Crevecoeur I, Brooks A, Ribot I, Cornelissen E, Semal P
UMR 5199 PACEA, CNRS, Université de Bordeaux, Pessac, France.
Department of Anthropology, George Washington University, Washington DC, USA.
J Hum Evol. 2016 Jul;96:35-57. doi: 10.1016/j.jhevol.2016.04.003. Epub 2016 May 27.
Although questions of modern human origins and dispersal are subject to intense research within and outside Africa, the processes of modern human diversification during the Late Pleistocene are most often discussed within the context of recent human genetic data. This situation is due largely to the dearth of human fossil remains dating to the final Pleistocene in Africa and their almost total absence from West and Central Africa, thus limiting our perception of modern human diversification within Africa before the Holocene. Here, we present a morphometric comparative analysis of the earliest Late Pleistocene modern human remains from the Central African site of Ishango in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The early Late Stone Age layer (eLSA) of this site, dated to the Last Glacial Maximum (25-20 Ky), contains more than one hundred fragmentary human remains. The exceptional associated archaeological context suggests these remains derived from a community of hunter-fisher-gatherers exhibiting complex social and cognitive behaviors including substantial reliance on aquatic resources, development of fishing technology, possible mathematical notations and repetitive use of space, likely on a seasonal basis. Comparisons with large samples of Late Pleistocene and early Holocene modern human fossils from Africa and Eurasia show that the Ishango human remains exhibit distinctive characteristics and a higher phenotypic diversity in contrast to recent African populations. In many aspects, as is true for the inner ear conformation, these eLSA human remains have more affinities with Middle to early Late Pleistocene fossils worldwide than with extant local African populations. In addition, cross-sectional geometric properties of the long bones are consistent with archaeological evidence suggesting reduced terrestrial mobility resulting from greater investment in and use of aquatic resources. Our results on the Ishango human remains provide insights into past African modern human diversity and adaptation that are consistent with genetic theories about the deep sub-structure of Late Pleistocene African populations and their complex evolutionary history of isolation and diversification.
尽管现代人类起源和扩散问题在非洲内外都受到了深入研究，但晚更新世时期现代人类多样化的过程大多是在近期人类基因数据的背景下进行讨论的。这种情况很大程度上是由于非洲晚更新世末期人类化石遗迹稀少，且在西非和中非几乎完全没有，从而限制了我们对全新世之前非洲现代人类多样化的认知。在此，我们对刚果民主共和国伊尚戈这个中非遗址最早的晚更新世现代人类遗骸进行了形态计量学比较分析。该遗址的早期晚石器时代层（eLSA）可追溯到末次盛冰期（2.5 - 2万年前），包含了一百多具人类遗骸碎片。特殊的相关考古背景表明，这些遗骸来自一个狩猎 - 捕鱼 - 采集者群体，他们展现出复杂的社会和认知行为，包括对水生资源的大量依赖、捕鱼技术的发展、可能的数学符号以及空间的重复利用，可能是季节性的。与来自非洲和欧亚大陆的大量晚更新世及全新世早期现代人类化石样本进行比较后发现，与近期非洲人群相比，伊尚戈人类遗骸具有独特特征和更高的表型多样性。在许多方面，比如内耳构造，这些eLSA人类遗骸与全球中更新世到晚更新世早期的化石有更多相似之处，而非与现存的当地非洲人群。此外，长骨的横截面几何特性与考古证据一致，表明由于对水生资源投入和利用增加，陆地移动性降低。我们对伊尚戈人类遗骸的研究结果为过去非洲现代人类的多样性和适应性提供了见解，这与关于晚更新世非洲人群深层亚结构及其复杂的隔离和多样化进化历史的基因理论相一致。
