Homo sapiens sapiens and the Cro-Magnon
The Origins of Language: Chapter 2, Part 3
Short and sweet this time, we’re looking at the transition from Neanderthals to modern humans!
Claim:
About 30,000 years ago Neanderthal man disappeared, displaced by Homo sapiens sapiens a taller, slimmer, altogether more agile and handsome—at least to our eyes—race of people . . .
Research:
I talked about these facts my last post, and they’re generally true. I’m not entirely sure how about how he determined agility or handsomeness.
Verdict: Mostly true.
Claim:
. . . Homo sapiens sapiens, a . . . race of people who arose in Africa 100,000 years ago, spread to the Near East, and then were drawn to Europe by the retreating ice sheets of the last great ice age.
Research:
Gowlett—one of the few sources Bryson cites—places the beginnings of Homo sapiens at 200,000 years ago.1 Bryson’s explanation of the migration is, of course, extremely over simplified.2
Verdict: Mixed.
Claim:
These are the Cro-Magnon people who were responsible for the famous cave paintings at Lascaux in France and Altamira in Spain—the earliest signs of civilization in Europe, the work of the world's first artists.
Research:
Bryson, relying on Gowlett, did get this more or less right—at least for the information available at the time of publication. More recent research has found older cave paintings, including one that may have actually been created by Neanderthals.3
Verdict: Mostly true.
Claim:
Although this was an immensely long time ago—some 20,000 years before the domestication of animals and the rise of farming—
Research:
The art in the Lascaux caves is estimated to be about 17,000 years old,4 while the Altamira cave art is estimated to be around 36,000 years old.5
The turning point for agricultral development was about 12,000 years ago.6 If we use the Altamira cave art as the point “20,000 years before the domestication of animals and the rise of farming,” then Bryson got it right.
Verdict: Mostly true
Claim:
these Cro-Magnon people were identical to us: They had the same physique, the same brain, the same looks.
Research:
Once again, for the time period, Bryson was more or less right. Recent research shows some variation in Cro-Magnon brains compared to modern Homo sapien brains.7
Verdict: Mostly true
Bryson did alright this time around, but primarily because he was summarizing from a more authorative source (as opposed to the newspaper articles he relied on for Chapter 1.) However, Ascent to Civilization is not really for a casual reader, and it’s easy to see where Bryson got a little bit off course.
Gowlett, John. Ascent to Civilization. Alfred A. Knopf, 1984, archive.org/details/ascenttociviliza0000gowl. Accessed 13 Feb. 2024.
The Wikipedia page for early human migration is dense.
“Early Human Migrations.” Wikipedia, 14 Mar. 2024, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Early_human_migrations#Homo_sapiens. Accessed 3 May 2024.
Hoffmann, D. L., et al. “U-Th Dating of Carbonate Crusts Reveals Neandertal Origin of Iberian Cave Art.” Science, vol. 359, no. 6378, 22 Feb. 2018, pp. 912–915, https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aap7778.
Whitehouse, David. “BBC News | SCI/TECH | Ice Age Star Map Discovered.” BBC News, 9 Aug. 2000, news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/871930.stm.
In fairness to Bryson, it doesn’t seem that Gowlitt mentioned specific dates for any of the cave paintings.
Pike, A. W. G., et al. “U-Series Dating of Paleolithic Art in 11 Caves in Spain.” Science, vol. 336, no. 6087, 14 June 2012, pp. 1409–1413, https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1219957.
National Geographic Society. “The Development of Agriculture | National Geographic Society.” Education.nationalgeographic.org, National Geographic, 8 July 2022, education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/development-agriculture/.
Balzeau, A., et al. “First Description of the Cro-Magnon 1 Endocast and Study of Brain Variation and Evolution in Anatomically Modern Homo Sapiens.” Bulletins et Mémoires de La Société d’Anthropologie de Paris, vol. 25, no. 1-2, 5 Nov. 2012, pp. 1–18, https://doi.org/10.1007/s13219-012-0069-z.