See the little peak at 65ky in the orange-coloured temperature curve? This curve is a reconstruction from #marine #pollen record in #ocean #sediment from off the South-East African coast. Chevalier et al 2020 https://pubs.geoscienceworld.org/gsa/geology/article/49/1/71/590736/Temperature-change-in-subtropical-southeastern ; their reconstruction actually spans a whopping 800ky but only in coarse resolution.

The actual peak is recorded to have begun 68ky ago, lasted until 64ky, and the actual ºC in #subtropical #Africa rose by 1.7ºC, from 17.2 to 18.9ºC. +1.7ºC - that's not a mean feat.
(But in my chart, I had to re-scale the temperature curve, and all others, to make them all fit on the 2 y-axes.)
The percipitation pattern for the region can be guessed from the taxa and pollen count in the sediment. There, the mystery is explained for WHEN the migration happened, and WHY not earlier.

#Tegtmeier #archeology #agriculture #Paleolithic #paleoclimate #Eemian #LGM

Modern humans have been around for 300ky and started in Southern Africa. Only as recently as 65ky ago did they come (again) to East Africa, where they genetically mingled with and now, most importantly, educated the human groups there, and then went on to populate the world in earnest in this latest instalment of the many #OutOfAfrica #migration.

That the skilled, knowledgable humans did arrive in East Africa around 65ky ago required a #climate-window of opportunity: at that time, the Estern half of the continent experienced an evenly lush, moist interlude that created a fertile bridge from South Africa to East Africa (Eureka from 2019: https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/793260 )

#Tegtmeier #archeology #agriculture #Paleolithic #paleoclimate #Eemian #LGM

So, hunting was not "happenstance in harmony" but an informed art of controlled manipulation of natural #environment to increase wellbeing and basic survival . And when groups of modern humans drew these pictures on cave walls they were at least semi-settled and seasonally returned to these caves, I'd say. Why else would they draw the informative fertility calendar pictures if not to return to them once in a while.

I'd guess, they also stowed seeds for trees or tubers and sowed them when and where suitable.
That evidence was found of cultivated wheat from 20ky ago (#Israel) doesn't mean modern humans evolved this tradition only 20ky ago. And agriculture doesn't necessarily mean living in one place all the time. Besides, cultivating wheat is not the only version of agriculture: sowing and grooming a chestnut tree to collect the fruit later is the art of agriculture, too, but humans don't need to stay put to watch it grow.
#Tegtmeier #archeology #agriculture #Paleolithic #paleoclimate #Eemian #LGM

#Tegtmeier #archeology #agriculture #Paleolithic #paleoclimate #Eemian #LGM

Why would you put hunter-gatherers more "in harmony with #nature" than agriculture?
Hunters kill their prey...where's the "harmony" in bloodshed?

Agriculture is a skill that makes use of culture / traditions like knowledge about regional seasons /calendars or seed-stowing.
In the Upper #Paleolithic which began 50ky ago, in the much more arid #IceAge, European Hunter-gatherers used a #calendar and #cave drawings to communicate and use their knowledge about the fertility cycle of their prey, see this month's published research "An Upper Palaeolithic Proto-writing System and Phenological Calendar" https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/cambridge-archaeological-journal/article/an-upper-palaeolithic-protowriting-system-and-phenological-calendar/6F2AD8A705888F2226FE857840B4FE19

For politeness, I'll untag you from the rest of my thread, dear @poostain @breadandcircuses