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Fincha Habera, Ethiopia
Fincha Habera is a Middle Stone Age archaeological site located within the Bale Mountains in southern Ethiopia. The rock shelter is located within the largest alpine ecosystem in Africa and is especially notable for the high altitude of the shelter and archaeological site, lying about 4,000 meters above sea level, between the Harcha and Wasama Valleys. During the Late Pleistocene, the Fincha Habera rock shelter was occupied by hunter-gatherers and the site now provides evidence for one of the oldest human occupancies at high-altitudes. The surrounding glacial climate provided conditions of fresh water, vegetation, and sustenance that created a unique environment that allowed these hunter-gatherers to find longer term residence at this shelter. Paleoenvironmental influences Glacial periods The Bale Mountains faced long glaciation periods, creating an Afro-alpine climate and ecosystem. Glaciation periods were categorized by Glacial stages I, II, and III throughout the MSA. The ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Middle Stone Age
The Middle Stone Age (or MSA) was a period of African prehistory between the Early Stone Age and the Late Stone Age. It is generally considered to have begun around 280,000 years ago and ended around 50–25,000 years ago. The beginnings of particular MSA stone tools have their origins as far back as 550–500,000 years ago and as such some researchers consider this to be the beginnings of the MSA. The MSA is often mistakenly understood to be synonymous with the Middle Paleolithic of Europe, especially due to their roughly contemporaneous time span, however, the Middle Paleolithic of Europe represents an entirely different hominin population, ''Homo neanderthalensis'', than the MSA of Africa, which did not have Neanderthal populations. Additionally, current archaeological research in Africa has yielded much evidence to suggest that modern human behavior and cognition was beginning to develop much earlier in Africa during the MSA than it was in Europe during the Middle Paleoli ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Conglomerate (geology)
Conglomerate () is a clastic sedimentary rock that is composed of a substantial fraction of rounded to subangular gravel-size clasts. A conglomerate typically contains a matrix of finer-grained sediments, such as sand, silt, or clay, which fills the interstices between the clasts. The clasts and matrix are typically cemented by calcium carbonate, iron oxide, silica, or hardened clay. Conglomerates form by the consolidation and lithification of gravel. They can be found in sedimentary rock sequences of all ages but probably make up less than 1 percent by weight of all sedimentary rocks. In terms of origin and depositional mechanisms, they are closely related to sandstones and exhibit many of the same types of sedimentary structures, e.g., tabular and trough cross-bedding and graded bedding.Boggs, S. (2006) ''Principles of Sedimentology and Stratigraphy.'', 2nd ed. Prentice Hall, New York. 662 pp. Friedman, G.M. (2003) ''Classification of sediments and sedimentary rocks.'' In G ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Baboon
Baboons are primates comprising the genus ''Papio'', one of the 23 genera of Old World monkeys. There are six species of baboon: the hamadryas baboon, the Guinea baboon, the olive baboon, the yellow baboon, the Kinda baboon and the chacma baboon. Each species is native to one of six areas of Africa and the hamadryas baboon is also native to part of the Arabian Peninsula. Baboons are among the largest non-hominoid primates and have existed for at least two million years. Baboons vary in size and weight depending on the species. The smallest, the Kinda baboon, is in length and weighs only , while the largest, the chacma baboon, is up to in length and weighs . All baboons have long, dog-like muzzles, heavy, powerful jaws with sharp canine teeth, close-set eyes, thick fur except on their muzzles, short tails, and nerveless, hairless pads of skin on their protruding buttocks called ischial callosities that provide for sitting comfort. Male hamadryas baboons have large white man ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nyala
The lowland nyala or simply nyala (''Tragelaphus angasii'') is a spiral-horned antelope native to southern Africa. It is a species of the family Bovidae and genus ''Tragelaphus'', previously placed in genus ''Nyala''. It was first described in 1849 by George French Angas. The body length is , and it weighs . The coat is maroon or rufous brown in females and juveniles, but grows a dark brown or slate grey, often tinged with blue, in adult males. Females and young males have ten or more white stripes on their sides. Only males have horns, long and yellow-tipped. It exhibits the highest sexual dimorphism among the spiral-horned antelopes. It is not to be confused with the endangered mountain nyala living in the Bale region of Ethiopia). The nyala is mainly active in the early morning and the late afternoon. It generally browses during the day if temperatures are and during the night in the rainy season. As a herbivore, the nyala feeds upon foliage, fruits and grasses, and requir ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sibudu Cave
Sibudu Cave is a rock shelter in a sandstone cliff in northern KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. It is an important Middle Stone Age site occupied, with some gaps, from years ago to years ago. Evidence of some of the earliest examples of modern human technology has been found in the shelter (although the earliest known spears date back years). The evidence in the shelter includes the earliest bone arrow ( years old), and the earliest stone arrows (64,000 years old), the earliest needle ( years old), the earliest use of heat-treated mixed compound gluing ( years ago), and an example of the use of bedding ( years ago) which for a while was the oldest known example (an older example from years ago was recently discovered at Border Cave, South Africa).Wadley L, Sievers C, Bamford M, Goldberg P, Berna F, Miller C. (2011)Middle Stone Age Bedding Construction and Settlement Patterns at Sibudu, South Africa Science 9 December 2011: Vol. 334 no. 6061 pp. 1388–1391. An older example i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Later Stone Age
The Later Stone Age (LSA) is a period in African prehistory that follows the Middle Stone Age. The Later Stone Age is associated with the advent of modern human behavior in Africa, although definitions of this concept and means of studying it are up for debate. The transition from the Middle Stone Age to the Late Stone Age is thought to have occurred first in eastern Africa between 50,000 and 39,000 years ago. It is also thought that Later Stone Age peoples and/or their technologies spread out of Africa over the next several thousand years. The terms "Early Stone Age", "Middle Stone Age" and "Later Stone Age" in the context of African archaeology are not to be confused with the terms Lower Paleolithic, Middle Paleolithic, and Upper Paleolithic. They were introduced in the 1920s, as it became clear that the existing chronological system of Upper, Middle, and Lower Paleolithic was not a suitable correlate to the prehistoric past in Africa. Some scholars, however, continue to view ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Southern Africa
Southern Africa is the southernmost subregion of the African continent, south of the Congo and Tanzania. The physical location is the large part of Africa to the south of the extensive Congo River basin. Southern Africa is home to a number of river systems; the Zambezi River being the most prominent. The Zambezi flows from the northwest corner of Zambia and western Angola to the Indian Ocean on the coast of Mozambique. Along the way, the Zambezi River flows over the mighty Victoria Falls on the border between Zambia and Zimbabwe. Victoria Falls is one of the largest waterfalls in the world and a major tourist attraction for the region. Southern Africa includes both subtropical and temperate climates, with the Tropic of Capricorn running through the middle of the region, dividing it into its subtropical and temperate halves. Countries commonly included in Southern Africa include Angola, Botswana, the Comoros, Eswatini, Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namib ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tropics
The tropics are the regions of Earth surrounding the Equator. They are defined in latitude by the Tropic of Cancer in the Northern Hemisphere at N and the Tropic of Capricorn in the Southern Hemisphere at S. The tropics are also referred to as the tropical zone and the torrid zone (see geographical zone). In terms of climate, the tropics receive sunlight that is more direct than the rest of Earth and are generally hotter and wetter as they aren't affected as much by the solar seasons. The word "tropical" sometimes refers to this sort of climate in the zone rather than to the geographical zone itself. The tropical zone includes deserts and snow-capped mountains, which are not tropical in the climatic sense. The tropics are distinguished from the other climatic and biomatic regions of Earth, which are the middle latitudes and the polar regions on either side of the equatorial zone. The tropics constitute 40% of Earth's surface area and contain 36% of Earth's landmass. , the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Roasting
Roasting is a cooking method that uses dry heat where hot air covers the food, cooking it evenly on all sides with temperatures of at least from an open flame, oven, or other heat source. Roasting can enhance the flavor through caramelization and Maillard browning on the surface of the food. Roasting uses indirect, diffused heat (as in an oven), and is suitable for slower cooking of meat in a larger, whole piece. Meats and most root and bulb vegetables can be roasted. Any piece of meat, especially red meat, that has been cooked in this fashion is called a roast. Meats and vegetables prepared in this way are described as "roasted", e.g., roasted chicken or roasted squash. Methods For roasting, the food may be placed on a rack, in a roasting pan or, to ensure even application of heat, may be rotated on a spit or rotisserie. If a pan is used, the juice can be retained for use in gravy, Yorkshire pudding, etc. During oven roasting, hot air circulates around the meat, cooking al ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hectare
The hectare (; SI symbol: ha) is a non-SI metric unit of area equal to a square with 100-metre sides (1 hm2), or 10,000 m2, and is primarily used in the measurement of land. There are 100 hectares in one square kilometre. An acre is about and one hectare contains about . In 1795, when the metric system was introduced, the ''are'' was defined as 100 square metres, or one square decametre, and the hectare ("hecto-" + "are") was thus 100 ''ares'' or km2 (10,000 square metres). When the metric system was further rationalised in 1960, resulting in the International System of Units (), the ''are'' was not included as a recognised unit. The hectare, however, remains as a non-SI unit accepted for use with the SI and whose use is "expected to continue indefinitely". Though the dekare/decare daa (1,000 m2) and are (100 m2) are not officially "accepted for use", they are still used in some contexts. Description The hectare (), although not a unit of SI, i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Giant Mole-rat
The giant blind mole-rat (''Spalax giganteus'') is a species of rodent in the family Spalacidae endemic to the North Caucasus region of Russia. It feeds on roots and tubers and lives underground in a burrow that it digs with its teeth. Distribution and habitat The giant blind mole-rat is native to the North Caucasus, Chechnya, and southern Kalmykia located between the northern ends of the Caspian and Black Seas. It is restricted to a range of less than , and its distribution within that area is quite patchy. It lives underground in burrows in damp, sandy soils in semidesert areas, in river valleys, on plains, in shrubby or reedy areas, and in disturbed and cultivated soils. Behaviour The giant blind mole-rat is active all year round. It lives a largely subterranean existence in the burrow that it digs and is believed to be monogamous. Breeding activities usually occur in December and January and females produce litters of two or three young. Besides using its incisor teeth for ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Giant Mole-rat (Tachyoryctes Macrocephalus)
The giant blind mole-rat (''Spalax giganteus'') is a species of rodent in the family Spalacidae endemic to the North Caucasus region of Russia. It feeds on roots and tubers and lives underground in a burrow that it digs with its teeth. Distribution and habitat The giant blind mole-rat is native to the North Caucasus, Chechnya, and southern Kalmykia located between the northern ends of the Caspian and Black Seas. It is restricted to a range of less than , and its distribution within that area is quite patchy. It lives underground in burrows in damp, sandy soils in semidesert areas, in river valleys, on plains, in shrubby or reedy areas, and in disturbed and cultivated soils. Behaviour The giant blind mole-rat is active all year round. It lives a largely subterranean existence in the burrow that it digs and is believed to be monogamous. Breeding activities usually occur in December and January and females produce litters of two or three young. Besides using its incisor teeth for ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
