Human Evolution
and PREHISTORY
Chapter Eight:
HOMO ERECTUS AND THE
EMERGENCE OF HUNTING AND
GATHERING
San persistence hunting
Chapter Preview
Who Was Homo erectus/ergaster?
What Were The Cultural Capabilities Of Homo
erectus/ergaster?
What Were The Consequences Of Homo
erectus/ergaster’s Improved Abilities To Adapt
Through Culture?
Homo erectus/ergaster hominin complex
 Some anthropologists view
the variation in post-1.9 my
Homo fossils of Africa, Asia
and Europe to be different
enough to warrant two
species
 Others (“lumpers”) assign
all fossils immediately after
Homo habilis only to Homo
erectus
 There are great adaptive
similarities; hence, a
hominin complex
Homo erectus/ergaster Fossils
Fossil evidence shows
that by 1 million500,000 ya hominins
of this species had
spread from Africa to
China, Europe, the
Republic of Georgia,
India, Java
Homo erectus/ergaster
 Cranial capacity range, 600 – 1,225 cc; overlaps
with KNM ER1470 and modern humans (figure
8.3)
 Low, long, narrow cranial vault, with greatest
width at base
 Near-modern development of brain, especially
in speech area
 Massive brow ridges with marked constriction
 Sloping forehead and receding chin
 Rugged face, teeth and jaws but smaller than H.
habilis
Homo erectus/ergaster
Homo erectus/ergaster
Postcranial skeleton
 Known mainly from African H. ergaster
 More heavily muscled than ours
 Increase in stature from early Homo
 Decrease in sexual dimorphism in body size; this
may be due to the increase in female size as an
adaptation to childbirth
Homo erectus from Java
 Eugene Dubois, original
discoverer of first fossils in 1891
 1.8 million to 500,000 years ago
 About 40 individuals
 Teeth and jaws of earliest fossils
are quite similar to those of
Homo habilis
Homo erectus from China
Davidson Black was the
original discoverer of the
first H. erectus fossils (~45
individuals) at Zhoukoudian
in 1927
Sinanthropus
600,000 to 300,000 years ago
Homo erectus from China
Recent discoveries:
 Earliest fossil (Lunguppo), a lower jaw fragment
as old as the Java fossils
 resembles African Homo habilis
 Overall, Chinese fossils are more recent than
the Java and have more modern characteristics,
e.g. smaller teeth, larger cranial capacity
Homo erectus/ergaster
The African Fossils
Olduvai and Lake Turkana
12-year old boy who died 1.6 mya
An adult who died of a massive overdose of
vitamin A
Olorgesailie, Kenya
Slightly younger than 1 my
Turkana boy
Remains of a boy who
died in his early teens.
The African Fossils
In some African fossils, there are more strongly
developed brow ridges and temporal muscle
scars than in Asian fossils
In others, there are thinner crania and more
primitive mandibles
The variation between Asian and
African/European fossils may lie well beyond
that of a single species
Homo erectus from Europe
Dmansi, republic of Georgia, dating to 1.7 mya
Likely ancestor to Asian H. erectus
Difficult to assign to a species because they share
characteristics with both earlier and later fossils
Cranium is small and rounded, with face similar
to early H. erectus/ergaster
Mandible is unique
Brain size is small, within range of H. habilis
Earliest Homo erectus from Europe
England, Germany, Spain, Italy
860,000 to 500,000 years ago
The Spanish fossils are the oldest human
ancestors with a relatively modern face
These fossil traits are derived and the discoverers
of the fossils place them in a separate species, H.
antecessor, ancestral to H. heidelbergensis
Multiple Species
The fact that the earliest evidence of hominins comes
from Spain and Italy suggests crossing from North Africa
Open water crossing was required, a feat that H.
erectus/ergaster was capable of doing 800,000 ya in
Indonesia
Gene flow was possible between Africa and Europe; could
the early Europeans be a separate species if there was no
reproductive isolation? (see Table 8.1, text)
Relationship between H.
erectus/ergaster and H. habilis
 Smaller teeth and larger brains
are a continuation of the trend
first seen in H. habilis
 New traits are increased body
size, reduced sexual
dimorphism, more “human”
body form
 It is difficult to distinguish
early erectus/ergaster from
habilis (Figure 8.6), but likely
one evolved from the other
fairly abruptly, 1.9 to 1.6 mya
THE CULTURE OF Homo
erectus/ergaster
The Acheulean Tool Tradition
Africa, Europe, Southwest Asia
Handaxe is central tool
In East Africa, handaxes date to
1.6 mya
In Europe, they are no older than
500,000 years
Sites in Europe increase in
number dramatically at same
time as handaxes appear; this
suggests increased gene flow into
Europe
Characteristics of Acheulean Tools
 Developed from the Oldowan tradition, e.g.
Beds I and II, Olduvai
 Tool shapes have become standardized
 Sharper points and more regular cutting edges
than Oldowan tools
 More cutting edge available from same amount
of stone
Acheulean Tool Kits
Diversification
Cleavers, picks and
knives
Flake tools
Retouched flakes, e.g.
points, scrapers, borers
Supplementary tools of
bone, antler, wood
Tools in East Asia
Spread of Homo from Africa took place before the
invention of the handaxe
In East Asia people developed a variety of choppers,
scrapers, points, burins different from those in the
West
Overall, stone implements were not common; likely
bamboo and other local woods were used
ORIGINAL STUDY
Homo erectus and the Use of Bamboo
The frequency of the handaxe in Asian tool kits is
very low
Chopper-chopping tools predominate
Their distribution coincides with the distribution
of bamboo
It has been suggested that bamboo was the main
source of materials for making tools and the
stone choppers were manufactured to work with
bamboo
Acheulean Tools
Each tool served more than one purpose;
e.g. handaxes could kill game, dig up roots
Improved selection of raw materials, e.g.
flint rather than basalt
Invention of the baton and strikingplatform methods of percussion
Use of Fire
Earliest use of fire appears in South
Africa, 1.3 to 1 mya, possibly for
protection from predators
Kao Poh Nam rock shelter, Thailand,
700,000 ya; fire hearth with butchered,
burned animal bones
Other uses for fire could have been
warmth, light, cooking, thawing
carcasses, clearing forest
Fire gave people more control over their
environment
Other Aspects of Homo erectus culture
1.
2.
Construction of shelters, e.g. Bilzingsleben, Germany,
350,000 ya
Clothing was necessary in the climates of China and Europe
Courtesy of Palomar College, Anthropology
Other Aspects of Homo erectus culture
3.
Developed an ability to organize a hunt for
live animals, and skill in hunting
e.g. Ambrona and Torralba, Spain, 400,000
ya
elephants, horses, rhinoceroses
butchered and killed
Other Aspects of Homo erectus culture
4. open-water travel, e.g. to the island of
Flores, Indonesia
5.
Rudimentary symbolic artifacts, e.g. ox rib
with engraving from a site in France
Language

Vocal tract and brain of Homo erectus are
intermediate between Homo sapiens and
Australopithecus

Modern-sized hypoglossal canal by 500,000
years ago

Changeover from gestural to spoken language
may have played role in reduction of tooth and
jaw size, making it easier to speak
Archaic Homo sapiens and
the Middle Paleolithic