Anthropology

Appreciating Human Diversity

Fifteenth Edition

Conrad Phillip Kottak

University of Michigan

McGraw-Hill © 2013 McGraw-Hill Companies. All Rights Reserved.

C H A P T E R

ARCHAIC HOMO

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 ARCHAIC HOMO
• Early Homo
• Out of Africa I: H. Erectus
• Archaic H. Sapiens
• The Neandertals
• Homo floresiensis

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 ARCHAIC HOMO
• What were the earliest forms of Homo, and
where did they originate and eventually
migrate to?
• What were the major toolmaking traditions
and adaptive strategies of archaic Homo?
• What were the Neandertals like, and how did
they differ from earlier and later forms of
Homo?

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 EARLY HOMO
• Approximately 2 m.y.a., two distinct hominin
groups: early Homo and A. boisei (hyper
robust australopithecine)
• A. boisei – extinct around 1 m.y.a.
• Homo evolved into H. erectus by 1.9 m.y.a.
• Dental, facial and cranial robustness of
australopithecines was reduced as early forms of
Homo evolved
• Homo began hunting large animals to supplement
the gathering of vegetation and scavenging
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 H. RUDOLFENSIS AND
H. HABILIS
• H. rudolfensis is based on KNM-ER 1470
skull found by Leakey and Ngeneo
• Kenya
• Mixture of Homo and Au. features
• Brain size similar to Homo; larger than Au.
• Molars are more like hyperrobust Australopithecus
• Much debate – age of skull, own species or part of Homo habilis;
lived earlier than Homo habilis or at same time
• The only sure conclusion: several different kinds of hominin lived
in Africa before and after the advent of Homo

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H. HABILIS AND H. ERECTUS
• First representation of homo habilis found at Olduvai Gorge
(1960) by Leakeys; dated to 1.8 m.y.a.
• Another habilis – Tim White (1986)
• OH62: small female with apelike limb bones
• Suggests a greater tree-climbing ability than later hominins
• Cranial capacity: between 600 and 700 cm3
• Small size and primitive proportions of Homo habilis were
unexpected, given knowledge of early Homo erectus in East
Africa
• By 1.6 m.y.a., H. erectus attained cranial capacity of 900 cm3 and
modern body shape and height

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 H. HABILIS AND H. ERECTUS
• Sister species:
• Recent fossil finds from Kenya
• Findings: H. habilis jawbone (1.44 m.y.a.)
and H. erectus skull (1.55 m.y.a.)
• Significant for two reasons:
• shows that H. habilis and H. erectus overlapped (rather than ancestor and
descendent)
• Sexual dimorphism in H. erectus is greater than expected (more than in
chimps or modern humans)
• H. habilis and H. erectus split from common ancestor prior to 2 m.y.a. and lived
side by side in eastern Africa for approximately 500,000 years
• The fact that they remained separate species for so long suggests that they had
their own ecological niches, thus avoiding direct competition
• Fossil record: H. rudolfensis (2.03 – 1.78 m.y.a.); H. habilis (1.9 – 1.44 m.y.a.);
H. erectus (1.9 – 1.0 m.y.a.)

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 H. HABILIS AND H. ERECTUS
• The significance of hunting:
• The ecological niche that separated H. erectus from H. habilis and A.
boisei probably involved greater reliance on hunting, along with
improved cultural means of adaptation, including better tools
• With emergence of H. erectus, there is rapid increase in number and
diversity of tools being made
• Tools made it possible for homo to:
• acquire meat more reliably
• use hides after butchering
• Dig and process tubers, roots, nuts, and seeds more efficiently
• Batter, crush, and pulp coarse vegetation
• New developments with tools eased burden on the chewing apparatus;
chewing muscles developed less; began to select for smaller dentition
• Supporting structures, such as jaws and cranial crests, were also
reduced; smaller jaws has less room to fit large teeth; natural selection

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 Homo erectus
• Cultural manipulation of environment allowed H. erectus
to exploit a wide range of ecological zones
• Biology – stronger skulls and better protected brains;
better survival rates when hunting large animals
• Base if skull expanded; ridge of spongy bone across
the back for attachment of massive neck muscles
• Average cranial capacity increased from about 500
cm3 in australopithecines to about 1,000 cm3 in Homo
erectus (within modern range of variation)

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 OUT OF AFRICA I: H. ERECTUS
• Biological and cultural changes enabled H.
erectus to employ gathering and hunting
strategies
• Helped H. erectus move out of Africa into Asia
and Europe
• Through population growth and dispersal, small
groups broke off from larger ones, H. erectus
gradually spread and changed
• Fueled by lifestyle based on hunting and
gathering; searching for meat

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 PALEOLITHIC TOOLS
• Paleolithic: Old Stone Age, includes:
• Technique differentiation
• Best stone tools are made from rocks, like flint,
that fracture sharply in predictable ways when
hammered
• Marked by refinement of technique and
recognizable groupings of toolmaking traditions
(different tools for different purposes)

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 PALEOLITHIC TOOLS
• Acheulean: Lower Paleolithic tool tradition associated with H.
erectus (dates to at least 1.76 m.y.a.)
• Chipped the core bilaterally and symmetrically in a predetermined
shape (versus Oldowan tools where flaking wasn’t done to produce
choppers but to produce flakes)
• Hand axes – used for many tasks
• Predetermined shapes indicated a cognitive leap between early
hominins and H. erectus
• Greater efficiency
• Tools were predetermined form and for specific tasks
• Shows increasingly complex technology

Trends became more obvious with H. sapiens

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 ADAPTIVE STRATEGIES OF
H. ERECTUS
• Interrelated changes in biology and culture increased human adaptability
(capacity to live in and modify an ever-wider range of environments)
• Biology
• Bipedalism – larger and longer-legged body permitted long-distance
stalking and endurance during hunt
• Bony ridge at rear and front of skull, traits which may have protected
brain (increased survival rates when hunting large animals)
• Large brow above eyes and large front teeth (using front teeth to pull;
makes front teeth large and creates brow above eyes)
• Teeth - front teeth were especially large; molar size was well below Au.
average (chewing demands were reduced)
• Increased cranial capacity - H. erectus average cranial capacity (1000
cm3) doubled australopithecine average
• H. erectus face and jaws smaller than australopithecines’

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 ADAPTIVE STRATEGIES OF
H. ERECTUS
• Cultural Adaptations
• Hunting and gathering economy
• Helped Homo erectus expand their environment and migrate out of Africa and into Europe and Asia
• Improved tools
• Number and diversity of tools was increasing which aided Homo in hunting and gathering
• Technology made it possible to acquire meat more reliably and to use the hides after butchering (i.e.
clothing, blankets…)
• Able to dig and process tubers, roots, nuts, and seeds more efficiently
• Tools to batter, crush, and pulp coarse vegetation also reduced chewing demands
• Fire
• Hearths confirm that fire had become part of the human adaptive kit by this time
• Permitted occupation of cave sites
• Protection from bears and saber-toothed tigers
• Survive winter cold
• Cooking
• Cooking breaks down vegetable fibers, tenderizes meat, kills parasites, makes meat more
digestible reducing strain on chewing apparatus

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 Language
• Was language an additional advantage?
• Socially complex activities and technologies such as Acheulean
tools, cooperative hunting, and H. erectus’ cranial capacity all
support possibility of rudimentary speech
• Speech would have aided coordination, cooperation, and the
learning of traditions
• No definite evidence, however, given that apes have been
shown to have some potential for language based
communication, and given brain size of H. erectus, it seems
possible that they had some form of speech

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 THE EVOLUTION AND
EXPANSION OF H. ERECTUS
• Dmanisi fossils (Georgia)
• One complete and two partial skulls (1.77 – 1.7 m.y.a.)
• suggest rapid spread of early Homo out of Africa and into Eurasia by
1.7–1.77 m.y.a.
• Likely in search of meat
• Java Man
• Indonesian Island of Java
• Earliest H. erectus fossil found but not most ancient
• Fossils also found in Tanzania, China, and Europe
• Probably increased range in pursuit of meat

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Figure 9.1: Evolution in Toolmaking

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 Figure 9.3: The Sites of Discovery of
Homo erectus and Its Probable Maximum Distribution

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 ARCHAIC H. SAPIENS
• Africa (center during australopithecine period) joined by Asia and
Europe during H. erectus and H. sapiens periods
• We know more from Europe because archaeology and fossil hunting
have been going on longer there than Africa or Asia
• Archaic Homo sapiens (300,000? to 28,000 B.P.)
encompasses earliest members of species along with
Neandertals (130,000 to 28,000 B.P.)
• Brain size in archaic H. sapiens was within modern human
range (1,350 cm3)
• Rounding out of the brain case associated with increased
brain size

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RECAP 9.1: Summary of Data on Homo Fossil Groups

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 ICE AGES OF THE
PLEISTOCENE
• Pleistocene – epoch of human life
• Each subdivision of Pleistocene is associated with particular group of
hominins
• Lower Pleistocene – late Au. and early Homo
• Middle Pleistocene – Homo erectus and archaic homo sapians
• Upper Pleistocene – Modern Homo sapiens (appeared late in Middle
Pleistocene and was sole hominin of Upper Pleistocene) and
Neandertals
• Several glacials/ice ages: major advances of continental ice sheets in
Europe and North America during second million years of Pleistocene
• Separated by interglacials: extended warm periods between glacials
• Würm: last glacial, 75,000 to 12,000 B.P.
• Interstadials: brief periods of relative warmth during the Würm glacial

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 H. ANTECESSOR AND
H. HEIDELBERGENSIS
• H. antecessor (780,000 years old), from Spain’s
Atapuerca mountains, possible common ancestor of
Neandertals and anatomically modern humans (AMHs)
• H. heidelbergensis—massive fossil/jaw (500,000 years
old) found in Heidelberg, Germany—may refer to group
of hominins (700,000 – 200,000 years ago) described as
either late H. erectus or archaic H. sapiens (transitional
between Homo erectus and later hominins like
Neandertals and AMHs))

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 H. ANTECESSOR AND
H. HEIDELBERGENSIS
• Stone flakes found on England’s Suffolk
seacoast show that humans reached northern
Europe 700,000 years ago
• Terra Amata, France, shows bands of 15 to 25
people made regular visits during late spring and
early summer some 300,000 years ago
• Seasonal camp
• Animal bones, hearths, postholes; stone chips

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 H. ANTECESSOR AND
H. HEIDELBERGENSIS
• Homo’s tolerance of environmental diversity increased
• Shown through distribution of fossils and tools found
in Europe, Asia, and Africa
• Homo was on the move
• Archaic H. sapiens occupied Arago cave in
southeastern France when Europe was bitterly cold
• Arago fossils have mixed features that seem
transitional between H. erectus and the Neandertals

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Figure 9.4: Timeline of Species within Genus Homo
in Increments of 100,000 Years,
from 2.5 m.y.a. Through the Present

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 THE NEANDERTALS
• First discovered in western Europe in Germany’s Neander Valley in
1856; originally thought Neandertals were from Europe
• Puzzling; no framework for understanding human evolution
• Fossils that are not Neandertals but have similar features (i.e. large
faces and brows) are found in Africa and Asia
• Identification of Neandertal mtDNA announced in bones from sites in
central Asia and Siberia
• Places Neandertals much farther east (into southern Siberia) than
previously suspected

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COLD-ADAPTED NEANDERTALS
• Neandertals were stocky, with large trunks and
short limbs
• Phenotype minimizes surface area and
conserves heat
• Massive nasal cavities of Neandertal
fossils suggest they had long, broad noses
to expand the area for warming and moistening
air

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COLD-ADAPTED NEANDERTALS
• Neandertals’ front teeth: extremely large, show evidence
of wear
• Probably used for many jobs later done by tools
• Large brow ridge – designed to support considerable
stress on front teeth
• Later Neandertals show decrease in robustness of back
teeth and face
• suggests use of tools reduced heavy work of teeth
• Indicates smaller teeth may have been selectively
favored

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 Mousterian Tool Kit
Neandertal technology, a Middle Paleolithic tool
tradition called Mousterian, improved during Würm
- complex kit including at least 14 categories of tools
- Flaking technique
- Specific tools for specific tasks
- Scrapers used to prepare animal hides for clothing
- Larger points were attached to spears
- Other special tools were designed for sawing,
gouging, and piercing

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 Figure 9.5: Middle Paleolithic Tools
of the Mousterian Toolmaking Tradition

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 THE NEANDERTALS AND
MODERN PEOPLE
• Prevailing view says that H. erectus split
into separate groups, one ancestral to Neandertals, the other
ancestral to AMHs
• AMHs then drove Neandertals to extinction by moving into their
territories
• Some scientists still believe Neandertals could have contributed to
ancestry of modern Europeans
• Neandertals differed from AMHs
• Heavy brow ridges and slanting foreheads
• Larger cranial capacity
• Comparatively rugged skeletons and faces
• Huge front teeth
• Greater sexual dimorphism

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 THE NEANDERTALS AND
MODERN PEOPLE
• Errors helped create inaccurate stereotype of
Neandertals
• Differences exaggerated on basis of misinterpretation
of La Chapelle-aux-Saints find that he was aging and
had osteoarthritis
• Some argue Neandertals contributed to ancestry of
anatomically modern Europeans
• Cite fossils that combine Neandertal robustness with
modern features

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 Life as a Neandertal
• Lived in cold areas
• Strongly attached to families and local communities
• Empathy and sympathy – cared for disabled; buried their dead
• Used some form of language (maybe tones or whistles) which allowed them to
communicate, coordinate, and plan ahead
• Excellent mechanical skills (i.e. spear head with intricately fastened point)
• Hunting was close range (lacked a spear thrower)
• Victims of cannibalism – El Sidron Cave (Tunnel of Bones)
• Moved within particular territory (home range); little contact with outsiders; no
evidence of trade
• Unchanging tool design (Mousterian)
• No art
• Did not borrow techniques of spear throwers
• Unwillingness or inability to borrow or innovate put them at disadvantage in
competing with AMHs for shrinking resources in the Ice Age (around 30,000 years
ago)

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 The Denisovans
• Distant Neandertal cousins
• Denisova – cave in Southern Siberia
• Finger fragment and wisdom tooth
• Extracted entire genome
• Girl with brown skin, hair, and eyes
• Wisdom tooth does not resemble that of AMHs or Neandertals
• Lived in Asia 400,000 – 50,000 years ago
• Split with Neandertals about 400,000 years ago
• Neandertals spread west, Denisovans headed east
• AMHs remained in Africa

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 HOMO FLORESIENSIS
• Few researchers imagined that a different human species had survived through 12,000 B.P. until
this discovery
• Discovery of bones and tools of group of tiny humans in Flores, Indonesia (2004)
• Different human species; downsized version of H. erectus
• Shows that archaic humans survived much later than had been thought
• Remains date from 95,000 to 13,000 B.P.
• Most surprising feature – very small skulls (slightly smaller than chimp); cast doubt on cultural
abilities. However:
• Appear to have controlled fire
• Stone tools more sophisticated than those of H. erectus
• Island was inhabited by select group of animals, including H. floresiensis
• Faced unusual evolutionary forces that pushed some toward gigantism and some toward
dwarfism (carnivorous lizards became giants; elephants evolved to a dwarf form)
• Population wiped out by volcanic eruption around 12,000 B.P.
• Further analysis, especially of the feet, has led scientists to question whether it is descendent of
H. erectus or is a more primitive hominin ancestor (disproportionally large flat feet; similar to
African apes; bone that helps form the arch in modern human feet was more ape-like; without
strong arch, they would have walked but not run like humans)

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