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The existence of ancient humans continues to intrigue and fascinate. To reconstruct extinct societies, behaviors, and origins, researchers rely on two primary approaches that sometimes spark more questions than solutions: physical evidence and theories. These scholarly discussions often become so intense that only new discoveries can resolve them. However, at times, even fresh ‘breakthroughs’ are so contentious that they intensify the debate even further.
10. Carthaginian Rituals of Child Sacrifice
Many experts dismiss ancient accounts of Carthaginian child sacrifice as propaganda fabricated by the Greeks or Romans. The Roman historian Diodorus described a chilling statue in Carthage, where infants would roll from the idol's hands into a fiery pit.
The controversy over whether the Carthaginians engaged in child sacrifice began in the early 20th century. Cemeteries uncovered in Carthage contained the cremated remains of infants, with similar discoveries at other Carthaginian sites in Sardinia and Sicily.
The tiny bones were arranged in urns in a similar fashion to the sacrificed animals found at the site. Some urns even contained both babies and animals together. The inscriptions on the headstones didn't mention the children's cause of death or their identities, instead, they offered praises to the gods or requested divine favor in the future.
Scholars who support the idea of Carthaginian ritual infant sacrifice argue that it was confined to the elite, as cremation was an expensive practice. These researchers also suggest that it was not a common occurrence, but their views face strong opposition, resulting in one of the most contentious debates in classical archaeology.
9. Ancestors of the Hobbits
When the small human species was uncovered in 2003, Homo floresiensis swiftly earned the nickname “the hobbits.” These creatures inhabited the Indonesian island of Flores around 54,000 years ago, and the question of their evolutionary predecessors remains a source of fierce debate among anthropologists.
In 2010, a study sought to confirm or disprove the prevailing theory that Homo floresiensis descended from the larger Homo erectus. Previous investigations had only examined the hobbit's skull and jaw. Given that Homo erectus was the only other early hominid found in the region, the assumption that they were ancestors gained traction.
The 2010 research expanded to include the limbs, shoulders, and teeth. What they uncovered was perplexing. While evolution typically advances a species, Homo floresiensis appeared more primitive than its supposed predecessor.
The two species didn’t seem to align well on the evolutionary tree either. Instead, the hobbit species seemed to be a sibling branch to Homo habilis, who lived in Africa about 1.75 million years ago. Sibling species share a common ancestor, which in this case would trace back to somewhere in Africa.
While the exact ancestor of Homo floresiensis remains unknown, research also indicates that Homo floresiensis is likely older than Homo habilis, positioning Homo floresiensis as one of the earliest branches in the human evolutionary tree.
8. The Sediba Child
Much like the hobbits, the immediate ancestor of the genus Homo remains a mystery. In 2008, a paleoanthropologist exploring a cave in Malapa, South Africa, uncovered several skeletons, one of which belonged to an unusually complete child.
Named Australopithecus sediba, the young fossil was hailed as the missing link. However, many other experts challenge this conclusion, arguing that the boy is not part of the human lineage, but instead belongs to a different hominid branch.
Its narrow cheekbones are characteristic of early Homo. However, at 1.98 million years old, the species is too recent to be the primary ancestor. That title belongs to an unknown australopithecine that lived 2–3 million years ago.
Researchers also argue that the child, when digitally aged, closely resembles adults of Australopithecus africanus, a nonhuman hominid. Another part of the debate suggests that Australopithecus afarensis (the famous Lucy fossil) is the most likely candidate.
Supporters of this theory claim that the new fossil exhibits more human-like features than the 3.2-million-year-old Lucy, and that substantial changes had to be made to the face for it to resemble Australopithecus africanus. Both sides agree that the only way forward is to recover the skull of an adult Australopithecus sediba.
7. The Aroeira Cranium
A newly uncovered skull could potentially resolve the ongoing debate about the ancestry of Neanderthals. Researchers know that various Homo species inhabited Europe and Asia roughly 500,000 years ago, and one of them eventually evolved into the Neanderthals.
The 400,000-year-old cranium is believed to belong to this early ancestral group. Discovered in 2014 in Portugal’s Aroeira cave, the skull exhibited a mix of features never previously observed in fossilized humans.
Several characteristics strongly tie it to the Neanderthals, including a fused brow ridge. Additionally, its age corresponds with the Middle Pleistocene, a period marked by the arrival of hominids from which the Neanderthals ultimately evolved.
The value and rarity of the cranium stem from the fact that many other Middle Pleistocene discoveries are difficult to date accurately. However, the Aroeira skull's age could be precisely determined due to the hand axes and animal remains found alongside it.
In addition to offering invaluable insights into the origins of the Neanderthals, the fossil’s features may assist researchers in understanding the evolution and interrelations of various ancient hominids in Europe.
6. The Arabian Collection
In southern Arabia, archaeologists explored caves in the mountain range known as Jebel Faya. They unearthed a trove of groundbreaking tools, including stone artifacts such as hand axes and implements designed for cutting, scraping, and piercing.
While the discovery itself was significant, the age and location of the collection defied conventional thinking. It had long been accepted that human migrations from Africa began between 80,000 and 60,000 years ago. Yet, the Jebel Faya find was dated to an astonishing 125,000 years ago.
This suggests that humans packed up and left Africa a full 55,000 years earlier than previously believed. Some of the axes and blades uncovered were strikingly similar to those made by early humans in East Africa.
As with many discoveries that challenge conventional history, this one sparked division among scholars. Those opposing the theory of an earlier migration argue that the tools were not created by modern humans from Africa.
The fact that the cave later served as a shelter for humans is not up for debate. Prior excavations have uncovered objects from the Iron, Bronze, and Neolithic periods at the same site.
5. Mankind’s Mediterranean Cradle
A lower jaw from Greece and a tooth from Bulgaria could challenge the long-standing belief that Africa is the birthplace of humanity. Both specimens belong to Graecopithecus freybergi.
When experts recently analyzed the two specimens, they determined that the samples didn’t come from an animal. Instead, they are likely the remains of the first prehuman following the split between chimpanzees and humans, whose exact geographic location remains a key topic of debate in paleoanthropology.
The conclusions were based on the shape of the dental roots. The premolar roots were mostly fused, similar to those found in other prehumans, early humans, and modern humans. In contrast, great apes typically have separate roots.
Historically, prehumans had only been discovered in sub-Saharan Africa. However, Graecopithecus not only pushes the origin of mankind to the Eastern Mediterranean but also moves the split between chimpanzees and humans back by several hundred thousand years.
The two fossils were individually dated to 7.24 and 7.175 million years ago. The earliest known African prehuman, Sahelanthropus, dates back to between 6 and 7 million years ago.
4. The Dmanisi Humans
Discovered at the Dmanisi site in Georgia, Skull 5 is 1.8 million years old. The jawbone was found by Anthropologist David Lordkipanidze in 2000, and the cranium was uncovered five years later.
The features of the skull combine traits from both later and earlier humans. The face, teeth, and smaller brain resemble earlier human fossils, while the braincase aligns with the more modern Homo erectus.
The debate over whether the Dmanisi fossils represent the ancestors of Homo erectus or a separate species, Homo georgicus, continues. However, Lordkipanidze and his team put forward a more controversial theory. After comparing the skull with five others found at the site over decades, they concluded that all of them belonged to one species that lived at the site across different periods.
They argued this as evidence of a continuous lineage stretching from the first human, Homo habilis, 2.4 million years ago, through to Homo erectus. Their study suggests that various earlier humans, traditionally considered separate from Homo erectus, were not distinct species, but rather evolutionary stages.
Critics contend that dismissing other species in favor of a single one is unsubstantiated, especially when focusing solely on skulls while overlooking significant bodily differences between the groups.
3. The Cerutti Mastodon
Bones of a mastodon found in southern California may change our understanding of human history. In the 1990s, paleontologist Richard Cerutti uncovered Ice Age elephant bones that showed signs of violent fractures. Nearby, stone tools were also found with damage.
After replicating the fractures by cracking fresh bones with similar stones, scientists concluded this was an ancient attempt to extract marrow. Uranium dating placed the find at around 130,000 years ago, sparking significant professional debate and skepticism.
Traditionally, it was believed that humans arrived around 15,000 years ago. The Cerutti hypothesis, however, pushes this timeline back by a staggering 100,000 years. Detractors argue that there’s no proof humans butchered the creature, and variations in how bones absorb uranium further complicate accurate dating.
In other parts of the world, humans of the same era were advanced toolmakers. However, the Cerutti site lacks the expected cutting tools, and there’s no evidence of human presence in the Americas until 115,000 years later.
If hominids did indeed hunt and kill the mastodon, it would drastically alter our understanding of how the Americas were first populated, followed by a puzzling 100,000-year void of human activity. This challenges the notion that Homo sapiens were the first to arrive. The dating opens the possibility that Neanderthals and Denisovans might have been the initial settlers.
2. A Primitive Peer
The enigma of Homo naledi began in 2013 when its existence was first revealed. Several skeletons were unearthed in the Rising Star Cave in South Africa. They had primitive features, and their brain size was only two-thirds of that of modern humans.
Despite their primitive anatomy, the bodies seemed deliberately buried, suggesting a level of intelligence and culture. Initially, scientists believed they were 2–3 million years old, but carbon dating delivered a startling revelation: Homo naledi lived as recently as 235,000 years ago.
This means they coexisted with other early Homo sapiens, the first true humans. Homo naledi, with limbs adapted for both tool use and climbing, showcases a previously unknown diversity of human species in South Africa during the Pleistocene.
Scientists remain puzzled as to why Homo naledi did not interbreed or compete with other species, despite living in the same vast savanna and sharing resources.
Homo naledi's origins are still debated, with two main theories. One suggests they are an early human species that retained its primitive traits while evolving alongside the lineage that would lead to modern humans. Another theory proposes they diverged from a more advanced species, like Homo erectus, and devolved in certain ways for unknown reasons.
1. The Mating Behavior of Lucy
Lucy and her species, Australopithecus afarensis, roamed in groups about 3.6 million years ago, traversing what is now Laetoli in Tanzania. In 2015, the discovery of 14 footprints became the second set found at the site.
Four decades earlier, the discovery of 70 tracks had excited the archaeological world because their extreme age suggested that walking upright emerged very early in human evolution. Although the 1978 tracks were celebrated, a new study of the more recent footprints sparked some disagreement.
The tracks were made by two individuals, one of whom had a notably longer stride. This person was calculated to be over 168 centimeters (5’6″) tall, quite large for their species. They walked across the same ash layer and in the same direction as the previous set of prints.
The research proposed that the two sets of footprints came from a single group, with one male (the taller individual) accompanied by females and young. However, some scholars argue that five walkers, whose ages remain uncertain, aren’t enough evidence to determine their gender.
Even today, distinguishing between footprints left by young women and teenage boys is challenging. Additionally, critics argue that attempting to deduce the mating strategy of Australopithecus afarensis based on such a small sample of prints is an overly bold assumption.
