Archaeologica.org

At some point one needs to admit that archaeologists use these kinds of sensational claims to build interest and maybe even fundraising. Exactly. Zahi has more lives than a cat and has done quite well amidst difficult political surroundings. Raise money? Aggrandize himself? Build interest for touri...

Based on all of the anomalous finds to date, it is obvious to me that members of the human species began entering the Americas before the Eemian Interglacial 125kya. Which species arrived is difficult to pin down since human remains are incredibly rare. However, their tools and traces are all over t...

And meanwhile, farther south, people were trapping mammoths at about 15,000ybp in Mexico, see: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/mammoth-traps-containing-remains-of-14-of-the-giant-creatures-discovered-in-mexico/ar-BBWsNWZ?ocid=spartandhp Since the earliest Clovis remains recovered were found at ...

I found the last paragraph in the Seattle Times article interesting wherein the archaeologist is comparing the tools found in Idaho to those extant in Japan at the time. The Japanese current takes boats directly over to British Columbia, Washington and Oregon. There are historical accounts of Japane...

"A match of only five alleles does not prove any conclusive close family relationship. The data published by Hawass et al. gives only eight autosomal STR markers (Hawass et al., 2010)." From ISOGG Wiki: https://isogg.org/wiki/CODIS The previous genetic analysis really appears to be unsophisticated....

When have men ever missed a chance to dominate and/or limit females? Being given the status of trade goods infers some type of perceived value... Which I doubt existed. You really ought to try looking at it from the 'other' side Min, even though it may be a little uncomfortable... The noble savage?...

You've got it, KB. If it was sterile we wouldn't know it happened and we would not see neanderthal genes showing up in hss dna outisde of Africa but not inside of it. Absolutely true. Neanderthal as well as Denisovan genes are included in the H sapiens genome. Most likely H erectus also, but we don...

I am also a multi-regionalist with the added proviso that I think we are all merely the latest model of Homo Erectus H erectus started out like a full size sedan, but with a 4 cylinder engine. Their bodies from the neck down were incredibly similar to H sapiens today. However, it took 1.5 million y...

I doubt they were separate species in the classic sense of the word. There was enough cross breeding between human types, such as Neanderthals, Denisovans and "unknown others", that introgression of genetic material occurred across genomes where advantage was conferred. By strict definition, these ...

I suspect that more & more Denisovan fossils will be found in Asia Here's a quote from AP News: "The Nature paper points out similarities to a fossil jaw reported in 2015 that had been dredged by a fishing net off the coast of Taiwan. So maybe the Denisovan range can be extended that far south, he ...

But fail to see a good reason to study something with such a weak foundation. Statistical analysis is used everywhere on a daily basis, from billion dollar advertising campaigns to country population studies to the CDC preventing epidemics to Ford determining how many cars they will sell next year,...

How do you establish that "probability" This is starting to sound like circular reasoning. KB, as opposed to taking you through introductory statistics on this forum, I suggest you pick up a book on the topic and self educate since my recommendation about taking a class obviously went by the waysid...

Where does the 95% come from? KB, in statistics the confidence level is a measure of the reliability of a result. A confidence level of 95% means that there is a probability of at least 95 per cent that the result is reliable. This is a standard when calculating a margin of error. Margin of Error =...

One thing I missed in the original news release is that they are basing a hemispheric theory on 49 samples.

Statistics, KB:

A population sample size of 49 will return a margin of error of 14% at a 95% confidence level. That's appears to be a decent point at which to submit a hypothesis.

How much of the FOXP2 gene has been found in flocking birds or schooling fish? Very interesting comment, KB, since we were discussing primates. For a review of the FOX2P gene, please see this from Wiki: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FOXP2 The following article is for Spice since he will know where ...