The wall painting ‘Patterns of evolution, the multiregional model’ and ‘Patterns of evolution, the Out-of-Africa-model’ show various views on the origins of the human race. It is generally accepted that 2 million years ago, populations of the Homo erectus began to spread from Africa to other parts of the Ancient World. But how did the modern day Homo sapiens evolve from its predecessors?
On the one hand there is the theory that everyone descends from the same source. ‘Patterns of evolution, the Out-of-Africa-model’ (shown on the right) is a schematic overview of the theory that modern man originated during a unique evolutionary event within one population of the archaic sapiens in Africa (the predecessor of the Homo sapiens). It is argued that descendants have spread throughout the entire Ancient World and have replaced other species of human beings.
In contrast to the Out-of-Africa model, there is the multiregional model. ‘Patterns of evolution, the multiregional model’ (shown on the left) shows the theory that there are a number of simultaneous and equal developments during which both exchange and cross-pollination between various races occurred. The multiregional model argues that the process of evolutionary change continued in all archaic sapiens, which is why the geographic populations in Asia, Africa and Europe evolved and developed into modern humans (with a great deal of exchanging of genes).
The floral patterns of the wall paintings are based on the famous and popular Dutch Boerenbont pattern from Maastricht pottery (Petrus Ragout/Sphinx and Société Ceramique, ca. 1860-1919).