400,000 years of Homo sapiens

Lecture at the Museum of Natural History: 28 November, 6.30 pm, TIETZ, 1st floor

On Wednesday 28 November at 6.30 pm, Dr Daniel Richter will give a lecture at the Museum für Naturkunde Chemnitz on the topic: 400,000 years of Homo sapiens. Admission is free.

Dr Daniel Richter is a scientist at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig. His work focuses on the study of human history through comparative analyses of genes, cultures, cognitive abilities and social systems of past and present human populations and groups of primates closely related to humans. Dr Richter himself was involved in the excavations and subsequent analyses and offers an exciting insight into his work.

Humans are older than we thought! New fossils and stone tools from Jebel Irhoud (Morocco) prove the origin of modern humans (Homo sapiens) in Africa around 300,000 years ago. These fossils are around 100,000 years older than the oldest known finds to date and document that important changes in the appearance and behaviour of modern humans took place around 300,000 years ago.

Anthropological and genetic data clearly point to the African continent as the origin of modern humans. The oldest skeletons found to date come from East Africa, which is why the origin of our species was postulated to be around 200,000 years ago.

Modern anthropological methods now identify finds from north-west Africa as belonging to modern humans, and new dating methods allow their exact age to be determined at around 300,000 years. On the one hand, this new view of our origins leads to a coherent picture of archaeology and anthropology; on the other hand, a multi-regional origin of modern humans in Africa can no longer be ruled out.