Early Human Culture
Homo habilis
Homo rudolphensis
Homo erectus
Homo ergaster
Evolution of Humans
Homo habilis (ca. 2.5-1.6 mya)
H. habilis finds
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Homo habilis was first discovered in 1959 in the
Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania.
A nearly complete skull of H. habilis was discovered in
1972 at Koobi Fora on the shores of Lake Turkana in
Kenya. Its age is estimated at 1.8 million years and its
brain capacity at 800 cc.
Other H. habilis remains have since been discovered at
Olduvai Gorge. There is considerable variation among
the specimens from this era found thus far.
Some anthropologists argue that the variations appear to
indicate that several separate species of humans existed
and competed at the same time in east Africa; other
scientists lump all the individuals together in a single
species.
OH 7 (Type specimen)
Species:
Homo habilis
Age:
1.75 million years
Date of
Discovery:
November 4, 1960
Location:
Olduvai Gorge,
Tanzania
Discovered by:
Jonathan Leakey
http://www.mnh.si.edu/anthro/humanorigins/ha/oh7.html
H. habilis finds
Olduvai Gorge Sites
Homo habilis
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Brain size much bigger than Aus. (500-800)
Teeth smaller, thinner enamel, more parabolic
dental arcade.
Skulls rounder, less prognathic, jaw muscles
reduced.
East and South Africa, same time as robusts.
Handyman, associated with Pebble choppers.
KNM ER 1813
Species:
Homo habilis
Age:
1.9 million years
Cranial Capacity
510cc
Date of Discovery:
1973
Location:
Koobi Fora, Kenya
Discovered by:
Kamoya Kimeu
http://www.mnh.si.edu/anthro/humanorigins/ha/ER1813.html
KNM ER 1470
Species:
Homo rudolfensis
Age:
1.8 million years
Cranial capacity
775cc
Date of
Discovery:
August 1972
Location:
Koobi Fora,
Kenya
Discovered by:
Bernard Ngeneo
http://www.mnh.si.edu/anthro/humanorigins/ha/er1470.html
hablis vs. rudolphensis
http://www.mnh.si.edu/anthro/humanorigins/ha/alt_tree2.html
First Stone Tools:
Oldowan Pebble Choppers
Oldowan Tool Variety
OLDOWAN TOOLS (left to right): end chopper, heavy-duty
scraper, spheroid hammer stone (Olduvai Gorge); flake chopper
(Gadeb); bone point, horn core tool or digger (Swartkrans)
http://www.handprint.com/LS/ANC/stones.html
Tool Technology
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Oldowan Pebble Choppers
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rounded pebbles
portions broken to form sharp edge
flakes used for butchering
Bone points and horn cores
These crude hand axes and stone flakes could have been manufactured
as needed or as opportunity arose. The fracture lines of stones create a
sharp cutting surface capable of butchering fairly large animals. The photo
above right shows a modern anthropologist skinning a calf with a stone tool
made just as ancient Homo habilis would have done.
Environment
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The background of the
photo shows the kind of
environment in which this
earliest-known human
species lived--open bush
and savannah country in
east Africa.
This must have been a
very challenging
environment, filled with
large predators.
?
Behavior
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Meat eating
Home base, food sharing, sexual division
of labor.
Archaeological evidence
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Animal bones and stone tools at sites
(Olduvai)
Hunting or Scavenging?
"Hunting Hypothesis"
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One widely held view of human development has held
that hunting as an activity was the chief driver of
evolutionary change in early humans, as it would have
selected for for certain kinds of intelligence, coordination,
and aggressive behavior
Was Homo habilis a hunter of large game and a
successful competitor with the great predators of Africa-lions, leopards, hyenas? Or was this species an
opportunistic taker of small game and a scavenger?
Present evidence cannot answer the question, but a
scavenging role seems more likely.
Homo erectus: Traits
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Homo erectus lived from approximately 2
million to around 400,000 years ago.
Homo erectus is a large brained species, with
adult brains ranging from 900 to 1200 cc.
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This size range means that the larger brained
individuals of this species exhibit a fifty-percent
increase in brain size over the older Homo habilis.
The largest brain sizes of H. erectus fall within the
range of modern humans, although the H. erectus
brain is configured somewhat differently than our own.
Traits
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Were from the neck down almost exactly like
moderns
Had no chin, thick and big brow ridges
Bigger teeth than moderns
Males were much bigger than females, but this
changes over time
More robust body
Body Size
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male:170cm,66kg
female:150cm, 56kg
Height comparisons
Acheulian Hand Axes
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Homo erectus was an accomplished tool maker
and tool user; hand-axes were widely used in
addition to sharp-edged flakes.
The tools of Homo erectus are the first in the
fossil record to show conscious design of any
complexity.
Wooden tools and weapons are also assumed to
be present in the tool kit of this species, but
none has been preserved in the fossil record.
Acheulian Innovations
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The key innovations are
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(1) the shaping of an entire stone to a stereotyped
tool form, and
(2) chipping the stone from both sides to produce a
symmetrical (bifacial) cutting edge.
Manufacture shifted from flakes struck from a
stone core to shaping a more massive tool by
careful repetitive flaking.
The most common tool materials were quartzite,
glassy lava, chert and flint.
http://www.handprint.com/LS/ANC/stones.html
Acheulian Hand Axe
ACHEULEAN TOOLS (left to right): cleaver stone (Bihorei oest, France);
lanceolate hand ax (Briqueterie, France); large hand ax (Olduvai Gorge).
http://www.handprint.com/LS/ANC/stones.html
Controlled Use of Fire
H. erectus may have been the first
species to use and control fire.
 This milestone in human development
occurred 1 to 1.5 million years ago.
 Control of fire may have enabled humans
to move out of Africa and into colder
climates in Europe and Asia.
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Use of Fire
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Homo erectus
invented fire
To cook food, scare
away animals and
travel to colder places
controlled fire
Migrate Out-of-Africa
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The earliest specimens of Homo erectus are
found in Africa, but, sometime after 1 million
years ago, Homo erectus apparently migrated
out of Arica.
Tools and remains of this species have been
found widely distributed in Europe and Asia.
Homo erectus is thus the first human species to
migrate out of Africa and adapt to a variety of
Old World environments.
http://www.handprint.com/LS/ANC/disp.html
Olorgesailie, Kenya
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This Acheulian site is located about 90 kilometres southwest of Nairobi on the road to Magadi.
The site of Olorgesailie, donated to the Kenyan
Government by the Maasai community, covers an area
of 52 acres.
First discovered by Mary Leakey in 1942, this site was
excavated continuously between 1942 and 1947. The
area continues to be under investigation to this date, with
a team from the Smithsonian Institution, USA, making
annual surveys and excavations.
Olorgesailie is the largest of the National Museums'
prehistoric sites, and is characterised by in situ displays
of prehistoric materials, including numerous hand axes
and fossilised skeletons of extinct species of elephant
and a hippopotamus.
A view of the Catwalk
Site shows a jumble of
stone tools left by our
ancestors, buried by
the sediments of a
local stream channel
nearly 900,000 years
ago, and then reexposed to the
elements by recent
erosion. These areas
of erosion allow us to
find the actual layer of
burial in the nearby
hillside.
Ambrona and Torralba
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At Ambrona and Torralba in central Spain,
bands of hunters drove elephants into swamps,
killed the mired animals, and butchered them
where they lay.
Similar kill sites have come from eastern and
southern Africa, but we can be sure that wild
plant foods were still of great importance in the
diet.
This site (and the nearby site of Ambrona) have
been proposed as evidence of coordinated
hunting behavior by Acheulean people between
400,000 and 200,000 years old (pollen evidence
suggests 400,000)
Finds at Ambrona and Torralba
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Artifacts found:
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over 1000 stone tools
animal bones
> 30 elephants
25 deer
25 horses
10 cattle
several rhinos
All skeletons disarticulated , many bones smashed/split,
almost all elephant skulls missing as are many meatbearing bones, charcoal but no hearths or ash
concentrations or burned depressions, bits of charcoal
scattered in among bones
Migration
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The earliest Homo erectus finds are in the Rift Valley of
Africa and in South Africa.
Stone tools and camp sites are widely distributed over
Africa, including sites in what is now the Sahara desert.
By at least 1 million years ago, H. erectus migrated out
of Africa to Asia and Europe.
Recent dating techniques applied to earlier finds in Java
and the Caucasus mountains indicate dates much earlier
than that and would place Homo erectus in Asia over 2
million years ago.
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Such early dates would, if proven accurate, dramatically overturn
the currently accepted chronology of early human development.
At this date, however, the earliest claimed dates for H. erectus
outside of Africa are still highly controversial.
Homo Erectus
Habitat/Map
Asia
(cold)
Europe
(cold)
Africa
(hot)
Australia
(hot)
Htttp://www.handprint.com/LS/ANC/disp.html
Important Finds
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Narikatome Boy
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Discovered by
Kamoya Kimeu
Peking Man
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Was found near
Beijing
Name used for the
bones of an
extinct hominid
Reconstruction of
Peking man Skull
Peking man pic
http://www.inhandmuseum.com/LA/e
rectus/ergaster.html
Narikatome Boy
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The nearly full skeleton at the right
belonged to a teen-age boy, 12 or
13, who lived 1.65 years ago near
what is now Lake Turkana in east
Africa.
He was five feet, four inches tall,
and his body is remarkably modern
looking.
This is the most complete find of
an ancient human ancestor yet
discovered, and it has provided a
wealth of information.
Yet this immature male had already
surpassed a height of five feet at
the time of his death, and probably
would have attained a height of 6
feet and a weight of roughly 150
lbs.
Homo ergaster in Africa
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ER 3733 represents a mature female of the early human
species Homo ergaster.
The gender identification comes from a comparison of
the anatomical features of her face with another Koobi
Fora for a cranium KNM ER 3883, and the KNM WT
15000 male, found on the opposite side of Lake Turkana.
The features of KNM ER 3733 are markedly less robust.
It's known to be an adult on the basis of the cranial
sutures (which were fully closed), the extent of the wear
on the teeth, and the eruption of the third molars before
the individual's death.
Homo ergaster (ER3733)
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Note the difference in the
shape of the cranium. On
the top, H. erectus has a
long cranium with a
"transverse torus," a
protruding area of bone at
the back of the braincase.
H. ergaster has a more
globe-shaped braincase
that lacks this torus.
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H. erectus
Although the African
cranium and the East Asian
reconstruction both depict
females, the later H.
erectus (right) exhibits
larger browridges.
H. ergaster