Anthropology 1210

Lecture 7
March 3, 2011
 Lecture Topics
• Homo erectus
– Diagnostic traits
– Taxonomic debate
– Historical overview of H. erectus finds
– Early Homo and stone tool technology
– Hunters or scavengers?
– Distribution of H. erectus finds
– Early Archaic Homo sapiens
 Homo Erectus
• Prior to H. erectus, no other hominin had lived
outside of Africa
• Pleistocene Epoch
– “Age of the Glaciers”
– During glacial advances, sea levels dropped and
exposed “land bridges”
– Continental ice sheets blocked access to other
regions
– Both influenced radiation of H. erectus out of
Africa
 Homo erectus
• Taxonomic debate
– Splitters
• Unique traits within a single species enough to warrant
creation of multiple categories
– Lumpers
• Do not see unique traits as sufficiently diverse to
warrant the creation of multiple categories
• Are there multiple H. erectus species?
 Homo erectus
• Splitters
– Africa – H. ergaster
– Asia – H. erectus
– Europe – H. heidelbergensis
– Indonesia – H. floresiensis
• Distinctions recently supported by results of 3D-
geometric study of landmarks on temporal bones
(Terhune et al. 2007)
– Degree of variation found outside acceptable norm
 Homo erectus
• Corroborates earlier findings by Wood and
Collard (1999) claiming H. ergaster is the
ancestor to modern humans
• Lumpers
– With the exception of H. floresiensis, they view all
known remains as H. erectus
 Homo floresiensis
• Described as a miniature form of erectus
• Found on island of Flores, Indonesia
– Tiny stature – may have been only 1 m tall
– Small brains – 380 CC
– Skulls share many diagnostic traits of larger H.
erectus
 Homo floresiensis
• Is it truly an erectus species?
– Microcephalic modern human?
– Analysis of wrist bones indicate it is closer to H.
erectus
 Homo Erectus
• H. erectus traits
– Notably larger cranial capacity (750 – 1250 cc3)
– Increase in brain size linked to increase in body
size
• Encephalization
– Increase in stature: 5.6 – 6 ft. tall
– Increase in robusticity
 Homo Erectus - Cranial Features
• Platycephalic skull (football shape)
• Low cranial vault, low forehead, pronounced brow
ridge
• Thick cranial bones
– Occipital bun, Saggital keel
– Points of muscle attachment
• Large jaw, wide ascending ramus
• No chin
• Reduced molars
• Shovel shaped incisors
 History of H. Erectus Finds
• Eugene Dubois
– Solo River near the town of Trinil in Java
• Found a skull cap and femur
• Pithecanthropus erectus
• von Koenigswald
– also working in Java
 History of H. Erectus Finds
• Davidson Black
– near the village of Zhoukoudian, China
• “Peking Man” (Sinanthropus pekinensis)
 History of H. Erectus Finds
• African sites
– Olduvai Gorge, Lake Turkana
 History of H. Erectus Finds
• Olduvai Gorge
– OH 9
– Largest of any African specimen at 1067 cc
 History of H. Erectus Finds
• Lake Turkana
– ER 3733
• 1.8 my; 848 CC
– All specimens found with stone tools
– WT 15000, Turkana Boy
• Near complete skeleton
Early Homo and stone tool technology
• Belief that the defining characteristic marking
the advent of early Homo was the production
and use of stone tools
• Palaeolithic = Stone Age
2.5 m.y.a. to 10,000 y.a.
• Palaeolithic - three distinct time periods:
Upper
Middle
Time

Lower
Early Homo and stone tool technology
• Earliest evidence of tool use associated with
A. gahri in Ethiopia
• However, no certainty as to which early
hominin made and used the earliest stone
tools
Early Homo and stone tool technology
• Earliest stone tools date to 2.5 m.y.a.
• Include crude pebble cores, choppers, stone
flakes, scrapers
• Reductive technology; lithics
• Olduwan tool tradition
– 2.5 to 1.4 m.y.a.
– Australopithecines, H.
habilis, early H. erectus
Early Homo and stone tool technology
• Acheulian tool tradition
– 1.5 m.y.a. to 200,000 y.a.
• Acheulian hand axe
– bifacial tool
– a target design
– Hard hammer vs. soft hammer percussion
– All-purpose tool type
• Other types of Acheulian tools include:
– scrapers, burins, points, multi-purpose cores
 Hunters or Scavengers?
• Co-occurrence of stones and bones can’t be
seen as direct evidence of hunting
• Taphonomic studies
– serendipitous association
– Early hominins more likely scavengers
 Olorgasailie

Thousands of Acheulian hand-axes discarded at site

 Olorgasailie

Cut marks on baboon femurs likely

resulted from the tendons being severed using a hand axe
 Torralba and Ambrona
• Elephant bones found in association with
Acheulian tools
• Thought initially animals had been hunted;
more recent results indicate they died
naturally and were scavenged
 Terra Amata
• 400,000 – 200,000 y.a.
• Occupied by H. erectus or Early Archaic H.
sapiens?
• Seasonal occupation
– Exploited a wide variety of food types
– Engaged in tool production activities
• Early evidence of shelters
 Distribution of H. erectus finds
• Appears to have been more broadly
distributed in Africa, parts of Asia, and less so
in Europe
• Difficulty in classifying H. erectus finds in
Europe from the Middle Pleistocene
– Several fossil finds display a mixture of erectus
and modern sapiens features
– Archaic Homo sapiens
 Archaic Homo sapiens
• Do not display full suite of characteristics that
are diagnostic of anatomically modern H.
sapiens sapiens
• They are classified as archaic forms of our own
species
 Archaic Homo sapiens
• Features Archaic H. sapiens shares with H. erectus:
– large browridges
– flat, receding forehead
– a broader skull at its base
– thick cranial walls
– massive, chinless (receding) jaw
– large posterior teeth
• Use of the Acheulian tool tradition (briefly)
 Archaic Homo sapiens
• Features that distinguish Archaic H. sapiens
from H. erectus:
– cranial capacity 1200 cm3
– rounded occipital bone
– wider browridges
– browridges that form two distinct arches
– The skeleton and teeth are usually less robust
than H. erectus
 Early Archaic Homo sapiens
• Broken Hill (Kabwe), Zambia
– Site first investigated in 1921
– Estimated age – 130,000 years
– Skull with complete face; combination of robust
and gracile traits
• Robust: large brow ridge, low forehead, occipital torus
• Gracile: 1200 CC, thinner cranial walls, modern cranial
base
 Early Archaic Homo sapiens
• Bodo
– Found in the Bodo region of Ethiopia
– Partial skull with largely intact face
• 500,000 – 200,000 years old
– Combination of robust and gracile traits
• Robust: thick cranial walls, large brow ridge
• Gracile: nasal bones and frontal regions lighter in
construction
 Early Archaic Homo sapiens
• Petralona, Greece
– Found in 1959, encrusted in limestone
• 800,000 – 200,000 years old
• 1440 – 1155 CC
• Similar to Broken Hill specimen in other cranial facial
features
 Early Archaic Homo sapiens
• Other early European examples:
– Arago and Biache from France
– Vertesszollos from Hungary
– Swanscombe from England
– Steinham and Bilzingsleben from Germany
– Dneister River Valley (Caucasus Mountains) in
Georgia (Russia)
 Homo antecessor
• New find from Atapuerca, Spain
– 750,000 years old
– Thought to be last common ancestor to
Neandertals and Homo sapiens sapiens
• New finds from Ceprano, Italy
– Transition between H. erectus and H.
heidelbergensis?
 H. heidelbergensis
• Controversy about how to interpret it
– H. heidelbergensis still retains more primitive
traits:
• Large, prognathic face
• Larger teeth and jaws
• Heavy brow ridge
• Platycephalic skull, sloping forehead
• Heavier post-cranial skeleton
– Is it an Archaic H. sapiens form?
– Should erectus be included as H. sapiens erectus?