Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- List of boxes
- List of figures
- List of tables
- Acknowledgements
- Glossary
- Web resources for skulls and stone tools
- 1 The worlds of deep human history
- 2 The drivers of climate and environment: Terrae 0–2, 10Ma–50ka
- 3 The recent veneers of climate, environment and population: Terrae 3–5, 50ka to the present day
- 4 Walking and running down the tectonic trail: Terra 0, 10–3.3Ma, and Terra 1, 3.3–1.8Ma
- 5 Three strides across a bio-tidal world: Terra 2, 1.8Ma–50ka
- 6 Going beyond, keeping in touch: Terra 3, 50–4ka
- 7 The call of the north: Terra 3, 50–4ka
- 8 Eyes on the horizon: Terra 4, 4–1ka
- 9 The human reunion in retrospect: Terra 5, after 1400 AD
- Bibliography
- Index
4 - Walking and running down the tectonic trail: Terra 0, 10–3.3Ma, and Terra 1, 3.3–1.8Ma
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2014
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- List of boxes
- List of figures
- List of tables
- Acknowledgements
- Glossary
- Web resources for skulls and stone tools
- 1 The worlds of deep human history
- 2 The drivers of climate and environment: Terrae 0–2, 10Ma–50ka
- 3 The recent veneers of climate, environment and population: Terrae 3–5, 50ka to the present day
- 4 Walking and running down the tectonic trail: Terra 0, 10–3.3Ma, and Terra 1, 3.3–1.8Ma
- 5 Three strides across a bio-tidal world: Terra 2, 1.8Ma–50ka
- 6 Going beyond, keeping in touch: Terra 3, 50–4ka
- 7 The call of the north: Terra 3, 50–4ka
- 8 Eyes on the horizon: Terra 4, 4–1ka
- 9 The human reunion in retrospect: Terra 5, after 1400 AD
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
I don’t really think, I just walk.
Paris Hilton, 2007Trails and Rhythms
Terra 0 is a tentative hominin world. The fossil evidence is sparse and especially fragmentary. Not until its last days is any technology found and then only through the proxies of cut marks on bones rather than tools. It is, as we saw in Chapter 2, a changing Terra where tectonic activity played a major role in forming potent evolutionary landscapes, and climate progressively became cooler and drier.
By contrast, Terra 1 seems positively sunny – much richer in hominin fossils and archaeological evidence for stone technology and diet change. But drawing up the limits to this Terra is not easy. A burst of climatic variability marks its opening, while it ends with changes to the circulation patterns that drive the low-latitude monsoons. This end point coincides with the current evidence for settlement in Asia 1.8Ma.
Terra 0 was a bigger world than Terra 1 (Figure 4.1a and b). Due to higher temperatures and precipitation, the ecologically productive low latitudes extended further north, providing conditions for the dispersal of apes and monkeys. Terra 0 belonged to the Miocene apes who radiated throughout the expanded arboreal habitats. But, beginning in Terra 0, and exacerbated in subsequent Terrae, the primates saw their ranges shrink due to environmental changes in temperature and moisture. This trend has resulted in today’s distribution of apes and monkeys that are mostly restricted to a tropical refuge zone, a pattern which also holds true in the New World.
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- Information
- Settling the EarthThe Archaeology of Deep Human History, pp. 108 - 140Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2013