Re: Humans began to rapidly accumulate technological knowledge through social learning around 600,000 years ago

  Mario Petrinovic wrote:

         Hematite has hardness 5 to 6, iron has 4.5. It has metallic luster, therefore it is a metal.
         300 kya people started to grind hematite a lot (hence red ochre). The change in face is straight forward, teeth receded, producing a chin. This happened simultaneously with the emergence of red ochre. Hence the fairy tale that H.sapiens is "spiritual" because it used red orche to paint his body.

They did use red orche to paint their bodies. This is far from "Proof"
that they were spiritual, but it is evidence consistent with it.
Far better evidence is intentional burials, caring for the dead. It
implies a belief in an afterlife.
Again, far from "Proof" but it is evidence consistent with the view.
If "Spirituality" is a soft spot for you, delete the word and replace
it with two words:  "Symbolic Thinking."
This is something that almost certainly pre dated (so called)
"Modern" man, but how much?
Chimps and gorillas display some level of symbolic thinking, more so
than young human children...
One experiment showed young children a model of a room, and then
showed them where a toy was hidden in that model. Next, they placed
them in that room! They didn't find the toy.
The idea here is that spirituality, religious beliefs required a
level of this "Symbolic Thinking" that just plain doesn't exist in
"Lower life forms."
Thus, evidence for mysticism/spirituality is evidence for symbolic
thinking, and evidence for symbolic thinking is evidence for
mysticism/spirituality.
As for habits/tools changing the face...
If hematite resulted in a chin, absence of that hematite should
present the absence of a chin.
Is this what we see?
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