Cost Accounting Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Cost Accounting - Essay Example Absorption cost (also known as full costing) is costing systems which includes direct materials, direct labour and variable and fixed manufacturing overhead as product cost (Duruy, 2011).This costing method is normally required for external reporting purposes under GAAP since accountants believe that fixed overhead is a crucial component in the manufacturing process (Deo, 2009).. A reason for this is that stock valuation include all production cost under UK SAAP9 so that when profit increases the stock also increase (Pong, & Mitchell, 2004) On the other hand, Marginal or variable costing is costing system which includes all manufacturing cost that vary according to the number of units produced, which includes direct materials, direct labour and variable manufacturing overhead (Bhimani, 2011). Economists favour the use of marginal costing since it enhances profit maximisation (Deo, 2009) since stock increases lower the profit (Pong, & Mitchell, 2004). Theoretically, it is easy to iden tify the effects of the costing method used by an organization on profit. The costing method used in stock valuation therefore has an implication on profit as shown in the table below: Movement increase decrease Valuation method used Full costing Variable costing High profit Low profit Lower profit Higher profit Several principles were put forward in attempts of supporting either of these costing methods. For instance, the matching principle, which holds that during profit calculation, revenues, must be matched with the costs incurred in generating the revenue (Pong and Mitchell, 2004). Assuming prices are constant, the variable costing method results in a time series of profits that is in synch with the sales. This is considered an advantage of variable costing. The profit generated in this case is not subjected to any movements influence by changes in the stock level as the fixed costs are written off. This is found to concur with the realization principle that recognises profits as they occur (Pong and Mitchell, 2004). On the other hand, carrying forward fixed costs in the full costing method can boost profits in the case of rising stock. It is acknowledged that production activities can affect profitability via the levels of stock. However, this claim has been on the spotlight as it encourages managers to increase profitability by increasing stock which may be dysfunctional to the firm (Pong and Mitchell, 2004). The main difference between absorption costing and managerial costing is the treatment of the fixed manufacturing overhead cost, which are treated as a period cost in variable costing (Durury, 2011, p.195). The two costing methods will be compared using the given data below. Year 1 Year 2 Sales Price 50 52 Direct Materials 10 10 Direct Labour 7 8 Variable Production overhead 5 5 Fixed Production overheads 4800 5700 Administration costs 4000 5000 Sales Volume 900 1400 Production 1100 1300 The unit cost for the absorption costing method was higher at ?26.36 than the ?22.00 for the marginal costing due to the addition of ?4.36 per unit in the first year. The unit cost for the second year was also high for the absorption costing at ?27.38 when compared to the ?23.00 for the marginal costing. This comparison discovered that the unit cost for absorption costing was higher than the marginal costing because of the addition of the fixed manufacturing cost. The benefit of a two year comparisons is that it reveals how manufacturing cost are transferred in the absorption and managerial costing (Lere, 2000, p.29). The benefit of marginal costing is that fixed manufacturing overhead is already incurred even if there is no production for the period. (Durury,

Life Meaning Essay Example for Free

Life Meaning Essay The definition of life is very difficult. Although dictionaries and encyclopedias say in general is the intermediate state between birth and death, I think it goes far beyond, is something deeper and we all want to know. By asking this question we faced is as if we ourselves, as research is about something Ive always lived, after much thought and analysis that is life, in my point of view I think is that although many try to define life as commonly defined other terms, in my position, life is not a thing, but rather as a process. To truly know that life is all we can do is live and this is the only way and how life is lived? Maybe its the question we should ask ourselves, what can say to that is this: being alive, flowing, running with her, walking with her. Life is now, is now, life is what is happening to us, life is not something or someone or somewhere that we have to look, life is a gift that we already have. lama you can feel in your breathing, your blood circulation in the beating of your heart. What you are now, thats your life what happened to you, what is to befall and what not, thats your life. While humans try to find different meanings to what life is and try to give the concept deeper, scientific, philosophical or theological response will never be enough to describe the life, and while people look the concept of life are missing what it is, they have forgotten the real and have been replaced by concepts and explanations that my term, to take advantage of anything. We see what is actually already here, we rationalizations. Nobody can give you the meaning of your life. Its your life and you have to give it meaning only you. No one but you can find it. Its your life and only accessible to you. Only by living the mystery will be revealed. Life is not looking at other people or writings or intelligent explanations, these are only justifications that ultimately explain nothing. Life is already bubbling within. Only if you want her there. The temple is on the outside, you are his sanctuary. So the first thing we must remember to define ourselves is life is never look outside or try to discover somebody. And the second thing to remember is that when you finally discover in yourself that is life, you will find that is death. At the beginning I mentioned that life is a process, well, death is part of that process. Humans usually think that death is the enemy of life, which is the grand finale, which is the enemy to be feared but in reality it is not, death is not the enemy, and if you consider death as the enemy that just shows you have not been able to know what life is. Although it seems absurd, death and life have many things in common, both have the same energy is a phenomenon like day and night, as cold and heat, and summer and winter, life and death are rivals, not polar opposites, are not separated and are not contrary, quite the contrary, they are complementary. Death is not the end of life is actually a culmination of a life, the summit of life, the climax, the great final stage. And once you know your life and your process, then you understand what death is. Death is a part harmony, full of life and is very friendly with her. Without it life can not exist. Death is a renewal process. And death happens every moment. The instant you inhale and exhale the moment, life and death are passing, both are given. By inspiring, life goes; upon expiry death comes. So when a child is born the first thing he does is breathe life begins there, however when the old man dies the last thing you do is breathe, there is life. The exhale is death, life is inspiring. They are like the two wheels of a cart. Lives that inspire and breathe out, is part of the inhale exhale, you can not breathe if you stop inhaling, the exhaling is part of breathing. You can not breathe if you stop exhaling. You can not live if you stop dying. The man who has understood what is your life, let death happen, welcomes you. Dies every minute and every moment to life. LIFE is a process, a process in which the past is dying every moment and born again and again into the future. If you look at what life is like you know what death is. If you understand what death is, only then will you be able to understand what life is. Life is a gift, a gift of God, and have certain scents that make it magical, like love, like friends or family, life is full of little moments that make your story and each of these moments is good live them with people you love and who love you, life without love is like a box that looks beautiful on the outside but when you open it and find it completely empty with nothing of value, thats love, which gives value to your life. Maybe weve heard many times the phrase living dead for my concept that is the perfect definition, a life without love makes us dead in life. When we say live life, we mean that, to love, that gives meaning to life, to love somebody to love many or love everyone, to love God and to love nature. Life is real is what is in you is what queeres, there are things unreal, superficial exterior such as money, money is something that absorbs life unreal how many times we have not worried about getting money and is scientifically proven that concerns cause disease and alters the body of people altering the normal functioning of this, while we worry about things more unreal wears more life and go to becoming a plant that interest only superficial things, fine work and make money, which is not right that this will become the center of your life and everything in you turn around money. If we look at the birds of the sky and see how they survive only with his life, feed and have the best clothes that anyone ever could have, with all those colors and how they sing every morning, the birds live their lives, not care about anything and are inferior to us. We should take example from them. Finally we can say that life does not have to investigate it or try to define it or worry about understanding it, life must be lived and enjoyed.

Persian Proverb Doubt Is The Key To Knowledge Philosophy Essay

Persian Proverb Doubt Is The Key To Knowledge Philosophy Essay I have been quite fascinated by the many changes that keep happening to what seems to be a certainty and realized that doubt has traditionally played a significant part in the philosophy of knowledge. The ancient Greek philosophers debated the issue of knowledge and the relevance of doubt. Plato described knowledge as justified true belief1 the key word being belief which in itself is subject to interpretations by individuals. The famous French philosopher Renee Descartes tried to define knowledge in terms of certainty and in his arguments the path to certainty begins with doubt. In his book Meditation 1 What can be called Doubt, he says I realised that it was necessary, once in the course of my life, to demolish everything completely and start again right from the foundations if I wanted to establish anything at all in the sciences that was stable and likely to last.2 So is there any truth in the Persian saying Doubt is the Key to Knowledge? Is this purely an epistemological rhetoric or will it hold true in areas of knowledge as diverse as science and arts? Nobel laureate and leading physicist, Richard Feynman described doubt in relation to science as follows: Scientific knowledge is a body of statements of varying degrees of certainty -some most unsure, some nearly sure, none absolutely certain. A strong parallel can be drawn between his statement and space research. What made man land on the moon or explore the possibility of life on Mars? As a knower, I know that if we would not have doubted the probability that man could live on the moon, space expeditions to the moon would have stopped after the near life and death drama of Apollo 13. The Apollo3 series of expeditions seemed to have established that the moon was completely uninhabitable because of its inability to sustain water. The desire to know and doubting what was already known, led to the Indian unmanned space expedition to the moon. The Indian space craft Chandrayaan discovered traces of ice on the moons surface. So, can man really live on the moon? Science generally relies on a set of deductive logic to prove their hypothesis. Euclids two dimensional geometry is a classic case of using modus ponens or deductive logic to prove assumptions or hypothesis. Going by this, one could easily argue as follows: Man needs oxygen and water to live. Water contains oxygen. Ice is formed from water. Ice has been found on the moon therefore, man can live on the moon. www.plato.stanford.edu/entries/knowledge-analysis/à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ modus ponens xenodochy.org/article/popper.html www.rep.routeledge.com/article/DA026SECT4 www.space.com/8193-caused-apoll-13-accient.html Popper doubted this process of deductive truism and said it cannot prove a theory true every time. In his theory of falsification he argued that modus ponens is purely truth preserving and therefore a better alternative is modus tollens which uses the conditions of denying to falsify the assumption e.g. if P implies Q and Q is false, then P must also be false. Poppers falsification theory pointed out no scientific theory is ever conclusively verified, no matter how many tests it has survived4 For example, Schizophrenia has all along been seen as a chronic relapsing psychotic disorder that primarily affects thought and behaviour.5 A recent study by the University College of London has established by means of an experiment that in some cases, the perceptions of schizophrenic people is more accurate than those without schizophrenia. Therefore a doubt is created whether schizophrenia is really a psychotic condition or are there other dimensions to it. Going by the argument that deductive knowledge doesnt always hold good, I can safely surmise that we do not have adequate information to conclude that man can live on the moon and therefore more questions need to be asked. On the other hand doubting every scientific fact leading to unnecessary research and information overload could lead to a situation of complete paralysis in our normal day to day life. For example, if we were to doubt that oxygen is a life giving substance, then it could lead to critical situations in medical emergencies. Similarly while dealing with society at large and friends and relatives in particular, if we were to doubt everything to seek more knowledge, we are most likely to find ourselves with very little knowledge and even fewer friends! Peoples emotions, intentions and their behavioural traits like honesty, integrity, sincerity etc. should not be doubted. There will be rare cases where people may want to deceive, but that by itself cannot lead to a doubt about people in general. _____________________ science.martinsewell.com/falsification.html priory.com/schizo.htm. Shakespeare said If music be the food of love, play on6.Wonderful as it sounds and probably not argued too much, yet people have researched the effect that music has on plants. There is one school of thought that believes and claims to have empirical data to prove that plants respond well to sedentary classical and similar genre of music but they wilt under the influence of hard rock and similar music. Drawing a parallel with human life they argue that hard rock, metal etc is actually detrimental for human growth and therefore should be banned. Traditional botanists however argue that the so called empirical data based on research is purely coincidental and there is no correlation between music and growth of plants. They resort to another set of evidence which shows that growth of plants is related to a number of factors that are not related to music such as condition of soil, temp, moisture content etc. On a third dimension, music itself has different genres enjoyed by different people. Therefore is music also subject to perception or is it absolute? Does it really impact plant detrimentally or otherwise? If we doubt the basis of the claims and counterclaims and pursue with investigation from all angles, then, knowledge will progress and facts can be established. Science notwithstanding, art is abstract enough to create its own set of debates which normally focuses on the likes and dislikes of the perceiver. This leads me to wonder, if art and aesthetics are synonymous then to what extent is beauty a necessary ingredient for something to be considered art? Platos theory of forms claimed that It is by beauty that beautiful things are beautiful. Immanuel Kant, an 18th century German philosopher on the other hand claimed that aesthetic experience is not a matter of understanding or reason, (and hence not true knowledge), but is a matter of judgment [Critique of Judgment].7 Taking this argument further, the painting by Eduord Manet8, Luncheon on the Grass, was hotly debated when it was first exhibited in 1863. Most of all it was not viewed as an art, but as an affront to society. The painting, depicting a naked woman sitting amidst two fully clad men, all of whose images were contemporary and almost identifiable as one among the viewers, earned the painter the wrath of the critiques and masses. Yet an earlier painting by Thomas Coutre in 18479, Romans in The Decadence of the Empire depicted a scene with Romans lying about with many naked women in various poses of sensuality. It appears to me, that a nude in classical settings such as the ancient Greek or Roman empires was considered acceptable but a nude in contemporary setting was not. Either way, the painting, known for its controversy today hangs as a masterpiece in the Musee D Oray in Paris. 6. www.enotes.com/shaespeare-quotes/music-food-love-play 7 www.creatorix.com.au/philosophy/t03/g010.html 8 http://blog.photos2view.com/2008/05/27/art-and-controversy.htm 9 http://www.essentialart.com/acatalog/Edouard_Manet_prints_Luncheon_on_the_Grass.html As a student of visual arts in IB, I was told that there are three basic colours red, yellow and blue. While using the computer, trangely I found that the primary colours were red, green and blue, otherwise called the RGB format. So, what are the basic colours? The answer lay in the different mediums where they are used. Red, yellow and blue are primary colours which are used in while mixing dyes to achieve other shades and colours on a painting canvas. Red, green and blue are used where there are overlapping shades to be used while projecting on screens such as in LCD panels or monitors for computer screen. My doubt about the basic colours led me to seek additional information. The key to knowledge in this area of art was learning how to mix primary dyes in painting and this learning has been both experimental and experiential. Taking the Platonist view that knowledge is justified true belief, I can now reasonably claim to have knowledge that red and yellow if mixed in equal proportions would give the colour orange or shades of orange. Whether the area of knowledge is science or arts, doubts and questions remain. Some answered with a reasonable amount of justification which points to a probable definitive answer based on information available at that point in time and others remain unresolved leading to further doubts. Therefore the question is knowledge absolute or is it infinite? We can never know unless we doubt all knowledge leading us to seek more and more information. The downside do we doubt everything in life or should we accept some events as empirical realities. The answer? It is situational. At the end, as a knower, when I look at the word doubt I can safely say that the Persian saying Doubt is the Key to Knowledge is not just an epistemological rhetoric; it is indeed a means to gain more knowledge. In the words of H L Mencken an influential writer and critic of the 20th century, Men become civilized, not in proportion to their willingness to believe, but in proportion to their readiness to doubt.9 ___________________________ www.leopoldsegedin.com/essay_detail_mona_lisas_smile.cfm www.notable-quotes.com/d/doubt_quotes.html

The History of Capitalism Essay -- Essays Papers

The History of Capitalism Capitalism is based on the same principles as mercantilism. The accumulation of means, materials, land and other things, this accumulation is called capital and â€Å"the property-owners of these means of production are called capitalists† (Hooker 2). Productive labor, human work that is necessary to make goods and distribute them, takes the form of wage labor. â€Å"The means of production and labor is manipulated by the capitalist using rational calculation in order to realize a profit† (Hooker 2). Mercantilism is the earliest form of capitalism. Mercantilism can be simply defined as the allotment of trading goods for profit. Rome is credited with the first formation of a mercantile society. As the Rome Empire expanded, mercantilism expanded with it, spreading into the Middle East and Western Europe. Due the localizing nature of European economies this enabled mercantilism to expand and was not part of the European culture. Thus by the fifteenth century, when the Roman Empire began to retrench so did mercantilism (â€Å"Hooker†). In contrast to Europe, the Arabic economies grew around a thieving mercantilism. They lived on trade routes between three magnificent empires: Egypt, Persia and soon after the Byzantium, and they found that stealing products, then selling them, to be very lucrative. Thieving mercantilism spread swiftly through Spain, Asia, Middle East, and Northern Africa, where â€Å"Arabic mercantilism assumed an unprecedented global character† (Hooker 1). During the Medieval Age is when the European culture expanded its mercantilism, taking trading to lands far beyond its shores. From the 1300’s onwards, the Europeans would push â€Å"their mercantile practices† forward, (Hooker 1) causing social up... ...ural production of human nature. Of all the economic systems tried to date, Capitalism appears to be the only system that has endured many tests, and has grown to dominate the world. The fact that communism in Russia failed during the 1980 and 1990’s proves that capitalism is the outcome of human nature. Capitalism conforms to the natural laws and conditions of humanity and that anything that falls out of these conditions can only brings misery (â€Å"Wood†). Works Cited - Kan, Fang et al. An Economic History of the Major Capitalist Counties. New York: East Gate, 1992. - Hooker, Richard. â€Å"Capitalism†. The European Enlightenment Glossary. 1996. 8 Nov 2004. - Wood, Ellen Meiksins. The Origins of Capitalism. New York: Monthly Review Press, 1999. Wood, Ellen Meiksins. The Origins of Capitalism. New York: Monthly Review Press, 1999. The History of Capitalism Essay -- Essays Papers The History of Capitalism Capitalism is based on the same principles as mercantilism. The accumulation of means, materials, land and other things, this accumulation is called capital and â€Å"the property-owners of these means of production are called capitalists† (Hooker 2). Productive labor, human work that is necessary to make goods and distribute them, takes the form of wage labor. â€Å"The means of production and labor is manipulated by the capitalist using rational calculation in order to realize a profit† (Hooker 2). Mercantilism is the earliest form of capitalism. Mercantilism can be simply defined as the allotment of trading goods for profit. Rome is credited with the first formation of a mercantile society. As the Rome Empire expanded, mercantilism expanded with it, spreading into the Middle East and Western Europe. Due the localizing nature of European economies this enabled mercantilism to expand and was not part of the European culture. Thus by the fifteenth century, when the Roman Empire began to retrench so did mercantilism (â€Å"Hooker†). In contrast to Europe, the Arabic economies grew around a thieving mercantilism. They lived on trade routes between three magnificent empires: Egypt, Persia and soon after the Byzantium, and they found that stealing products, then selling them, to be very lucrative. Thieving mercantilism spread swiftly through Spain, Asia, Middle East, and Northern Africa, where â€Å"Arabic mercantilism assumed an unprecedented global character† (Hooker 1). During the Medieval Age is when the European culture expanded its mercantilism, taking trading to lands far beyond its shores. From the 1300’s onwards, the Europeans would push â€Å"their mercantile practices† forward, (Hooker 1) causing social up... ...ural production of human nature. Of all the economic systems tried to date, Capitalism appears to be the only system that has endured many tests, and has grown to dominate the world. The fact that communism in Russia failed during the 1980 and 1990’s proves that capitalism is the outcome of human nature. Capitalism conforms to the natural laws and conditions of humanity and that anything that falls out of these conditions can only brings misery (â€Å"Wood†). Works Cited - Kan, Fang et al. An Economic History of the Major Capitalist Counties. New York: East Gate, 1992. - Hooker, Richard. â€Å"Capitalism†. The European Enlightenment Glossary. 1996. 8 Nov 2004. - Wood, Ellen Meiksins. The Origins of Capitalism. New York: Monthly Review Press, 1999. Wood, Ellen Meiksins. The Origins of Capitalism. New York: Monthly Review Press, 1999.

12 Angry Men: Review 3

In the beginning of 12 Angry Men, they clarify that they had sat through six days of court listening to the case, and were now ready to decide the verdict. After those six days of hearing believed conclusive evidence and no defense from the plaintiff, it seemed to be an assured decision. When I researched on what exactly happens in the Jury Room it said: The first motion of business in a jury room is to select one of the jurors as a foreman. He or she leads the discussion and tries to encourage everyone to join in the discussion.Every juror should have input. The purpose of these deliberations is to have a robust, uninhibited discussion which will lead to a calm, unbiased reasoning. With that being understood, it helped me comprehend and get more of a grasp on what the climate the jury room should have. As we saw in the movie, the jurors entered the room and none of them seemed eager or looked like they had the motivation to sit there and converse. What make’s matter worse was the scorching heat with no air conditioning.They were locked inside a small room with 12 other men; one was sick, and almost all of them were smoking. Absolutely nobody wanted to be there, so the climate is completely negative to begin with. Climate is defined as the atmosphere or environment within a group and is experienced by all members of the group. It materializes and is impacted by communication and can either be supportive or defensive. The frame of mind is set by the irritated baseball fan who tells everyone he has a game to get to and makes it clear that this case has an unambiguous verdict.With this sort of nonverbal confidence he is showing in his decision, it provides confirmation to the jurors in the room that there is nothing significant to discuss. The only thing established is the fact that the jurors have already made up their mind about the boy being guilty without any discussion. To start the jurors meeting, they decided to take a vote of how many feel the boy i s guilty and how many do not. Fortunately for the boy being tried as guilty, there was one juror, Henry Fonda; that had a reasonable doubt about the case and stood against the others.It wasn’t that he had already a made a decision on the verdict; it was that he felt he couldn’t vote guilty and send a man to die until he at least talked about it. The climate in the room became exceptionally negative because they all thought they were going to be able to go home but Fonda stopped them from doing so by not voting guilty. One man wouldn’t stop yelling and others were taking his side making the environment in the room a bit hostile. Fonda was willing to face the ridicule of eleven angry men.He challenged every juror to effectively tell him why they are voting guilty, which promoted deliberation. By standing up to all of the others, he gradually began to gain respect from some of the other jurors who were now ready to hear what he actually had to say. Without being na med the jury foreman, Fonda turned the broken juror room into a proper and productive room. In my opinion, this was a fine demonstration of leadership. When they decided to take turns around the table putting their two cents in, Fonda sat there and listened.Instead of arguing for the sake of not guilty, he simply let the other jurors elaborate on some of the main facts they had in the case, which often became major points of speculation. Just by listening, Fonda was able to hear everyone’s arguments and the other jurors themselves started to second guess themselves because what they believed were based on wrongful facts. When they started discussing more and more about a particular fact or certain evidence, the smaller details became inconclusive. Without listening, none of what they had found out by speculating the facts, wouldn’t have unfolded the way it did.It was from there, they started developing cohesiveness and the jurors started opening their minds and explori ng all of the other possibilities. As they kept their discussions and expatiated on the facts that they can all relate to, clues about the case started to become clear. They started to listen to one another, realizing it was necessary to hear each other’s incite, and they finally began to support each other’s views. This is a perfect illustration of groupthink, which is where group members try to cut down on any sort of conflict by not evaluating, scrutinizing, or arguing with other people’s ideas.However, they had a conflict with one of the jurors. There was no intention throughout the entire movie that this was going to switch his vote because he had personal ties from a family feud he was portraying. He had told us that in the beginning of the movie that he got into a fist fight with his 16 year old son and hasn’t seen him in two years. Once everyone was on the same page, convincing this man to vote not guilty became the name of the gamehttp://www. ala meda. courts. ca. gov/courts/jury/procedure. shtml

MBA Papers and Essays

MBA Papers and Essays MBA degree can be the right path for a number of reasons. One reason is simply the desire to continue studying in business area. Undergraduate training often ends when students are still only up to their ankles in the subject matter in which they wish to fully immerse themselves. There is still so much to discover and contribute, and graduate training opens up opportunities for knowledge advancement. Zest for learning, then, is a good reason to seek an advanced degree and perhaps is the one that will best sustain you. Another common reason for wanting to earn a higher degree in business administration is to reap the employment opportunities that accompany graduate training. Job applicants with advanced degrees have an advantage over those without them, and many careers require an advanced degree to qualify at the minimum entry level. Those who want to work in a professional capacity in business typically will need to earn a masters or doctoral degree. Finally, as a group, people with advanced degrees make more money at least over the longer haul than those without them. So, love, employment, and money are all common motivations for seeking advanced degrees. But before starting your education, you, as most students throughout the country, need to complete your MBA applications and handle them do different universities where you wish to study, or to compose only one MBA essay for only one university. In last case you have less chances and therefore you should be 100% sure that your application essay will bring you luck and you will enter this program that you’ve thought about for so long. An application essay is a commonly requested written assignment, usually consisting of two or more typed pages, included with the application to a graduate program. Application essays that request a focus on the applicants educational goals are often referred to as statements of purpose. Our custom writing service provides lots of students around the world with custom written applications for different graduate degrees as well as MBA degrees. Our academic writers can complete not only your term paper, research paper, essay or thesis but also your MBA application if you apply to any business program. While any business education can be very expensive, it is important that your application paper was excellent. You should consider your MBA application to be more than simple term paper that you have completed for many times in the school. In this section we want to let you know about 12 content categories that you should consider when you write your MBA applications.

Manot Cave - Early Modern Humans Out of Africa and Into the Levant

Manot Cave - Early Modern Humans Out of Africa and Into the Levant Manot Cave is an active karst cave with abundant speleothems, and, more to the point, evidence of multiple Middle and Upper Paleolithic occupations likely associated with both Neanderthals and  anatomically modern humans (abbreviated AMH). The cave is located in what is today Israel, some 40 kilometers (25 miles) northwest of the similarly dated Neanderthal site of Qafzeh Cave and about the same northeast of the four Neanderthal sites at Mount Carmel, and about 220 meters (656 feet) above sea level. The interior of the cave is an elongated main hall (80 m [262 ft] long, 10-25 m [30-80 ft] wide), and it has two lower chambers connected from the north and south. A skull cap (calvaria) from a hominin skull was found in the side chamber extending eastward from the northeastern wall of the main cave, covered by a thin calcite crust. The chamber is 7.7x4 m (25x13 ft) in floor area and 1-2.5 m (4-8 ft) high. The skullcap was resting on a flowstone ledge, without loose sediment nearby, and is not associated directly with any stratified archaeological layers found elsewhere in the cave. The calcitic crust directly covering the calvaria was direct-dated by Uranium-Thorium methods to 54,700 /- 5,500 years ago: researchers suggest that given the constant wetness of the cave today, the crust date likely approximates the true age of the skull. AMH is thought to have arrived in Europe ca. 45,000 years ago (bp). Chronology Excavations indicate the cave was intensively occupied during the Upper Paleolithic period, and, to a lesser extent, the Middle Paleolithic. Dates include both Accelerator Mass Spectrometer radiocarbon dates and Uranium-Thorium dates. Collapse of the cave, 30,000 years bpUpper Paleolithic (Areas C and E)  Levantine Aurignacian  (39,000-35,000 bp), carinated and nosed endscrapers on blades, bladelets and antler spear points, comparable to Hayonim Cave and Ksar Akil Rockshelter; Columbella rustica and Nassarius gibbosulus shells, some perforated, presumably for personal ornamentationAhmarian (46,000-42,000 bp): long, narrow blades with punctiform platforms, burins, endscrapers and el-Wad pointsTerminal Middle Paleolithic/Initial Upper Paleolithic (60,200-49,200 bp): blade cores, endscrapers, Levallois-like blades, similar to Ksar Akil, Ucagizli Cave, Boker TachitMiddle Paleolithic (Areas A, C, D): Levallois cores and flakes, some of which were found in the later assemblages Features of Manot Cave Features associated with the habitation of the cave include Area E, a thin living surface associated with the Upper Paleolithic component. Area E included charcoal remains, flint artifacts, animal bones and two combustion areas, one of which is a hearth with white calcified wood ash, surrounded by a layer of burnt clay. Artifacts in Area E included endscrapers, burins and Dufour bladelets. Area C is primarily an Early Upper Paleolithic occupation, with a scatter of Middle Paleolithic tools. Flint tools include Aurignacian-like blades and blade tools, el-Wad points, and antler points. Area C also included perforated shells and red ochre. A recent study of the lithics from Area C (Weiner et al) suggests that 19 of 20 examined artifacts were heat-treated, a characteristic of AMH first definitively used about 70,000 years ago in South Africa. The faunal record of the cave indicate the inhabitants were exploiting mountain gazelle and Mesopotamian fallow deer. See the Manot Cave project gallery page at Antiquity by Marder et al. for details and photographs of the artifacts and site features. Calvaria at Manot Cave A large intact portion of a human skull was recovered from Manot Cave, including of the uppermost part of the frontal bone, two nearly complete parietal bones and the occipital. The calvaria is relatively small and gracile, but is believed to be from an adult. Cranial capacity is estimated to be 1,100 milliliters, well within Anatomically Modern Human  (AMH) ranges. Indeed, most aspects of the skulls form fall within the range of modern humans, although others, including a coronal keel and an occipital bun, do not. Excavators Hershkovitz and colleagues argue that the skull cap contains a mosaic of archaic and modern traits like other hominins found across sub-Saharan Africa and the Levant as recently as 35,000 years ago. Given the date and formal aspects of the skull, Hershkovitz et al. argue that the Manot 1 individual likely was a member of a population that migrated  out of Africa  and established itself in the Levant during the late Middle Paleolithic or Middle-Upper Paleolithic interface. Thus, say the scholars, Manot 1 is either an early local Levantine Anatomically Modern Human, or it represents a hybrid between Neanderthals and early AMHs. In either case, suggest the scholars, the residents of Manot Cave did live in close proximity to Neanderthals, and thus the Manot skullcap may have been one of the first descendants of AMH populations to have interbred with Neanderthals prior to the migration into Europe. Archaeology Manot was found by construction workers in the early 21st century and excavated by an international team led by Tel Aviv University between 2010-2014. Sources This article is a part of the About.com guide to the Upper Paleolithic, and the Dictionary of Archaeology. Hershkovitz I, Marder O, Ayalon A, Bar-Matthews M, Yasur G, Boaretto E, Caracuta V, Alex B, Frumkin A, Goder-Goldberger M et al. 2015. Levantine cranium from Manot Cave (Israel) foreshadows the first European modern humans.Nature in press. doi: 10.1038/nature14134 Marder O, Alex B, Ayalon A, Bar-Matthews M, Bar-Oz G, Bar-Yosef Mayer DE, Berna F, Boaretto E, Caracuta V, Frumkin A et al. 2012. The Upper Palaeolithic of Manot Cave, Western Galilee, Israel: the 2011–12 excavations. Antiquity Project Gallery. Weiner S, Brumfeld V, Marder O, and Barzilai O. 2015. Heating of flint debitage from Upper Palaeolithic contexts at Manot Cave, Israel: changes in atomic organization due to heating using infrared spectroscopy. Journal of Archaeological Science 54:45-53. doi: 10.1016/j.jas.2014.11.02s wasahave come from