THE GENUS HOMO
Early homo
2.5-1.6 mya
 Louis Leakey (1960)
 Olduvai Gorge, Northern Tanzania
 1.8 mya
 Homo habilis
Significance of the name
 Early tool makers
 Ancestors to modern humans
Other Plio-Pleistocene sites
EAST AFRICA –
 Omo, Southern Ethiopia
 Koobi Fora,
 KMN-ER 1470 – Richard Leakey
 Olduvai Gorge
SOUTH AFRICA
 Sterkfontein
 Swartkrans
General trends of early homo in comparison to Australopithecines
CRANIAL ANATOMY
 Brain expansion 600-800 cc
 Thin walled – no crests
 Rounded vault
 Weakly projecting ridges
 Variable facial proportions between individuals
 No sagittal crest
 Reduced prognathism
 Rounded cranial vault
KNM ER 1470 (homo rudolfensis?)
Koobi Fora, Richard Leakey (1972)
1.9 mya
752 cc
 Rounded cranial vault
 No heavy crests
 Robust face
 Back teeth still quite large (but < australopithecines)
 Associated crude stone tools
 More human like brain organization
Evolutionary Role played by early homo
TRENDS:
 Increased encephalization
 Dental reduction

Standardized tool making ?
Opportunistic tools - Manuports
5 – 2.5 mya
Unaltered objects carried some distance before use
LOWER PALEOLITHIC (old stone age)
Approx. 2.5 mya
Important in brain evolution
 Emphasizes manual dexterity
 Requires a complex, abstract thought process
OLDOWAN INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX
Earliest identifiable stone tools
2.5 mya – 1.4 mya
Sites:
 lake Turkana
 Olduvai Gorge
 Hadar
 Omo
Characterized by Oldowan Chopping Tool
 All purpose chopping tool
 Made from smooth water worn cobbles
 Multi-purpose
 Butcher meat,
 split bones,
 defense
Hard hammer/PERCUSSION METHOD
 Hammerstone – Bipolar Percussion - Rock used to strike flakes off cobble
 Anvil – Direct Percussion - Large rock that you strike the cobble against or place the cobble on
 Concoidal fracture
 Produced by striking one stone against another
 Flake - Chip of rock off the cobble - Sharp, useful edges - scrapers
Cultural Significance of Oldowan tool tradition
 New additions to diet: Meat
 group sharing
 scavenging
 Saved time & labor for food
acquisition
Probably resulted from an adaptation to a new environment
 Bipedalism freed hands
 Large predatory carnivores
Significance of Oldowan tool tradition
Evolution of brain
 Manual dexterity
 Fine motor manipulation
 Set stage for language acquisition
 Brain lateralization
 handedness
Homo erectus
1st hominin species to exist outside of Africa
 an African origin
 an impressive longevity
 Extensive geographical spread t/o Old World
HOMO ERECTUS
First Find:
Eugene Dubois, 1891
Trinil, Java
 Femur
 Pithecanthropus erectus
 JAVA SITES
(1.8 mya – 500,000 ya)
ZHOUKOUDIAN, China
 Gunnar Andersson
 Pei Wenshong
 Davidson Black
 Franz Weinreich
 Best collection of 600,000 – 300,000 yr old hominids ever found
 Minimum 40 individuals – adult male, female & subadults
 1000cc aver
 > 100,000 artifacts
East African H. erectus (h.ergaster)
Nariokotome, West Turkana
 1984 Kamoya Kimeu
 WT 15000 (Nariokotome boy)
 1.6 mya
 Boy approx. 12 y.o.
 Stature 5’3”
 Postcranial similar to modern humans
 880 cc
Issues at Turkana – h. ergaster or h. erectus?
Large amount of variation
Too large for one species? Groves & Mazak (1975)
2. Temporal relationships
inconsistencies in the chronological transition of morphological changes from h. habilis to h.
ergaster to h. erectus
African specimens
 Bones thinner
 Smaller brow ridges
Asian specimens
 Shorter & stockier
 ridges
Characteristics of homo erectus
 Cranial anatomy 780 – 1225 cc (1000 cc average)
 Wide at base from behind
 Low cranial vault
 Sagittal keel
 Nuchal torus
 Supraorbital torus
 Robust jaw
 Teeth larger than modern human, but smaller than h. habilis
Homo erectus postcranial anatomy
Postcranial skeleton similar to modern humans
 Robust limb bones
 Conical rib cage (different from humans who have barrel shaped rib cage)
 Narrow hips
 Stature: human range
 < sex dimorphism than h. habilis
H. erectus in Europe or Northern Africa?
Dmanisi, Georgia
 North of the Levantine Corridor
 Approx 1.8 mya
 5 individuals
 Average 650 cc
Homo georgicus or erectus?
(Gabounia et. al., 2002)
 Skull vault elongated, narrow, low
 From behind skull widest at base
 Saggital keel
 Postorbital constriction
 Supraorbital torus
Differences from Homo erectus
 small face
 More prognathic
 Reminiscent of early homo
Homo naledi
Lee Berger et al., 2015
 Dinaledi chamber, South Africa
 At least 15 individuals
 Cranial: 513 cc
 Sagittal keel, supraorbital torus
 Postcranial: small human
 Human hands & feet
 Australo: trunk, shoulder, pelvis
 Currently undated
Homo erectus culture
 Transition from Oldowan to Acheulean @ Olduvai
3 stage transition (Mary Leakey, 1975)
 Increased sophistication in Oldowan
 protobiface
 Coexistence of Oldowan & Acheulean
 Disappearance of Oldowan & further development of Acheulean
Diversified function
Symbolism?
Punctuated transition (not gradual) (Issac 1969)
ACHEULEAN TOOL TRADITION
1ST appeared 1.7 mya in East Africa
Spreads to Middle East & Europe 750,000 ya
HANDAXE (biface)
 pear shaped/pointed
 First fully conceived implements
 Significant step in conceptualization
 More standardized form
TOOL DIVERSIFICATION
CLEAVERS
 Handaxes with a straight cutting edge
 Butcher meat, chopping, breaking bones
FLAKE TOOLS
 Strike a flint core with hammerstone
 Retouched to make
A. side scraper
B. point
C. end scraper
D. burin
LATE ACHEULEAN - NEW TECHNIQUE
SOFT HAMMER PERCUSSION (baton)
Involved using a bone or antler punch to hit the edge of the flint core producing shallow flake scars
Longevity of Acheulean tool tradition
 originated in Africa - approx 1.7 mya
 Disappeared about 250,000 ya
 Middle East (Ubeidiya, Israel) - 1 mya
 Europe - 500,000 – 600,000 ya
 NE Pakistan - 400,000 – 730,000 ya
The CHOPPING TOOL TRADITION
 developed by H. erectus in ASIA
 460,000 – 230,000 ya
 More reminiscent of Oldowan
 Probably grew out of Oldowan
 Large choppers with jagged edges
 Zhoukoudian
NO acheulean sites in Far east (China) and SE Asia – WHY?
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Different resources available for tool making (i.e. bamboo) (Pope, 1993)
Movius line: divides the acheulean and non acheulean regions (Hallam Movius, 1948)
o Bose site, Southern China (Yamei et al., 2000) - bifaces - Challenges Movius hypothesis
Different functional requirements (Schick & Toth, 1993)
The new dates from Java (1.8 mya) place homo erectus in SE Asia @ least 100,000 years BEFORE the advent of the Acheulean in Africa
Regional variation within China (Shen & Qi, 2004)
Lack of suitable raw stone
Other Accomplishments of homo erectus
FIRE?
Evidence: 1.6-1.5 mya
Koobi Fora & Chesowanja, Kenya?
Swartkrans, S Africa?
Hearths?
Zhoukoudian 670,000 – 410,000
Gesher Benot Ya’aqov, Israel 790,000 ya
Homo erectus diet
Scavengers
Zhoukoudian
Boaz & Ciochon (2004)
Binford & Stone (1986)
Increased meat consumption:
 Higher energy foods (over plants)
 Easily digestible
 Need less food and smaller digestive organs
 Requires less digestive effort than earlier hominins
 Provided plenty of energy for their expanding brains
Communication
speech and language?
Protolanguage with rudimentary words but no grammatical rules
Terrence Deacon (1997)
communicated symbolically
short phrases