The development of the early human species and their scientific classification

The scientific examination of the classification and classification of primeval bone finds has frightening consequences for social interaction and the historical assessment of our origins, since it deeply interferes with human self-understanding. People with racist ideas only use such details too readily, sinceThis ideologically justifies and justifies prejudices and violent actions and even genocides, which increases the moral responsibility of the researchers. One might assume that it is advisable not to waste too much energy on refuting such theoretical constructs, as this would only promote intolerance and complacency, and it might beBetter to just ignore these ideas, but this would be fatal.

The need for scientific refutation

However, this attitude would be a serious mistake, because it is by no means enough to merely prosecute and condemn racist theories without refounding them in terms of content and uncovering their false premises. If we really want to reject them and oppose them the theory that people in large groups are more or less equal, thenwe must show that racist theories are wrong and refute them in order to destroy any basis. The fact that most of us do not like theories today is not enough to banish their dangerous potential for the future in a sustainable manner and render harmless as long as they are not scientifically refuted.

Uncertainty about early biodiversity

Basically, we don’t know whether there were only one kind of ape people on earth around 1.5 million years ago, which would mean that they largely resembled themselves from Africa to Indonesia and showed no significant differences. It is also possible that Homo Ergasters lived west of the Movius line and Homo erectus east of it, while each as their own, clearDifferent species existed and evolved, which would imply a separation. Only further research and new finds can clarify this fundamental question and give us a more precise picture of the biological diversity of the time, whereby any new discovery can change the picture.

The sure knowledge about the development

However, we know, without a doubt, that in the last million years in the East and West different types of monkey people have actually developed and diverged, which is documented by fossils. Presumably the geographical conditions and the climatic conditions have a lot to do with it and played a decisive role in thissplit because they determined the selection pressure. The monkey people who left Africa around 1.7 million years ago on their migrations were very well adapted to subtropical climates and did not know any extreme cold periods, which made their later adjustment difficult.

The challenge of the Nordic climate

But as they moved further north, into Europe and Asia, they had to survive longer and harder winters, which represented a great physical challenge and endangered survival. Like their African ancestors, they lived in the open air, and this became increasingly impractical and dangerous as they approached the line of about 40° north latitudeprotection was missing. As far as we know, building cottages and making clothing was beyond their mental abilities, but they will have come to a solution to survive and not freeze to death.

The origin of the cave dwellers

They sought shelter in caves to protect themselves from the elements, and so the cavemen were born, about whom we were told in our childhood and who shaped and fascinated our image. Life in caves was not a pure blessing for the monkey people, because they had to share this habitat with bears and lion-sized hyenas that posed a deadly danger andaccess blocked. These predators could crush bones with their teeth and pose a constant threat to the great apes seeking protection in the dark undercover, which made life there risky.

The archaeological advantage of the caves

For archaeologists, however, this new way of life proves to be a gift from God, because prehistoric deposits are well preserved in caves and are preserved over long periods of time, which enables analysis. And this in turn enables us to pursue how the evolution of the apes to take a course in the eastern and western parts of the old worldstarted and differentiated. The triggers were different forms of adaptation to the colder climate, which led to specific developmental changes in the respective populations and separated the species.

The importance of the Zhoukoudian site

The most important site for understanding the Eastern Apes people is near Zhoukoudian near Beijing, exactly 40th, and was of great scientific relevance to all research. This site was populated with interruptions of 670,000 to 410,000 before our era and offers a deep insight into the life of these early human-like and theirhabits. The history of their excavation has epic traits and is characterized by dramatic events that hampered and endangered scientific progress and claimed many victims.

War turmoil during excavations

While European, American and Chinese archaeologists excavated the caves in the mountains near Zhoukoudian between 1921 and 1937, the excavation site fell into the front line of the unremitting civil war and became a battlefield. The conflict raged between nationalists, communists and local warlords and did the work under extreme conditions and greatpersonal danger necessary as bullets hit. The burrowers often worked in the noise of the guns and rifles, and if they wanted to take their finds to Beijing, 40 kilometers away, they had to bypass bandits and their roadblocks, which was life-threatening.

The end of the project by invasion

With the Japanese invasion of China, the project finally came to a standstill and the scientific work had to be stopped because security could no longer be guaranteed. Zhoukoudian became the base of communist resistance fighters, and Japanese soldiers tortured and murdered three members of the excavation group in this turbulent time, decimating the group. itshould get even worse than the political tensions escalated and the security of the valuable finds could no longer be guaranteed and the threat of losses.

The attempt to evacuate the finds

In November 1941, when a war between Japan and the United States became more and more likely, it was decided to bring the finds to safety after an American metropolis to save them. Technicians packed them into two large boxes that a Beijing American embassy cart was supposed to pick up to transport them across the ocean and store them there. up toToday it is not known whether the car ever arrived or where it would come when it came and brought the boxes, and the fate of the originals remains unclear and mysterious.

The disappearance during the outbreak of war

According to a story, Japanese soldiers intercepted the American soldiers who were to secure the finds at the moment when the first bombs fell on an important port in the Pacific and triggered the war. They captured the scientists and did not care about the invaluable cargo that was kept in the boxes and lost as they were worthnot recognized. A life didn’t matter much in those dark days, so why should you give special thought to a few boxes full of stones and bones that were considered worthless and didn’t have a priority.

The rescue by casts

But not everything was lost, since the Zhoukoudian group had conscientiously published and documented their finds before the originals disappeared and irretrievably lost. They had already sent plaster casts of bones to the United States, which is an early example of how wise it is to back up and reproduce their data to losesurvive. These casts revealed that the Peking man, as the excavators called the Ape people of Zhoukoudian, differed from large, high-rise Africans 600,000 years ago and showed their own characteristics.

The physical characteristics of the Beijing man

He was of stocky form and therefore better adapted to the cold than his African relatives like the Turkana youth, which offered an evolutionary advantage and ensured survival. Beijing people were about 1.65 meters tall and less hairy than modern monkeys, but still showed many primitive features in the physique that distinguish them from us. We would still get onescare, we would suddenly encounter one of these journeymen in the city center, since their appearance looks very strange and wild and infuses fear.

The facial features and the skull construction

Beijing people had short wide faces with a low flat forehead, heavy eye bulges and brows, which could give the gaze an intense expression and be threatening. They also had a mighty lower jaw with a strongly fleeing chin, which clearly distinguishes them from the anatomical features of today’s human being and questioned their affiliation. aEntertainment with a Beijing person would hardly come about, since the physiological prerequisites for a complex language were probably not fully developed and prevented communication.

The limitations of language ability

As far as we know, the basic ganglia of Homo erectus were hardly developed, i.e. those parts of the brain that enable the modern man to create and speak an infinite number of distinct sounds with a small number of mouth movements. The Turkana youth’s exceptionally completely preserved skeleton has a nerve channel containing the spinal cord and itsdiameter is a quarter smaller than in modern humans, which limited the control. From this it would be concluded that he could not control his breathing so closely that he could have spoken as we did, which restricted and simplified communication.

Indicators of early communication

This may be the case, but other findings indirectly suggest that the ape people of the Eastern Old World were somehow able to communicate with each other and possessed abilities that we underestimate. In 1994, archaeologists excavated artifacts on Flores, a small island off Java that appeared to be 800,000-year-old stone tools, suggesting human activity andAt that time, Flores was definitely already an island, separated from Java by twelve nautical miles of open sea, which would have required a crossing of the water and required planning.

The debate on seaworthiness

But then Homo erectus was able to communicate with its peers at least so well that they could manufacture boats, sail beyond the horizon to the open sea and colonize Flores, if the theory is correct and durable. Some said this, but other archaeologists found the idea of a boat-building Homo erectus completely absurd and unlikely for this early time,because the technology was missing. In their opinion, the tools found could just as well be stones split into tool-like shapes by natural processes, i.e. by chance, that did not originate from humans and had no purpose.

The discovery of the small skeletons

The dispute, like so many debates in archaeology, could easily have ended in a dead end had it not been for further amazing finds on Flores in 2003, which opened up new perspectives and animated the discussion. With the help of a deep sound measuring device, eight skeletons were tracked down, all of which were dated to 16,000 BC and caused a sensationand surprised the world. They were no taller than 1.20 meters, but all fully grown, suggesting a particular evolutionary evolution of this isolated population and raising questions.

The name and the island biology

The small body size led to comparisons with mythical little creatures in popular culture, which gave the finds a memorable name and increased public attention. If animal populations are isolated on islands where they have no predators, they very often develop dwarf forms, which is a known biological phenomenon and is often observed.Probably these small creatures also came to their dwarf shape in this way, which scientifically explains and classifies their small body size and shows evolution.

The implications for the settlement period

However, in order for this to have happened up to 16,000 BCE, ape-humans must have colonized Flores many 1,000 generations earlier and lived and developed there. Perhaps this has even happened for those 800,000 years, as evidenced by the stone tools found in 1994, which implies a very long presence and confirms the colonization.mean that Homo erectus had certain communication skills to coordinate and plan such ventures and to cross the sea.

Lifestyle and fire use

So we have to assume that the monkey people of Zhoukoudian were able to understand each other much better than chimpanzees or had gorillas and social structures that required cooperation. The deposits in the cave also show that they could also make fires at will, which meant a great technological advance and the survival in theCold. At least in one case, Beijing people have roasted the head of a wild horse and thus used the fire to prepare food and improve energy intake.

Dietary habits and cannibalism

Cuts to the skull bone show that they cared about the tongue and brain, both of which are rich in fat and were a valuable food source and preferred. They may also have been keen on the brains of their contemporaries, but in any case, in the 1930s, archaeologists inferred cannibalism and even forms of headhunting from the nature of bone fractures, whicha study of the plaster casts carried out in the 1980s found that most of the traces on the skull bones came from teeth of the giant prehistoric hyenas and not from other Beijing people, which refuted the theory.

Clear traces of human violence

A skull, however, from which an additional fragment was excavated in 1966, clearly shows injuries from stone tools, indicating human influence and proving violence. If, instead of meeting a Beijing man somewhere in the middle of the city, you could travel back to the Zhoukoudian half a million years ago with a time machine, you would see a confusingand have a disturbing experience and be amazed. You would see cavemen communicating with each other, be it by grunting and gesturing, but you could not talk to them and use and understand complex language.

The lack of art and culture

Even by painting pictures, they would not be reached, because we have no reliable indications as to whether art was of greater importance to Homo erectus than for chimpanzees and left no traces. The Beijing man who developed in the east of the Old World is very different from us and represents a branch of human evolution and a separateline. These differences illustrate the long and complex history of our species and the many paths that have been taken over the millions of years and led to today’s diversity.