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Southern African Prehistory
The Prehistory of South Africa (and, inseparably, the wider region of Southern Africa) lasts from the Middle Stone Age until the 17th century. Southern Africa was first reached by ''Homo sapiens'' before 130,000 years ago, possibly before 260,000 years ago. The region remained in the Late Stone Age until the first traces of Pastoral Neolithic, pastoralism were introduced about 2,000 years ago. The Bantu migration reached the area now South Africa around the first decade of the 3rd century, over 1800 years ago. Early Bantu kingdoms were established in the 11th century. First European contact dates to 1488, but European colonization began in the 17th century (see History of South Africa (1652–1815)). Middle Stone Age The Middle Stone Age covers the period from 300,000 to 50,000 years ago. The hunter-gatherers of Southern Africa, named San people, San by their pastoral neighbours, the Khoikhoi, and Bushmen by Europeans, are in all likelihood direct descendants of the first ana ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Southern Africa
Southern Africa is the southernmost region of Africa. No definition is agreed upon, but some groupings include the United Nations geoscheme for Africa, United Nations geoscheme, the intergovernmental Southern African Development Community, and the #Definitions and Usage, physical geography definition based on the physical characteristics of the land. The most restrictive definition considers the region of Southern Africa to consist of Botswana, Eswatini, Lesotho, Namibia, and South Africa, while other definitions also include several other countries from the area. Defined by physical geography, Southern Africa is home to several river systems; the Zambezi, Zambezi River is the most prominent. The Zambezi flows from the northwest corner of Zambia and western Angola to the Indian Ocean on the coast of Mozambique. Along the way, it flows over Victoria Falls on the border between Zambia and Zimbabwe. Victoria Falls is one of the largest waterfalls in the world and a major tourist a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Capoid
Capoid race is a grouping formerly used for the Khoisan, Khoikhoi and San peoples in the context of a now-outdated Scientific racism, model of dividing humanity into different races. The term was introduced by Carleton S. Coon in 1962 and named for the Cape of Good Hope.''The Origin of Races'' (1962). Moore, Ruth ''Evolution'' (Life Nature Library) New York:1962 Time, Inc. Chapter 8: "The Emergence of Modern ''Homo sapiens''" Page 173--First page of picture section "Man and His Genes": The ''Capoid'' race is identified as one of the five major races of mankind, along with the ''Mongoloid race, Mongoloid'', ''Congoid'', ''Caucasoid race, Caucasoid'', and ''Australoid'' races (pictures of a person typical of each race are shown) Coon proposed that the term "Negroid" should be abandoned, and the sub-Saharan African populations of West African stock (including the Bantu people, Bantu) should be termed "Congoid" instead. The observation of a significant difference between the Khoisan an ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hadza Language
Hadza is a language isolate spoken along the shores of Lake Eyasi in Tanzania by around 1,000 Hadza people, who include in their number the last full-time hunter-gatherers in Africa. It is one of only three languages in East Africa with click consonants. Despite the small number of speakers, language use is vigorous, with most children learning it, but UNESCO categorizes the language as vulnerable. Name The Hadza go by several names in the literature. ''Hadza'' itself means "human being." ''Hazabee'' is the plural, and ''Hazaphii'' means "they are men." ''Hatza'' and ''Hatsa'' are older German spellings. The language is sometimes distinguished as ''Hazane,'' "of the Hadza". ''Tindiga'' is from Swahili ''watindiga'' "people of the marsh grass" (from the large spring in Mangola) and ''kitindiga'' (their language). ''Kindiga'' is apparently a form of the same from one of the local Bantu languages, presumably Isanzu. ''Kangeju'' (pronounced ''Kangeyu'') is an obsolete German name ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Click Consonants
Click consonants, or clicks, are speech sounds that occur as consonants in many languages of Southern Africa and in three languages of East Africa. Examples familiar to English-speakers are the '' tut-tut'' (British spelling) or '' tsk! tsk!'' (American spelling) used to express disapproval or pity (IPA ), the '' tchick!'' used to spur on a horse (IPA ), and the '' clip-clop!'' sound children make with their tongue to imitate a horse trotting (IPA ). However, these paralinguistic sounds in English are not full click consonants, as they only involve the front of the tongue, without the release of the back of the tongue that is required for clicks to combine with vowels and form syllables. Anatomically, clicks are obstruents articulated with two closures (points of contact) in the mouth, one forward and one at the back. The enclosed pocket of air is rarefied by a sucking action of the tongue (in technical terminology, clicks have a lingual ingressive airstream mechanism). The ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
L0d Haplogroup
Haplogroup L0 is a human mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) haplogroup. Origin L0 is one of two branches from the most recent common ancestor (MRCA) for the shared human maternal lineage. The haplogroup consists of five main branches (L0a, L0b, L0d, L0f, L0k). Four of them were originally classified into L1 subclades, L1a, L1d, L1f and L1k. In 2014, ancient DNA analysis of a 2,330 year old male forager's skeleton in Southern Africa found that the specimen belonged to the L0d2c1c mtDNA subclade. This maternal haplogroup is today most closely associated with the Ju, a subgroup of the indigenous San people, which points to population continuity in the region. In 2016, a Late Iron Age desiccated mummy from the Tuli region in northern Botswana was also found to belong to haplogroup L0. Distribution L0 is found most commonly in Sub-Saharan Africa. It reaches its highest frequency in the Khoisan people at 73% on average. Some of the highest frequencies are: Namibia ( !Xun) 79%, South Africa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Howieson's Poort
Howiesons Poort (also called HP) is a technological and cultural period characterized by material evidence with shared design features found in South Africa, Lesotho, and Namibia. It was named after the Howieson's Poort Shelter archaeological site near Grahamstown in South Africa, where the first assemblage of these tools was discovered. Howiesons Poort is believed, based on chronological comparisons between many sites, to have started around 64.8 thousand years ago and ended around 59.5 thousand years ago. It is considered to be a technocomplex, or a cultural period in archaeology classified by distinct and specific technological materials. Howiesons Poort is notable for its relatively complex tools, technological innovations, and cultural objects evidencing symbolic expression. One site in particular, Sibudu Cave, provides one of the key reference sequences for Howiesons Poort. Howiesons Poort assemblages are primarily found at sites south of the Limpopo River. While the emergen ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Still Bay
Stilbaai, also known as the ''Bay of Sleeping Beauty'', is a town along the southern coast of South Africa about four hours by car from Cape Town. It is part of the Hessequa Local Municipality in the Western Cape province. The town is one of the most visited coastal destinations within South Africa, and home to many travellers experiences. The Goukou River and warm Indian Ocean are some of the most prominent natural features. As part of the Cape Floral Kingdom, the town also holds great Fynbos diversity. History Stilbaai is host to a number of interesting archaeological sites, including ancient fish traps thought to have been built by early ancestors of the Khoi people of the Southern Cape, and a shell landfill that has been carbon dated to around 1000 BC. Another archaeological site is situated in a group of caves at Blombos cave, about 12 kilometres from Stilbaai. Artifacts found at Blombos have been carbon dated to around 77,000 BP, making it the oldest known human settlem ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Blombos Cave
Blombos Cave is an archaeological site located in Blombos Private Nature Reserve, about 300 km east of Cape Town on the Southern Cape coastline, South Africa. The cave contains Middle Stone Age (MSA) deposits currently dated at between c. 100,000 and 70,000 years Before Present (BP), and a Late Stone Age sequence dated at between 2000 and 300 years BP.Tribolo, C., et al. (2006) TL dating of burnt lithics from Blombos Cave (South Africa): further evidence for the antiquity of modern human behaviour. Archaeometry, 48, 341–357.Jacobs, Z., et al. (2006) Extending the chronology of deposits at Blombos Cave, South Africa, back to 140 ka using optical dating of single and multiple grains of quartz. Journal of Human Evolution, 51, 255–73.Henshilwood, Christopher S., et al. (2011) A 100,000-Year-Old Ochre-Processing Workshop at Blombos Cave, South Africa. Science, 334, 219–222, .Jacobs, Zenobia, et al. (2013) An improved OSL chronology for the Still Bay layers at Blombos Cave, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Haplogroup L0
Haplogroup L0 is a human mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) haplogroup. Origin L0 is one of two branches from the most recent common ancestor (MRCA) for the shared human maternal lineage. The haplogroup consists of five main branches (L0a, L0b, L0d, L0f, L0k). Four of them were originally classified into L1 subclades, L1a, L1d, L1f and L1k. In 2014, ancient DNA analysis of a 2,330 year old male forager's skeleton in Southern Africa found that the specimen belonged to the L0d2c1c mtDNA subclade. This maternal haplogroup is today most closely associated with the Ju, a subgroup of the indigenous San people, which points to population continuity in the region. In 2016, a Late Iron Age desiccated mummy from the Tuli region in northern Botswana was also found to belong to haplogroup L0. Distribution L0 is found most commonly in Sub-Saharan Africa. It reaches its highest frequency in the Khoisan people at 73% on average. Some of the highest frequencies are: Namibia ( !Xun) 79%, South Afric ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nature Publishing Group
Nature Portfolio (formerly known as Nature Publishing Group and Nature Research) is a division of the international scientific publishing company Springer Nature that publishes academic journals, magazines, online databases, and services in science and medicine. Nature Research's flagship publication is ''Nature'', a weekly multidisciplinary journal first published in 1869. It also publishes the ''Nature-''titled research journals, ''Nature Reviews'' journals (since 2000), society-owned academic journals, and a range of open access journals, including ''Scientific Reports'' and ''Nature Communications''. Springer Nature also publishes ''Scientific American'' in 16 languages, a magazine intended for the general public. In 2013, prior to the merger with Springer and the creation of Springer Nature, Nature Publishing Group's owner, Holtzbrinck Publishing Group, bought a controlling stake in Frontiers. Before Springer Nature was formed in 2015, Nature Research (as the Nature Publi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nature Communications
''Nature Communications'' is a peer-reviewed, open access, scientific journal published by Nature Portfolio since 2010. It is a multidisciplinary journal that covers the natural sciences, including physics, chemistry, earth sciences, medicine, and biology. The journal has editorial offices in London, Berlin, New York City, and Shanghai. The founding editor-in-chief was Lesley Anson, followed by Joerg Heber, Magdalena Skipper, and Elisa De Ranieri. the editors are Nathalie Le Bot for health and clinical sciences, Stephane Larochelle for biological sciences, Enda Bergin for chemistry and biotechnology, and Prabhjot Saini for physics and earth sciences. Starting October 2014, the journal only accepted submissions from authors willing to pay an article processing charge. Until the end of 2015, part of the published submissions were only available to subscribers. In January 2016, all content became freely accessible. Starting from 2017, the journal offers a deposition ser ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Southern Dispersal
In the context of the recent African origin of modern humans, the Southern Dispersal scenario (also the coastal migration or great coastal migration) refers to the early migration along the southern coast of Asia, from the Arabian Peninsula via Persia and India to Southeast Asia and Oceania. Alternative names include the "southern coastal route" or "rapid coastal settlement", with later descendants of those migrations eventually colonizing the rest of Eastern Eurasia, the remainder of Oceania, and the Americas. According to this thesis, the dispersal was possible thanks to the development of a multipurpose subsistence strategy, based on the collection of organisms, fish, crustaceans, molluscs, algae, which are part of the biotic communities of the intertidal zone, the transition ecosystem between land and sea between the upper limit of high tides and the lower limit of low tides, i.e. organisms left behind by the waters which retreat during ebb tide, and which people could harv ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
