Chapter Summary

The record of the latest 2 million years of hominid evolution is complex. The fossils from the first 99 percent of this period are scarce, often fragmentary, scattered geographically, physically variable, and in some cases questionably dated. Not surprisingly, the interpretations of these fossils vary as greatly as do the fossils themselves. Our survey uses as a starting point the currently most elaborate model for classifying and naming these fossils—the recognition of six species within genus Homo after the early Homo stage. I do not necessarily endorse this model but am beginning with it for the purpose of clearly organizing our discussion our discussion of a fairly complex topic.

The earliest species, Homo ergaster, is found only in Kenya, but a probable branch off this group, Homo erectus, spreads through the rest of Africa and into Asia and possibly southern Europe. These two species are characterized by virtually modern postcranial skeletons, brain sizes close to and even overlapping the modern human range, and the invention of more sophisticated stone tools and other cultural innovations, including the use of fire. In Java, H. erectus may have persisted until as recently as 27,000 ya.

A geographically and chronologically scattered species, Homo heidel-bergensis, appears next. The earliest examples of this group, from Spain, are placed by some authorities into a new species, Homo antecessor. Located from England to South Africa to China, H. heidelbergensis displays brain sizes within the modern human range and at the modern human average, though their crania retain primitive features, giving them the label “archaic.” They are known, starting about 200,000 ya, for the invention of the Levallois stone toolmaking technique—a sophisticated way of “mass producing” flake tools. They may have done some hunting as well.

The most famous of the “archaic” humans are the Neandertals, a separate species, Homo neanderthalensis, according to many. Living in Europe and Southwest Asia from 200,000 to 28,000 ya, this group exhibits traits that distinguish it from both H. heidelbergensis and later Homo sapiens. These traits include large, prognathous faces, ruggedly built skulls, and robust, muscular bodies—possibly adaptations to the cold glacial conditions many of their populations encountered. Neandertals are known for their retouched flake tools, which may have been used to carve bone and work wood; perhaps for the first use of hafting stone points on wooden shafts; and for abstract cultural achievements such a s burial of the dead and care of the elderly and infirm.

Fossils transitional between archaic and modern Homo appear in Africa perhaps as early as 300,000 ya, and the first fully modern Homo sapiens are found in Africa and Southwest Asia beginning around 120,000 ya. From there, modern-appearing humans spread throughout the Old World and eventually to the islands of the Pacific and to the Americas. Archaic peoples—or archaic traits—disappear. During this time, big-game hunting develops, tool technology advances, sophisticated shelters are built, and humans create art.

These questions now become: Just how many species of genus Homo are we currently dealing with? And, how are all these groups related evolutionarily? These are the questions addressed in the next chapter.

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