Four Diasporas of Palaeoart and Religion

The evolution of humanity during the almost three million years of the Paleolithic ("Stone Age") proceeded in roughly four eras, and based on current research each appears to have involved a diaspora out-of-Africa. The four diasporas spread their respective physical species, technological innovations, emergent cognitive and symbolizing capacities, and distinctive forms of representational palaeoart. (For a summary listing of the four Paleolithic eras.)

Four Diasporas Out-of-Africa. Considering the current paleontological and archaeological evidence, it appears that out of an Australopithecine forebear, evolved Homo rudolfensis and Homo habilis some 2.5 million years ago, then Homo ergaster and Homo erectus, about 1.5 million years ago, then Homo sapiens archaicus about 300,000 years ago, and finally, modern Homo sapiens sapiens appeared around 100,000 years ago. The old view, which some still hold to, was that this was a linear progression. The view now emerging is that at each stage there was a branching of the lineage. There were at least two variants of the species at each stage, one of which became extinct while the other continued to evolve.

We now know that at each stage of human evolution, the emergent species spread out of Africa in to the Middle East, Asia and Europe. The discovery by geneticists that Homo sapiens sapiens was born in Africa must now be extended to each of our evolutionary forms. Human evolution has been a series of diasporas or exoduses out of Africa.

There are hints that two million years ago Homo habilis spread
out of Africa into the Near East and Europe.
Around a million years ago, Homo erectus spread out of Africa
hrough the Middle East, and from there into Asia and then into Europe.
Likewise, Homo sapiens archaicus spread out over the same disaspora over 250,000 years ago.
Finally Homo sapiens sapiens entered the Middle East around 100,000
years ago, and from there into Asia, finally entering Europe around 40,000
years ago and into the Americas perhaps around the same time or earlier.

Four Eras of Technological Innovation. With each evolution of our species, there followed a major innovation in tool technologies -- and these waves of innovation began in Africa and spread to the rest of the world. The major evolutions in stone tool industries appear -- with some lag time -- after each physical evolution of the human form. In brief,

First appears the Oldowan Core and Flake tool tradition associated with
Homo rudolfensis and Homo habilis.
Then the Acheulian tradition associated with Homo erectus and ergaster.
Then the Middle Paleolithic prepared core industries associated with Homo
sapiens archaicus and neanderthalis.
Finally the Upper Paleolithic blade and microlithic industries associated
with Homo sapiens sapiens.

Four Evolutions of Palaeoart Representation. As discoveries by Robert Bednarik, the Archaeologische Berichten group in the Netherlands, and my own research suggest, there also appears to be four parallel stages in the evolution of the human capacity for spiritual-artistic representation. There appear to be four evolutions of palaeoart over at least the last two million years. Each stage seems to have its own unique symbol systems, and we are beginning to decode their respective meanings and functions.

It appears that Homo rudolfensis/habilis created the first metaphor and
sense of self-becoming, the metaphor of core essence as source of
sustenance.
Homo ergaster/erectus created the symbols expressing the restoration
and reparation of the core self, the reparation and mediation of social and
intergroup conflict, and the first intentional sculptures in stone. The later
Acheulian augmented the abstract meaning of the early Acheulian bifaces
with representations of a female birthgiver ("goddess"), the human
head/profile, and animals of hunt and ritual. These artists also utilized red ochre to symbolize creative energies.
Homo sapiens archaicus created ritual art of stone circles, geoglyphs,
landscape art and the full blossoming of the combination of EP symbols
presumably to represent the mother-of-animals and the shamanic-
psychological tutelary and healing spirits.
Finally, drawing on all that went before, Upper Paleolithic Homo sapiens
sapiens created paintings and engravings of animal quaternions, perhaps
encoding totemic social organizations and multileveled knowledges, and
sculptures representing shamanic trance postures and female and male
psychospiritual transformation processes. She also created a geometric
gesture-sign sacred language to articulate these transformation processes
and the basic processes of all living things. (For more about each of the
four evolutions of palaeoart.)

Four Evolutions of Cognitive Mode. As studies by Merlin Donald, Steven Mithin, and Chris Knight suggest, corresponding to each of the four major stages in hominid evolution are four major stages in the evolution of the structure of the brain, its cognitive intelligences, and its modes of mental modeling and style of symbolizing.

Mimetic Modeling of the World -- Homo rudolfensis/habilis
Conceptual-Meaning Modeling -- Homo ergaster/erectus
Abstract Idea Modeling-- Homo sapiens archaicus
Mythic and Linguistic Modeling -- Homo sapiens sapiens

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