And its small size would make it a doddle to fit to the bike. Andrew Campbell felt that “It wouldn’t look that great mounted on the bike, and it might not be that easy to attach.” It was heavier than the other locks, except the Kryptonite New York Chain, and this ultimately counted against it.*****KRYPTONITE NEW YORKpounds 49.99The makers of this small-shackled U-lock boast that it’s the only lock tough enough to be guaranteed in New York Emma Nash didn’t like the shackle size. They place themselves in the tradition of Franz Weidenreich, who developed the multi- regional model in the 1940s. Weidenreich emphasised interbreeding and the flow of genes between populations.

Coon abandoned this emphasis in favour of the implausible idea that different populations reached the modern human condition independently. Wolpoff and Caspari argue that in treating humanity as one great Internet of gene flow, multi-regionalism relegates features like brow ridges to the equivalent of regional accents.The contest goes back and forth. New dates for Javan fossils, considered to be Homo erectus, suggest they may be younger than 30,000 years, which would not leave enough time for them to evolve into moderns. On the other hand, genetic studies by Rosalind Harding, based in Oxford, suggest that modern humans – including ones in the Oxford area – carry DNA sequences which evolved in Asia 200,000 years ago. That was long before modern humans emerged from Africa, according to the replacement scenario.Despite the false dawn of Jinmium, the archaeology won’t lie down either. The vegetation of northern Australia changed around 40,000 years ago, although the climate was stable then The presence of charcoal suggests that the cause was fire. Perhaps this, rather than rock carvings, was the first mark humans made on Australia And they may have done so much earlier.

Similar evidence appears in a sample up to 150,000 years old, from the Great Barrier Reef. That implicates Homo erectus.Although the Reef and large areas of the Australian continental shelf were dry land in the past, Australia was always at least 90km from the nearest island. According to multi-regionalist Alan Thorne, it would have taken eight or nine days to make the crossing by raft; and it would also have required language to organise the voyage. Multiregionalists tend to be generous in their estimates of ancient hominid capacities, but this is expansive even by their standards. It implies that erectus was capable not just of island-hopping, but of conceiving an invisible goal, beyond the horizon.’Out of Asia’ is on BBC2 this Thursday at 9.25pm. For seven years Villandry has been one of the smallest, pokiest, most uncomfortable, noisiest -and loveliest – places in London in which to eat.