Department of Integrative Anatomical Sciences, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California, USA.
Department of Anthropology, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.
Am J Phys Anthropol. 2021 May;175(1):187-200. doi: 10.1002/ajpa.24253. Epub 2021 Feb 21.
The Late Pleistocene and early Holocene in eastern Africa are associated with complex evolutionary and demographic processes that contributed to the population variability observed in the region today. However, there are relatively few human skeletal remains from this time period. Here we describe six individuals from the Kisese II rockshelter in Tanzania that were excavated in 1956, present a radiocarbon date for one of the individuals, and compare craniodental morphological diversity among eastern African populations.
This study used standard biometric analyses to assess the age, sex, and stature of the Kisese II individuals. Eastern African craniodental morphological variation was assessed using measures of dental size and a subset of Howells' cranial measurements for the Kisese II individuals as well as early Holocene, early pastoralist, Pastoral Neolithic, and modern African individuals.
Our results suggest a minimum of six individuals from the Kisese II collections with two adults and four juveniles. While the dating for most of the burials is uncertain, one individual is directly radiocarbon dated to ~7.1 ka indicating that at least one burial is early Holocene in age. Craniodental metric comparisons indicate that the Kisese II individuals extend the amount of human morphological diversity among Holocene eastern Africans.
Our findings contribute to a growing body of evidence that Late Pleistocene and early Holocene eastern Africans exhibited relatively high amounts of morphological diversity. However, the Kisese II individuals suggest morphological similarity at localized sites potentially supporting increased regionalization during the early Holocene.
非洲东部的更新世晚期和全新世早期与复杂的进化和人口过程有关，这些过程促成了该地区当今观察到的人口多样性。然而，这个时期的人类骨骼遗骸相对较少。本文描述了坦桑尼亚 Kisese II 岩棚中挖掘出的六个人体遗骸，其中一个个体的放射性碳年代测定值，并比较了东非人群的颅面形态多样性。
本研究使用标准的生物计量分析来评估 Kisese II 个体的年龄、性别和身高。东非颅面形态变异使用牙齿大小的测量和 Howells' 颅骨测量的子集来评估，包括 Kisese II 个体以及全新世早期、早期牧民、新石器时代牧民和现代非洲个体。
我们的结果表明，Kisese II 藏品中至少有六个人体遗骸，其中包括两个成年人和四个未成年人。虽然大多数埋葬物的年代不确定，但其中一个个体直接放射性碳定年到约 7.1 千年前，表明至少有一个埋葬物属于全新世早期。颅面测量比较表明，Kisese II 个体扩展了全新世东非人类形态多样性的范围。
我们的发现为越来越多的证据提供了补充，表明更新世晚期和全新世早期的非洲东部人表现出相对较高的形态多样性。然而，Kisese II 个体表明在局部地点存在形态相似性，这可能支持在全新世早期增加了区域化。
