The full programme book (PDF) - Royal Geographical Society

THEME 10: HUMAN ORIGINS, ENVIRONMENTS AND IMPACTS
Human origins, environments and impacts
Wil Roebroeks
Leiden University, The Netherlands
The last half century has been a very productive period for our understanding of the
development of the human niche, a field at the crossroads of a wide variety of disciplines.
A glance at F. Clark Howell’s famous 1965 Early Man Time/Life volume gives a good
impression of the state of knowledge of the field five decades ago. Early Man provides us
with a yardstick to document the major changes in the study of the earliest members of the
genus Homo (see Abstract of Chris Stringer), of the earliest colonization of Eurasia, of
hominin subsistence strategies (including those of the Neandertals), as well as of the
environmental backgrounds of the presence and absence of the Neandertals and their
geographical distribution in Europe and Asia.
Significant contributions have come from recent advances in laboratory studies of skeletal
remains and artefacts. The chemical composition of hominin skeletal can provide
information about former diet and, thus, complement archaeozoological data obtained
from studying faunal remains, as well as in some cases point to areas with distinct
geological substrates where individuals spent their childhood. The study of ancient DNA
has revolutionized our thinking about relationships between extinct hominins and modern
humans and yielded insights into the demographics of ancient hominins, including
Neandertals. The integration of “classic” archaeological and palaeoanthropological studies
with such new laboratory techniques is undoubtedly moving the field forward at a higher
pace than ever before. It will allow us to make well-informed conclusions about aspects of
the lives of prehistoric people which until recently were only up for speculation. As an
example, a study by Haak et al. (2008) of later prehistoric (Neolithic) skeletal remains in
Eulau (Germany) demonstrated the existence of an exogamous patrilocal marriage
system there, almost 5000 years ago.
The further development of new laboratory techniques will undoubtedly lead to major and
exciting discoveries. However, fieldwork will continue to be part of our core business,
generating fresh data as well as recruiting young students into the multidisciplinary world
of Quaternary studies. A major challenge lies in safeguarding the quality of the study of
the sediments encapsulating our archaeological finds and the precious hominin fossils
which make it to the covers of Science and Nature. Establishing solid geological
frameworks for fossil or archaeological sites and retrieving and studying environmental
proxies from the matrix of these sites is essential, dependent upon approaches such as
palynology, malacology, micromorphology and the study of fossil beetles. These specialist
disciplines are time-demanding and practitioners are unfortunately becoming increasingly
scarce.
Haak, W. et al. (2008). Ancient DNA, Strontium isotopes, and osteological analyses shed light on social
and kinship organization of the Later Stone Age. PNAS 2008 105 (47) 18226-18231