31:09 +0100 http://popups.lib.uliege.be/3041-5527/index.php?id=6110 http://popups.lib.uliege.be/3041-5527/index.php?id=6112 Ethnoarchaeology, considered as a subdiscipline of archaeology, has a growing significance for prehistory research as the significance of ethnology is reduced by the withdrawal of ethnologists (at least in German speaking countries) from fields such as the “incipient” peoples and their material culture which traditionally had combined the two disciplines. When 30 years ago L.R. Binford wrote about “archaeology as anthropology” and initiated thus a “revival” of archaeological material, the time of processual archaeology had come. Binford’s views on different behaviour during hominisation especially in the Middle and Upper Palaeolithic inspired discussions also among European archaeologists. An applied example (Simek 1987) concerning the French Palaeolithic is critically considered which refers to Binford’s model of changing human behaviour in land use and social structure. Different levels of behaviour and the impact on the archaeological record are stressed. Further on, a theory of Binford (1991) is discussed which demonstrates that the social role of elderly male members in a community is dependent on living conditions and environment for a hunter society. Tue, 03 Feb 2026 14:45:43 +0100 http://popups.lib.uliege.be/3041-5527/index.php?id=6112 http://popups.lib.uliege.be/3041-5527/index.php?id=6115 The origin of animal societies is found in two types of intraspecific cooperation: the mating system and the breeding system. In both systems interaction leads to individual recognition of partner(s). The functional context of these two systems is temporally limited. The first step to a new quality of societies was an increase in the duration of social bonding. The main steps of evolution of social behaviour may be reflected by the following classification : 1. Solitary species ; no cooperation (except mating pairs). 2. Simple “societies” with communication and cooperation. 2.1. Subsocial groups : social behaviour only restricted to parental care. 2.2. Semisocial groups : cooperation with mutual benefit of the cooperators. 3. Complex societies : altruistic behaviour may be highly developed; a well-defined “division of labour” among the group members. 3.1. Invertebrate societies with impersonal social organization; the relationships will be rigidly established on the basis of caste. 3.2. Vertebrate societies ; members recognize each another as specific individuals, they often structure their interpersonal relations through dominance hierarchies. The primate societies have reached a high degree of differentiation. They have unusually varied and diverse ways of expressing themselves socially. They have evolved into many species of unusually complex societies. This is the basis for human social evolution. Tue, 03 Feb 2026 14:54:03 +0100 http://popups.lib.uliege.be/3041-5527/index.php?id=6115 http://popups.lib.uliege.be/3041-5527/index.php?id=6120 A reconstruction of social structure and social relations in early hominids is proposed on the basis of modern data on primate socioecology. Relations between predator pressure and within-group structure, between the distribution of resources and competition within and between the groups is analyzed. General tendencies in the association between social structure (dominance, kin-clans) and the level of within-group cohesion is supposed to be universal for non-hominid primates and hominids. Models of aggression and peacemaking for hominids are proposed. The nature of male-female bonding and parental investment at different stages of hominid evolution appears to be linked with ecological and anatomical changes, as well as with cultural innovations (hunting, emergence of home bases). Tue, 03 Feb 2026 14:57:22 +0100 http://popups.lib.uliege.be/3041-5527/index.php?id=6120 http://popups.lib.uliege.be/3041-5527/index.php?id=6125 The concept of “cultural environment” is used usually as an intuitive one and various authors include their own sense in it. It would be useful to try to formulate this concept systematically for the possibility of comparing materials and ideas and for interpreting them. I propose to construct this concept on the basis of a new, multilevel approach to the evolutionary processes. The first step may be by dividing the cultural environment into two parts: the material artefacts (such as nests, burrows, etc. of animals and shelters, tools, graves of humans) and spiritual artefacts (such as the behavioural patterns of animals that are not innate and translated by learning and taboos, traditions, etc. of humans). The main changes in the cultural environment happened in the spiritual part. The artefacts of it are not saved and that creates a special difficulty and necessity for an interdisciplinary investigation of the problem of man and environment in the Palaeolithic. The earliest fossil remains of anatomically modern Homo sapiens that can be accurately dated to about 100,000 years ago are from Israel. These early humans had modern supralaryngeal vocal tracts and brain mechanisms that are necessary to produce human speech and syntax. They probably had a language that made use of a complex syntax and reasoning ability. The main complication of the cultural environment during the Palaeolithic was caused by the accumulation of a spiritual construction within certain human societies, improvement of syntax that was possible thanks the usage of language and the origin of specific human altruism, as one pillar of human morality. Tue, 03 Feb 2026 15:00:14 +0100 http://popups.lib.uliege.be/3041-5527/index.php?id=6125 http://popups.lib.uliege.be/3041-5527/index.php?id=6130 Concepts of anthropogenesis are in most cases based on observations in recent primitive populations arranged as a continuous sequence of evolutionary phases and complemented with archaeological-typological conclusions. The basic aim of this report is to draw attention to the role of some factors of human anatomy, archaeology and cultural history of early man, not yet utilized in the models of anthroposociogenesis. Such a factor from the semantic point of view is the ability to form besides vowels also consonants when communicating. Anatomically it was facilitated by the reduction of the alveolar margin of the symphyseal portion in the human mandible with protruding chin. These changes led to a vertical closing of the lips in Homo sapiens sapiens, whilst Neandertal and earlier man had protruding alveolar margins of the mandibular symphysis and of the maxillary, allowing only a tentative superposition of the lips. Another difference between Homo sapiens sapiens and the Neandertal and earlier man is the vertical position of the head in anatomically modern man compared with the hanging position of the head in other forms (verticalization of buccal air passages). These changes led to the evolution of human speech resulting in the emergence of human culture and society. Tool-making abilities developed in the following order : manual tools, spears for hunting and fighting purposes by elongating the hand, and finally Homo sapiens sapiens constructed the first "machine" – the bow and arrow that made hunting and fighting much safer for the hunter and also enabled the hunting of small animals living in masses around him (hares, grouse etc.). Following the introduction of speech as a high-level tool of communication the next step was the recording of information first in graphic form and later in writing. All these facts indicate that the evolutionary process of Homo sapiens sapiens and of his culture took place independently of Homo sapiens neanderthalensis. Tue, 03 Feb 2026 15:06:35 +0100 http://popups.lib.uliege.be/3041-5527/index.php?id=6130 http://popups.lib.uliege.be/3041-5527/index.php?id=6135 In the early part of this century there was a debated among ethnographers around the issue of “diffusion versus evolution” concerning the spread or independent development of ethnographical traits or complexes thereof. Dogmanic adherence to one or other of these extreme viewpoints was shown to be unproductive and compromises were effected invoking “historical” considerations. Such considerations were essentially idealistic raised as ideological counterpoints to progressive 19th century bourgeois evolutionism and particularly to historical materialism. The concept of diffusion of cultural traits is of value in helping to elucidate the socio-biological process of hominisation. Some cultural traits are manifestly conservative while others change relatively quickly. The ethnographic record shows that the main instruments of production are fabricated from perishable organic materials, largely of wood. This situation most probably existed during the hominisation period. But the archaeological record provides almost exclusively artefacts of non-perishable inorganic material and only rarely of organic material. There is evidence that Archanthropus used pointed sticks as jabbing spears and seemingly during the Middle Palaeolithic Palaeanthropus began acquiring the throwing spear, the use of which probably became general with Neanthropus. The construction of these two types of spear is fundamentally different as is also the modus operandi of their use in hunting. This is elucidated on the basis of Australian ethnographic data where, in historical times, both types of spear were in use. The “social” consequence of the changeover from the jabbing to the throwing spear is indicated. It is not suggested that the changeover could not have been made independently although not simultaneously in a number of centres. What seems more likely is that the main method of acquisition of the throwing spear was by diffusion. This ultimately led to the biological development of Neanthropus from Palaeanthropus. But because diffusion is an irregular phenomenon Neanthropus would have emerged earlier in some parts of the inhabited world than in others. Tue, 03 Feb 2026 15:15:57 +0100 http://popups.lib.uliege.be/3041-5527/index.php?id=6135 http://popups.lib.uliege.be/3041-5527/index.php?id=6142 There does not seem to be a way in distinguishing behavioural patterns transmission and biological inheritance during human prehistory. The two factors are integrated very deeply, apparently in both human and animal evolutions. The classical view based on a distinction between Biology and History seems to originate during Modern Times when discovery of “Salvage Man” leads the European intellectuals to create different sciences as the world would be divided in “human” and “natural”. The author pleads for a coming back to a more integrated view on both ways of transmission: biological or educational. Tue, 03 Feb 2026 15:23:58 +0100 http://popups.lib.uliege.be/3041-5527/index.php?id=6142 http://popups.lib.uliege.be/3041-5527/index.php?id=6146 The human family is a cultural institution on a biological basis. Its original biological task serves the functions of biogenetic reproduction. Patterns of family structures vary among human cultures, however, they can almost always be looked upon as nepotistic systems enhancing the potential of maximizing “inclusive fitness” under different economical conditions. This paper wants to demonstrate that human family organizations are the consequence of cooperative compromises between (sometimes competitive) male and female reproductive strategies which originate deeply in our mammalian phylogeny. Intersexual conflicts and the necessary compromises for successful reproductive cooperation are due to divergent options regarding mating as well as parental investment strategies. The lecture deals with these differences and its shaping influences on human family organization under the perspective of modern evolutionary biology, including the sociobiological and ethno-ecological concepts of mating patterns, parental investment (e.g. resources allocation), parental manipulation (e.g. sex-ratio adjustment and the production of “helpers at the nest”), parent-offspring conflict as well as the exogamy balance and discusses their effects on culturally transmitted normative rules. Tue, 03 Feb 2026 15:33:51 +0100 http://popups.lib.uliege.be/3041-5527/index.php?id=6146 http://popups.lib.uliege.be/3041-5527/index.php?id=6153 The position of the woman in the evolution of man is an important element in the anthropogenesis underlying the dialectic of contradiction between continuity and discontinuity. Archaeological remains, ethnographical observations and ethological results may contribute basis informations to this subject. The following theses can be advanced : 1. The transition from plant food to a meat-plant diet created the prerequisites for the sexual division of labour in the economic sphere. 2. The division of labour led to different mentalities. 3. The prolonged nursing and dependence of the human child, as opposed to non-human primates, are burdening to the mother, but form also a more intensive mother-child bond. 4. The permanent female mating creates certain prerequisites for monogamy. The “sexual reward” promotes this process. Promiscuity should not have existed. 5. Sexual and economic aspects have determined the cohabition of man and woman. Both have equal rights and complement each other economically. The woman, the fire-place and the dwelling have been central to cohabition. 6. As a rule, man has been the leading member of the community. Archaeological findings and ethnographical observations also point to a pre-eminence of the woman in some cases. 7. Man and woman have possessed personal properties. 8. The emergence of aesthetic consciousness has promoted the coherence of man and woman (adornments for the body, tattooing, dance). 9. The woman's role in cults has been an actively and passively privileged one. 10. The social development to clans and exogamy very often was realsized matrilineally. This does not necessarily lead to postulate a matriarchy. Tue, 03 Feb 2026 15:43:34 +0100 http://popups.lib.uliege.be/3041-5527/index.php?id=6153 http://popups.lib.uliege.be/3041-5527/index.php?id=6157 Mortuary practices in the Palaeolithic have been of special interest to archaeologists reconstructing ritual and burial of Palaeolithic man. Very often expressed and widely accepted is the opinion that Palaeolithic humans buried the entire intact corpses of most of their dead. The results of an anthropological approach to Palaeolithic mortuary practices do not confirm such a conclusion. This approach is based on two main aspects : 1. patterns of skeletal representation for 826 individuals from the European Palaeolithic and 2. human bone modifications of fossil human remains and their interpretation. The results of this anthropological approach, which will be discussed in detail in the present paper, and the archaeological record of the Palaeolithic human remains clearly demonstrate that mortuary practices in the Palaeolithic were usually celebrated with disarticulated human bones resulting from activities involving human corpses and bones of “favoured” dead. After completed and finished mortuary ceremonies for the deceased the human remains (mainly broken bones) were either thrown away, intentionally deposited or buried. Only 6.1 % of the Middle Palaeolithic and 15.9 % of the Upper Palaeolithic individuals are represented by complete or nearly complete skeletons resulting from burials/depositions of the entire intact corpse of “highly favoured” dead. Burials of entire intact corpses were first celebrated about 100,000 to 80,000 years ago by anatomically modern humans in Kafzeh and Skhul, but later on in the Middle Palaeolithic of the Near East and Europe exclusively done by populations of archaic Homo sapiens. Mortuary practices in the Palaeolithic were necessarily closely connected with reflections on life and death and began with late Homo erectus about 500,000 – 300,000 years ago independently in Europe, Africa and Asia. Reflections on life and death also initiated reflections on the world in which humans were living and on the afterworld. The great variety and complexity of mortuary practices and mortuary rites in the Palaeolithic reflect the many unsolved problems and contradictions between life and death, between humans and their natural as well as their socio-cultural environment, which faced the humans daily. Tue, 03 Feb 2026 16:29:38 +0100 http://popups.lib.uliege.be/3041-5527/index.php?id=6157 http://popups.lib.uliege.be/3041-5527/index.php?id=5977 Wed, 28 Jan 2026 15:24:26 +0100 http://popups.lib.uliege.be/3041-5527/index.php?id=5977