From Grunts to Grammar

Grammar is what makes it possible for us to show complicated thoughts and communicate easily. There is also evidence that the Homo Habilis started to developed parts of the brain that allow us to speak. Also partly why the reason is that we can speak and even have the ability to is because we have the larynx is low in the throat for us. For ALL the other animals it is high in the throat and when it is low it allows for a larger sound chamber. When it first even started to descend down lower is when our Genus began (Homo, first ones were Homo Habilis). Also the thing about humans is that we have the ability to breath through both the nose and mouth which is what allowed us to run longer distance and feed, but most mammals only breath through the nose. Since language can be hard to find, because there is no proff if it, there is no need for a written language to mean that that is when you started speaking, The way archeologists find out is if looking ofr sign when there was need for languages. We firsed stated to develop language about 60,000-80,000 years ago. When we first started to develope it was when we started to move out ot (present day) Australia because even though the sea levels wee lower and much nore could have been my foot, there sill needed to be a longer boat journey which required complex communication (language). However, the face was also part of their central communication but when they needed to cross that water, we know for a fact that language was needed then and there, and there was the birth of a distinction between us and animals.

On Our Own Two Feet

How old is bipedal walking? Let me tell you this, it is extremely old and it is much older than modern humans today. Bipedal walking is generally rare among primates, but especially among all species. The amazing part about bipedal walking on humans and our ancestors is that we find it easier to rest our heavy head on our two flat feat than to walk on all fours. We do this for a long period of time without falling. There are many differences between chimpanzees, modern humans, and Australopithecus's. One of them is that we have the flattest face while the chimpanzees sticks out the most, and Australopithecus's face shape is somewhere in between. The chimpanzees even have a small little snout, and the Australopithecus has a small snout, while we humans do not have any snout. Look at these images below to see the difference. Notice how the Australopithecus's face looks more similar to a chimpanzees than a modern day humans?

The human also has the largest brain case while the chimpanzees is the smallest. And once again the Australopithecus's is in the middle. When comparing these three species, the Australopithecus is usually in the middle, however it usually is a little close to a chimpanzees than a modern humans. The brain case of the Australopithecus is only a little larger than the chimpanzees. Also there is something in the brain called a Foramen Magnum which is a hole in the skull where the spinal cord connects the skull and spine. Looking at that you can tell how a species spine is.Obviously a humans is straight and chimpanzees bends. But the true question was, how was the Australopithecus's and how did we find out? Since in an archeological dig we found a skull of an Australopithecus we have access to the Foramen Magnum. Because of this we know that it was straight, so they were bipedal. However we also know that bipedalism started before the Australopithecus. Keep tuned onto my blog and you will find our more about early humans!!

Whitt, Stephen. "On Our Own Two Feet." Odyssey: Adventures in Science Oct. 2009: 26-28. Print. 

Who is Who?!?!?

homo habilis

homo ruolfensis

There have been many early hominins similar to us, however not all are related to us. If you think about it, we are not the stop to evolution, we are just one other step closer to higher evolution, just as we look at homo habilis someone, someday, somewhere, will look at us as one of their ancestors. We are not the final product, nor will there ever be unless we die out. there is still much more to go, specially since we only use about 1-10 percent of our brains. Any early ancestor with with word homo in it, such as homo habilis, are related to us, and are our ancestors. However if they do not contain the word homo, such as Sahelanthropus, or Orrorin, or Ardipithecus, are not our ancestors, they are early hominins, but they are not one of our ancestors, they died out, while we managed to stay alive and adapt. That is what I find very interesting about our kind. We are able to adapt very quickly. When the changes in Africa were going on, many of the early humans died out because they were not able to adapt so quickly and constantly, while we were. We still are as well, we can live anywhere in the world, people live in Russia and in Africa, which both have, what I would call, the opposite climate.  Russia is very cold while Africa is very hot and dry in most places. And yet, our kind can adapt to both. The earliest hominids are the Sahelanthrops which are about 6-7 million years old, and since their name does not contain the prefix of homo, that means that they were not out ancestors. After that comes the Orrorian, which was 5.8-6 million years ago, an if you notice does not contain the prefix of homo, so therefor, must not be related to us, and is not an ancestor. One more example of and early hominin is the Australopithecus, which is 4.4 million years old and without the prefix homo, indicates that it is not one of our ancestors. There are many more early hominins after this that were not related to us, way before the homo era began, but the last one of them was the Australopithecus which was 4-2 million years ago. Now begins the homo era, our ancestors finally start to walk the planet, and it is the beginning of something great. The two very first ones were the homo habilis and then Homo rudolfensis. They were at about the same time, but in different parts of Africa. The Homo rudolfensis was limited to only northern Kenya. The Homo Habilis has more human like feature than the Australopithecus (it has a bigger brain and smaller narrower teeth). Also they made simple tools, but we are not sure if they hunted their own prey, or they would feed off of what other animals killed and left untouched. The homo Rudolfensis has a larger brain than the homo habilis and a broader flatter face, and wider teeth. They made more complex tools and were taller and heavier than other early humans. 

Why Do We Study Human Origins?

Why We Study Human Origins
by Randall Susman
Calliope: Exploring World History
Article Summary: How exactly did we  get here and what makes us so different from other early humans? where did we originate and why did some early hominids (our ancestors) not survive? These are all questions that we have been asking ourselves for a while and well, now we have some answers. What helped us get them and what helps us get new information is the fossil record. What the fossil record is good for is that it lets us know how our early ancestors adapted and changed their behaviors and appearances over time, however you need to have enough fossils for this. The fossil record also gives us a little window to the past so that we can see how we developed, what has changed, and why we changed. For many centuries the only way that we though of us coming into existence was through religion. For examples, Christians believe that Adam and Eve were the first humans to walk the Earth, and that they were just as developed as we are today, not at all ape-like how our ancestors were. Also with hominid fossils it allows us to see that our early ancestors, on the outside, looked more so like apes and monkeys than we do today, however on the inside, their body structure and bones looked much more like a humans today than an apes or chimpanzees today. The article also tells us about primates and that they are “a member of the highest order of mammals.”And hominids are “any of the two legged primates, extinct or living, including man.” All hominids are always primates, however primates are not always hominids. From the article I learned that from studying the behaviors of animals living today we can learn more about our ancestors.


Charles Darwin, the first man to contradict the churches teachings on how man came into existence. He states that all plants and animals change react and adapt due to the changes around them over a long period of time. However, there was no proof of this until the year of 1925 when the first hominid fossil was discovered in South Africa by Raymond Dart. This shocking and amazing discovery would change the rout of our beliefs on how we came into existence and it also lead to many new theories about what our true ancestors were like. There is debate amongst historians, scientists, and archaeologists weather we “were tree dwelling apes or four legged knuckle walkers, or even bipeds who lived in water.” A Biped is any animal that walks on two legs. The reason this is important is because we need to know when the turning point was for us, when we went from walking like apes to only occasionally using our 2 legs for a short time to walking on our two legs twenty-four seven. Our ancestors are very interesting and they are related to both us and apes and monkeys, to me, it appears that they are a cross between us and apes and monkeys.  and in this unit in humanities I will be learning about and answering more questions about the evolution of man-kind

(Charles Darwin's Theory)

(Charles Darwin)

                                                             

Stonehenge Theories

There are many theories to why Stonehenge was built. Today I am going to blog about three of the theories. There are also some myths and legends about how it was formed. One of them was that the wizard Merlin moved all the rocks from Ireland to Stonehenge. Another one is that Danes put it up when they invaded. Also that they are remains of Roman monuments. But today I am going to talk about the bigger theories, they most likely and most studied.


Theory Number 1

One theory for the building of Stonehenge was that it was used as an observatory. Some evidence to back up that theory is that the entrance faces the sun. Also when the sun rises and shines a reflection through the entrance. The entrance aligns the sun and then the sun shines right through, here is an image to the left showing this. However, this only happens on the longest and shortest day of the year, not everyday. Here are two images that show how Stonehenge is related to the sun and astronomically.

 Also there is a a graph from this website. This graph tells you about the astronomical event and its alignment with the stones. The image from that website is located right beneath the one to my right. Also according to here they say  that researchers have "identified 165 separate points on the monument, and linked them to astrological phenomenons like the two solstices and equinoxes and lunar and solar eclipses. It's a difficult theory to disprove completely and some evidence is persuasive — at dawn on the summer solstice, for example, the center of the Stonehenge ring, two nearby stones (The Slaughter and Heel Stones) and the sun all seem to align." But then they were told that they were giving them too much credit and that the people of Stonehenge wouldn't have the sophistication of building it.
In conclusion one theory was that Stonehenge was an ancient astronomical calender.

Theory Number 2 

Aliens are one more theory. Considering the facts that they still don't know how the people of Stonehenge brought over the blue stones from the Welsh mountains. The reason this theory came is like I said we dont even know how they moved the rocks there and looking back on their technology available at that era they would not have been able to move them, so there is not that much evidence behind that theory, but it is still a theory.  There is little evidence but here is a quote from this website "Most ancient alien theorists, including von Däniken, point to two types of evidence to support their ideas. The first is ancient religious texts in which humans witness and interact with gods or other heavenly beings who descend from the sky—sometimes in vehicles resembling spaceships—and possess spectacular powers. The second is physical specimens such as artwork depicting alien-like figures and ancient architectural marvels like Stonehenge and the pyramids of Egypt."
The way Aliens could have been involved with this is that they would use stonehenge as a landing area, shown in the image below






Also right beneath this one is how Aliens might have moved the rocks to Stonehenge

Theory Number 3 
Stonehenge could also have been used as a burial site. They have found bones and skelotons of the people from stonehenge. Thye are all men in a certain age group. WE also think that those were some important people because they were berried with valuables and considering the fact that they were all middle age (of the time) men they wee probably involved in the government, or something along those lines.

Old Bones

For the original article click here

Archeologists have discovered two million yer old bones (and possibly skin as well) from an apelike species that may have developed into the first humans. He is known as the Australopithecus Sediba. He was discovered in the Malapa Region in South Africa in 2008 and the first time it was mentioned was last April. From studying him scientists think that he was capable of using and making tools of the materials around him. They also think that they found some fossilized skin, and when and if they can prove it that will be the first time we find soft tissue from that long ago. Also it is very important because it comes from a very important time to us. The reason that time is important is because it makes us who we are today and we know little about it. There were two bones found, one from a teenage boy and one from a (about) thirty year old femal. The died either hours or days apart from each other. They also, possibly, could have been related. Both of them contain an unusual mix of primitive and derived—or human-like—traits. An example was that the female that her ankles allowed her to walk straight, but she had ape like heels. She was about four feet tall and the Sediba climbed tree, but were also able to walk straight. Also from studying them we see that their brain was similar to ours, but was the quarter of the size of our modern day brains and their brain was just a little larger than a chimpanzees.

Huge Gladiator School in Vienna

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In Vienna, Austria a group of archeologists were digging and they came across a huge gladiator school. It even rivals the Ludus Magnus gladiator school right outside the Colosseum in Rome. It is about the size of two Walmarts (or if you are a fellow student, about half the size of Delta City in Belgrade,Serbia). This school has features that have not been seen on other places, even the Colosseum in Rome! There is also a cemetery for Gladiators on the school grounds, which is the first time this is ever seen. They are trying to reconstruct the school so people can look and see how it was back in the day. In Vienna it is located outside of the city close to the Danube River.

The image to the left shows what the archeological find used to look like, and if you look in the top right corner you can see the Danube. Finding this discovery will probably not change any of the facts we already know, or add to them, but it will supply archeologists with more evidence to back up the information we already have, and you can never have too much proof. This gladiator school was built about the same time as the famous one in Rome.

How Do Historians Learn about the Past?

How do historians learn about the past? There are many ways. But they use the Historical Method. The historical method it:

1. Gather   a variety of sources

2. Categorize sources= written or non written

  3. Evaluating sources= asking questions and time of origin (time of origin is primary or secondary source)

4. Interpret sources- point of view

5. Share  their findings (theories)

Also they first have to find and gather the sources together (1). Then they use the sources (evidence) to study the past . The sources can be written or non-written. Examples of written sources are books, letters, diaries, speeches, papers, etc. Examples of non written sources are fossils, artifacts, tombs, cities, monuments, and oral tradition. Writing only started at about 3,000 B.C. Everything before that is called pre-history and sources rely on non-written sources for those times (2).  They Also have to ask questions about the sources. The questions they ask about the sources are when, where, why, who, and what. You also have to question its accuracy, validity, and reliability(3). Then you have to examine the sources and decide how to interpreter the information. Sources of evidence are always open to interpreter (think good guy vs. bad guy). Its the point of view from other people. We see the world through our own beliefs and experiences, this applies to written and non-written sources (4). Then historians have to share the theories they produced which are backed up with a lot of evidence (5). Historians also don't do thins alone, the past and environment helped them. Without the past preserving some of their traditions and artifacts and people, we wouldn't know what to learn about the past. For example the past made tombs and mummies, they help us see what objects, food, drinks, clothing, and many more things were used in everyday life in those times,. Also mummies help us see how those people looked, if they were light or dark, short or tall, strong or weak, and much more. So the past was also a huge help to historians now-a-days. Also the environment helps historians because for example, some people froze their people to preserve them, they wouldn't be able to freeze them if the weather conditions were not right. Also natural disasters sometime help as well. Pompeii was an example because Mount Vesuvius erupted and froze the city completely, like a time capsule. That tells us almost everything there is to know about Pompeii. We just have to study it and use it. Its a little bit like school Pompeii froze and gave us all the materials for us to use, we just have to use them , learn from them, and record the facts. Thanks to historians and the evidence they find we also have proof that we were not that different from the people from the past. I hope this gives you an idea about how historians learn from the past.