Page 288 - Flipping book The Adam Paradox Hypothesis - Second Edition.pdf

Diepkloof Rock Shelter
A South African site with engraved ostrich eggshell containers (~60,000 years
ago). Early sparks of symbolism that failed to last.
Falsifier
A test that could disprove a theory. For APH, examples include continuous
symbolism before 150,000 years ago, absence of genomic regulatory sweeps, or
Neanderthals with independent symbolic systems.
FOXP2
A regulatory gene linked to speech and language. Mutations disrupt syntax; the
human version improved circuits for complex language.
Globularization
The evolutionary rounding of the human braincase (200–35 kya), associated with
neural connectivity changes supporting advanced cognition.
HAR1
A rapidly evolving RNA region involved in brain development. Distinct in
humans and linked to higher-order cognition.
Herto Fossils
Remains from Ethiopia (~160,000 years ago), showing transitional features
between archaic and modern Homo sapiens.
Ignition
The threshold moment when symbols stabilized globally, around 70,000 years
ago, marking humanity
’s true cognitive awakening.
Jebel Irhoud
A Moroccan fossil site (~315,000 years old). Shows anatomically modern humans
without symbolic culture.
Language
The system of abstraction and naming that stabilized human thought and enabled
shared meaning. A core threshold in APH.
Mitochondrial Eve
The most recent maternal ancestor of all humans, traced through mitochondrial
DNA to about 150,000–200,000 years ago.
Neanderthals
Close relatives of Homo sapiens who used pigments and ornaments but never
developed sustained symbolic traditions.
Omo Kibish
An Ethiopian site (~195,000 years ago) yielding the earliest fully modern human
skeletons.
Plato’s Cave
A philosophical allegory of shadows and light, used in APH to describe science as
the torch in the cave and revelation as a view outside it.