Qafzeh Cave Evidence for Middle Paleolithic Burials

Qafzeh Cave is an important multicomponent rock shelter with early modern human remains dated to the Middle Paleolithic period. It is located in the Yizrael valley of the Lower Galilee region of Israel, on the slope of Har Qedumim at an elevation of 250 meters (820 feet) above sea level. In addition to the important Middle Paleolithic occupations, Qafzeh has later Upper Paleolithic and Holocene occupations. The oldest levels are dated to the Mousterian Middle Paleolithic period, about 80,000-100,000 years ago (thermoluminescence dates of 92,000 /- 5,000; electron spin resonance dates 82,400-109,000 /- 10,000). In addition to human remains, the site is characterized by a series of hearths; and stone tools from the Middle Paleolithic levels are dominated by artifacts made using the radial or centripetal Levallois technique. Qafzeh cave contains some of the earliest evidence for burials in the world.   Animal and Human Remains Animals represented in the Mousterian levels are woodland-adapted red deer, fallow deer, and aurochs, as well as microvertebrates. The Upper Paleolithic levels include land snails and freshwater bivalves as food sources. Human remains from Qafzeh cave include bones and bone fragments from a minimum of 27 individuals, including eight partial skeletons. Qafzeh 9 and 10 are almost completely intact. Most of the human remains appear to have been purposefully buried: if so, these are very early examples of modern behavior indeed, with the burials direct-dated to ~92,000 years ago (BP). The remains are from anatomically modern humans, with some archaic features; they are directly associated with Levallois-Mousterian assemblage. Cranial Trauma Modern behaviors indicated at the cave include the purposeful burials; the use of ochre for body painting; the presence of marine shells, used as ornamentation and, most interestingly, the survival and eventual ritual interment of a severely brain-damaged child. The image on this page is of this individuals healed head trauma. According to Coqueugniot and colleagues analysis, Qafzeh 11, a juvenile aged between 12-13, suffered a traumatic brain injury about eight years before his or her death. The injury would likely have impacted Qafzeh 11s cognitive and social skills, and it appears as if the juvenile was given a deliberate, ceremonial burial with deer antlers as grave goods. The burial and the survival of the child reflect an elaborate social behavior for the Middle Paleolithic inhabitants of Qafzeh cave. Marine Shells at Qafzeh Cave Unlike the deer antler for Qafzeh 11, the marine shells do not seem to be associated with burials, but rather are scattered more or less randomly throughout the deposit. Species identified include ten Glycymeris insubrica  or G. nummaria. Some of the shells are stained with red, yellow, and black pigments of ochre and manganese. Each shell was perforated, with the perforations either natural and enlarged by percussion or completely created by percussion. At the time of the Mousterian occupation of the cave, the sea coast was about 45-50 kilometers (28-30 miles) away; ochre deposits are known to be located between 6-8 km (3.7-5 mi) from the cave entrance. No other marine resources were found within the cave sites Middle Paleolithic deposits. Qafzeh cave was first excavated by R. Neuville and M. Stekelis in the 1930s, and again between 1965 and 1979 Ofer Bar-Yosef and Bernard Vandermeersch. Sources Bar-Yosef Mayer DE, Vandermeersch B, and Bar-Yosef O. 2009. Shells and ochre in Middle Paleolithic Qafzeh Cave, Israel: indications for modern behavior. Journal of Human Evolution 56(3):307-314.Coqueugniot H, Dutour O, Arensburg B, Duday H, Vandermeersch B, and Tillier A-m. 2014. Earliest Cranio-Encephalic Trauma from the Levantine Middle Palaeolithic: 3D Reappraisal of the Qafzeh 11 Skull, Consequences of Pediatric Brain Damage on Individual Life Condition and Social Care. PLoS ONE 9(7):e102822.Gargett RH. 1999. Middle Palaeolithic burial is not a dead issue: the view from Qafzeh, Saint-Cà ©saire, Kebara, Amud, and Dederiyeh. Journal of Human Evolution 37(1):27-90.Hallin KA, Schoeninger MJ, and Schwarcz HP. 2012. Paleoclimate during Neandertal and anatomically modern human occupation at Amud and Qafzeh, Israel: the stable isotope data. Journal of Human Evolution 62(1):59-73.Hovers E, Ilani S, Bar-Yosef O, and Vandermeersch B. 2003. An early case of color symbolism: Ochre use by mod ern humans in Qafzeh Cave. Current Anthropology 44(4):491-522.Niewoehner WA. 2001. Behavioral inferences from the Skhul/Qafzeh early modern human hand remains. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 98(6):2979-2984.Schwarcz HP, Grà ¼n R, Vandermeersch B, Bar-Yosef O, Valladas H, and Tchernov E. 1988. ESR dates for the hominid burial site of Qafzeh in Israel. Journal of Human Evolution 17(8):733-737.

The Bill Will Help American School Systems Improve Schools

Section 1: This bill will help American school systems improve by making changes to problems that have been ignored for decades. Section 2: It is interesting how the United States is seen as one of the world’s strongest economies while their school systems are so inefficient. The United States spends such a small amount of time improving and updating their education system which molds the minds of their future generations. American education is falling behind because the Nation refuses to make changes on helping schools get up-to-date while the rest of the Nation is evolving and changing. However, an educated America would help achieve two types of goals which are short term and long term. Short term benefits include shortening the†¦show more content†¦The reason why a neighborhood is dangerous, dirty and rundown is because schools are not educating the children in that area effectively. There are three main flaws with our current school system, and the first is that children who face more challenges academically are alienated and categorized as a lost cause. The second issue is that the world is changing but school systems have stayed the same. Finally, the third problem is that teachers do not get timely feedback or get properly evaluated on the progress they make as a teacher. One of the problems is that students who are having trouble in school are not getting the attention and help they need. For generations, the failure of American education has been pushed aside and ignored because people refused to believe that there was a problem.[2] This society has a tendency to isolate the children who see no point in going to school. We, as a society, wait to watch their future crumble instead of inspiring them to get back on track. Once we begin to categorize them as â€Å"hopeless†, we start to give up on more children that need help, and the numbers will continue to rise. The No Child Left Behind program is not sufficient in bringing all students up to standard. One of the reasons for this is the misallocation on education funding. In 2014, the allocated federal funding for ed ucation was roughly 1% of the total federal budget.[3] In order to have education reform, we must create more relevant

Man on the Moon 2 by Kid Cudi free essay sample

My favorite musician, Kid Cudi, just released his newest album, A Speeding Bullet to Heaven. I hadn’t been listing to Kid Cudi to often lately although he was my idol in 2010. That was the year he dropped his debut album Man on the Moon II. This albums has been then anthem for many teens across the country for many years after its release. That’s why I think I should talk about it. This rapper who was just coming up out of Cleveland, dropped a mixtape before this album which got him some of his initial buzz he had, but he didn’t really take off till Man on the Moon II. It may have helped that his first mixtape which wasn’t super popular, was still extremely good and super underrated. One certain super star noticed that his mixtape was good. A few months after it was released Kanye West invited him to his studio to come work with him. After Kanye had just a few studio sessions with him he decided that Kid Cudi would make a good addition to his music label. After getting picked up by Kanye, Kid Cudi was on a shooting star to success, with his popularity growing more and more every single day. Being able to work with Kanye West and his team of producers Kid Cudi was able to get mass amounts of studio time. Plus having a few Kanye West features on an album no matter how good it is can make it explode with popularity. Kid Cudi was working with some of the best and most famous producers of the past decade or so, sitting there with them helping them make the beats he would be rapping over. Kid Cudi has an amazing singing voice that he works into nearly all of his raps, mostly as the chorus but it all works together to sound great. He made sure all of the beats he would be rapping over would create perfect harmony from when he’s going his hardest rapping like he’s the king of hip-hop or when he mixes it up and lets his singing voice shine. His voice works like butter on toast, his flow worked perfectly for his singing to rap transitions. The album took everyone by surprise, it came out in 2010 and was almost instantly deemed a classic in the hip-hop community. Even though nearly everyone just sees rap as a one sided story. Where they rap about their wealth or the amount of drugs they do, or maybe about the crazy amounts of girls they have â€Å"relations† with. Kid Cudi is nearly the polar opposite, don’t get me wrong he has his club bangers and less influential songs. But most of his songs he releases put out positivity, being happy with life, and not letting others get in the way of his dreams. â€Å"I guess Im cool and those happy thoughts in my head Im feeling like Im Peter Pan minus the tights and the fairies happy to see how far Ive come to the same place it began my dreams and imagination. Perfectly at peace so I move along a bit higher† One of his most po pular songs â€Å"Soundtrack to My Life† he talks about the struggles he went through as a kid and how he only could rely on his sister out of his three siblings. He also talks about how he’s never been the same after his father died, and that he â€Å"Try to think of myself as a sacrifice so that the lil’ kids aren’t the only ones who are up at night.† Kid Cudi unlike most rappers makes his music rather relatable to his listeners which is what really helped bring him to fame. But you really have to listen close and not just look at the surface, he even talks about that saying â€Å"Avoid the obvious context of the song†. He also speaks about how being famous isn’t what he was hoping it would be like, he raps about not being able to stop his blog because he would be an â€Å"A-hole† and that he hopes he can settle down one day because he’s always being put on tour. After this album was released he continued with his stat e side tour before he left for his worldwide tour. His touring went on for nearly a year or two before he finally was done with his planned tours. After settling down back in Cleveland he was confronted about someone remixing his song â€Å"Soundtrack to My Life† to be used in a movie, this movie Project X, helped him retain his fan base even when he was working on his music instead of releasing music or touring. This movie made Kid Cudi a pretty penny in return. This movie also brought in a much wider fan base for Kid Cudi, which helped him and hurt him. Not long after this movie was made he released another album, Indicud. Though it was still a good album it was different than what most people were hoping for. Mostly because after touring and once he got home he decided to take up a life of sobriety which he said cleared his mind and brought him enlightenment. This enlightenment he found changed his music, he began to make nearly all his beats and began to sing more, heâ₠¬â„¢s a good singer don’t get me wrong, but there is most certainly better singers out there. But his newly brought in fan base from the movie Project X didn’t really enjoy this album, they mostly knew him for his remixed version of â€Å"Sound Track to My Life† which is a good song but it’s made for parties or the club scene. Indicud was more of a sitting out by the pool in the sun having a grill out with friends type of music. So a lot of these people were looking for an album that they could party too, but it’s just not what they got. With his newest album Speeding Bullet to Heaven, he decided to say screw it to that fan base and made the entire album comprised of almost only his singing vocals and guitar work. When I compare Man on the Moon II to the rest of his work I would give it a solid nine out of ten. Comparing it to almost any other rap album ever though its and easy ten out of ten. This classic hip-hop album hasn’t been forgotten at all, the hip-hop community still praises it. He just made himself so relatable it was very different for the time. His ability to rap about his life and struggle is flawless. He is an amazing artist and deserves more credit than he will ever get. In my opinion I feel like he should be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame right next to rapper legend Run DMC, who is a classic hip hop legend. Kid Cudi himself is a legend he always has uncontrollable energy which comes through in his songs and his live shows.

Letter of Transmittal Essay Example

Letter of Transmittal Essay Technical definitions are used in various walks of life to describe things, objects, people etc. A description can be used to build a character in a novel down to describing how to make a mechanical object work. Descriptions are complicated and simple, depending on the requirements and the audience they address. Many descriptions like scientific ones require a special knowledge of the subject to understand them. This assignment starts off with a description of what a technical description really is. It then explains the methodologies used in describing things and the different types of descriptions namely visual, technical and process. It then goes on to illustrate these types using appropriate examples by describing object which lie in the three types.What is a Technical definition?Technical definitions are of the sort that describes an object, process, place, animal, person or process in the most basic format. Such definitions are usually accepted by a body of experts to be right a nd appropriate in some regard or the other. A good example would be the way scientific definitions are given of various animals using their genus species names. For example breast cancer; it is a type of disease that is classified in the type cancer, in which cells multiply abnormally and replace the healthy ones. It is in essence a metastatic neoplasm of the breast where most of the cases arise from the breast parenchyma or the nipple. Hence this type of disease falls in the malignant tumor category that is the leading cause of cancerous deaths among females.Definitions are of three types; visual, mechanical and process. Visual descriptions pertain to the visual aspects of a certain object or person. Technical descriptions delve into the functional aspects of an object, thing or person. Process descriptions simply describe a process and give an outline to how to perform it in the simplest terms. Following are comprehensive examples of each:Visual DescriptionObject: A pair of jeans. Jeans are trousers, and used cover the lower parts of a persons body below the navel. This particular pair of jeans is blue in color with copper rivets at the joints of cloths and where the stitching ends. The inseams are stitched using a brown colored thread and start from the foot part and end at the waist. This pair is made from denim; a rough sturdy cloth made out of cotton. Jeans are meant to be tough and worn casually in the present era. The light brown tag at the back on the waistline describes it as a Levi’s 501. A red, smaller tag is also present at the left back pocket with the brand name on it. This pair is a loose fit and meant for youngsters around the ages of 18 – 20. The waist is 29 inches and the inseam is 43 inches meaning that the garment will fit a person with a waist measuring 29 inches and a length from navel to ankles of 43 cm. This pair is meant for males although females can also wear it thus rendering it unisex rather than being meant for parti cular group of sex. The area where the jeans ends touches the heels and is torn off a little due to extensive use. Extensive usage is also evident from the fading of the color at the front lapels and back pockets. The texture shows that it has not been washed for a long time and neither has it been pressed like other garments usually are.Analogy: It looks like a normal pair of pants except that it is made of denim. It is similar to the bottom part of a human’s bodyMechanical DescriptionObject: Creative Inspire 5.1 speaker system.A 5.1 speaker system has 6 pieces to it. 5 speakers plus a woofer for sub bass frequency sounds. The objective is to provide surround sound through individual speaker channels and give a sense of realism to whatever is being watched or played. This speaker system is to be used with personal computer systems and also requires a sound card to be installed in the system. It can however also used to watch movies and play video games on a traditional TV wh ich has the necessary components to run the speaker system. The individual speakers are hooked into the woofer which also acts as the control unit. Care has to be taken that speakers are positioned properly around the room and are to be connected to the woofer relevant to their positions. Speakers are connected to the woofer using wires already fixed into each speaker. Therefore five wires go into the woofer according to speaker positions. Apart from this, a set of three color coded wires also goes into the woofer. Care has to be taken to insert the right colored wire into the right color coded slot. Only then will the speakers unction properly else there will be differences in sound quality and direction.Next, the wire is to be connected to the sound card that is installed in the PC. Same care has to be taken here as well regarding color coded wires and slots else 2 or 1 of the speakers may not function at all (depending on in which slot the wire is inserted). Once this is done, it is preferable to keep the woofer and speakers away from TV screens and other devices that might be affected by magnetic interference. It is also preferable to place the woofer on the ground instead of mounting it on the wall. Speakers however can be mounted on a wall. Once this is done, the power chord for the speakers will have to be inserted into a power supply to switch them on. The controller for the system also is attached to the woofer and has two knobs, one for volume and one for bass. Turning the knobs upwards switches on the system and increases the volume or bass. The volume knob also turns the speakers on and a light in the controller indicates it’s ‘ON’ status. Once this is done, playing music using appropriate software on the PC will make sounds emanate from the speaker. Speakers work by converting electrical signals into analogue signals through a copper wire wound round a magnet. Electricity causes movement in the coil which is transferred to a di aphragm resulting in its movement which then causes air around it to move and thus produce sound. The 5 speakers are all of the same size i.e. 6cm wide, 10cm tall and 8cm thick. The woofer however is a cube of each sides measuring 25cm. all components are in black with a silver logo of Creative.Process DescriptionProcess: Making instant coffee.In order to make instant, the first step is to heat water to a boil. This can be done the traditional way using a pan on the stove, using an electric kettle, microwave oven etc. Whatever method is used, it is necessary to bring the water to a boil in order to make good coffee. Set the microwave oven on 1 minute and place a cupful of water in it. After one minute, take the cup out while being careful in handling the cup as it will be very hot. Care should also be taken to not leave any metallic object (spoon etc.) in the oven while heating the water. Once this is done, add two tea spoons of instant coffee to the water. Stir till the contents ar e thoroughly mixed. One may add sugar or milk or cream or all as required. Care should be taken in handling the cup and not spill it as the coffee will be very hot. In order to make coffee using an electric kettle, fill the kettle with water and turn it on. Wait till the kettle starts sounding its whistle and then pour the water into the cup. For the traditional way, pour water in a pan and place on the stove. Light the stove and then wait till the water comes to a boil.