Archaeologists Are Unearthing the Stories of the Past Faster Than Ever Before

[Judi Lynn]

Recent research helps reveal the origins of humans, determine what ancient people ate and monitor historical sites from the sky



Nearly a century ago, archaeologists started to shift the focus of human origins research from Europe to Africa’s ‘cradles of humankind’ like Oldupai (Olduvai) Gorge in Tanzania. (Manuel Domínguez-Rodrigo, CC BY-SA)

By Elizabeth Sawchuk, Mary Prendergast The Conversation
SMITHSONIANMAG.COM
DECEMBER 26, 2019

In 1924, a 3-year-old child’s skull found in South Africa forever changed how people think about human origins.

The Taung Child, our first encounter with an ancient group of proto-humans or hominins called australopithecines, was a turning point in the study of human evolution. This discovery shifted the focus of human origins research from Europe and Asia onto Africa, setting the stage for the last century of research on the continent and into its “Cradles of Humankind.”

Few people back then would’ve been able to predict what scientists know about evolution today, and now the pace of discovery is faster than ever. Even since the turn of the 21st century, human origins textbooks have been rewritten over and over again. Just 20 years ago, no one could have imagined what scientists know two decades later about humanity’s deep past, let alone how much knowledge could be extracted from a thimble of dirt, a scrape of dental plaque or satellites in space.

Human fossils are outgrowing the family tree
In Africa, there are now several fossil candidates for the earliest hominin dated to between 5 and 7 million years ago, when we know humans likely split off from other Great Apes based on differences in our DNA.

More:
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/archaeologists-are-unearthing-stories-past-faster-ever-180973860/