Implications of Border Cave Skeletal Remains for Later Pleistocene Human Evolution [and Comments and Reply]
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 7196138 |
|---|---|
| Authors | G P Rightmire (0000-0001-7922-4549), Peter Beaumont, Peter B Beaumont, Alan Bilsborough, Karl W Butzer, Karl Butzer, Oliver Davies (0000-0001-6151-7298), Isaac Gilead, Isaac J Gilead, Colin P Groves (0000-0002-7630-9683), W W Howells, F J Irsigler, Franz Irsigler (0009-0004-1594-4685), Kubet Luchterhand, Harry V Merrick, N Rolland, Milan Thurzo, R Wilson (0009-0007-6069-2423), Susan R Wilson, J J Wymer |
| Year | 1979 |
| Volume | 20 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 23-35 |
| Publication date | 1979-03-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Current Anthropology (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0011-3204 • E-ISSN: 1537-5382 |
| Publisher | University of Chicago Press (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1086/202201 |
| OpenAlex | W2283841229 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 50 |
| References cited | 27 |
Recent excavations have helped to clarify the cultural and stratigraphic sequences at Border Cave, and human skeletal remains recovered at this South African site may well be associated with a Middle Stone Age industry. A partial adult cranium is of particular interest, and this was originally described as quite different both from African Negro and from Bushman individuals. Eleven measurements were taken on the fossil, and these provide a basis for comparison of Border Cave with other crania drawn from extant African populations. Discriminant analysis shows clearly that the cranium lies close to the Hottentot male centroid and is within the range of modern African variation for the measurements employed. It is heavily constructed but not archaic in the fashion of Florisbad or Broken Hill. If the case for antiquity is regarded as firm, then the Border Cave skeleton suggests the presence of Homo sapiens sapiens in southern Africa before 50,000 B.P. and perhaps as early as 115,000 B.P. Hottentot or Bushman-like people may thus have inhabited southern Africa for a long time. This would be consistent with a phyletic view of human evolution, postulating an in situ transition from archaic to more modern man. Whether migration and replacement of populations may have occurred elsewhere is another question, and there is no reason to exclude this as a possibility on a local level, even if waves of replacement did not sweep the Old World late in the Upper Pleistocene. The course of evolution outside of southern Africa cannot be determined from the evidence considered here
Archaeology · Biology · Cave · Crania · Geography · Homo erectus · Homo sapiens · Human evolution · Neanderthal · Phyletic gradualism · Phylogenetic tree · Pleistocene · Range (aeronautics · Evolution and Paleontology Studies · Forensic Anthropology and Bioarchaeology Studies · Geology · Paleontology · Pleistocene-Era Hominins and Archaeology
Beginnings of pastoralism and cultivation in north-west Africa and the Sahara
The palaeo-ecology of the African continent
The cultures of the Middle Palaeolithic/Middle Stone Age
The earliest archaeological traces
African Archaeology
Comparison of craniofacial features of major human groups
The Late Quaternary Hominins of Africa
The Swanscombe fossil at 90
Statistical and biological definitions of “anatomically modern” humans
Anthropology and statistics
Current perspectives on human evolution
Stone Age Predation on Small African Bovids
Roots (a comment on the evolution of human mitochondrial DNA and the origins of modern humans)
Wood Charcoal from Border Cave’s Member 1RGBS
The Middle Stone Age human remains from Diepkloof Rock Shelter (Western Cape, South Africa)
An Examination of Regional Features on Middle and Early Late Pleistocene Sub-Saharan African Hominids
Diagenesis of bone from Border Cave
Two Late Pleistocene-Holocene Archaeological Depositories from the Southern Cape, South Africa
Engraved ochre from a Middle Stone Age context at Klein Kliphuis in the Western Cape of South Africa
Middle Stone Age bone tools from the Howiesons Poort layers, Sibudu Cave, South Africa
Homo erectus —who, when and where
Hominid molars from a middle stone age level at the Mumba Rock Shelter, Tanzania
History of physical anthropology in Southern Africa
Metrical reconsideration of the Skhul IV and IX and Border Cave 1 crania in the context of modern human origins
Modern human origins
The significance of Aleš Hrdlička's “Neanderthal phase of man”
And then there was us
Adaptation biologique et variation dans l'espèce humaine
How did modern morphology evolve in the human mandible? The relationship between static adult allometry and mandibular variability in Homo sapiens
Middle Stone Age human fossils from Die Kelders Cave 1, Western Cape Province, South Africa
Archaic Homo sapiens at Lake Eyasi, Tanzania
New evidence on the transitional period between Neanderthal and modern man
Comparative studies of Late Pleistocene human remains from Klasies River Mouth, South Africa
Dating, archaeology and human fossils from the Middle Stone Age levels of Die Kelders, South Africa
On the autapomorphic traits of Homo erectus
The revolution that wasn't
Mode 3 Technologies and the Evolution of Modern Humans
The Archaeology of Archaic and Early ModernHomo Sapiens
The coming of modern man
Recent Developments in Old World Archaeology
Revisiting the context and geochronological ages of the Homo sapiens skeletal remains from Border Cave, South Africa
The Middle Stone Age south of the Limpopo River
On Binford on Klasies River Mouth
Correlation between cranial form and geography in Homo sapiens
The Stone Age Prehistory of Southern Africa
An Evolutionary Anthropological Perspective on Modern Human Origins
The Fossil Evidence for Modern Human Origins in Africa
Theories of Modern Human Origins
Biocultural Interaction and the Mechanism of Mosaic Evolution in the Emergence of "Modern" Morphology
Getting It Straight
Human Skeletal Remains from the Southern Cape Province and Their Bearing on the Stone Age Prehistory of South Africa
Linear Statistical Inference and its Applications
Bushman, Hottentot and South African Negro crania studied by distance and discrimination
Homo sapiens afer Linn. Content and Earliest Representatives
Magosian and Howieson's Poort
Late Stone Age and Middle Stone Age Tool-Makers
The Stone Age Industries of the Orange River Scheme and South Africa
Problems in the Study of the Middle Stone Age of South Africa
The Transvaal Middle Stone Age and Statistical Analysis
Iron age skulls from Southern Africa re‐assessed by multiple discriminant analysis
Archeology, population genetics and studies of human racial ancestry
Florisbad and human population succession in Southern Africa
A multivariate study of evolutionary change in the hominid cranial vault and some evolution rates
Multivariate analysis in biological anthropology
Pleistocene and recent Australians
Multivariate analysis in biological anthropology
Fossil Man in the Lebombo Mountains, South Africa
Evidence of Early Population Change in Central and Southern Africa
On a new radiocarbon chronology for Africa south of the Equator
Explaining modern man
The absolute dating of Upper Pleistocene subSaharan fossil hominids and their place in human evolution
The Mugharet el-Emireh in Lower Galilee
Excavations at Matupi cave
The birth of symbology
Africa in Prehistory
Upper Palaeolithic Archaeology
| Unique citing works | 50 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 1,09 |
| Citation span | 1980 - 2026 (47) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 50 |