title: Gerrymandering in the United States

text: Between the Reconstruction Era and mid-20th century, white Southern Democrats effectively controlled redistricting throughout the Southern United States. In areas where some African-American and other minorities succeeded in registering, some states created districts that were gerrymandered to reduce the voting impact of minorities. Minorities were effectively deprived of their franchise into the 1960s. With the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and its subsequent amendments, redistricting to carve maps to intentionally diminish the power of voters who were in a racial or linguistic minority, was prohibited. The Voting Rights Act was amended by Congress in the 1980s, Congress to "make states redraw maps if they have a discriminatory effect." In July, 2017, San Juan County, Utah was ordered to redraw its county commission and school board election districts again after U.S. District Judge Robert Shelby ruled them unconstitutional. It was argued that the voice of Native Americans, who were in the majority, had been suppressed "when they are packed into gerrymandered districts."


title: Gerrymandering in the United States

text: While the Equal Protection Clause, along with Section 2 and Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act, prohibit jurisdictions from gerrymandering electoral districts to dilute the votes of racial groups, the Supreme Court has held that in some instances, the Equal Protection Clause prevents jurisdictions from drawing district lines to favor racial groups. The Supreme Court first recognized these "affirmative racial gerrymandering" claims in "Shaw v. Reno" ("Shaw I") (1993), holding that plaintiffs "may state a claim by alleging that [redistricting] legislation, though race neutral on its face, rationally cannot be understood as anything other than an effort to separate voters into different districts on the basis of race, and that the separation lacks sufficient justification". The Supreme Court reasoned that these claims were cognizable because relying on race in redistricting "reinforces racial stereotypes and threatens to undermine our system of representative democracy by signaling to elected officials that they represent a particular racial group rather than their constituency as a whole". Later opinions characterized the type of unconstitutional harm created by racial gerrymandering as an "expressive harm", which law professors Richard Pildes and Richard Neimi have described as a harm "that results from the idea or attitudes expressed through a governmental action."


title: Gerrymandering in the United States

text: Subsequent cases further defined the counters of racial gerrymandering claims and how those claims relate to the Voting Rights Act. In "United States v. Hays" (1995), the Supreme Court held that only those persons who reside in a challenged district may bring a racial gerrymandering claim. In "Miller v. Johnson" (1995), the Supreme Court held that a redistricting plan must be subjected to strict scrutiny if the jurisdiction used race as the "predominant factor" in determining how to draw district lines. The court defined "predominance" as meaning that the jurisdiction gave more priority to racial considerations than to traditional redistricting principles such as "compactness, contiguity, [and] respect for political subdivisions or communities defined by actual shared interests." In determining whether racial considerations predominated over traditional redistricting principles, courts may consider both direct and circumstantial evidence of the jurisdiction's intent in drawing the district lines, and irregularly-shaped districts constitute strong circumstantial evidence that the jurisdiction relied predominately on race. If a court concludes that racial considerations predominated, then a redistricting plan is considered a "racially gerrymandered" plan and must be subjected to strict scrutiny, meaning that the redistricting plan will be upheld as constitutional only if it is narrowly tailored to advance a compelling state interest. In "Bush v. Vera" (1996), the Supreme Court in a plurality opinion assumed that compliance with Section 2 or Section 5 of the Act constituted compelling interests, and lower courts have treated these two interests as the only compelling interests that may justify the creation of racially gerrymandered districts.


title: Gerrymandering in the United States

text: In "Hunt v. Cromartie" (1999) and its follow-up case "Easley v. Cromartie" (2001), the Supreme Court approved a racially focused gerrymandering of a congressional district on the grounds that the definition was not pure racial gerrymandering but instead partisan gerrymandering, which is constitutionally permissible. With the increasing racial polarization of parties in the South in the U.S. as conservative whites move from the Democratic to the Republican Party, gerrymandering may become partisan and also achieve goals for ethnic representation.


title: Gerrymandering in the United States

text: Various examples of affirmative racial gerrymandering have emerged. When the state legislature considered representation for Arizona's Native American reservations, they thought each needed their own House member, because of historic conflicts between the Hopi and Navajo nations. Since the Hopi reservation is completely surrounded by the Navajo reservation, the legislature created an unusual district configuration for the 2nd congressional district that featured a fine filament along a river course several hundred miles in length to attach the Hopi reservation to the rest of the district; the arrangement lasted until 2013. The California state legislature created a congressional district (2003–2013) that extended over a narrow coastal strip for several miles. It ensured that a common community of interest will be represented, rather than having portions of the coastal areas be split up into districts extending into the interior, with domination by inland concerns.


title: Gerrymandering in the United States

text: In the case of "League of United Latin American Citizens v. Perry", the United States Supreme Court upheld on June 28, 2006, most of a Texas congressional map suggested in 2003 by former United States House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, and enacted by the state of Texas. The 7–2 decision allows state legislatures to redraw and gerrymander districts as often as they like (not just after the decennial census). In his dissenting opinion in "LULAC v. Perry", Justice John Paul Stevens, joined by Justice Stephen Breyer, quoted Bill Ratliffe, former Texas lieutenant governor and member of the Texas state senate saying, "political gain for the Republicans was 110% the motivation for the plan," and argued that a plan whose "sole intent" was partisan could violate the Equal Protection Clause. This was notable as previously Justice Stevens had joined Justice Breyer's opinion in "Easley v. Cromartie", which held that explicitly partisan motivation for gerrymanders was permissible and a defense against claims of racial gerrymandering. Thus they may work to protect their political parties' standing and number of seats, so long as they do not harm racial and ethnic minority groups. A 5–4 majority declared one congressional district unconstitutional in the case because of harm to an ethnic minority.


title: Gerrymandering in the United States

text: In "Shelby County v. Holder" (2013) the Court ruled by a 5 to 4 vote that Section 4(b) of the Voting Rights Act was unconstitutional because the coverage formula was based on data over 40 years old, making it no longer responsive to current needs and therefore an impermissible burden on the constitutional principles of federalism and equal sovereignty of the states. The Court did not strike down Section 5, but without Section 4(b), no jurisdiction will be subject to Section 5 preclearance unless Congress enacts a new coverage formula. By rendering Section 5 inoperable, the Court removed federal jurisdiction over matters arising from gerrymandering.


title: Gerrymandering in the United States

text: Since the 1790 United States census, the United States Census Bureau has counted prisoner populations as residents of the districts in which they are incarcerated, rather than in the same district as their previous pre-incarceration residence. In jurisdictions where incarcerated people cannot vote, moving boundaries around a prison can create a district out of what would otherwise be a population of voters which is too small. One extreme example is Waupun, Wisconsin, where two city council districts are made up of 61% and 76% incarcerated people, but as of 2019, neither elected representative has visited the local prisons.


title: Gerrymandering in the United States

text: "Prison gerrymandering" has been criticized for distorting racial demographics and, as a result, political representation. A 2021 article in "The New York Times" argued that, as prisoners are disproportionately people of color from urban areas incarcerated in rural areas, "counting people where they’re imprisoned takes political power away from racial minorities in cities and transfers it to whites in rural areas."


title: Gerrymandering in the United States

text: In 2018, the Census Bureau announced that it would retain the policy, asserting that the policy "is consistent with the concept of usual residence, as established by the Census Act of 1790," but also conceding assistance to states who wish to 'move' their prisoner population back to the prisoners' pre-incarceration addresses for redistricting and other purposes".


title: Gerrymandering in the United States

text: A number of states have since ordered their state governments to recognize incarcerated persons as residents of their pre-incarceration homes for the sake of legislative and congressional redistricting at all levels. These include the states of Maryland and New York in time for the 2010 census. States that made similar orders in time for the 2020 census include California (2011), Delaware (2010), Nevada (2019), Washington (2019), New Jersey (2020), Colorado (2020), Virginia (2020) and Connecticut (2021)


title: Gerrymandering in the United States

text: Additionally, Colorado (2002), Michigan (1966), Tennessee (2016) and Virginia (2013) have passed laws restricting counties and municipalities from (or allowing counties and municipalities to avoid) prison-based redistricting, and Massachusetts passed a 2014 resolution requesting the Census Bureau to end the practice of counting prisoners in their incarceration districts. Pennsylvania's legislative redistricting committee voted in 2021 to draw new legislative maps which avoid prison gerrymandering, as did Rhode Island's legislative redistricting committee in 2022 for legislative and congressional maps. Montana's committee also voted to avoid prison gerrymandering.


title: Gerrymandering in the United States

text: Various political and legal remedies have been used or proposed to diminish or prevent gerrymandering in the country.


title: Gerrymandering in the United States

text: Various constitutional and statutory provisions may compel a court to strike down a gerrymandered redistricting plan. At the federal level, the Supreme Court has held that if a jurisdiction's redistricting plan violates the Equal Protection Clause or Voting Rights Act of 1965, a federal court must order the jurisdiction to propose a new redistricting plan that remedies the gerrymandering. (Under "Rucho v. Common Cause", this does not include purely partisan gerrymandering, but can include maps drawn to promote white supremacy, for example.) If the jurisdiction fails to propose a new redistricting plan, or its proposed redistricting plan continues to violate the law, then the court itself must draw a redistricting plan that cures the violation and use its equitable powers to impose the plan on the jurisdiction.


title: Gerrymandering in the United States

text: In the Supreme Court case of "Karcher v. Daggett" (1983), a New Jersey redistricting plan was overturned when it was found to be unconstitutional by violating the constitutional principle of one person, one vote. Despite the state claiming its unequal redistricting was done to preserve minority voting power, the court found no evidence to support this and deemed the redistricting unconstitutional.


title: Gerrymandering in the United States

text: At the state level, state courts may order or impose redistricting plans on jurisdictions where redistricting legislation prohibits gerrymandering. For example, in 2010 Florida adopted two state constitutional amendments that prohibit the Florida Legislature from drawing redistricting plans that favor or disfavor any political party or incumbent. Ohio residents passed an initiative in 2018 that requires the redistricting maps to have at least 50% approval by the minority party in the legislature.


title: Gerrymandering in the United States

text: Moon Duchin, a Tufts University professor, has proposed the use of metric geometry to measure gerrymandering for forensic purposes.


title: Gerrymandering in the United States

text: Some states have established non-partisan redistricting commissions with redistricting authority. Washington, Arizona, and California have created standing committees for redistricting following the 2010 census. However, it has been argued that the Californian standing committee has failed to end gerrymandering. Rhode Island and the New Jersey Redistricting Commission have developed "ad hoc" committees, but developed the past two decennial reapportionments tied to new census data.


title: Gerrymandering in the United States

text: The Arizona State Legislature challenged the constitutionality of a non-partisan commission, rather than the legislature, for redistricting. In "Arizona State Legislature v. Arizona Independent Redistricting Commission" (2015), the United States Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of non-partisan commissions.


title: Gerrymandering in the United States

text: Some have proposed using a computer program to draw districts. Under this approach, mapmakers would select a redistricting algorithm to draw districts based on a predetermined set of instructions. A computer-based approach offers the potential to prevent gerrymandering by removing human mapmakers from the process. The challenge is agreeing on a redistricting algorithm. Many of the choices that go into the design of a redistricting algorithm have predictable political outcomes, so political bias can still play a role in a computer-based approach.


title: Gerrymandering in the United States

text: Alternatively, redistricting algorithms can be used to find gerrymandering. An algorithm can compare proposed districts to a sample of other potential redistricting plans to determine to what extent the proposed districts are outliers. If proposed districts have more extreme features than most of the sample, the proposed plans are likely gerrymanders. This kind of analysis has played prominent roles in partisan gerrymandering litigation.


title: Gerrymandering in the United States

text: Many redistricting algorithms have been developed with varying results and several programs are capable of satisfying all of the redistricting criteria. No U.S. state has adopted a redistricting algorithm. Although, some states have introduced proposals to consider redistricting algorithms.


title: Gerrymandering in the United States

text: The predominant voting system in the United States is a first-past-the-post system that uses single-member districts. Various alternative district-based voting systems that do not rely on redistricting, or rely on redistricting minimally, have been proposed that may mitigate against the ability to gerrymander. These systems typically involve a form of at-large elections or multimember districts. Examples of such systems include the single-transferable vote, cumulative voting, and limited voting.


title: Gerrymandering in the United States

text: Proportional voting systems, such as those used in all but three European states, would bypass the problem altogether. In these systems, the party that gets, for example, 30 percent of the votes gets roughly 30 percent of the seats in the legislature. Although it is common for European states to have more than two parties, a sufficiently high election threshold can limit the number of parties elected. Some proportional voting systems have no districts or larger multimember districts and may break the strong constituency link, a cornerstone of current American politics, by eliminating the dependency of individual representatives on a concrete electorate. However, systems like mixed-member proportional representation keep local single-member constituencies but balance their results with nationally elected or regionally-elected representatives to reach party proportionality.


title: Gerrymandering in the United States

text: A 2020 study found that gerrymandering "impedes numerous party functions at both the congressional and state house levels. Candidates are less likely to contest districts when their party is disadvantaged by a districting plan. Candidates that do choose to run are more likely to have weak resumes. Donors are less willing to contribute money. And ordinary voters are less apt to support the targeted party. These results suggest that gerrymandering has long‐term effects on the health of the democratic process beyond simply costing or gaining parties seats in the legislature."


title: Gerrymandering in the United States

text: Gerrymandering has the ability to create numerous problems for the constituents impacted by the redistricting. A study done by the peer-reviewed Environmental Justice Journal analyzed how gerrymandering contributes to environmental racism. It suggested that partisan gerrymandering can often lead to adverse health complications for minority populations that live closer to United States superfund sites and additionally found that during redistricting periods, minority populations are "effectively gerrymandered out" of districts that tend to have fewer people of color in them and are farther away from toxic waste sites. This redistricting can be seen as a deliberate move to further marginalize minority populations and restrict them from gaining access to congressional representation and potentially fixing environmental hazards in their communities.


title: Gerrymandering in the United States

text: Gerrymandering was considered by many Democrats to be one of the biggest obstacles they came across during the 2018 U.S. midterm election. In early 2018, both the United States Supreme Court and the Pennsylvania Supreme Court determined that the Republican parties in North Carolina and Pennsylvania had committed unconstitutional gerrymandering in the respective cases "Cooper v. Harris" and "League of Women Voters of Pennsylvania v. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania". In the case of Pennsylvania, the map was reconfigured into an evenly split congressional delegation, which gave Democrats in Pennsylvania more congressional representation and subsequently aided the Democrats in flipping the U.S. House of Representatives. In contrast, North Carolina did not reconfigure the districts prior to the midterm elections, which ultimately gave Republicans there an edge during the election. Republicans in North Carolina acquired 50% of the vote, which subsequently garnered them about 77% of the available seats in congress. Wisconsin was the only state in the 2018 midterms which the party receiving the majority of votes held a minority of congressional seats.


title: Gerrymandering in the United States

text: At a federal level, gerrymandering has been blamed for a decrease in competitive elections, movement toward extreme party positions, and gridlock in Congress. Harry Enten of FiveThirtyEight argues that decreasing competition is partly due to gerrymandering, but even more so due to the population of the United States self-segregating by political ideology, which is seen in by-county voter registrations. Enten points to studies which find that factors other than gerrymandering account for over 75% of the increase in polarization in the past forty years, presumably due largely to changes among voters themselves. Because the Senate (which cannot be gerrymandered due to the fixed state borders) has been passing fewer bills but the House (which is subject to gerrymandering) has been passing more (comparing 1993–2002 to 2013–2016), Enten concludes gridlock is due to factors other than gerrymandering.


title: Mongolic languages

text: The Mongolic languages are a language family spoken by the Mongolic peoples in Eastern Europe, Central Asia, North Asia and East Asia, mostly in Mongolia and surrounding areas and in Kalmykia and Buryatia. The best-known member of this language family, Mongolian, is the primary language of most of the residents of Mongolia and the Mongol residents of Inner Mongolia, with an estimated 5.7+ million speakers.


title: Mongolic languages

text: The closest relatives of the Mongolic languages appear to be the para-Mongolic languages, which include the extinct Khitan, Tuyuhun, and possibly also Tuoba languages.


title: Mongolic languages

text: A few linguists have grouped Mongolic with Turkic, Tungusic and possibly Koreanic and Japonic as part of the widely discredited Altaic family.


title: Mongolic languages

text: Contemporary Mongolic languages are as follows. The classification and numbers of speakers follow Janhunen (2006), except for Southern Mongolic, which follows Nugteren (2011).


title: Mongolic languages

text: Alexander Vovin (2007) identifies the extinct Tabγač or Tuoba language as a Mongolic language. However, Chen (2005) argues that Tuoba (Tabγač) was a Turkic language. Vovin (2018) suggests that the Ruanruan language of the Rouran Khaganate was a Mongolic language, close but not identical to Middle Mongolian.


title: Mongolic languages

text: In another classificational approach, there is a tendency to call Central Mongolian a language consisting of Mongolian proper, Oirat and Buryat, while Ordos (and implicitly also Khamnigan) is seen as a variety of Mongolian proper. Within Mongolian proper, they then draw a distinction between Khalkha on the one hand and Southern Mongolian (containing everything else) on the other hand. A less common subdivision of Central Mongolic is to divide it into a Central dialect (Khalkha, Chakhar, Ordos), an Eastern dialect (Kharchin, Khorchin), a Western dialect (Oirat, Kalmyk), and a Northern dialect (consisting of two Buryat varieties). The broader delimitation of Mongolian may be based on mutual intelligibility, but an analysis based on a tree diagram such as the one above faces other problems because of the close contacts between, for example, Buryat and Khalkha Mongols during history, thus creating or preserving a dialect continuum. Another problem lies in the sheer comparability of terminology, as Western linguists use "language" and "dialect", while Mongolian linguists use the Grimmian trichotomy "language" (kele), "dialect" (nutuγ-un ayalγu) and "Mundart" (aman ayalγu).


title: Mongolic languages

text: Proto-Mongolic can be clearly identified chronologically with the language spoken by the Mongols during Genghis Khan's early expansion in the 1200-1210s.


title: Mongolic languages

text: "Pre-Proto-Mongolic", by contrast, is a continuum that stretches back indefinitely in time. It is divided into "Early Pre-Proto-Mongolic" and "Late Pre-Proto-Mongolic". Late Pre-Proto-Mongolic refers to the Mongolic spoken a few centuries before Proto-Mongolic by the Mongols and neighboring tribes like the Merkits and Keraits. Certain archaic words and features in Written Mongol go back past Proto-Mongolic to Late Pre-Proto-Mongolic (Janhunen 2006).


title: Mongolic languages

text: In the case of Early Pre-Proto-Mongolic, certain loanwords in the Mongolic languages point to early contact with Oghur (Pre-Proto-Bulgaric) Turkic, also known as r-Turkic. These loanwords precede Common Turkic (z-Turkic) loanwords and include:


title: Mongolic languages

text: Later Turkic peoples in Mongolia all spoke forms of Common Turkic (z-Turkic) as opposed to Oghur (Bulgharic) Turkic, which withdrew to the west in the 4th century. The Chuvash language, spoken by 1 million people in European Russia, is the only living representative of Oghur Turkic which split from Proto Turkic around the 1st century AD.


title: Mongolic languages

text: Words in Mongolic like "" (brown, Common Turkic "yagiz") and "nidurga" (fist, Common Turkic "yudruk") with initial *d and *n versus Common Turkic *y are sufficiently archaic to indicate loans from an earlier stage of Oghur (Pre-Proto-Bulgaric). This is because Chuvash and Common Turkic do not differ in these features despite differing fundamentally in rhotacism-lambdacism (Janhunen 2006). Oghur tribes lived in the Mongolian borderlands before the 5th century, and provided Oghur loanwords to Early Pre-Proto-Mongolic before Common Turkic loanwords.


title: Mongolic languages

text: Following Sergei Starostin, Martine Robbeets suggested that Mongolic languages belong to a "Transeurasian" superfamily also comprising Japonic languages, Korean, Tungusic languages and Turkic languages, but this view has been severely criticized.


title: Mongolic languages

text: "Proto-Mongolic", the ancestor language of the modern Mongolic languages, is very close to Middle Mongol, the language spoken at the time of Genghis Khan and the Mongol Empire. Most features of modern Mongolic languages can thus be reconstructed from Middle Mongol. An exception would be the voice suffix like -caga- 'do together', which can be reconstructed from the modern languages but is not attested in Middle Mongol.


title: Mongolic languages

text: The languages of the historical Donghu, Wuhuan, and Xianbei peoples might have been related to Proto-Mongolic. For Tabghach, the language of the founders of the Northern Wei dynasty, for which the surviving evidence is very sparse, and Khitan, for which evidence exists that is written in the two Khitan scripts (large and small) which have as yet not been fully deciphered, a direct affiliation to Mongolic can now be taken to be most likely or even demonstrated.


title: Fishbone

text: Fishbone is an American rock band formed in Los Angeles in 1979, that plays a fusion of ska, punk, funk, metal, reggae, and soul. AllMusic has described the group as "one of the most distinctive and eclectic alternative rock bands of the late '80s. With their hyperactive, self-conscious diversity, goofy sense of humor, and sharp social commentary, the group gained a sizable cult following".


title: Fishbone

text: Fishbone first assembled as school students in 1979 with John Norwood Fisher (bass), his brother Philip "Fish" Fisher (drums), Angelo Moore (vocals, saxophones, theremin), Kendall Jones (guitar), "Dirty" Walter A. Kibby II (vocals, trumpet), and Christopher Dowd (keyboards, trombone, vocals). They achieved their greatest commercial success in the late 1980s and early 1990s, after which they went through many personnel changes. From 2003 to 2010, John Norwood Fisher and Angelo Moore were the last remaining original members of the band. In the 2010s, all the other original members except Kendall Jones rejoined the band for various reunion tours and anniversary activities.


title: Fishbone

text: Fishbone got started in 1979 as a "disparate, all-black oddball crew" when the members were in junior high school. The Fisher brothers, Jones, Dowd, and Kibby were all from South Central Los Angeles and were included in a school busing program that sent them daily to the San Fernando Valley, where they met Moore, who was native to the area. After first using the name Megatron with Titus Norris on vocals, the sextet adopted the name Fishbone and formed a unique stew of different styles that became popular in the Los Angeles club scene and was a great influence on several subsequent alternative bands. Their first club date was at Madame Wong's, the influential venue in Los Angeles's Chinatown that had been a showcase for a variety of seminal punk bands in the 1980s. They formed strong friendships with Los Angeles bands like Red Hot Chili Peppers, Thelonious Monster, and Psi Com. Fishbone were signed to Columbia Records in 1983 after being spotted at a club gig by Brian O'Neal of The BusBoys. Their first release was the 1985 single "Party at Ground Zero", followed by a self-titled EP, "Fishbone" produced by David Kahne. They released their first full-length album "In Your Face" in 1986, and the following year they performed "Jamaica Ska" in the Annette Funicello/Frankie Avalon reunion movie "Back to the Beach". Fishbone's first major international tour was as the opening act for Beastie Boys on the 1987 "Licensed to Ill" tour.


title: Fishbone

text: Fishbone was mostly considered to be a ska and funk band in their early years, but later became more guitar-driven with a focus on rock and soul music. The 1988 album "Truth and Soul" brought Fishbone wide critical acclaim. With this album, the band also added left-leaning social commentary to their lyrics, covering topics such as the breakup of families, contemporary racism, fascism, nuclear war, and oppression in lower income housing projects. The album was highlighted by a hard rock-inspired version of Curtis Mayfield's classic "Freddie's Dead" from the film "Super Fly". The music video, directed by Douglas Gayeton, became the band's first hit on MTV. That same year, the group toured with Red Hot Chili Peppers and became nationally known in the burgeoning alternative music scene. Also that year, Fishbone and Little Richard recorded the Lead Belly song "Rock Island Line" for the tribute album "".


title: Fishbone

text: The band added former Miles Davis sideman John Bigham on guitar and keyboards in 1989. The 1991 album "The Reality of My Surroundings" was a critical and commercial success, reaching #49 on the Billboard albums chart. One month before the album's release, the group played a performance on "Saturday Night Live" of "Sunless Saturday," a song which later featured an MTV video directed by Spike Lee. The song "Everyday Sunshine" also became a modest hit on radio and MTV.


title: Fishbone

text: While the band retained their roots in funk and ska, the 1993 album "Give a Monkey a Brain and He'll Swear He's the Center of the Universe" included songs with free jazz, hard rock, punk, and heavy metal elements. At the time of the album's release, the band began to tear apart internally. Just before Fishbone joined the 1993 Lollapalooza tour, guitarist Kendall Jones was accused of mental instability and quit the band, moving to Northern California. Bassist John Norwood Fisher tracked Jones down in the belief that he needed rescue from a religious cult, only to be charged with attempted kidnapping; Fisher was acquitted at trial. A benefit concert to help with Fisher's legal expenses featured Porno for Pyros, Primus, Tool, and Alice in Chains. Keyboardist Christopher Dowd left Fishbone in 1994 and released an album titled "Puzzle" in 1997 under the name The Seedy Arkhestra, with various guests including Jeff Buckley and N'Dea Davenport. The album included an anti-Fishbone song called "Flog Your Dead Horse."


title: Fishbone

text: Now a five-piece, Fishbone was dropped by Sony Records (formerly Columbia) in 1995, upon presenting their next album. The band added more heavy metal and hardcore punk influences to their sound on the 1996 concept album "Chim Chim's Badass Revenge", released by Rowdy Records and produced by Dallas Austin. The album went largely unnoticed by the general public, peaking at just #158 on the Billboard albums chart. In 1996, the band contributed to the AIDS benefit album "" produced by the Red Hot Organization. In 1998 the band lost another founding member, drummer Philip "Fish" Fisher, who became a session drummer and later appeared in the heavy metal band Wicked Wisdom. After brief periods with various drummers, the position was filled definitively by John Steward. John Bigham also left the band during this period to pursue his own career, later founding the band The Soul of John Black; Bigham was replaced by former Sound Barrier and Mother's Finest guitarist Tracey "Spacey T" Singleton. Keyboardist and horn player Anthony Brewster (The Untouchables) was a member of the group from 1997 to 1998, while John McKnight (from Ben Harper's band) joined on keyboards, trombone, and guitar. During the latter part of the 1990s, Fishbone was without a recording contract and earned their keep through constant touring.


title: Fishbone

text: Fishbone maintained their dedicated fan base and achieved another major record deal with Hollywood Records in 2000. They were given the chance to record a new album with several special guests, including H.R. of Bad Brains, Gwen Stefani, George Clinton, Rick James, Donny Osmond, and Los Fabulosos Cadillacs. The resulting album, "", saw poor sales, though AllMusic called it the band's best album in a decade. The band was dropped from Hollywood Records and headed back on the road. John McKnight left the band in 2001, and the group continued as a five-piece. In 2002, on their own independent record label, they released "Live at the Temple Bar and More" which contained all new songs recorded live throughout 2001 and 2002. This was later complemented by a live CD/DVD, "Live in Amsterdam", containing most of their hits and filmed at the 2002 Cannabis Cup Festival in Amsterdam, Netherlands.


title: Fishbone

text: In late 2003 Fishbone lost another founding member when Walter Kibby left the band. Guitarist Tracy Singleton departed as well. After leaving Fishbone, Kibby released two albums with his band Dirty Walt & The Columbus Sanitation: "To Put It Bluntly" (2000) and "Still Smokin' "(2009). Kibby and Singleton also collaborated in the band Year of the Dragon, releasing the albums "A Time to Love Is a Time to Bleed" (2006) and "Blunt Force Karma" (2009). Together, they also recorded tracks with Swade G (Kibby's younger brother Wade Antonio Kibby) for the album "Ghetto Life" (2010).


title: Fishbone

text: After the 2003 departure of Kibby and Singleton, the last two founding members John Norwood Fisher and Angelo Moore, along with drummer John Steward, restarted Fishbone with Rocky George of Suicidal Tendencies and Tori Ruffin of The Time on guitars (though Ruffin left soon thereafter), and Dre Gipson on keyboards. In 2005 John McKnight returned on trombone and guitar. Trumpet players during this period were PaDre Holmes, Fernando Pullum, Mervin Campbell, and Curtis Storey. The line-up of Fisher, Moore, Steward, George, Gipson, Storey, and McKnight recorded the studio album "Still Stuck in Your Throat" with producer David Kahne, who had worked on the band's early albums. The album was released in October 2006 in Europe, and in April 2007 in the United States. Music videos were recorded for the cover song "Date Rape" by Sublime, and for the song "Let Dem Ho's Fight."


title: Fishbone

text: In 2008 and 2009, departed original members Walter Kibby, Christopher Dowd, and Kendall Jones joined Fishbone on stage on various occasions, most notably for the shoot of the Pepsi "Pass" commercial, which aired in January 2009. In April 2008, Stephan Kraemer directed the shoot of a live CD/DVD recorded in Bordeaux, France. The DVD "Fishbone Live" was released on May 10, 2009.


title: Fishbone

text: In January 2010, John McKnight left Fishbone for the second time. During this period original member Walter Kibby returned on trumpet and vocals. During a 2011 tour, Tom "Tom-Bone" Ralls, formerly of Weapon of Choice, filled in on trombone. Tori Ruffin also briefly returned to play guitar in place of Rocky George, who was unable to tour. After the tour, Jay Armant, a former student of Fernando Pullum, joined as the new trombone player. Fishbone released a seven-track EP titled "Crazy Glue" on October 11, 2011.


title: Fishbone

text: Current and former members of the band were deeply involved in the making of the documentary film "", directed by Lev Anderson and Chris Metzler. Narrated by Laurence Fishburne and featuring interviews with Les Claypool, Gwen Stefani, Flea, Branford Marsalis, George Clinton, Ice-T, and Gogol Bordello, the film debuted at the Los Angeles Film Festival on June 19, 2010. The film has screened at more than 100 film festivals in twenty countries, winning 12 awards for Best Documentary. One of the top-reviewed documentaries of 2011–2012, the film has a certified fresh ranking of 100% on RottenTomatoes.com and was nominated for a Golden Tomato Award. The film was rolled out in United States theaters nationwide with bookings in over seventy-five cities, including extended runs in New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco, plus week-long engagements in 20+ cities including Chicago, Boston, Seattle, Portland, Detroit, New Orleans, Baltimore, and Kansas City. A DVD was released by The Cinema Guild on February 21, 2012 and received a national TV broadcast on the public television series "AfroPoP".


title: Fishbone

text: In February 2013, keyboardist Dre Gipson left the band after nine years to focus on a new project called Hunter Green. Fishbone was in the midst of a US tour, and reggae musician Freddie Flint filled in temporarily on keyboards. In July 2013, Paul Hampton (formerly of The Skeletones) joined as Fishbone's new keyboardist. In February 2014, federal judge Jan E. DuBois ruled that Fishbone had to pay $1.4 million to a woman who suffered a fractured skull and collarbone during a 2010 concert in Philadelphia when Angelo Moore stage-dove and landed on top of her. A five-track EP titled "Intrinsically Intertwined" was released on April 22, 2014.


title: Fishbone

text: On November 18, 2016 founding member and original drummer Philip "Fish" Fisher played his first show with the band since his departure in 1998. On November 26, Fishbone performed at a Jimi Hendrix tribute concert at Harlem's Apollo Theater, at which time drummer John Steward departed Fishbone after 18 years to make room for the returning Fish. In January 2017 the band announced a tour to commemorate the 1996 album "Chim Chim's Badass Revenge". Former guitarist John Bigham returned to the band, after which Rocky George departed after 14 years of service. In late 2017 Moore, Kibby, and John Norwood Fisher were featured in the song "Creatures of Habit" by funk-rock supergroup The Big Ol' Nasty Getdown.


title: Fishbone

text: In January 2018, Christopher Dowd made a guest appearance with the band onstage and decided to rejoin, thus replacing both trombonist Jay Armant and keyboardist Paul Hampton. The band's 2018 lineup consisted of Angelo Moore, John Norwood Fisher, Fish, Walter Kibby, Christopher Dowd, and John Bigham, thus recreating the classic Fishbone lineup minus Kendall Jones. In December 2019, John Bigham announced that he was no longer playing with Fishbone to focus on his solo work. Guitarist Mark Phillips joined the band shortly after. In November 2020, Kendall Jones joined the band on stage for the first time since 1993 for a performance of "Them Bones" by Alice in Chains for a tribute to the band arranged by the Museum of Pop Culture. Phillip "Fish" Fisher left the group again in late 2021, after which John Steward rejoined on drums.


title: Battle of Philippi

text: The Battle of Philippi was the final battle in the Wars of the Second Triumvirate between the forces of Mark Antony and Octavian (of the Second Triumvirate) and the leaders of Julius Caesar's assassination, Brutus and Cassius in 42 BC, at Philippi in Macedonia. The Second Triumvirate declared the civil war ostensibly to avenge Julius Caesar's assassination in 44 BC, but the underlying cause was a long-brewing conflict between the so-called Optimates and the so-called Populares.


title: Battle of Philippi

text: The battle, involving up to 200,000 men in one of the largest of the Roman civil wars, consisted of two engagements in the plain west of the ancient city of Philippi. The first occurred in the first week of October; Brutus faced Octavian, and Antony's forces fought those of Cassius. The Roman armies fought poorly, with low discipline, nonexistent tactical coordination and amateurish lack of command experience evident in abundance with neither side able to exploit opportunities as they developed. At first, Brutus pushed back Octavian and entered his legions' camp. However, to the south, Cassius was defeated by Antony and committed suicide after hearing a false report that Brutus had also failed. Brutus rallied Cassius's remaining troops, and both sides ordered their army to retreat to their camps with their spoils. The battle was essentially a draw but for Cassius's suicide. A second encounter, on 23 October, finished off Brutus's forces after a hard-fought battle. He committed suicide in turn, leaving the triumvirate in control of the Roman Republic.


title: Battle of Philippi

text: After the assassination of Caesar, the two main conspirators, Brutus and Cassius, also known as the Liberators and leaders of the Republicans had left Italy. They took control of all the eastern provinces from Greece to Syria and of the allied eastern kingdoms. In Rome the three main Caesarian leaders (Antony, Octavian and Lepidus), who controlled almost all the Roman army in the west, had crushed the opposition of the Senate and established the Second Triumvirate. One of their first tasks was to destroy the Liberators' forces, not only to get full control of the Roman world, but also to avenge Caesar's death.


title: Battle of Philippi

text: The triumvirs decided that Lepidus would remain in Italy, while the two main partners of the triumvirate, Antony and Octavian, moved to northern Greece with their best troops, a total of 28 legions. They were able to ferry their army across the Adriatic and sent out a scouting force of eight legions, commanded by Norbanus and Saxa, along the Via Egnatia, with the aim of searching for the Liberators' army. Norbanus and Saxa passed the town of Philippi in eastern Macedonia and took a strong defensive position at a narrow mountain pass. Antony was following, while Octavian was delayed at Dyrrachium because of his ill-health (which would accompany him throughout the Philippi campaign). Although Antony and Octavian had been able to cross the sea with their main force, further communications with Italy were made difficult by the arrival of the Republican admiral Gnaeus Domitius Ahenobarbus, with a large fleet of 130 ships.


title: Battle of Philippi

text: The Liberators did not wish to engage in a decisive battle, but rather to attain a good defensive position and then use their naval superiority to block the triumvirs' communications with their supply base in Italy. They had spent the previous months plundering Greek cities to swell their war-chest. They gathered in Thrace with the Roman legions from the eastern provinces and levies from allies. With their superior forces they were able to outflank Norbanus and Saxa, who had to abandon their defensive position and retreat west of Philippi. This meant that Brutus and Cassius could position their forces to hold the high ground along both sides of the Via Egnatia, about west of the city of Philippi. The southern position was anchored on a supposedly impassable marsh, while on the north on impassable hills. They had time to fortify their position with a rampart and ditch. Brutus positioned his camp to the north while Cassius was on the south of the Via Egnatia. Antony arrived and positioned his army south of the Via Egnatia, while Octavian put his legions north of the road.


title: Battle of Philippi

text: The Triumvirs' army present for the battle included nineteen legions. The sources specify the name of only one legion, IV legion, but other legions present included the III, VI, VII, VIII, X Equestris, XII, XXVI, XXVIII, XXIX, and XXX, since their veterans participated in the land settlements after the battle. Appian reports that the triumvirs' legions were almost at full complement. Furthermore, they had a large allied cavalry force of 13,000 horsemen.


title: Battle of Philippi

text: The Liberators' army had seventeen legions; eight with Brutus and nine with Cassius. Only two of the legions were at full strength, but the army was reinforced by levies from the eastern allied kingdoms. Appian reports that the army mustered a total of about 80,000 foot-soldiers. Allied cavalry totaled 20,000 horsemen, including 5,000 bowmen mounted in the Eastern fashion. This army included the old Caesarean legions present in the east, probably including XXVII, XXXVI, XXXVII, XXXI and XXXIII legions; so most of these legionaries were Caesarean veterans. However, at least the XXXVI legion consisted of old Pompeian veterans, enrolled in Caesar's army after the Battle of Pharsalus. The loyalty of the soldiers who were supposed to fight against Caesar's heir was a delicate issue for the Liberators. It is important to emphasize that the name "Octavian" was never used by contemporaries: he was simply known as "Gaius Iulius Caesar". Cassius tried to reinforce the soldiers' loyalty both with strong speeches ("Let it give no one any concern that he has been one of Caesar's soldiers. We were not his soldiers then, but our country's") and with a gift of 1,500 denarii for each legionary and 7,500 for each centurion.


title: Battle of Philippi

text: Although ancient sources do not report the total numbers of men of the two armies, it seems that they had a similar strength. Adrian Goldsworthy suggests that at full strength the 19 Triumvir legions may have amounted to 95,000 men and the 17 Liberators' legions to 85,000. Most likely each side had only 40,000–50,000 legionaries. As the campaign lasted for months, it is unlikely that either side could have sustained the logistics to keep so many men, horses and baggage animals fed if both sides had had 100,000 or so troops.


title: Battle of Philippi

text: Antony offered battle several times, but the Liberators were not lured into leaving their defensive position. Antony tried to secretly outflank the Liberators' position through the marshes in the south. With great effort he was able to cut a passage through the marshes, throwing up a causeway over them. This manoeuvre was finally noticed by Cassius, who countered by moving part of his army south into the marshes and constructing a transverse wall in a bid to cut off Antony's outstretched right wing. This brought about a general battle on 3 October 42 BC.


title: Battle of Philippi

text: Antony ordered a charge against Cassius, aiming at the fortifications between Cassius's camp and the marshes. At the same time, Brutus's soldiers, provoked by the triumvirs' army, rushed against Octavian's army, without waiting for the order of attack, which was to be given with the watchword "Liberty". This surprise assault had complete success: Octavian's troops were put to flight and pursued up to their camp, which was captured by Brutus's men, led by Marcus Valerius Messalla Corvinus. Three of Octavian's legions had their standards taken, a clear sign of a rout. Octavian was not found in his tent: his couch was pierced and cut to pieces. Most ancient historians say that he had been warned in a dream to beware of that day, as he wrote in his memoirs. Pliny bluntly reports that Octavian went into hiding in the marsh.


title: Battle of Philippi

text: However, on the other side of the Via Egnatia, Antony was able to storm Cassius' fortifications, demolishing the palisade and filling up the ditch. Then he easily took Cassius's camp, which was defended by only a few men. It seems that part of Cassius's army had advanced south: when these men tried to come back they were easily repulsed by Antony.


title: Battle of Philippi

text: Apparently the battle had ended in a draw. Cassius had lost 8,000 men, while Octavian had about 16,000 casualties. The battlefield was very large and clouds of dust made it impossible to make a clear assessment of the outcome of the battle, so both wings were ignorant of each other's fate. Cassius moved to the top of a hill, but could not see what was happening on Brutus's side. Believing that he had suffered a crushing defeat he ordered his freedman Pindarus to kill him. Brutus mourned over Cassius's body, calling him "the last of the Romans". He avoided a public funeral, fearing its negative effects on the army morale.


title: Battle of Philippi

text: Other sources credit the avarice of Brutus' troops as the factor that undid their definitive victory on October3. Premature looting and gathering of treasure by Brutus's advancing forces allowed Octavian's troops to re-form their line. In Octavian's future reign as Emperor, a common battle cry became "Complete the battle once begun!"


title: Battle of Philippi

text: On the same day as the first battle, the Republican fleet was able to intercept and destroy the triumvirs' reinforcements of two legions and other troops and supplies led by Gnaeus Domitius Calvinus. The strategic position of Antony and Octavian became perilous, since the already depleted regions of Macedonia and Thessaly were unable to supply their army for long, while Brutus could easily receive supplies from the sea. The triumvirs had to send a legion south to Achaia to collect more supplies. The morale of the troops was boosted by the promise of a further 5,000 denarii for each soldier and 25,000 for each centurion.


title: Battle of Philippi

text: On the other side, the Liberators' army was left without its best strategic mind. Brutus had less military experience than Cassius and, even worse, he could not command the same respect from his allies and his soldiers, although after the battle he offered another gift of 1,000 denarii for each soldier.


title: Battle of Philippi

text: In the next three weeks, Antony was able to slowly advance his forces south of Brutus's army, fortifying a hill close to Cassius's former camp, which had been left unguarded by Brutus.


title: Battle of Philippi

text: To avoid being outflanked Brutus was compelled to extend his line to the south and then the east, parallel to the Via Egnatia, building several fortified posts. While still holding the high ground he wanted to keep to the original plan of avoiding an open engagement and waiting for his naval superiority to wear out the enemy. The traditional understanding is that Brutus, against his better judgment, subsequently abandoned this strategy because his officers and soldiers were tired of the delaying tactics and demanded he offer another open battle. Brutus and his officers may have feared that their soldiers would desert to the enemy if they appeared to have lost the initiative. Plutarch also reports that Brutus had not received news of Domitius Calvinus' defeat in the Ionian Sea. When some of the eastern allies and mercenaries started deserting, Brutus was forced to attack on the afternoon of October23. As he said, "I seem to carry on war like Pompey the Great, not so much commanding as commanded." However, the reality is that Brutus had no option but to fight, because his entire position was now in danger of being isolated and rendered untenable. If the triumvirs were allowed to continue stretching their lines unimpeded to the east they would ultimately cut off his supply route to Neapolis and pin him against the mountains. If that happened, the tables would be turned; Brutus would either be starved into submission or be forced to retreat by taking his entire army via the hazardous northern trail that had brought him to Philippi.


title: Battle of Philippi

text: The battle which ensued resulted in close combat between two armies of well-trained veterans. Ranged weapons such as arrows or javelins were largely ignored; instead, the soldiers packed into solid ranks and fought face-to-face with their swords, and the slaughter was terrible. According to Cassius Dio, the two sides had little need for missile weapons, "for they did not resort to the usual manoeuvres and tactics of battles" but immediately advanced to close combat, "seeking to break each other's ranks". In the account of Plutarch, Brutus had the better of the fight at the western end of his line and pressed hard on the triumvirs' left wing, which gave way and retreated, being harassed by the Republican cavalry, which sought to exploit the advantage when it saw the enemy in disorder. But the eastern flank of Brutus's line had inferior numbers because it had been extended to avoid being outflanked. This meant Brutus's legions had been drawn out too thin in the center, and were so weak here they could not withstand the triumvirs' initial charge. Having broken through, the triumvirs swung to their left to take Brutus in his flank and rear. Appian speaks of the triumvirs' legions having "pushed back the enemy's line as though they were turning round a very heavy machine." Brutus's legions were driven back step-by-step, slowly at first, but as their ranks crumbled under the pressure they began to give ground more rapidly. The second and third reserve lines in the rear failed to keep pace with the retreat and all three lines became entangled. Octavian's soldiers were able to capture the gates of Brutus's camp before the routing army could reach this defensive position. Brutus's army could not reform, which made the triumvirs' victory complete. Brutus was able to retreat into the nearby hills with the equivalent of only four legions. Seeing that surrender and capture were inevitable, Brutus committed suicide.


title: Battle of Philippi

text: The total casualties for the second battle of Philippi were not reported, but the close quarters fighting likely resulted in heavy losses for both sides.


title: Battle of Philippi

text: Plutarch reports that Antony covered Brutus's body with a purple garment as a sign of respect. Although they had not been close friends, he remembered that Brutus had stipulated, as a condition for his joining the plot to assassinate Caesar, that the life of Antony be spared.


title: Battle of Philippi

text: Many other young Roman aristocrats lost their lives in the battle or committed suicide after the defeat, including the son of great orator Hortensius, and Marcus Porcius Cato, the son of Cato the Younger, and Marcus Livius Drusus Claudianus, the father of Livia, who became Octavian's wife. Some of the nobles who were able to escape negotiated their surrender to Antony and entered his service. Among them were Lucius Calpurnius Bibulus and Marcus Valerius Messalla Corvinus. Apparently, the nobles did not want to deal with the young and merciless Octavian.


title: Battle of Philippi

text: The remains of the Liberators' army were rounded up, and roughly 14,000 men were enrolled into the triumvirs' army. Old veterans were discharged back to Italy, but some of the veterans remained in the town of Philippi, which became a Roman colony, "Colonia Victrix Philippensium".


title: Battle of Philippi

text: Antony remained in the East, while Octavian returned to Italy, with the difficult task of finding enough land on which to settle a large number of veterans. Although Sextus Pompey was controlling Sicily and Domitius Ahenobarbus still commanded the Republican fleet, the Republican resistance had been definitively crushed at Philippi.


title: Battle of Philippi

text: The Battle of Philippi marked the highest point of Antony's career: at that time he was the most famous Roman general and the senior partner of the Second Triumvirate.


title: Battle of Philippi

text: Plutarch famously reported that Brutus experienced a vision of a ghost a few months before the battle. One night he saw a huge and shadowy form appearing in front of him; when he calmly asked, "What and whence art thou?" it answered "Thy evil spirit, Brutus: I shall see thee at Philippi." He again met the ghost the night before the battle. This episode is one of the most famous in Shakespeare's play "Julius Caesar". Plutarch also reports the last words of Brutus, quoted by a Greek tragedy "O wretched Virtue, thou wert but a name, and yet I worshipped thee as real indeed; but now, it seems, thou were but fortune's slave."


title: Battle of Philippi

text: Augustus's own version of the Battle of Philippi was: "I sent into exile the murderers of my father, punishing their crimes with lawful tribunals, and afterwards, when they made war upon the Republic, I twice defeated them in battle." "Qui parentem meum [interfecer]un[t eo]s in exilium expuli iudiciis legitimis ultus eorum [fa]cin[us, e]t postea bellum inferentis rei publicae vici b[is a]cie." Res Gestae 2.


title: Battle of Philippi

text: The battle figures in Shakespeare's "Julius Caesar" (background of the story in Acts 4 and 5), in which the two battles are merged into a single day's events. After Cassius' death Brutus says "Tis three o'clock, and, Romans, yet ere night / We shall try fortune in a second fight." Otherwise the information is mostly accurate.


title: Battle of Philippi

text: A fictionalised account of the battle is depicted in the sixth episode of the second season of the HBO television series "Rome". There is but a single battle and both Cassius and Brutus fall in battle instead of being suicides, though Brutus's death is a lone, suicidal attack on the triumvirate's' advancing forces.


title: Homo antecessor

text: Homo antecessor (Latin "pioneer man") is an extinct species of archaic human recorded in the Spanish Sierra de Atapuerca, a productive archaeological site, from 1.2 to 0.8 million years ago during the Early Pleistocene. Populations of this species may have been present elsewhere in Western Europe, and were among the first to colonise that region of the world (hence, the name). The first fossils were found in the Gran Dolina cave in 1994, and the species was formally described in 1997 as the last common ancestor of modern humans and Neanderthals, supplanting the more conventional "H. heidelbergensis" in this position. "H. antecessor" has since been reinterpreted as an offshoot from the modern human line, although probably one branching off just before the modern human/Neanderthal split.


title: Homo antecessor

text: Despite being so ancient, the face is unexpectedly similar to that of modern humans rather than other archaic humans—namely in its overall flatness as well as the curving of the cheekbone as it merges into the upper jaw—although these elements are known only from a juvenile specimen. Brain volume could have been or more, but no intact braincase has been discovered. For comparison, present-day modern humans average 1,270cm for males and 1,130cm for females. Stature estimates range from . "H. antecessor" may have been broad-chested and rather heavy, much like Neanderthals, although the limbs were proportionally long, a trait more frequent in tropical populations. The kneecaps are thin and have poorly developed tendon attachments. The feet indicate "H. antecessor" walked differently compared to modern humans.


title: Homo antecessor

text: "H. antecessor" was predominantly manufacturing simple pebble and flake stone tools out of quartz and chert, although they used a variety of materials. This industry has some similarities with the more complex Acheulean, an industry which is characteristic of contemporary African and later European sites. Groups may have been dispatching hunting parties, which mainly targeted deer in their savannah and mixed woodland environment. Many of the "H. antecessor" specimens were cannibalised, perhaps as a cultural practice. There is no evidence they were using fire, and they similarly only inhabited inland Iberia during warm periods, presumably retreating to the coast otherwise.


title: Homo antecessor

text: The Sierra de Atapuerca in northern Spain had long been known to be abundant in fossil remains. The Gran Dolina ("great sinkhole") was first explored for fossils by archaeologist in a short field trip to the region in 1966, where he recovered a few animal fossils and stone tools. He lacked the resources and manpower to continue any further. In 1976, Spanish palaeontologist Trinidad Torres investigated the Gran Dolina for bear fossils (he recovered "Ursus" remains), but was advised by the Edelweiss Speleological Team to continue at the nearby Sima de los Huesos ("bone pit"). Here, in addition to a wealth of bear fossils, he also recovered archaic human fossils, which prompted a massive exploration of the Sierra de Atapuerca, at first headed by Spanish palaeontologist Emiliano Aguirre but quickly taken over by José María Bermúdez de Castro, Eudald Carbonell, and Juan Luis Arsuaga. They restarted excavation of the Gran Dolina in 1992, and found archaic human remains two years later, which in 1997 they formally described as a new species, "Homo antecessor". The holotype is specimen ATD6-5, a right mandibular fragment retaining the molars and recovered with some isolated teeth. In their original description Castro and colleagues posited that the species was the first human to colonise Europe, hence the name "antecessor" (Latin for "explorer", "pioneer", or "early settler").


title: Homo antecessor

text: The of Pleistocene sediments at the Gran Dolina are divided into eleven units, TD1 to TD11 ("trinchera dolina" or "sinkhole trench"). "H. antecessor" was recovered from TD6, which has consequently become the most well researched unit of the site. In the first field seasons from 1994–1995, the dig team excavated a small test pit (to see if the unit warranted further investigation) in the southeast section measuring . Human fossils were discovered first by Aurora Martín Nájera; the layer they were found in is nicknamed the "Aurora Stratum" after her. A triangular section was excavated in the central section starting in the early 2000s. Human fossils were also found in the northern section. In sum, about 170 "H. antecessor" specimens were recovered. The best preserved are ATD6-15 and ATD6-69 (possibly belonging to the same individual) that most clearly elucidate facial anatomy. Subsequent field seasons have yielded about sixty more specimens. The discovered parts of the "H. antecessor" skeleton are: elements of the face, clavicle, forearm, digits, knees, and a few vertebrae and ribs.


title: Homo antecessor

text: In 2007 a mandibular fragment with some teeth, ATE9-1, provisionally assigned to "H. antecessor" by Carbonell, was recovered from the nearby Sima del Elefante ("elephant pit") in unit TE9 ("trinchera elefante"), belonging to a 20–25-year-old individual. The site additionally yielded stone flakes and evidence of butchery. In 2011, after providing a much more in depth analysis of the Sima del Elefante material, Castro and colleagues were unsure of the species classification, opting to leave it at "Homo" sp. (making no opinion on species designation) pending further discoveries.


title: Homo antecessor

text: The stone tool assemblage at the Gran Dolina is broadly similar to several other contemporary ones across Western Europe, which may represent the work of the same species, although this is unconfirmable because many of these sites have not produced human fossils. In 2014 fifty footprints dating to between 1.2 million and 800,000 years ago were discovered in Happisburgh, England, which could potentially be attributed to an "H. antecessor" group given it is the only human species identified during that time in Western Europe.


title: Homo antecessor

text: The 2003 to 2007 excavations revealed a much more intricate stratigraphy than previously thought, and TD6 was divided into three subunits spanning thirteen layers and nine sedimentary facies (bodies of rock distinctive from adjacent bodies). Human presence is recorded in subunits 1and 2, and in facies A, D1, and F. Randomly orientated scattered bones were deposited in Facies D1 of layer TD6.2.2 (TD6 subunit 2, layer 2) and Facies F of layers TD6.2.2 and TD6.2.3, but in Facies D they seem to have been conspicuously clumped into the northwest area. This might indicate they were dragged into the cave via a debris flow. As for Facies F, which contains the most human remains, they may have been deposited by a low energy debris flow (consistent with floodplain behaviour) from the main entrance to the northwest, as well as a stronger debris flow from another entrance to the south. Fluvially deposited fossils (dragged in by a stream of water) were also recovered from Facies A in layers TD6.2.2, TD6.2.1 and TD6.1.2, indicated by limestone gravel within the size range of the remains. Thus, "H. antecessor" may not have inhabited the cave, although was at least active nearby. Only 5.6% of the fossils bear any evidence of weathering from open air, roots, and soil, which could mean they were deposited deep into the cave relatively soon after death.


title: Homo antecessor

text: Human occupation seems to have occurred in waves corresponding to timespans featuring a warm, humid savannah habitat (although riversides likely supported woodlands). These conditions were only present during transitions from cool glacial to warm interglacial periods, after the climate warmed and before the forests could expand to dominate the landscape. The dating attempts of "H. antecessor" remains are:


title: Homo antecessor

text: Until 2013 with the discovery of the 1.4 million-year-old infant tooth from Barranco León, Orce, Spain, these were the oldest human fossils known from Europe, although human activity on the continent stretches back as early as 1.6 million years ago in Eastern Europe and Spain indicated by stone tools.


title: Homo antecessor

text: The face of "H. antecessor" is unexpectedly similar to that of modern humans compared to other archaic groups, so in their original description, Castro and colleagues classified it as the last common ancestor of modern humans and Neanderthals, supplanting "H. heidelbergensis" in this capacity. The facial anatomy came under close scrutiny in subsequent years.


title: Homo antecessor

text: In 2001 French palaeoanthropologist Jean-Jacques Hublin postulated that the Gran Dolina remains and the contemporaneous Tighennif remains from Algeria (usually classified as "Homo ergaster" [=? "Homo erectus"], originally ""Atlantanthropus mauritanicus"") represent the same population, because fourteen of the fifteen dental features Castro and colleagues listed for "H. antecessor" have also been identified in the Middle Pleistocene of North Africa; this would mean "H. antecessor" is a junior synonym of ""Homo mauritanicus"", i. e., the Gran Dolina and Tighennif humans should be classified into the latter. In 2007 Castro and colleagues studied the fossils, and found the Tighennif remains to be much larger than "H. antecessor" and dentally similar to other African populations. Nonetheless, they still recommended reviving "mauritanicus" to house all Early Pleistocene North African specimens as ""H. ergaster mauritanicus"".


title: Homo antecessor

text: In 2007 primatologist Esteban Sarmiento and colleagues questioned the legitimacy of "H. antecessor" as a separate species because much of the skull anatomy is unknown; "H. heidelbergensis" is known from roughly the same time and region; and because the type specimen was a child (the supposedly characteristic features could have disappeared with maturity.) Such restructuring of the face, they argued, can also be caused by regional climatic adaptation rather than speciation. In 2009 American palaeoanthropologist Richard Klein stated he was skeptical that "H. antecessor" was ancestral to "H. heidelbergensis", interpreting "H. antecessor" as "an offshoot of "H. ergaster" [from Africa] that disappeared after a failed attempt to colonize southern Europe". Similarly, in 2012, British physical anthropologist Chris Stringer considered "H. antecessor" and "H. heidelbergensis" to be two different lineages rather than them having an ancestor/descendant relationship. In 2013, anthropologist Sarah Freidline and colleagues suggested the modern humanlike face evolved independently several times among "Homo". In 2017 Castro and colleagues conceded that "H. antecessor" may or may not be a modern human ancestor, although if it was not then it probably split quite shortly before the modern human/Neanderthal split. In 2020 Dutch molecular palaeoanthropologist Frido Welker and colleagues concluded "H. antecessor" is not a modern human ancestor by analysing ancient proteins collected from the tooth ATD6-92.


title: Homo antecessor

text: The facial anatomy of "H. antecessor" is predominantly known from the 10–11.5-year-old "H. antecessor" child ATD6-69, as the few other facial specimens are fragmentary. ATD6-69 is strikingly similar to modern humans (as well as East Asian Middle Pleistocene archaic humans) as opposed to West Eurasian or African Middle Pleistocene archaic humans including Neanderthals. The most notable traits are a completely flat face and a curved zygomaticoalveolar crest (the bar of bone connecting the cheek to the part of the maxilla that holds the teeth). In 2013 anthropologist Sarah Freidline and colleagues statistically determined that these features would not disappear with maturity. "H. antecessor" suggests the modern human face evolved and disappeared multiple times in the past, which is not unlikely as facial anatomy is strongly influenced by diet and thus the environment. The nasal bones are like those of modern humans. The mandible (lower jaw) is quite gracile unlike most other archaic humans. It exhibits several archaic features, but the shape of the mandibular notch is modern humanlike, and the alveolar part (adjacent to the teeth) is completely vertical as in modern humans. Like many Neanderthals, the medial pterygoid tubercle is large. Unlike most Neanderthals, there is no retromolar space (a large gap between the last molar and the end of the body of the mandible).


title: Homo antecessor

text: The upper incisors are shovel-shaped (the lingual, or tongue, side is distinctly concave), a feature characteristic of other Eurasian human populations, including modern. The canines bear the cingulum (a protuberance toward the base) and the essential ridge (toward the midline) like more derived species, but retain the cuspules (small bumps) near the tip and bordering incisor like more archaic species. The upper premolar crowns are rather derived, being nearly symmetrical and bearing a lingual cusp (on the tongue side), and a cingulum and longitudinal grooves on the cheekward side. The upper molars feature several traits typically seen in Neanderthals. The mandibular teeth, on the other hand, are quite archaic. The P (the first lower premolar) has a strongly asymmetrical crown and complex tooth root system. P is smaller than P like in more derived species, but like other early "Homo", M (the first lower molar) is smaller than M and the cusps of the molar crowns make a Y shape. The distribution of enamel is Neanderthal-like, with thicker layers at the periphery than at the cusps. Based on two canine teeth (ATD6- 69 and ATD6-13), the thickness of the enamel and the proportion of the tooth covered by the gums vary to the same degree as for males and females of modern humans and many other apes, so this may be due to sexual dimorphism, with females having smaller teeth, relatively thicker enamel, and smaller proportion of gum coverage.


title: Homo antecessor

text: The parietal bones (each being one side of the back part of the top of the skull) are flattened, and conjoin at a peak at the midline. This "tent-like" profile is also exhibited in more archaic African "H. ergaster" and Asian "H. erectus". Like "H. ergaster", the temporal styloid process just below the ear is fused to the base of the skull. The brow ridges are prominent. The upper margin of the squamous part of temporal bones (on the side of the skull) is convex, like in more derived species. The brain volume of ATD6-15, perhaps belonging to an 11-year-old, may have been or more based on frontal bone measurements. For comparison, present-day modern humans average 1,270cm for males and 1,130cm for females, with a standard deviation of roughly 115 and 100cm.


title: Homo antecessor

text: The notably large adult clavicle specimen ATD6-50, assumed male based on absolute size, was estimated to have stood , mean of , based on the correlation among modern Indian people between clavicle length and stature. An adult radius (a forearm bone), ATD6-43, which could be male based on absolute size or female based on gracility, was estimated to have belonged to a tall individual based on the average of equations among several modern populations relating radial length to stature. Based on metatarsal (foot bone) length, a male is estimated to have stood and a female . These are all rather similar values. For comparison, Western European Neanderthal estimates average , and early European modern humans . The ankle joint is adapted for handling high stress, which may indicate a heavy, robust body plan, much like Neanderthals. Based on the relationship between human footprint length and body size, twelve Happisburgh prints that are preserved well enough to measure are consistent with individuals ranging from in stature, which may mean some of the trackmakers were children. By this logic, the three biggest footprints—equating to statures of , , and —ranged from in weight. Stature estimates for "H. antecessor", "H. heidelbergensis", and Neanderthals are roughly consistent with each other.


title: Homo antecessor

text: Two atlases (the first neck vertebra) are known, which is exceptional as this bone is rarely discovered for archaic humans. They are indistinguishable from those of modern humans. For the axis (the second neck vertebra), the angle of the spinous process (jutting out from the vertebra) is about 19°, comparable with Neanderthals and modern humans, diverging from "H. ergaster" with a low angle of about 8°. The vertebral foramen (that houses the spinal cord) is on the narrow side compared to modern humans. The spine as a whole otherwise aligns with modern humans.


title: Homo antecessor

text: There is one known (and incomplete) clavicle, ATD6-50, which is thick compared to those of modern humans. This may indicate "H. antecessor" had long and flattish (platycleidic) clavicles like other archaic humans. This would point to a broad chest. The proximal curvature (twisting of the bone on the side nearest the neck) in front view is on par with that of Neanderthals, but the distal curvature (on the shoulder side) is much more pronounced. The sternum is narrow. The acromion (that extends over the shoulder joint) is small compared to those of modern humans. The shoulder blade is similar to all "Homo" with a typical human body plan, indicating "H. antecessor" was not as skilled a climber as non-human apes or pre-"erectus" species, but was capable of efficiently launching projectiles such as stones or spears.


title: Homo antecessor

text: The incomplete radius, ATD6-43, was estimated to have measured . It is oddly long and straight for someone from so far north, reminiscent of the proportions seen in early modern humans and many people from tropical populations. This could be explained as retention of the ancestral long limbed tropical form, as opposed to Neanderthals who evolved shorter limbs. This could also indicate a high brachial index (radial to humeral length ratio). Compared to more recent human species, the cross section of the radial shaft is rather round and gracile throughout its length. Like archaic humans, the radial neck (near the elbow) is long, giving more leverage to the biceps brachii. Like modern humans and "H. heidelbergensis", but unlike Neanderthals and more archaic hominins, the radial tuberosity (a bony knob jutting out just below the radial neck) is anteriorly placed (toward the front side when the arm is facing out).


title: Homo antecessor

text: Like those of other archaic humans, the femur features a developed trochanteric fossa and posterior crest. These traits are highly variable among modern human populations. The two known kneecaps, ATD6-22 and ATD6-56, are subrectangular in shape as opposed to the more common subtriangular, although rather narrow like those of modern humans. They are quite small and thin, falling at the lower end for modern human females. The apex of the kneecap (the area that does not join to another bone) is not well developed, leaving little attachment for the patellar tendon. The medial (toward the midline) facet and lateral (toward the sides) facet for the knee joint are roughly the same size as each other in ATD6-56 and the medial is larger in ATD6-22, whereas the lateral is commonly larger in modern humans. The lateral facet encroaches onto a straight flat area as opposed to being limited to a defined vastus notch, an infrequent condition among any human species.


title: Homo antecessor

text: The phalanges and metatarsals of the foot are comparable to those of later humans, but the big toe bone is rather robust, which could be related to how "H. antecessor" pushed off the ground. The ankle bone (talus) is exceptionally long and high as well as the facet where it connects with the leg (the trochlea), which may be related to how "H. antecessor" walked. The long trochlea caused a short neck of the talus, which bridges the head of the talus connecting to the toes, and the body of the talus connecting to the leg. This somewhat converges with the condition exhibited in Neanderthals, which is generally explained as a response to a heavy and robust body, to alleviate the consequently higher stress to the articular cartilage in the ankle joint. This would also have permitted greater flexion.


title: Homo antecessor

text: In 2010 Castro and colleagues estimated that ATD6-112, represented by a permanent upper and lower first molar, died between 5.3 and 6.6 years of age based on the tooth formation rates in chimpanzees (lower estimate) and modern humans (upper). The molars are hardly worn at all, which means the individual died soon after the tooth erupted, and that first molar eruption occurred at roughly this age. The age is within the range of variation of modern humans, and this developmental landmark can debatably be correlated with life history. If the relation is true, "H. antecessor" had a prolonged childhood, a characteristic of modern humans in which significant cognitive development takes place.


title: Homo antecessor

text: The partial face ATD6-69 has an ectopic M (upper left third molar), where it erupted improperly, and this caused the impaction of M, where it was blocked from erupting at all. Although impaction of M is rather common in modern humans, as high as fifty percent in some populations, impaction of M is rare, as little as 0.08 to 2.3%. Impaction can lead to secondary lesions, such as dental cavities, root resorption, or dentigerous or keratocysts.


title: Homo antecessor

text: The mandible ATE9-1 exhibits severe dental attrition and abrasion of the tooth crowns and bone resorption at the root, so much so that the root canals (the sensitive interior) of the canines are exposed. The trauma is consistent with gum disease due to overloading the teeth, such as by using the mouth as a third hand to carry around items. A similar condition was also reported for the later Sima de los Huesos remains also at the Sierra de Atapuerca site.


title: Homo antecessor

text: The left knee bone ATD6-56 has a height x breadth osteophyte (bone spur) on the inferior (lower) margin. Osteophytes normally form as a response to stress due to osteoarthritis, which can result from old age or improper loading of the joint as a consequence of bone misalignment or ligament laxity. In the case of ATD6-56, improper loading was likely the causal factor. Frequent squatting and kneeling can lead to this condition, but if the right knee bone ATD6-22 (that has no such trauma) belongs to the same individual, then this is unlikely to be the reason. If so, the lesion was caused by a local trauma, such as strain on the soft tissue around the joint due to high intensity activity, or a fracture of the left femur and/or tibia (that is unconfirmable since neither bone is associated with this individual).


title: Homo antecessor

text: The right fourth metatarsal ATD6-124 has a length x width lesion on the medial (toward the midline of the bone) side consistent with a march fracture. This condition is most often encountered by soldiers, long distance runners, and potentially flatfooted people whose foot bones failed under repeated, high intensity activity. Later Neanderthals would evolve a much more robust lower skeleton possibly to withstand such taxing movement across uneven terrain. Although only one other example of the condition has been identified (at Sima de los Huesos) among archaic humans, march fractures were probably a common injury for them given that the healed fracture leaves no visible mark, as well as their presumed high intensity lifestyle.


title: Homo antecessor

text: "H. antecessor" was producing simple stone tools at Gran Dolina. This industry is found elsewhere in Early Pleistocene Spain—notably in Barranc de la Boella and the nearby Galería—distinguished by the preparation and sharpening of cores before flaking, the presence of (crude) bifaces, and some degree of standardisation of tool types. This bears some resemblance to the much more complex Acheulean industry, characteristic of African and later European sites. The earliest evidence of typical Acheulean toolsets comes from Africa 1.75 million years ago, but the typical Acheulean toolset pops up in Western Europe nearly a million years later. It is debated if these early European sites evolved into the European Acheulean industry independently from African counterparts, or if the Acheulean was brought up from Africa and diffused across Europe. In 2020 French anthropologist Marie-Hélène Moncel argued the appearance of typical Achuelean bifaces 700,000 years ago in Europe was too sudden to be the result of completely independent evolution from local technologies, so there must have been influence from Africa. Wearing on the TD6 stone tools is consistent with repeated abrasion against flesh, so they were probably used as butchering implements.


title: Homo antecessor

text: In the lower part of TD6.3 (TD6 subunit 3), 84 stone tools were recovered, predominantly small, unmodified quartzite pebbles with percussive damage—probably inflicted from pounding items such as bone—as opposed to manufacturing more specialised implements.


title: Homo antecessor

text: Although 41% of the section's assemblage consists of flakes, they are rather crude and large—averaging —either resulting from rudimentary knapping (stoneworking) skills or difficulty working such poor quality materials. They made use of the unipolar longitudinal method, flaking off only one side of a core, probably to compensate for the lack of preplanning, opting to knap irregularly shaped and thus poorer quality pebbles.


title: Homo antecessor

text: Most of the stone tools resided in the lower (older) half of TD6.2, with 831 stone tools. The knappers made use of a much more diverse array of materials (although most commonly chert), which indicates they were moving farther out in search of better raw materials. The Sierra de Atapuerca features an abundance and diversity of mineral outcroppings suitable for stone tool manufacturing, in addition to chert and quartz namely quartzite, sandstone, and limestone, which could all be collected within only of the Gran Dolina.


title: Homo antecessor

text: They produced far fewer pebbles and spent more time knapping off flakes, but they were not particularly economic with their materials, and about half of the cores could have produced more flakes. They additionally modified irregular blanks into more workable shapes before flaking off pieces. This preplanning allowed them to use other techniques: the centripetal method (flaking off only the edges of the core) and the bipolar method (laying the core on an anvil and slamming it with a hammerstone). There are 62 flakes measuring below in height, and 28 above . There are three conspicuously higher quality flakes, thinner and longer than the others, which may have been produced by the same person. There are also retouched tools: notches, spines, denticulates, points, scrapers, and a single chopper. These small retouched tools are rare in the European Early Pleistocene.


title: Homo antecessor

text: TD6.1 yielded 124 stone tools, but they are badly preserved as the area was also used by hyenas as a latrine, the urine corroding the area. The layer lacks pebbles and cores, and 44 of the stone tools are indeterminate. Flakes are much smaller with an average of , with ten measuring below , and only three exceeding .


title: Homo antecessor

text: They seem to have been using the same methods as the people who manufactured the TD6.2 tools. They were only retouching larger flakes, the fourteen such tools averaging : one marginally retouched flake, one notch, three spines, seven denticulate sidescrapers, and one denticulate point.


title: Homo antecessor

text: Only a few charcoal particles have been collected from TD6, which probably originated from a fire well outside the cave. There is no evidence of any fire use or burnt bones (cooking) in the occupation sequences of the Gran Dolina. In other parts of the world, reliable evidence of fire usage does not surface in the archaeological record until roughly 400,000 years ago. In 2016, small mammal bones burned in fires exceeding were identified from 780- to 980-thousand-year-old deposits at in southern Spain, which potentially could have come from a human source as such a high temperature is usually (though not always) recorded in campfires as opposed to natural bushfires.


title: Homo antecessor

text: Instead of using fire, these early Europeans probably physiologically withstood the cold, such as by eating a high protein diet to support a heightened metabolism. Despite glacial cycles, the climate was probably similar or a few degrees warmer compared to that of today's, with the coldest average temperature reaching sometime in December and January, and the hottest in July and August . Freezing temperatures could have been reached from November to March, but the presence of olive and oak suggests subfreezing was an infrequent occurrence. TE9 similarly indicates a generally warm climate. The Happisburgh footprints were lain in estuarine mudflats with open forests dominated by pine, spruce, birch, and in wetter areas alder, with patches of heath and grasslands; the vegetation is consistent with the cooler beginning or end of an interglacial.


title: Homo antecessor

text: "H. antecessor" probably migrated from the Mediterranean shore into inland Iberia when colder glacial periods were transitioning to warmer interglacials, and warm grasslands dominated, vacating the region at any other time. They may have followed water bodies while migrating, in the case of Sierra de Atapuerca, most likely the Ebro River.


title: Homo antecessor

text: The fossils of sixteen animal species were recovered randomly mixed with the "H. antecessor" material at the Gran Dolina, including the extinct bush-antlered deer, the extinct species of fallow deer "Dama vallonetensi", the extinct subspecies of red deer "Cervus elaphus acoronatus", the extinct bison "Bison voigstedtensi", the extinct rhino "Stephanorhinus etruscus", the extinct horse "Equus stenonis", the extinct fox "Vulpes praeglacialis", the extinct bear "Ursus dolinensis", the extinct wolf "Canis mosbachensis", the spotted hyena, the wild boar, and undetermined species of mammoth, monkey, and lynx. Some specimens of the former eight species and the monkey exhibit cut marks consistent with butchery, with about 13% of all Gran Dolina remains bearing some evidence of human modification. Deer are the most commonly butchered animal, with 106 specimens. The inhabitants seem to have carried carcasses back whole when feasible, and only the limbs and skulls of larger quarries. This indicates the Gran Dolina "H. antecessor" were dispatching hunting parties who killed and hauled back prey to share with the entire group rather than each individual foraging entirely for themselves, which evinces social cooperation and division of labour. Less than 5% of all the remains retain animal carnivore damage, in two instances toothmarks overlapping cutmarks from an unidentified animal, which could indicate animals were sometimes scavenging "H. antecessor" leftovers.


title: Homo antecessor

text: The Sima del Elefante site records the fallow deer, the bush-antlered deer, rhinos, "E. stenonis", "C. mosbachensis", "U. dolinensis", the extinct big cat "Panthera gombaszoegensis", the extinct lynx "Lynx issiodorensis", the extinct fox "Vulpes alopecoides", several rats, shrews, and rabbits, and undetermined species of macaques, boar, bison, and beaver. The large mammals are most commonly represented by long bones, a few of which are cracked open, presumably to access the bone marrow. Some others bear evidence of percussion and defleshing. They were also butchering Hermann's tortoise, an easily obtainable source of meat considering how slowly tortoises move.


title: Homo antecessor

text: The cool and humid montane environment encouraged the growth of olive, mastic, beech, hazelnut, and chestnut trees, which "H. antecessor" may have used as food sources, although they become more common in TD7 and TD8 as the interglacial progresses and the environment becomes wetter. In the "H. antecessor" unit TD6, pollen predominantly derives from juniper and oak. Trees probably grew along rivers and streams, while the rest of the hills and ridges were dominated by grasses. The TD6 individuals also seem to have been consuming hackberries, which in historical times have been used for their medicinal properties more than satiating hunger because these berries provide very little flesh.


title: Homo antecessor

text: There is no evidence "H. antecessor" could wield fire and cook, and similarly the wearing on the molars indicates the more frequent consumption of grittier and more mechanically challenging foods than later European species, such as raw rather than cooked meat and underground storage organs.


title: Homo antecessor

text: Eighty young adult and child "H. antecessor" specimens from the Gran Dolina exhibit cut marks and fracturing indicative of cannibalism, and "H. antecessor" is the second-most common species bearing evidence of butchering. Human bodies were efficiently utilised, and may be the reason why most bones are smashed or otherwise badly damaged. There are no complete skulls, elements from the face and back of the skull are usually percussed, and the muscle attachments on the face and the base of the skull were cut off. The intense modification of the face was probably to access the brain. The crown of the head was probably struck, resulting in the impact scars on the teeth at the gum line. Several skull fragments exhibit peeling.


title: Homo antecessor

text: The ribs also bear cut marks along the muscle attachments consistent with defleshing, and ATD6-39 has cuts along the length of the rib, which may be related to disembowelment. The nape muscles were sliced off, and the head and neck were probably detached from the body. The vertebrae were often cut, peeled, and percussed. The muscles on all of the clavicles were sawed off to disconnect the shoulder. One radius, ATD6-43, was cut up and peeled. The femur was shattered, probably to extract the bone marrow. The hands and feet variably exhibit percussion, cutting, or peeling, likely a result of dismemberment.


title: Homo antecessor

text: In sum, mainly the meatier areas were prepared, and the rest discarded. This suggests they were butchering humans for nutritional purposes, but the face generally exhibits significantly more cutmarks than the faces of animals. When this is seen in prehistoric modern human specimens, it is typically interpreted as evidence of exocannibalism, a form of ritual cannibalism where one eats someone from beyond their social group, such as an enemy from a neighbouring tribe. But, when overviewing the evidence of "H. antecessor" cannibalism in 1999, Spanish palaeontologist Yolanda Fernandez-Jalvo and colleagues instead ascribed the relative abundance of facial cut marks in the "H. antecessor" sample to the strongly contrasting structure of the muscle attachments between humans and typical animal prey items (that is, defleshing the human face simply required more cuts, or the butcherers were less familiar with defleshing humans).


title: Homo antecessor

text: Nonetheless, the assemblage had a lack of older individuals, composed entirely of young adults and juveniles. In 2010 Carbonell hypothesised that they were practising exocannibalism and hunting down neighbouring tribesmen. In 2019 Spanish palaeoanthropologist Jesús Rodríguez and colleagues argued that the demographic is better explained as consuming fellow tribesmen (already dead from natural causes, war, or an accident) simply avoids wasting food—especially considering the high youth mortality rates in modern hunter-gatherer groups.


title: Compromise of 1877

text: The Compromise of 1877, also known as the Wormley Agreement or the Bargain of 1877, was an unwritten deal, informally arranged among members of the United States Congress, to settle the intensely disputed 1876 presidential election between Rutherford B. Hayes and Samuel J. Tilden. It resulted in acquiescence to the election of Hayes without resort to violence and the subsequent withdrawal of the last federal troops from the Southern United States, effectively ending the Reconstruction Era and forfeiting the Republican claims to the state governments in South Carolina, Florida and Louisiana.


title: Compromise of 1877

text: Under the compromise, Democrats controlling the House of Representatives allowed the decision of the Electoral Commission to take effect. The outgoing president, Republican Ulysses S. Grant, removed the soldiers from Florida, and as president, Hayes removed the remaining troops from South Carolina and Louisiana. As soon as the troops left, many white Republicans also left, and the "Redeemer" Democrats, who already dominated other state governments in the South, took control. Some black Republicans felt betrayed as they lost their power in the South that had been propped up by the federal military, and by 1905 most black people were effectively disenfranchised in every Southern state.


title: Compromise of 1877

text: The existence of an informal agreement to secure Hayes's political authority, long known as the Bargain of 1877, was long accepted as a part of American history. Its supposed terms were reviewed and revised by historian C. Vann Woodward in his 1951 book "Reunion and Reaction: The Compromise of 1877 and the End of Reconstruction," which also coined the name in an effort to compare the political resolution of the election to the famous Missouri Compromise and Compromise of 1850. Criticism from other historians has taken various forms, ranging from outright rejection of the Compromise theory to criticism of Woodward's emphasis of certain influences or outcomes, but critics concede that the theory became almost universally accepted in the years after Woodward published "Reunion and Reaction".


title: Compromise of 1877

text: In the November 1876 United States presidential election, Samuel J. Tilden received 184 uncontested electoral votes and Rutherford B. Hayes received 165, with 185 votes necessary for a majority. Four states (Florida, Louisiana, Oregon, and South Carolina) returned disputed slates of presidential electors with a total of twenty electoral votes at stake. Any of the disputes being resolved in Tilden's favor would secure him the presidency, while Hayes needed all twenty votes to be certified in his favor. To resolve these disputes in the absence of a clear constitutional directive, Congress passed the Electoral Commission Act, which established a 15-member commission of eight Republicans and seven Democrats to review the contested elections.


title: Compromise of 1877

text: The Commission voted 8-7, along party lines, to certify each disputed election in favor of Hayes. Under the Act, the Commission's findings were final unless rejected by both the Senate and House of Representatives. The Senate, controlled by Republicans, declined to do so, but Democratic Representatives in the House resorted to dilatory tactics by raising spurious objections to electors from Vermont and Wisconsin and filibustering the debate on those objections. However, the Democratic Speaker of the House, Samuel J. Randall, refused to entertain the dilatory motions and eventually, the filibusterers gave up.


title: Compromise of 1877

text: At 4:10 am on March 2, President pro tempore of the Senate Thomas W. Ferry announced that Hayes had been elected to the presidency by an electoral margin of 185–184.


title: Compromise of 1877

text: The compromise essentially stated that Southern Democrats would acknowledge Hayes as president by ending their filibuster of the election, on the understanding that Republicans would meet certain demands. The following elements are generally said to be the points of the compromise:


title: Compromise of 1877

text: After the Compromise, a few Democrats complained loudly that Tilden had been cheated. There was talk of forming armed units that would march on Washington, but President Grant tightened military security, and nobody marched on Washington.


title: Compromise of 1877

text: Hayes was peacefully inaugurated. Points 1 and 2 of the compromise took effect. Hayes had already announced his support for the restoration of "home rule", which would involve federal troop removal, before the election. At the time, it was not unusual, nor unexpected, for a president, especially one so narrowly elected, to select a cabinet member favored by the other party. Points 3 and 4 were never enacted; it is possible there was no firm agreement about them.


title: Compromise of 1877

text: Whether by informal deal or simply reassurances already in line with Hayes's announced plans, talks with Southern Democrats satisfied the worries of many. This prevented a congressional filibuster that had threatened to extend resolution of the election dispute beyond Inauguration Day 1877.


title: Compromise of 1877

text: Because of the paucity of documentary evidence or publicity, which Woodward attributes to the nature of the negotiations and agreement, the existence and nature of the Compromise have been hotly debated by historians.