Arkeo Blusukan

Footprints Suggest Early Humans May Have Walked Upright (David Raichlen, University of Arizona) TUCSON, ARIZONA —  The Washington Post  reports that evolutionary anthropologist David Raichlen of the University of Arizona led a team of researchers who compared footprints made by volunteers and those left some 3.6 million years ago in Laetoli, Tanzania, by members of the genus  Australopithecus . Some of the volunteers walked normally, and some walked with bent knees and bent hips, otherwise known as BKBH. Raichlen suggests the  Australopithecus  footprints resemble those made by modern human upright walkers. “Upright, humanlike bipedal walking goes back four to five million years,” he said.  (resources: Archaeology Magazine, 23/04/2018). To read about previous research on the Laetoli footprints, go to  https://arkeoblusukan.blogspot.com/2016/06/proof-in-prints-in-1976.html

Jejak   Berusia 3,6 Juta Tahun Beri Petunjuk tentang Poligami   pada Zaman Purba  KOMPAS.com - Jejak manusia purba berusia 3,6 juta tahun  ditemukan di Tanzania. "Satu jejak individu berukuran lebih besar dari jejak lainnya dalam satu grup, menunjukkan bahwa jejak itu milik seorang laki-laki," kata Giorgio Manzi dari Universitas Roma yang memimpin riset. Laki-laki pemilik jejak yang terbesar itu diduga punya tinggia 165 cm. "Membuatnya menjadi Australophitecus terbesar yang pernah diidentifikasi," imbuhnya. Jacopo Moggi-Cecchi dari University of Florence yang juga terlibat riset mengatakan, jejak itu bisa memberi petunjuk tentang gaya hidup manusia purba masa lalu. Jejak  Australophitecus  afraensis di Tanzania. Jejak itu memberi petunjuk bahwa manusia purba berpoligami ( Raffaella   Pellizzon) "Temuan jejak-jejak ini membuka jendela yang berbeda, ada banyak peluang untuk mempelajari kehidupan sehari-hari manusia spesies ini," ka...

East African Bone Technology Analyzed ZANZIBAR, TANZANIA— Sci-News  reports that seven bone tools from East Africa’s Kuumbi Cave, including five projectile points, a bone awl, and a notched bone tube, were examined by a team led by Michelle Langley of Australian National University. (Michelle C. Langley et al.) The researchers suggest the 13,000-year-old projectile points, which are slender and short, may have been too small to bring down the zebra, buffalo, waterbuck, common reedbuck, bushbuck, and bush pig whose bones were also found in Kuumbi Cave. Langley suggests that the projectiles were used in conjunction with poison, perhaps made from the poisonous fruit of the Mkunazi plant. (Charcoal from the Mkunazi plant was found during a previous investigation.) (Archaeology Magazine, 24/06/2016 )

Proof in the Prints  In 1976 , paleoanthropologist Mary Leakey discovered the oldest known hominin footprints. The footprints, in Laetoli, Tanzania, have been dated to around 3.66 million years ago and are thought to have been left by members of the species  Australopithecus afarensis . They consist of two parallel tracks: undisturbed prints from a single individual and a set of overlapping prints from at least two ancient primates. (Courtesy Professor Matthew Bennett, Bournemouth University) Digital models of hominin footprints In the decades since the discovery, attention has focused on the undisturbed prints, in part because the overlapping ones have been considered too fragmentary to study. Experts have estimated that the individual who left the undisturbed prints stood just over four feet, three inches, and walked at around 1.4 miles per hour. However, there has been extended debate over how efficiently this individual’s feet worked compared with those of...