Modern Origins

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xxi

   PDF

2. Paleoenvironment and Chronology

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 1-1

      PDF

   2. A Multiproxy Paleoclimate Reconstruction over the Last 250 kyr from Marine Sediments: The Northwest African Margin and the Western Mediterranean Sea

      • A. Moreno

      Pages 3-17

   3. A Northeast Saharan Perspective on Environmental Variability in North Africa and its Implications for Modern Human Origins

      • J. C. Larrasoaña

      Pages 19-34

   4. Spatial and Temporal Variation in the Nature of Pleistocene Pluvial Phase Environments Across North Africa

      • J. R. Smith

      Pages 35-47

   5. The Faunal Context of Human Evolution in the Late Middle/Late Pleistocene of Northwestern Africa

      • D. Geraads

      Pages 49-60

   6. New Data from the Site of Ifri n’Ammar (Morocco) and Some Remarks on the Chronometric Status of the Middle Paleolithic in the Maghreb

      • D. Richter, J. Moser, M. Nami

      Pages 61-78

   7. Amino Chronology and an Earlier Age for the Moroccan Aterian

      • J.-P. Raynal, S. Occhietti

      Pages 79-90

3. Archaeology

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 91-91

      PDF

   2. The Identity and Timing of the Aterian in Morocco

      • A. Bouzouggar, R. N. E. Barton

      Pages 93-105

   3. Late Pleistocene Human Subsistence in Northern Africa: The State of our Knowledge and Placement in a Continental Context

      • T. E. Steele

      Pages 107-125

   4. Modern Human Desert Adaptations: A Libyan Perspective on the Aterian Complex

      • E. A. A. Garcea

      Pages 127-142

   5. Middle Stone Age in Tunisia: Present Status of Knowledge and Recent Advances

      • N. Aouadi-Abdeljaouad, L. Belhouchet

      Pages 143-155

   6. The Aterian of the Oases of the Western Desert of Egypt: Adaptation to Changing Climatic Conditions?

      • A. L. Hawkins

      Pages 157-175

4. The Fossil Hominins

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 177-177

      PDF

   2. Morphological Continuity of the Face in the Late Middle and Late Pleistocene Hominins from Northwestern Africa: A 3D Geometric Morphometric Analysis

      • K. Harvati, J.-J. Hublin

      Pages 179-188

   3. Dental Evidence from the Aterian Human Populations of Morocco

      • J.-J. Hublin, C. Verna, S. Bailey, T. Smith, A. Olejniczak, F. Z. Sbihi-Alaoui et al.

      Pages 189-204

   4. The Upper Paleolithic Human Remains of Nazlet Khater 2 (Egypt) and Past Modern Human Diversity

      • I. Crevecoeur

      Pages 205-219

   5. Middle Pleistocene Diversity in Africa and the Origin of Modern Humans

      • G. Bräuer

      Pages 221-240

5. Back Matter

   Pages 241-244

   PDF

Over the last decade, Africa has taken a central position in the search for the timing and mechanisms leading to modern human origins, and the rich archaeological and human paleontological record of North Africa is critical to this search.  In this volume, we bring together new research into the archaeology, human paleontology, chronology, and environmental context of modern human origins in North Africa.  The result is a volume that better integrates the North African record into the modern human origins debate and at the same time highlights the research questions that are currently the focus of continued work in the area.​

• Archaeology
• Human Evolution
• Modern Human Origins
• Paleoenvironments
• Paleolithic

• Department of Human Evolution, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany

  Jean-Jacques Hublin, Shannon P. McPherron

Jean-Jacques, Hublin, Ph.D. is the founder of the Department of Human Evolution at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig (Germany). He is a leading researcher in paleoanthropology and is renowned worldwide for his work on the origin and evolution of the Neanderthals and anatomically modern humans. He extensively developed the use of virtual imaging in the study of fossil hominids and has led field operations in North Africa and Europe. Shannon P. McPherron is an archaeologist in the Department of Human Evolution at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology. He has published extensively on stone tool technologies and on methods of excavation and analysis in archaeology. McPherron has excavated a number of Lower and Middle Paleolithic sites in France, Egypt, and Ethiopia. Currently the authors are excavating two sites in Morocco together.

Policies and ethics