SUMMARY:Researchers are using the latest genetic sequencing technology to understand to a surprising degree the movements and interactions of very ancient humans. At the forefront of this revolution, David Reich is trying to answer very big questions, like "Who We Are and How We Got Here," the name of his new book. Jeffrey Brown takes a time-traveling look.
SUMMARY: On a years-long hike across the globe, journalist Paul Salopek is following the path humans took after the Ice Age. One of the most important human migration sites in the world is in Dmanisi, Georgia, where people have walked for nearly 2 million years. Hari Sreenivasan joins Salopek in learning more about the first pioneers to wander that part of the world.
HARI SREENIVASAN (NewsHour): The fog-shrouded fields and rolling hills of Southern Georgia are much more than a waypoint for Paul Salopek. We were nearing the ancient city and archaeological site of Dmanisi.
PAUL SALOPEK, Journalist/National Geographic Fellow: So, Dmanisi is finally in sight and this is probably one of the most important human migration sites outside of Africa proper.
HARI SREENIVASAN:Salopek is following the path humans took after the Ice Age, 70,000 to 100,000 years ago. But here in Dmanisi, that path is much older.
Along these green and jagged river gorges, we have walked in one form or another for nearly two million years. The history here is stacked high, part of what Salopek calls the layer cake effect of the Caucasus. With a happy dog welcoming us, we passed what was likely an outer defensive tower of the 1,400-year-old city of Dmanisi.
This has been a crossroads for a long time.
PAUL SALOPEK: From day one. And pretty much everybody invaded it.
HARI SREENIVASAN: And was this a trading route?
PAUL SALOPEK: This was a Silk Road trading route city, a big shining city on the hill, very rich, until the Mongols came and plundered it. And then they were here a few hundred years until the Georgians and Armenians pushed them out.
HARI SREENIVASAN: It’s an archaeological gold mine. With the summer digging season finished, we arrived at a sort of bunk house for archaeologists to rest for the night.
PAUL SALOPEK: If we did, by some miracle, get a clear sky, it really will change everything completely.
HARI SREENIVASAN: The next morning, a miracle had indeed swept away the fog. Within what you’re seeing is nearly two million years of history, the medieval city, whose walls still stand, built on top of a Bronze Age settlement that’s 5,000 years old, and still beneath that, the 1.8 million-year-old remains of one of modern human’s earliest ancestors.
Salopek, Dima Bit-Suleiman, his walking partner in Georgia, and I were joined by the director of Georgia’s National Museum, David Lordkipanidze, for the walk up to the hilltop dig site.
Journalist goes on a walk around the world to find the story of humanity
SUMMARY: Scientists have discovered a new human-like species, deep in a cave system in South Africa. Researchers have said that the discovery could change our conception of human ancestry. For more on the discovery, Jeffrey Brown speaks to Jamie Shreeve of National Geographic Magazine and excavation team member Becca Peixotto.
GWEN IFILL (NewsHour): Researchers announced a fossil discovery today that some consider one of the greatest in the last 50 years, and one that could provide an important link in the family tree for all humans.
Jeffrey Brown has the story.
JEFFREY BROWN (NewsHour): The bones were found in a deep cave 30 miles northwest of Johannesburg. And the way they were found and then gathered is another incredible part of the story.
In all, 1,500 fossil remains were brought up and contained remains of 15 individuals of all different ages. Scientists named the new species Homo Naledi and created this rendering.
The quest is chronicled in the new issue of “National Geographic” and in a special documentary airing on “NOVA” next week called “The Dawn of Humanity.” (link to full show, 1:53:07)
Here’s a short clip.
NARRATOR: As the analysis goes on, the bones from the Rising Star cave are finally ready to be presented to the world.
MAN: We have got a new species of early human in the genus Homo, and that’s tremendously exciting.
We have never had anything in that transition period between the late Australopithecus and the earliest members of our genus in any kind of abundance, and, boy, we have it in abundance now.
NARRATOR: To members of the team, the fossils suggest a creature unlike anything ever found before.
MAN: We are looking at creatures that are humanlike in their feet, humanlike in their hands, humanlike in their teeth. Everything that interacts directly with the environment is Homo, and everything that’s sort of central, you know, the trunk, the architecture of the vertebral column, the brain, those sorts of things are more primitive. It’s like evolution is crafting us from the outside in.
I am Retired U.S. Navy (22yrs) and a Vietnam Veteran. After my Navy retirement I was in the computer related industry, now retired. In 2000 I was a registered Republican and voted for George W. Bush. Six months of having Bush in the Whitehouse forced me to re-evaluate my political stance. I had always thought of myself as a Moderate Republican, but was a Republican by "default" NOT because of close examination of the GOP. Due to what has happened in America since 2000, I now consider myself a progressive, and registered as a Non-Affiliated voter.
*Anti-First Amendment policies that attempt to turn America into a theocracy by enshrining ANY religious belief as law.
* Any attempt to suppress human or Constitutional rights.
* Any law or policy that supports discrimination based on religion, ethnicity, race/color, gender, sexual orientation, or any law that does NOT support Equal Treatment under the law.
*Any law or policy that attempts to suppress Freedom of the Press or Free Speech.
LINK DISCLAIMER:
There is no guarantee that any link provided in this blog will always work, especially for older links. The validity of any link is governed by the source-site policies. Some sites will archive articles and require subscription to access. Very small sites, such as a local town newspaper, may not archive at all.
