PLIOCENEPLEISTOCENE Plio-Pleistocene MIOCENE ?

Homo erectus Distribution Throughout Africa from 1.8 Ma First hominin to appear outside of Africa Appears in Asia ca. 1.8 Ma ? Adapted to both tropical and temperate Climates

Oldowan “Chopper”Acheulian “Biface” or “Handaxe”

OLDUVAI GORGE

Olorgesailie (Kenya) 1.2 – 0.05 Ma Acheulean Handaxes Butchered fauna ! Theropithecus oswaldi Elephas recki

Dmanisi (Republic of Georgia) 1.8 MA (2 – 1.5 Ma) Oldowan-type tools !! 3 hominid skulls, misc. jaws, etc. lots of fauna & artifacts NEW SKULL DISCOVERED in situ !

D 2282

JAVA (Southeast Asia)

Sangiran s G.H.R. von Koeningswald

Ngandong s 53, ,000 BP

Zhoukoudian (Main Cave)

Sinanthropus pekinensis Davidson Black

Skull 5 -- Individual H

Zhoukoudian

Pithecanthropus Meganthropus Sinanthropus

Zhoukoudian Main Cave artifacts

Homo erectus Culture Acheulean Industry (exc East Asia) Bifacial hand axes and cleavers Diversified tool kits (?Cooperative) hunting of big-game animals evidence for simple shelters earliest occupation of cave sites evidence for controlled use of fire Open question: language

Anatomical Insights Thorax shape: hunting Basicranial flexion: language

Early Hominid Lifeways Reconstructing behavior Climatic/environmental changes Diet Meat eating Food sharing Foraging Social organization Sexual division of labor Home bases?

ANALOGUES Chimps: –Similar brain size to australopithecines –Precursor traits to human societies –Tools, Hunting, Food Sharing Contemporary foragers: –Fully modern anatomically and culturally –What features represent historical universals? –Reconstructing ecology

The Limits of Analogy Behavior does not fossilize Chimp “culture” is population specific Human foragers are not living fossils Stone Age Economics

Homo erectus/ergaster Homo sapiens Suite of intermediate characters previously ‘archaic’ H. sapiens or pre-sapiens oversimplifies the evolutionary picture Transitional

Weidenreich (1943) & Coon (1962) Saw independent line to modern humans P. robustusP. erectusH. soloensisH. sapiens (Wadjak)

Archaic Homo sapiens Archaic H. sapiens H. erectus Africa EuropeAsia AMH 600 ka 500 ka 300 ka

archaic Homo sapiens by start of Middle Pleistocene ( Ma) H. erectus firmly established Africa Tropical Asia Temperate Asia Temperate Europe replaced by “archaic Homo sapiens” now referred to Homo heidelbergensis

Homo heidelbergensis Mauer Jaw –massive mandible -- both primitive (robust) & derived (small molars) –was for a long time the “oldest” European fossil –type specimen –ca. 500,000 years old Mauer Jaw (W. Germany)

Slightly larger more globular braincase ( cm 3 ) steeper forehead and rounded back of skull skull broadest higher up thinner skull bones, reduced musculature mandible and face reduced, smaller molars Old World Distribution 800,000 – 200,000 years ago Homo heidelbergensis

Arago, 21, France Kabwe, Zambia Petralona, Greece Bodo, Ethiopia Homo heidelbergensis

Figure Found Ka 1300 cc (largest transitional in Far East) contemporaneous with H. erectus at Zhoukoudian

Figure 13.20c

Figure 13.20b