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1. 3.987: Human Evolution:
Data from Paleoanthropology, Archaeology and Materials Science
Spring 2015
“We'll be saying a big hello to all intelligent lifeforms everywhere and to everyone else
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Prof. Kathryn Grossman
Contact: kmgrossm@mit.edu
Office: 8-436
Office Hours: TR 1-2PM and by appointment
Prerequisites: none
TIME AND LOCATION:
Lecture: Monday and Wednesday Lab: Monday OR Tuesday
3:00-4:30 PM Lecture 7:00-10:00 PM
Building 1-246 Building 16-605
COURSE DESCRIPTION
This introductory subject presents the main outlines of human evolution, both physical and
cultural through lectures and laboratory sessions that incorporate data from paleoanthropology,
archaeology and materials science. The subject's scope encompasses our immediate pre-hominin
ancestors of the late Miocene, dating to between 6 and 10 million years ago, and all subsequent
hominins including anatomically modern Homo sapiens who first appear within the past 150,000
years.
The subject has two major components.
• Consideration of four critical stages of hominin physical evolution:
o 1) the earliest hominins, the australopithecines (sensu lato)
o 2) the earliest Homo including erectus
o 3) Homo heidelbergensis and neanderthalensis)
o 4) modern Homo sapiens; each stage represents a major advance in the physiological
complexity of the human lineage.
o Laboratory sessions will examine the morphological characteristics representative of
each stage through the examination of cast reproductions of fossil specimens.
• Consideration of the major stages of the Stone Age and the cultural achievements of the
associated hominins. The focus will be twofold:
o 1) on the character of the material artifacts and the evidence for the level of
technological development they represent, and
o 2) on the broader archaeological evidence which suggests the changing nature of the
environmental and economic adaptations of hominins during successive stages of the
Stone Age.
o In laboratory sessions students will learn to recognize humanly flaked stone,
manufacture simple flaked stone artifacts and to classify and analyze flaked stone
tools and debitage.
By the very nature of the fossil record of earlier hominins and the preserved artifacts they left
behind, the detailed history of human evolution can never be known with certainty.

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Nevertheless, it is the subject's aim to provide students with an appreciation of what is reliably
known (the "facts") about the nature and trajectory of human physical and cultural evolution,
what must remain informed speculation, and what avenues still remain to be investigated.
TEXTBOOK
Campbell B.G., J.D. Loy and K. Cruz-Uribe (2006) Humankind Emerging (9th ed.). Boston:
Allyn and Bacon.
Additional texts will be available as PDFs on Stellar.
FORMAT AND REQUIREMENTS OF THE SUBJECT
A. Two1.5 hour lectures per week:
B. One 3 hour laboratory section per week
1. Lab Assignments 20%
2. Midterm exam 20%
3. Osteology quiz 10%
4. Reading commentaries/response papers 20%
5. Final Exam 20%
6. Lecture and Laboratory Attendance and Participation 10%
GRADE SCALE
A 100-93 C 76-73
A- 92-90 C- 72-70
B+ 89-87 D+ 69-67
B 86-83 D 66-63
B- 82-80 D- 62-60
C+ 79-77 F <60
LETTER GRADING SYSTEM
Below is the letter grade system established for this course. It is the basis for grading of written
work, exams, and assignments, as well as the final course composite grade (written work,
participation, level of engagement with the course material):
A range=Excellent. Work of consistently high standard, showing distinction.
B range=Good. Work showing facility in such qualities as organization, accuracy,
originality, understanding, and insight.
C range=Satisfactory. Work which fulfills essential requirements in quality and quantity
and meets the acceptable standard for graduation.
D range=Passing. Work which falls below the acceptable grade point average standard
yet is deserving of credit in the course
SPECIFICATIONS FOR PAPERS
Any papers composed outside of class must be typed or word processed, on white paper with
black ink, 1 inch margins on all sides of the page, on US letter sized paper, double-spaced, in
Times or Times New Roman twelve point font. Papers must be submitted as electronic
documents and uploaded to the Stellar site (.pdf format only).

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LATE ASSIGNMENTS
Late assignments and makeup examinations will either be arranged or accepted only when a
student has a compelling reason for missing the examination or due date and notifies the
professor in advance (or as soon as reasonably possible). If you cannot be present in class when
an assignment is due, either submit it early in class or submit it on time electronically.
TECHNOLOGY REQUIREMENT
This course will be administered through Stellar. Course announcements, syllabus updates,
reading assignments, writing assignments, examination information, and other details will be
posted there. You will also submit your site reports and research papers through Stellar.
MOBILE PHONES, TABLET, LAPTOPS
Turn off all cellular phones, pagers, and other electronic devices before class begins. If your
device should ring, do not answer it. Texting in class is prohibited. If you plan to take notes on
laptop computer or tablet, do only that. Do not surf the Internet, use email, play games, or chat
during class time. A single instance of computer misuse during class will result in the ban of
all electronics for the remainder of the semester.
ATTENDANCE AND TARDINESS
You must be present in class to participate in the discussion. You may miss up to two class days
without penalty. However, you will lose 2 percentage points from your final grade for each day
you miss after that. Thus, if you have a 93 at the end of the term, but have missed 3 classes you
will receive a 91. In any case, you are expected to contact me in advance whenever you cannot
attend class. Please save your absences in case you really need them!
COURSE POLICY ON ACADEMIC HONESTY
In keeping with the institute’s academic honesty policy, in this class, cheating or plagiarism of
any kind will not be tolerated. Any instance of cheating or plagiarism will result in a grade of F
(zero points) for the activity in question, and may result in a final grade of F for the subject. This
includes “self-plagiarism,” that is, work that the student completed and turned in for credit in
another course, at our institute or elsewhere (unless the student obtains in advance special,
written permission from the professor to use such work), as well as the undocumented use of any
words, ideas or images that are the intellectual property of another person or entity. If you are
unsure whether or not the use of the ideas or work of any other person or organization is
plagiarism, it is your responsibility to discuss the use of such ideas or work with the professor to
insure that all borrowed materials are properly used and credited. Violations of the Academic
Honesty Policy will be reported to in writing to the appropriate member of the Institute
Administration.
LAB POLICIES
A packet of lab policies will be handed out in lab during the first session. It will also be posted
on Stellar. Please adhere to these policies carefully. We will be handling ancient artifacts,
fragile bones, and expensive casts, and the lab protocols are in place for your safety and for the
safety of our artifacts and materials.

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LECTURE SCHEDULE
Date Lecture Topic Readings Lab/Assignments
2/4 Course Intro
What is “Humanness”?
Campbell et al.: Ch. 1, 3
2/9 Time Scales and
Chronology
Campbell et al.: Ch. 2, 3, 5
Appendix 2
Lab 1: Chronology –
TAKE HOME
2/11 Fossils and Geology Switek 2013
2/17 Primate Behavior Campbell et al.: Ch. 4 Lab 3: Human Skeletal
Anatomy
2/18 Tertiary Higher Primates Campbell et al.: Ch. 5
Begun 2003
Abstracts 1 (1-7)
2/23 Properties of Bone (Prof.
Hobbs)
TBA Lab 2: Human-Chimp
Skeletal Comparison
2/25 Properties of Bone (Prof.
Hobbs)
TBA
3/2 Earliest Hominins:
australopithecines and
affines
Campbell et al.: Ch. 6, 7
Abstracts 2 (1-4)
Gibbons 2009
Lab 4: Early hominin
morphology –
australopiths
OSTEOLOGY QUIZ
3/4 Earliest hominins: the
australopithecines and
affines: paranthropines
Delson 1997
3/9 Hominin/human origins:
hypotheses and
speculation.
Campbell et al.: Ch. 8, 9
Lovejoy 1993
Isaac 1978
Bingham 2000
Potts 1998
Lab 5: Early Hominin
Morphology
(Australopiths/early
Homo)
3/11 Early Homo: Defining the
genus
Campbell et al.: Ch. 8
Wood and Collard 1990
Abstracts 2 (7)
3/17 Homo ergaster: emerging
modern morphology I.
Campbell et al.: Ch. 10
Gabunia et al. 2001
PAPER #1 DUE
3/18 MIDTERM
3/23 SPRING BREAK
3/25 SPRING BREAK
3/30 Homo erectus: emerging
modern morphology II.
Campbell et al.: Ch. 10
Gabunia et al. 2001
Lab 6: Skeletal
Morphology: H. erectus
– H. sapiens
4/1 Homo heidelbergensis or
early “archaic” H.
sapiens?
Campbell et al.: Ch. 12, 13
4/6 Homo neanderthalensis or
“archaic” H. sapiens? –
and other archaic
Campbell et al.: Ch. 12, 13
Abstracts 4 (1-4, 10-13)
Lab 7: Stone
Technology I

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populations
4/8 Modern Homo sapiens:
morphology and genetic
evidence.
Campbell et al.: Ch. 15
Abstracts 4 (1-4 and 10-13) and
5 (1-5)
Lahr and Foley 2004
Gibbons 2010
Brown 2010
4/13 Early Stone Age / The
Lower Palaeolithic - the
Oldowan
Campbell et al.: Ch. 9
Bunn et al. 1980
Abstracts 2 (5-7)
NO LAB
4/15 NO CLASS SAA MTG
4/20 PATRIOTS DAY NO LAB
4/22 Lower Palaeolithic: the
Acheulean
Campbell et al.: ch. 11
Ambrose 2001
Abstracts Part 3 (1-4)
4/27 Lower Paleolithic: human
subsistence pattern
Campbell et al.: Ch. 11, 12, 13 Lab 8: Stone
Technology II
4/29 Middle Paleolithic:
Europe, Neandertals and
the Mousterian
Campbell et al.: Ch. 14
Fischman 1992
Wong 2000
Abstracts Part 4 (5-9)
5/4 Middle Paleolithic: Africa
and Asia - emerging
modern behaviors
Campbell et al.: Ch. 15
Abstracts Part 5 (1-5)
Lab 9: Stone
Technology III
5/6 Upper Paleolithic: cultural
diversity, specialization:
Africa & Asia
Campbell et al.: Ch. 15, 16 PAPER #2 DUE
5/11 Upper Paleolithic: cultural
diversity and economic
specialization: Africa &
Asia
Campbell et al.: Ch. 15, 16
5/13 Upper Paleolithic: Europe Campbell et al.: Ch. 15, 16
Abstracts 5 (6-7)
TBA FINAL EXAM
OTHER REQUIRED READINGS:
Abstracts - Parts 1- 5 (#1) [copies of the full articles are also available on the class website in the
'Optional Readings - abstract sources' section.]
Ambrose, S.H.
2001 Paleolithic technology and human evolution. Science 291:1748-53.

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Begun, D. R.
2003 Planet of the Apes. Scientific American 289(2):74-83 (August 2003).
Bingham, P.M.
2000 Human evolution and human history: a complete theory. Evolutionary
Anthropology 9(6):248-257.
Brown, T. A.
2010 Human Evolution: Stranger from Siberia. Nature 464:838-839.
Bunn, H., J.W.K. Harris, G. Isaac, Z. Kaufulu, E. Kroll, K. Shick, N. Toth, and A.K.
Behrensmeyer.
1980 FxJj 50: an Early Pleistocene site in northern Kenya. World Archaeology 12(2):109-36.
Delson, E.
1997 One skull does not a species make. Nature 389:445-446.
Fischman, J.
1992 Hard evidence. Discover 13(2):44-51. (February 1992 issue)
Gabunia, L., S. C. Antón, D. Lordkipanidze, A. Vekua, A. Justus and C.C. Swisher III.
2001 Dmanisi and Dispersal. Evolutionary Anthropology 10(5):158-170.
Gibbons, A.
2009 A new kind of ancestor: Ardipithecus unveiled. Science 326:36-40. (2 Oct. 2009)
2010 Close encounters of the prehistoric kind. Science 328:680-684. (7 May 2010)
Isaac, G. Ll.
1978 The food-sharing behavior of protohuman hominids. Scientific American 238(4):90-109.
Lahr, M. M. and R. Foley
2004 Human evolution writ small. Nature 431:1043-44.
Lovejoy, O.
1993 Modeling human origins: are we sexy because we're smart, or smart because we're sexy?
In: The Origin and Evolution of Humans and Humanness, D.T. Rasmussen (ed.) Boston:
Jones and Bartlett, 1993, pp. 1-28.
Potts, R.
1998 Variability selection in hominid evolution. Evolutionary Anthropology 7(3):81-96.
Wood, B. and M. Collard.
1999 The changing face of genus Homo. Evolutionary Anthropology 8(6):195-207.
Wong, K.
2000 Who were the Neandertals? Scientific American 282(4):98-107. (April 2000)

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