Hominin biocultural evolution at Zarqa river valley, Jordan: a paleoanthropological approach

• Grant number: 13/22631-2
• Support Opportunities: Regular Research Grants
• Duration: July 01, 2014 - June 30, 2016
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Archeology - Prehistoric Archaeology
• Principal Investigator: Walter Alves Neves
• Grantee: Walter Alves Neves
• Host Institution: Instituto de Biociências (IB). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Associated researchers: Astolfo Gomes de Mello Araujo ; Fabio Parenti ; Giancarlo Scardia

Abstract

The hominin evolution was restricted to Africa from approximately 7 to 2 million years ago. Apparently, the first hominins that left the continent belonged to the genus Homo, as indicated by the findings in Dmanisi, Georgia, dated to 1.8 million years. The Levant must have played an important role in this expansion from Africa to the Caucasus. In the long term, the main goal of this project is to show that the Zarqa River Valley was a major corridor to the expansion of the genus Homo from Africa into Asia, inserting the Pleistocene deposits of central Jordan in the scientific debate about the first peopling of the Old World. For the first two years, subject of this request , the goals are more modest, being summarized as follows : 1. Intensification of geological, archaeological, and paleontological surveys at the Upper Zarqa River Valley; 2. Technical- typological characterization of Pleistocene industries of the Upper Zarqa River Valley, with special emphasis on those of the Lower Paleolithic; 3. Establishment of a reliable chronology for the distinct hominin occupations of the eastern bank of the Jordan rift; 4. Geological, archaeological, and paleontological surveys at the Middle and Lower Zarqa River Valleys (virtually unknown to date). 5. Instruction and training of Brazilian students in an international research environment; 6. Brazilian insertion in the restricted and selected community that develops paleoanthropological research in the Old World. (AU)

Scientific publications

(References retrieved automatically from Web of Science and SciELO through information on FAPESP grants and their corresponding numbers as mentioned in the publications by the authors)

SCARDIA, GIANCARLO; NEVES, WALTER A.; TATTERSALL, IAN; BLUMRICH, LUKAS. What kind of hominin first left Africa?. EVOLUTIONARY ANTHROPOLOGY, v. 30, n. 2, p. 122-127, MAR 2021. (13/22631-2, 16/04809-7)

SCARDIA, GIANCARLO; PARENTI, FABIO; MIGGINS, DANIEL P.; GERDES, AXEL; ARAUJO, ASTOLFO G. M.; NEVES, WALTER A.. Chronologic constraints on hominin dispersal outside Africa since 2.48 Ma from the Zarqa Valley, Jordan. QUATERNARY SCIENCE REVIEWS, v. 219, p. 1-19, SEP 1 2019. (13/22631-2, 16/04809-7)

NEVES, WALTER A.; BERNARDO, DANILO V.; PANTALEONI, IVAN. Morphological affinities of Homo naledi with other Plio-Pleistocene hominins: a phenetic approach. Anais da Academia Brasileira de Ciências, v. 89, n. 3, 3, p. 2199-2207, 2017. (13/22631-2)