Fossil evidence points to an African origin of Homo sapiens from a group called either H. heidelbergensis or H. rhodesiensis. However, the exact place and time of emergence of H. sapiens remain obscure because the fossil record is scarce and the chronological age of many key specimens remains uncertain. In particular, it is unclear whether the present day ‘modern’ morphology rapidly emerged approximately 200 thousand years ago (ka) among earlier representatives of H. sapiens or evolved gradually over the last 400 thousand years. Here we report newly discovered human fossils from Jebel Irhoud, Morocco, and interpret the affinities of the hominins from this site with other archaic and recent human groups. We identified a mosaic of features including facial, mandibular and dental morphology that aligns the Jebel Irhoud material with early or recent anatomically modern humans and more primitive neurocranial and endocranial morphology. In combination with an age of 315 ± 34 thousand years (as determined by thermoluminescence dating), this evidence makes Jebel Irhoud the oldest and richest African Middle Stone Age hominin site that documents early stages of the H. sapiens clade in which key features of modern morphology were established. Furthermore, it shows that the evolutionary processes behind the emergence of H. sapiens involved the whole African continent.

Powerful categories of evidence for symbolically mediated behaviour, variously described as 'modern' or 'cognitively modern' human behaviour, are geometric or iconographic representations. After 40,000 years ago such evidence is well documented in much of the Old World and is widely considered as typifying 'modern human culture,' but earlier evidence is rare. In Africa, this includes two deliberately engraved ochre pieces from c. 75,000 year old levels at Blombos Cave, Western Cape, South Africa and the greater than 55,000 year old incised ostrich egg shell from the Diepkloof shelter, located in the same province. Here we report on thirteen additional pieces of incised ochre recovered from c. 75,000-100,000 year old levels at Blombos Cave. These finds, taken together with other engraved objects reported from other southern African sites, suggest that symbolic intent and tradition were present in this region at an earlier date than previously thought.

Recent studies suggest that a complex, distributed neural network underpins semantic cognition. This article reviews our contribution to this emerging picture and traces the putative roles of each region within this network. Neuropsychological studies indicate that semantic cognition draws on at least two interacting components: semantic representations [degraded in semantic dementia (SD)] and control processes [deficient in patients with multimodal semantic impairment following stroke aphasia (SA)]. To explore the first component, we employed distortion-corrected functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) in healthy volunteers: these studies convergently indicated that the anterior temporal lobes (ATLs; atrophied in SD) combine information from different modalities within an amodal semantic "hub". Regions of cortex that code specific semantic features ("spokes") also make a critical contribution to knowledge within particular categories. This network of brain regions interacts with semantic control processes reliant on left inferior frontal gyrus (LIFG), posterior middle temporal gyrus (pMTG) and inferior parietal cortices. SA patients with damage to these regions have difficulty focussing on aspects of knowledge that are relevant to the current goal or context, in both verbal and non-verbal tasks. SA patients with LIFG and temporoparietal lesions show similar deficits of semantic control, suggesting that a large-scale distributed cortical network underpins semantic control. Convergent evidence is again provided by fMRI and TMS. We separately manipulated the representational and control demands of a semantic task in fMRI, and found a dissociation within the temporal lobe: ATL was sensitive to the number of meanings retrieved, while pMTG and LIFG showed effects of semantic selection. Moreover, TMS to LIFG and pMTG produced equal disruption of tasks tapping semantic control. The next challenges are to delineate the specific roles of each region within the semantic control network and to specify the way in which control processes interact with semantic representations to focus processing on relevant features of concepts. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.