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Alan Thorne

Alan Thorne is an Australian- born academic who has been involved extensively with various anthropological events and is an authority on Australian Aborigine and human genome. Thorne was a professor at Australian National University (ANU) where he taught biology and human anatomy. Through many groundbreaking excavations such as Lake Mungo and Kow Swamp, Alan Thorne has posed significant arguments contradicting the traditionally accepted theories of the journey of human beings through time.

Lake Mungo

Alan Thorne in 1969 reconstructed the remains of LM1 also known as “Mungo Lady” and LM3 or “Mungo Man” in 1974. Dr. Jim Bowler has been credited with the discovery of both LM1 and LM3 but Alan Thorne performed the reconstruction and analysis of the individuals. Through the initial reconstruction of Mungo Lady, Thorne discovered her bones to be thin and frail, much more similar to the bones found in any human being today. The Mungo Lady’s skull thickness in particular proved to be the biggest contradiction because other hominid specimens found from around the same time period as her in Australia, which was about 25,000 years ago, were tall, thick-skulled hominids. Upon realizing this contradiction found from the Mungo Lady, Thorne began to examine the possibility of new theories to the fundamental question; “where did Homo sapiens come from?”.

If Mungo Lady has a skull and overall anatomy much more advanced to resemble that of a modern day human, but was found from an era and location where such hominids were not believed to exist yet, then the theory of “out of Africa” human migration mustn’t be entirely correct. Along with colleagues from various other parts of the world, Thorne has spent much time and energy attempting to prove that there was only ever one migration out of Africa. The migration, which potentially took place around two million years ago, was of the Homo erectus species. The study demonstrates that rather than being a second wave of migration from Africa about 100,000 to 120,000 years ago of the new and improved Homo sapiens there proved instead to be “regional continuity”. In other words, Thorne believes that the second migration never happened and that Homo erectus from the first wave of migration from Africa two million years ago is the base of evolution for humans.

Kow Swamp

Thorne is known for his influential work with leading excavations at the Kow Swamp burial ground 10 km southeast of Cohuna in the central Murray Valley, Australia. Through many excavations, Thorne and other colleagues unearthed between 1968 and 1972, remains from 22 individuals that all fell within the Pleistocene era. Through the reconstruction of the individuals excavated, Thorne and his team were able to examine further the many features that characterized the time period. This research provided much insight on what Australian ancestors would have looked like as well as their many lifestyles. Additionally, this work was combined with many other excavations going on in Australia and Asia around the same time that were exploring the possibility of multiregional human evolution, rather than the widely believed, “out of Africa” theory.

The studies performed on the bodies resulted in an alternate theory to the more commonly accepted second wave of ancestry from Africa. These bodies that were recreated proved to be structured similarly to modern humans rather than the era they were dated and as such some the theory is flawed. The multiregional theory dictates that the initial voyage from Africa 200 million years ago was the only one and from their these humans travelled further outwards to populate the earth and adapt inter- related with other hominids of surrounding regions. Through time, the hominids adapted to their surroundings and have remained populating planet earth evolving to modern day human beings.

Regional Continuity

The argument of regional continuity has been significant in the anthropological realm and has been theorized by many researchers from all different fields of work as to the ultimate question of how humans have evolved. This question is so important because if the new theory proves true, then much of the fundamental knowledge of human anatomy could be flawed. Thorne, along with colleagues around the world are calling regional continuity the more likely path of human history. The theory believes that around 200 million years ago Homo sapiens (not erectus) left Africa and dispersed across the Middle East, from Europe to North and South America, and Asia down through Australia. With this theory, it is thus argued that truly all humans have come from that initial voyage of 200 million years ago. The reason for sub species of the hominids i.e. erectus and antecessor, can be related to different human races of today such as tall and slender southern traits compared to shorter and stockier northern characteristics. Fundamental to this argument is the fact that all of these hominids were capable of sexual reproduction with a member of an opposite sex from any of the hominid races. As time progressed, these hominids would have migrated outwards and would often reproduce with different hominids to create the races found today.

Career

Thorne has held positions on many auspicious organizations such as the Myanmar-Australian Archaeology Project, the Australian Academy of the Humanities and as a member of the executive committee of the International Association for the Study of Human Paleontology. Thorne is also known for making many documentary films touching on various anthropological topics such as the film series titled, “Man on the Rim”.

Bibliography