Biogeographic and cultural adaptations of early humans during the first intercontinental dispersals

Project Information

BICAEHFID

Grant agreement ID: 832980

DOI

10.3030/832980

Project closed

EC signature date 17 July 2019

Start date 1 October 2019

End date 31 March 2026

Funded under

• EXCELLENT SCIENCE - European Research Council (ERC)

Total cost

€ 2 499 996,00

EU contribution

€ 2 499 996,00

Coordinated by

AGENCIA ESTATAL CONSEJO SUPERIOR DE INVESTIGACIONES CIENTIFICAS
Spain

Periodic Reporting for period 3 - BICAEHFID (Biogeographic and cultural adaptations of early humans during the first intercontinental dispersals)

Reporting period: 2022-10-01 to 2024-03-31

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

Our understanding of the emergence and dispersal of the earliest tool-making hominins has been revolutionised in the last few years, with sites in Africa and Asia pushing records of both events several hundred thousand years earlier than previously thought. In recent years, climate and environmental factors have been considered by many as primary drivers of these evolutionary events in human history. However, models linking Earth’s dynamics with biological speciation, cultural innovation and migration events with climatic require further testing, and recent discoveries suggest that the picture of the earliest human colonization across the Old World is far more complex, demanding new approaches to the biogeography and adaptive behaviours of early humans. In this project, we argue for a broader geographic approach to the study of earliest human occupation dynamics by comparing the African and Asia records, two of the world’s longest sequences of early archaeological sites. We will tackle major research questions involved in the investigation of the earliest human migrations and propose a route map to better understand the alternative evolutionary trajectories adopted by hominins that shared an overarching biological and cultural background, but who faced different climatic and biogeographic challenges and opportunities.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

Research achievements since the start of the action include a significant number of publications, conduction of PhD theses, and conduction of scientific expeditions in field localities and museum collections. Regarding publication of scientific results, since the start of the BICAEHFID project a total of 16 papers have been published. Such publications cover many of the objectives outlined by BICAEHFID, including assessments of stone tool-making abilities of early humans in East Africa and China, a discussion of early bone artefacts in Tanzania, analyses of the spatial distribution of Palaeolithic assemblages in China, dating of sites in East Africa yielding remains of early Homo, and paleoecological studies of mammals in Chinese early Pleistocene assemblages, among others.

Several doctoral theses have been initiated in the context of BICAEHFID on subjects such as the stone tool and fossils from African assemblages, and the paleoecology of China. Scientific expeditions have been conducted in 2020 and 2021 in East Africa, and data and samples collected during such expeditions are currently being studied. A web-based GIS model has been created to manage all data collected by BICAEHFID.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

Direct cosmogenic nuclide isochron dating of lithic artefacts has been applied to eastern African sites in the context of BICAEHFID, paving the way for the use of novel methodologies in the geochronology of Early Stone Age assemblages. Our analysis of tooth isotopes in early Pleistocene mammals from northern China is also highly innovative for paleoanthropological research in the region, thus laying the foundations for a solid paleoecological framework of the Asian Pleistocene. The development of a web-based GIS model (BICAEHGIS) is expected to become one of the largest data repositories for the analysis of the early Palaeolithic across the Old World.
A substantial amount of data and samples has been collected during the first part of the project, and on-going analysis will lead to important results on the paleoecology of Africa and China, as well as on the adaptations, technology and subsistence of early humans. In addition, several field seasons are planned for the second half of the project, which not only will increase the datasets, but also shall lead to new exciting discoveries in African and Asian paleoanthropology.

Early Pleistocene bone tools from Olduvai in Tanzania

Isotopic values of mammal teeth at Nihewan, China

A 1.5 million year old site at Olduvai, Tanzania