Tuesday, December 31, 2019

Southern Dispersal Route How Humans First Left Africa

The Southern Dispersal Route refers to a theory that an early group of modern human beings left Africa between 130,000–70,000 years ago. They moved eastward, following the coastlines of Africa, Arabia, and India, arriving in Australia and Melanesia at least as early as 45,000 years ago. It is one of what appears now to have been multiple migration paths that our ancestors took as they left out of Africa. Coastal Routes Modern Homo sapiens, known as Early Modern Humans, evolved in East Africa between 200,000–100,000 years ago, and spread throughout the continent. The main southern dispersal hypothesis starts 130,000–70,000 years ago in South Africa, when and where modern Homo sapiens lived a generalized subsistence strategy based on hunting and gathering coastal resources like shellfish, fish, and sea lions, and terrestrial resources such as rodents, bovids, and antelope. These behaviors are recorded at archaeological sites known as Howiesons Poort/Still Bay. The theory suggests some people left South Africa and followed the eastern coast up to the Arabian peninsula and then traveled along the coasts of India and Indochina, arriving in Australia by 40,000–50,000 years ago. The notion that humans might have used coastal areas as pathways of migration was first developed by American geographer Carl Sauer in the 1960s. Coastal movement is part of other migration theories including the original out of Africa theory and the Pacific coastal migration corridor thought to have been used to colonize the Americas at least 15,000 years ago. Southern Dispersal Route: Evidence Archaeological and fossil evidence supporting the Southern Dispersal Route includes similarities in stone tools and symbolic behaviors at several archaeological sites throughout the world. South Africa: Howiesons Poort/Stillbay sites such as Blombos Cave,  Klasies River Caves, 130,000–70,000Tanzania: Mumba Rock Shelter (~50,000–60,000)United Arab Emirates: Jebel Faya (125,000)India: Jwalapuram (74,000) and PatneSri Lanka: Batadomba-lenaBorneo: Niah Cave (50,000–42,000)Australia: Lake Mungo and Devils Lair Chronology of the Southern Dispersal The site of Jwalapuram in India is key to dating the southern dispersal hypothesis. This site has stone tools which are similar to Middle Stone Age South African assemblages, and they occur both before and after the eruption of the Toba volcano in Sumatra, which has recently been securely dated to 74,000 years ago. The power of the massive volcanic eruption was largely considered to have created a wide swath of ecological disaster, but because of the findings at Jwalapuram, the level of devastation has recently come under debate. There were several other species of humans sharing planet earth at the same time as the migrations out of Africa: Neanderthals, Homo erectus, Denisovans, Flores, and Homo heidelbergensis). The amount of interaction Homo sapiens had with them during their sojourn out of Africa, including what role the EMH had with the other hominins disappearing from the planet, is still widely debated. Stone Tools and Symbolic Behavior Stone tool assemblages in Middle Paleolithic East Africa were primarily made using a Levallois reduction method, and include retouched forms such as projectile points. These types of tools were developed during Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 8, about 301,000-240,000 years ago. People leaving Africa took those tools with them as they spread eastward, arriving in Arabia by MIS 6–5e (190,000–130,000 years ago), India by MIS 5 (120,000–74,000), and in southeast Asia by MIS 4 (74,000 years ago). Conservative dates in southeast Asia include those at Niah Cave in Borneo at 46,000 and in Australia by 50,000–60,000. The earliest evidence for symbolic behavior on our planet is in South Africa, in the form of the use of red ochre as paint, carved and etched bone and ochre nodules, and beads made from deliberately perforated sea shells. Similar symbolic behaviors have been found at the sites which make up the southern diaspora: red ochre use and ritual burials at Jwalapuram, ostrich shell beads in southern Asia, and widespread perforated shells and shell beads, hematite with ground facets, and ostrich shell beads. There is also evidence for the long distance movement of ochres—ochre was so important a resource it was sought and curated—as well as engraved figurative and non-figurative art, and composite and complex tools such as stone axes with narrow waists and ground edges, and adzes made of marine shell. The Process of Evolution and Skeletal Diversity So, in summary, there is growing evidence that people began to leave Africa beginning at least as early as the Middle Pleistocene (130,000), during a period when the climate was warming. In evolution, the region with the most diverse gene pool for a given organism is recognized as a marker of its point of origin. An observed pattern of decreasing genetic variability and skeletal form for humans has been mapped with distance from sub-Saharan Africa. At the moment, the pattern of ancient skeletal evidence and modern human genetics scattered throughout the world best matches a multiple-event diversity. It seems that the first time we left Africa was from South Africa at least 50,000–130,000 then along and through the Arabian peninsula; and then there was a second outflow from East Africa through the Levant at 50,000 and then into northern Eurasia. If the Southern Dispersal Hypothesis continues to stand up in the face of more data, the dates are likely to deepen: there is evidence for early modern humans in southern China by 120,000–80,000 bp. Out of Africa TheorySouthern Dispersal RouteMultiregional Theory Sources Armitage, Simon J., et al. The Southern Route out of Africa: Evidence for an Early Expansion of Modern Humans into Arabia. Science 331.6016 (2011): 453–56. Print.Boivin, Nicole, et al. Human Dispersal across Diverse Environments of Asia During the Upper Pleistocene. Quaternary International 300 (2013): 32–47. Print.Erlandson, Jon M., and Todd J. Braje. Coasting out of Africa: The Potential of Mangrove Forests and Marine Habitats to Facilitate Human Coastal Expansion Via the Southern Dispersal Route. Quaternary International 382 (2015): 31–41. Print.Ghirotto, Silvia, Luca Penso-Dolfin, and Guido Barbujani. Genomic Evidence for an African Expansion of Anatomically Modern Humans by a Southern Route. Human Biology 83.4 (2011): 477–89. Print.Groucutt, Huw S., et al. Stone Tool Assemblages and Models for the Dispersal of Homo Sapiens out of Africa. Quaternary International 382 (2015): 8–30. Print.Liu, Wu, et al. The Earliest Unequivocally Modern Humans in Southern China. Nature 526 (2015): 696. Print.Reyes-Centeno, Hugo, et al. Genomic and Cranial Phenotype Data Support Multiple Modern Human Dispersals from Africa and a Southern Route into Asia. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 111.20 (2014): 7248–53. Print.Reyes-Centeno, Hugo, et al. Testing Modern Human out-of-Africa Dispersal Models Using Dental Nonmetric Data. Current Anthropology 58.S17 (2017): S406–S17. Print.

Monday, December 23, 2019

Map And Documents Of The Warsaw Pact - 2358 Words

Maps and Documents 1. Divided Germany 1. West germany was owned by the Allied powers, whereas The USSR was in control of East Germany 2. The Berlin Wall restricted any food or resources to get in and out of west Berlin 2. Balance of powers 1. Most NATO members were surrounding the Atlantic Ocean. Members consisted of the U.S., Canada and Green;and. The USSR decided to make a branch called the Warsaw Pact. This mainly consisted of Soviet Union and german members. 2. NATO Warsaw Pact U.S. Canada Iceland Greenland Norway Portuagal France Luxembourg U.K. Italy Soviet Union East Germany West germany Poland Romania Albania Czechoslovakia Bulgaria Hungary 3. European Economic Community Members of the EEC in 1957 consisted†¦show more content†¦They thought the Domino Theory could also give them a hand, by spreading the ideas of communism and a totalitarian dictatorship around. The economic miracles of Germany had to do with how quick the country was able to rebuild itself from the ground up again. Also the reduction of the tax rates later in time gave them another chance to rebuild their country. After the reign of Hitler the economy took a huge hit but eventually rebuilt. The japanese economic miracle consisted of essentially the same thing. Their economy grew uncontrollably and had one of the greatest economic growths in history. They were able to produce more to support themselves, as well as they took outside assistance to help them re grow. The goals of the US and the Soviet Union during the cold war were very different and similar. On the U.S. side they tried to push through and put an end to communism. However on the Soviet Union side they tried to keep up in the arms race. The Cuban Missile Crisis shows a very good example of â€Å"Brinkmanship† because it caused a dangerous situation, where a nuclear war was able to unfold at any given moment. The president of Chile, Salvador Allende was overthrown out of the authoritarian government that later became a dictatorship. The UN or United Nations was founded in 1945 to try to help other countries remain peaceful and content with one another. It replaced the â€Å"League of Nations†. Paragraph

Sunday, December 15, 2019

Deception Point Page 61 Free Essays

The chamber looked like a walk-in closet whose ceiling, walls, and floor had been completely covered with foam spires jutting inward from all directions. It reminded Rachel of a cramped underwater cave where stalagmites had run wild, growing off every surface. Most unsettling, however, was the apparent lack of a floor. We will write a custom essay sample on Deception Point Page 61 or any similar topic only for you Order Now The floor was a taut, meshed chicken-wire grid strung horizontally across the room like a fishing net, giving the inhabitants the feeling that they were suspended midway up the wall. The mesh was rubberized and stiff beneath the feet. As Rachel gazed down through the webbed flooring, she felt like she was crossing a string bridge suspended over a surrealistic fractalized landscape. Three feet below, a forest of foam needles pointed ominously upward. Instantly upon entering Rachel had sensed the disorientating lifelessness to the air, as if every bit of energy had been sucked out. Her ears felt as if they’d been stuffed with cotton. Only her breath was audible inside her head. She called out, and the effect was that of speaking into a pillow. The walls absorbed every reverberation, making the only perceivable vibrations those inside her head. Now the captain had departed, closing the padded door behind him. Rachel, Corky, and Tolland were seated in the center of the room at a small U-shaped table that stood on long metal stilts that descended through the mesh. On the table were affixed several gooseneck microphones, headphones, and a video console with a fish-eye camera on top. It looked like a mini-United Nations symposium. As someone who worked in the U.S. intelligence community-the world’s foremost manufacturers of hard laser microphones, underwater parabolic eavesdroppers, and other hypersensitive listening devices-Rachel was well aware there were few places on earth where one could have a truly secure conversation. The dead room was apparently one of those places. The mics and headphones on the table enabled a face-to-face â€Å"conference call† in which people could speak freely, knowing the vibrations of their words could not escape the room. Their voices, upon entering the microphones, would be heavily encrypted for their long journey through the atmosphere. â€Å"Level check.† The voice materialized suddenly inside their headphones, causing Rachel, Tolland, and Corky to jump. â€Å"Do you read me, Ms. Sexton?† Rachel leaned into the microphone. â€Å"Yes. Thank you.† Whoever you are. â€Å"I have Director Pickering on the line for you. He’s accepting AV. I am signing off now. You will have your data stream momentarily.† Rachel heard the line go dead. There was a distant whirr of static and then a rapid series of beeps and clicks in the headphones. With startling clarity, the video screen in front of them sprang to life, and Rachel saw Director Pickering in the NRO conference room. He was alone. His head snapped up and he looked into Rachel’s eyes. She felt oddly relieved to see him. â€Å"Ms. Sexton,† he said, his expression perplexed and troubled. â€Å"What in the world is going on?† â€Å"The meteorite, sir,† Rachel said. â€Å"I think we may have a serious problem.† 71 Inside the Charlotte’s dead room, Rachel Sexton introduced Michael Tolland and Corky Marlinson to Pickering. Then she took charge and launched into a quick account of the day’s incredible chain of events. The NRO director sat motionless as he listened. Rachel told him about the bioluminescent plankton in the extraction pit, their journey onto the ice shelf and discovery of an insertion shaft beneath the meteorite, and finally of their sudden attack by a military team she suspected was Special Ops. William Pickering was known for his ability to listen to disturbing information without so much as flinching an eye, and yet his gaze grew more and more troubled with each progression in Rachel’s story. She sensed disbelief and then rage when she talked about Norah Mangor’s murder and their own near-death escape. Although Rachel wanted to voice her suspicions of the NASA administrator’s involvement, she knew Pickering well enough not to point fingers without evidence. She gave Pickering the story as cold hard facts. When she was finished, Pickering did not respond for several seconds. â€Å"Ms. Sexton,† he finally said, â€Å"all of you†¦ † He moved his gaze to each of them. â€Å"If what you’re saying is true, and I cannot imagine why three of you would lie about this, you are all very lucky to be alive.† They all nodded in silence. The President had called in four civilian scientists†¦ and two of them were now dead. Pickering heaved a disconsolate sigh, as if he had no idea what to say next. The events clearly made little sense. â€Å"Is there any way,† Pickering asked, â€Å"that this insertion shaft you’re seeing in that GPR printout is a natural phenomenon?† Rachel shook her head. â€Å"It’s too perfect.† She unfolded the soggy GPR printout and held it up in front of the camera. â€Å"Flawless.† Pickering studied the image, scowling in agreement. â€Å"Don’t let that out of your hands.† â€Å"I called Marjorie Tench to warn her to stop the President,† Rachel said. â€Å"But she shut me down.† â€Å"I know. She told me.† Rachel looked up, stunned. â€Å"Marjorie Tench called you?† That was fast. â€Å"Just now. She’s very concerned. She feels you are attempting some kind of stunt to discredit the President and NASA. Perhaps to help your father.† Rachel stood up. She waved the GPR printout and motioned to her two companions. â€Å"We were almost killed! Does this look like some kind of stunt? And why would I-â€Å" Pickering held up his hands. â€Å"Easy. What Ms. Tench failed to tell me was that there were three of you.† Rachel could not recall if Tench had even given her time to mention Corky and Tolland. â€Å"Nor did she tell me you had physical evidence,† Pickering said. â€Å"I was skeptical of her claims before I spoke to you, and now I am convinced she is mistaken. I do not doubt your claims. The question at this point is what it all means.† There was a long silence. William Pickering rarely looked confused, but he shook his head, seeming lost. â€Å"Let’s assume for the moment that someone did insert this meteorite beneath the ice. That begs the obvious issue of why. If NASA has a meteorite with fossils in it, why would they, or anyone else for that matter, care where it is found?† â€Å"It appears,† Rachel said, â€Å"that the insertion was performed such that PODS would make the discovery, and the meteorite would appear to be a fragment from a known impact.† â€Å"The Jungersol Fall,† Corky prompted. â€Å"But of what value is the meteorite’s association with a known impact?† Pickering demanded, sounding almost mad. â€Å"Aren’t these fossils an astounding discovery anywhere and anytime? No matter what meteoritic event they are associated with?† All three nodded. Pickering hesitated, looking displeased. â€Å"Unless†¦ of course†¦ â€Å" Rachel saw the wheels turning behind the director’s eyes. He had found the simplest explanation for placing the meteorite concurrent with the Jungersol strata, but the simplest explanation was also the most troubling. â€Å"Unless,† Pickering continued, â€Å"the careful placement was intended to lend credibility to totally false data.† He sighed, turning to Corky. â€Å"Dr. Marlinson, what is the possibility that this meteorite is a counterfeit.† â€Å"Counterfeit, sir?† â€Å"Yes. A fake. Manufactured.† â€Å"A fake meteorite?† Corky gave an awkward laugh. â€Å"Utterly impossible! That meteorite was examined by professionals. Myself included. Chemical scans, spectrograph, rubidium-strontium dating. It is unlike any kind of rock ever seen on earth. The meteorite is authentic. Any astrogeologist would agree.† How to cite Deception Point Page 61, Essay examples

Saturday, December 7, 2019

Into the Dark free essay sample

A tunnel of light paraded across the ceiling of the dark room then widened as the painted wooden door creaked open. A pitch-colored shadow briskly swept across the Invading gleam then without a moments hesitation disappeared Into the swallowing blackness of the small room. A small girl asleep in her princess pink canopy bed was awoken by the loud sound of heavy breathing. The dog like pant sent a furious chill down her spine, slowly streaking throughout her bones like tiny pins and needles. Her heart pounded with the heavy beat of a base drum.As she looked up her dark eyes filled with fear. She slammed her eyes shut convinced that it was her imagination and buried her face into her fluffy, soft, cased pillow, determined to shut out the constant nagging of a disembodied voice. Harshly whispering,let said, Come with me, come with me Elena, The voice retreated to the back of her mind. We will write a custom essay sample on Into the Dark or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page l mean you no harm. She slowly opened her dry mouth to say something but the words wouldnt come out. The clock has almost run out whispered the snake Like voice. Just Jump off the bed, Im in your head but I wont hurt you. Yeah right! Yelled Elena, l should Just Jump off my bed for no reason! Just Jump, said the now soothing voice of someone else. Elena knew it was a trick but before she could resist she closed her eyes shut and Jumped. Instead of hitting the floor she kept falling. She snapped her eyes open and didnt quite process what she saw. Darkness rushed past her then opened into a new scene. Bright rays of glittering light streamed through the air coming from an unknown source. Dark grey rock pillars protruded from thin air In unruly shapes and formations.Elena didnt know whether to be scared or In awe of the beauty. Welcome to my world whispered the voice in a hushed tone Oh goody. said Elena in her most sarcastic voice,The snake is back! Her voice cracked on the last word for she was still in shock. Frustrated about the embarrassing stutter, she tried to run but found herself moving faster than anyone could sprint. She was flying. A robins egg blue cloud burst out from behind one of the stone pillars causing Elena to too double back in shock of its brightness and vibrancy.When she looked closer she saw that the cloud was not In fact a weird looking, unusually colored luster of evaporated water, but a giant wave of beautiful blue Steelers Jays. One bird landed on her. It opened up Its mouth. Instead of letting out the beautiful song that she was expecting, it started screeching.