Page 281 - Flipping book The Adam Paradox Hypothesis - Second Edition.pdf

The Ādam Paradox Hypothesis 258
Archaeology: The Shape of Symbol Emergence
Why it matters: Archaeology shows the lived reality — when humans painted, buried, and
marked their world.
What to watch:
Dating refinements. Radiocarbon, luminescence, and uranium-thorium
dating will sharpen timelines at Blombos, Diepkloof, Pinnacle Point,
Qafzeh. Bayesian modeling may confirm whether ignition was a step, not a
slope.
New regions. Underexplored zones — Arabia, Central Asia, submerged
coastal sites — could reveal missing links. If these yield continuous
traditions far older than 100kya, APH would need revision.
Artifact continuity. Does symbolic behavior persist after 70kya, or remain
patchy? Continuity supports ignition; fragility suggests sparks without fire.
Possible outcomes:
Strengthens APH: Clear clustering of durable symbolic artifacts after
~70kya across regions.
Weakens APH: Continuous, cumulative symbolic traditions deep into the
200kya range.
Demography: Tracing Expansion Waves
Why it matters: Cognition should leave demographic footprints: expansion, migration,
survival.
What to watch:
Genomic bottleneck models. New coalescent analyses may reveal whether
population expansions align tightly with symbolic ignition.
Ancient DNA from Africa. More genomes from African fossils (100–
70kya) could track whether symbolic groups expanded while others
vanished.
Migration maps. Archaeogenetics could show whether the Out-of-Africa
dispersal coincided with ignition, or preceded it.
Possible outcomes:
Strengthens APH: Expansions align with ignition; symbolic groups spread.
Weakens APH: Large expansions without symbolic stabilization, or multiple
expansions unlinked to cognition.