The First Modern Humans

The famous Cro-Magnon skull from the Dordogne region of France, one of the first anatomically modern fossil hominids to be found (1868).

Dated between 28-30,000 years BP, this fossil became a model for "early moderns", the first members of our own sub-species, Homo sapiens sapiens; see [Boyd & Silk 1997] , pp 469. More recently it has become clear that in fact they are relatively "late moderns".

Homo sapiens comprises three problematic sub-groups:

• the archaic sapients;
• the neanderthals;
• anatomically modern humans.

In particular, the origin of anatomically modern humans is currently attracting a lot of interest and generating much debate [Stringer93] .

Most of the fossil evidence, much molecular evidence (some of which is controversial) and evidence from the comparative study of languages all point to Africa as the source of modern humans.

But some experts disagree and prefer a more global model of modern human origins. Either way we are talking about a process that most probably took place between 100,000 and 200,000 years ago.