Archaic Modern Humans (Homo Sapiens) and Homo Heidelbergensis in Africa | Middle East And North Africa

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EMERGENCE OF ARCHAIC HOMO SAPIENS IN AFRICA

Bodo cranium

Archaic Homo sapiens is term used to describe hominins viewed as transitions between Homo erectus and modern man, and possibly Neanderthals too. These creatures came on the scene when big browed, jutting jaw hominins were still around. Estimates vary, ranging between 750,000 years go to 100,000 years ago, for when they were around.

A one-million-year-old cranium from Buia, Eritrea has characters of both Homo erectus and Homo sapiens. A "spectacular" partial cranium of the same age with a similar billing was was found in Ethiopia. Some of the earliest hard evidence of fire comes in the form of stone hearths and clay ovens made in the last 250,000 years, some think, by archaic “homo sapiens”.

Around 700,000 years ago there were great temperatures, ice volume and sea level fluctuations. Many species of animals in Africa went extinct and those that survived mostly remain today. These changes may have also been important in the emergence of a species that was a predecessor of modern humans, a species that was able to deal with a changing environment. This also enabled them to live in habitats outside Africa.

The Ngaloba Skull (Laetoli Hominid 18, LH 18 was discovered in 1976 in Ngaloba, Laetoli, Tanzania. Dated to be around 120,000 years old (but debated), the skull is transitional between Homo heidelbergensis and early modern Homo sapiens. It has a number of primitive features but also has some modern characteristics such as a reduced brow ridge and smaller facial features. The late date of this specimen indicates that archaic humans lived alongside modern populations for some time. [Source: Australian Museum]

Websites and Resources on Hominins and Human Origins: Smithsonian Human Origins Program humanorigins.si.edu ; Institute of Human Origins iho.asu.edu ; Becoming Human University of Arizona site becominghuman.org ; Hall of Human Origins American Museum of Natural History amnh.org/exhibitions ; The Bradshaw Foundation bradshawfoundation.com ; Britannica Human Evolution britannica.com ; Human Evolution handprint.com ; University of California Museum of Anthropology ucmp.berkeley.edu; John Hawks' Anthropology Weblog johnhawks.net/ ; New Scientist: Human Evolution newscientist.com/article-topic/human-evolution

Homo Heidelbergensis, Homo Rhodesiensis and the Saldanha Cranium

Homo heidelbergensis (hy-dil-ber-GEN-sis) is a species of “Homo” named after a 500,000-year-old jawbone found in 1907 near Heidelberg, Germany that some scientists believe evolved into Neanderthals. Its tools included the Acheulan hand ax. Some scientists believe that all their hominin remains found in Europe come from three species: “Homo erectus “, “Homo sapiens” and Neanderthals. Others believe that the “Homo “ tree is much more complex. They say other species such as “Homo heidelbergensis” and perhaps other hominin species not yet discovered may have existed as well.

20120202-Homo_heidelbergensis 2.jpg
Homo Heidelbergensis
Homo rhodesiensis is a species name proposed by Arthur Smith Woodward in 1921 to classify Kabwe 1 (the "Kabwe skull" or "Broken Hill skull", also "Rhodesian Man"), a fossil recovered from Broken Hill mine in Kabwe, Northern Rhodesia (now Zambia). In 2020, the skull was dated to 324,000 to 274,000 years ago. Other similar older specimens also exist. [Source: Wikipedia]

Homo rhodesiensis is now widely considered as being the same of very similar to Homo heidelbergensis. Sometimes fossils referred to in the past as Homo rhodesiensis are now described as African Homo heidelbergensis. Other designations such as Homo sapiens arcaicus and Homo sapiens rhodesiensis have also been proposed. Fossil that have been classified as Homo rhodesiens specimens from Bodo, Ndutu, Eyasi, Ileret in East Africa and Salé, Rabat, Dar-es-Soltane, Djbel Irhoud, Sidi Aberrahaman and Tighenif in North Africa

The Saldanha cranium found in 1953 in South Africa, and estimated at around 500,000 years old, was subject to at least three taxonomic revisions from 1955 to 1996. Also known as Saldanha Man or Elandsfontein cranium, it now recognized as being Homo heidelbergensis. It has not been dated directly and its age is a rough estimate based on the fossils found with it. The remains, which included a fragment of lower jaw, were found on an exposed surface between shifting sand dunes on the farm Elandsfontein, near Hopefield, South Africa. It was found associated with a variety of fossil vertebrates, and initially classified as Homo saldanensis. Singer (1954) noted it close resemblance to Kabwe 1 at Broken Hill (Zambia) and LH 18 at Laetoli (Tanzania). Comparison with Kabwe 1 specifically, led to its classification as African Homo heidelbergensis.

Bodo Cranium (600,000 Years Old) from Ethiopia

The Bodo cranium is a fossil skull of a hominin species dated to be 600,000 years old. Generally categorized as Homo heidelbergensis, it was found by members of an expedition led by Jon Kalb in 1976 along the surface of one of the dry branches of the Awash River in Ethiopia. The cranium, artifacts, and other animal fossils were found over a relatively large area of medium sand, and only a few of the tools were found near the cranium. Acheulean hand axes and cleavers were found in the general area of where the skull was found. Both the Bodo cranium and the Kabwe cranium (See Below) share a number of similarities. [Source: Wikipedia]

The Bodo cranium has an unusually large cranial capacity for its age that is estimated at around 1250 cubic centimeters within the (lower) range of modern Homo sapiens. The cranium includes the face, much of the frontal bone, parts of the midvault and the base anterior to the foramen magnum. The cranial length, width and height are 21 centimeters (8.3 inches), 15.87 centimeters (6.2 inches) and 19.05 centimeters (7.5 inches) respectively. Researchers have suggested that Bodo butchered animals because Acheulean hand axes and cleavers, along with animal bones, were found at the site. Cuts on the Bodo cranium show the earliest evidence of removal of flesh immediately after the death of an individual using a stone tool.

The front of the Bodo cranium is very broad and supports large supraorbital structures. The supraorbital torus projects and is heavily constructed, especially in the central parts of the cranium. Like Homo erectus, the braincase is low and archaic in appearance. The vault bones are also thick like Homo erectus specimens. Due to the large cranial capacity, there is a wider midvault which includes signs of parietal bossing as well as a high contour of the temporal squama. The parietal length can’t be accurately determined because that section of the specimen is incomplete.

The Bodo cranium has unusual morphology, which has led to debates over its taxonomy. It displays both primitive and derived features, such as a cranial capacity more similar to modern humans and a projecting supraorbital torus more like Homo erectus. Bodo and other Mid-Pleistocene hominin fossils appear to represent a lineage between Homo erectus and anatomically modern humans, although its exact location in the human evolutionary tree is still uncertain. Due to the similarities to both Homo erectus and modern humans, it has been postulated that the Bodo cranium, as well as other members of Homo heidelbergensis were part of a group of hominins that evolved distinct from Homo erectus early in the Middle Pleistocene. Despite the similarities, there is still a question of where exactly Homo heidelbergensis evolved.

Ndutu Cranium (425,000 Years Old) from Tanzania

digital reconstruction of the Ndutu skull by Montiel and Lorenzo (2023)

The Ndutu skull is the partial cranium of a hominin dated to 450,000 to 400,000 years that has been variously categorized as late Homo erectus, Homo heidelbergensis (Homo rhodesiensis) and early Homo sapiens. The fossil was found in 1973 in northern Tanzania at Lake Ndutu, a seasonal soda lake in the Serengeti, adjacent to Lake Masek and the Main Gorge at Olduvai. [Source: Wikipedia]

After comparative studies with similar finds in Africa designation as an African subspecies of Homo sapiens was considered most appropriate by Phillip Rightmire based in part on the indirect cranial capacity estimate of 1100 cubic centimeters (compared to 1,350 cubic centimeters for humans living today) but it supratoral sulcus morphology and the presence of protuberance as suggested "give the Nudutu occiput an appearance which is also unlike that of Homo erectus". In a 1989 publication R.J. Clarke concluded: "It is assigned to archaic Homo sapiens on the basis of its expanded parietal and occipital regions of the brain". In 2016, Chris Stringer classified the cranium as belonging to Homo heidelbergensis — a species considered to be intermediate between Homo erectus and Homo sapiens — rather than as early Homo sapiens, but considers it to display a "more sapiens-like zygomaxillary morphology" than certain other examples of Homo heidelbergensis (Homo rhodesiensis)

The Ndutu skull was discovered in September and October 1973, when Amini Aza Mturi and the Tanzanian Department of Antiquities conducted an excavation of the exposed flats of the western shoreline of Lake Ndutu. The excavation site was approximately 140 square meters (1,500 square feet) in area and had considerable amounts of lithic and faunal material on the surface. The Ndutu cranium was found on the first occupational floor of the site along with 270 lithic and faunal materials, of which 20 were definitive tools. The tools were mainly spheroids and hammer stones, with six flakes (three regular flakes, two triangular, one rectangular). The absence of Acheulean tools was noted despite the cranial features of the skull being associated with the Acheulean industry. Acheulean hand axes were discovered during later visits to the site.

According to Amini Aza Mturi, preliminary chronometric dating and racemization of bone found in the first occupational level has yielded a general age of 500,000 and 600,000 years. Other estimates based on the association of the Ndutu deposits with the Masek Beds at Olduvai suggest an age approaching 400,000 years. The occipital has a well-developed nuchal torus that gives the skull an angulated lateral contour similar to Homo erectus. The frontal bone has an almost vertical forehead, similar to Homo erectus, but unlike the Ngangdong or the Broken Hill crania. The walls of the frontal, occipital, parietals, and temporals, were very thick. Where it is similar to Homo sapiens, the sides of the braincase are more vertical when viewed from the back. An updated reconstruction of Ndutu suggests that it has a more prognathic face, a narrower vault and a brow that projects less and is narrower. The updated morphological evaluation reveals that the parietal bosses previously used to support allocation to Homo sapiens are not present. The sagittal profile is similar to Broken Hill.

According to Clarke, the Ndutu skull seemed to form a link between Homo erectus and archaic Homo sapiens, due to it having certain features in common with both. and was granted classification as Homo erectus. G. Philip Rightmire disagreed with this classification, and believed that its features suggested that it was more similar to the African fossils referred to as archaic Homo sapiens. In later work, Stringer described the Ndutu skill as a sole sister to the Neanderthal and another group containing the Steinheim skull (a Neanderthal skull), plus a group related to Homo antecessor, Homo longi (from China) , and Homo sapiens, and Montiel and Lorenzo (2023) found very strong morphological similarity with Shanidar hominid 5 (SH 5, a Neanderthal).

Kabwe 1 (300,000 Years Old) from Zambia

Kabwe 1, also called the Broken Hill skull, is a fossil dated to 324,000 to 274,000 ago that was labeled Homo rhodesiensis by Arthur Smith Woodward in 1921, the year it was discovered. Most scientists today regard it as Homo heidelbergensis. The cranium was discovered in Broken Hill lead mine in Mutwe Wa Nsofu Area of Northern Rhodesia (now Kabwe, Zambia) by two miners. In addition to the cranium, an upper jaw from another individual, a sacrum, a tibia, and two femur fragments were also found. The skull is kept in the Natural History Museum in London. While the cranial volume overlaps with the range of Homo sapiens, other features such as the brain case morphology and prominent brow ridges are suggestive of older species. These features have led some scientists to the conclusion that it is best categorized as Homo heidelbergensis. [Source: Wikipedia]

replica of Kabwe 1

The destruction of the paleoanthropological site has made stratigraphic dating impossible. Prior to the 1970s, the skull was believed to be only 30,000-40,000 years old. The Smithsonian Institution suggested in 2010 an age between 150,000 and 300,000 based animal fossils collected from the site. A new technique applied to the skull allowed quarter-millimetre thick fragments to be removed and the skull therefore dated directly, with the new estimated age range, published in 2020, being 324,000 to 274,000 years ago.

The cranial capacity of Kabwe 1 has been estimated to be 1,230 cubic centimeters . The skull suggests an extremely robust individual with the comparatively largest brow-ridges of any known hominin. It has described as having a broad face, large nasal bones and thick protruding brow ridges similar to that of a Neanderthal. The skull has cavities in ten of the upper teeth and is considered one of the oldest known occurrences of cavities. Pitting indicates significant infection before death and implies that the cause of death may have been due to dental disease infection or possibly chronic ear infection.

Both the Bodo cranium (See Above) and the Kabwe cranium share a number of similarities. Both have cranial capacities similar to, but on the low end of the range of modern humans.Both craniums have a very large supraorbital torus. These two features together suggest that they are a link between Homo erectus and Homo sapiens. The morphology and the taxonomy are most similar to other specimens of type Homo heidelbergensis. Both the Bodo and Kabwe specimens can be described as archaic because they retain certain features in common with Homo erectus. However, both exhibit important differences from Homo erectus in their anatomy, such as the contour of their parietals, the shape of their temporal bones, the cranial base, and the morphology of their nose and palate. While there are many similarities, there are a few differences between the specimens, including the entire brow of the Bodo cranium, particularly the lateral segments, which are less thick than the Kabwe specimen.

Jebel Irhoud Fossils (300,000 Years Old) — Oldest Known Modern Humans — from Morocco

Our concept of human origins was thrown for a major loop in 2017 with the announcement of the discovery of modern human fossils, dated to 300,00 years ago, about 100,000 years older than any other known remains of our species, Homo sapien, in an old mine in on a desolate mountain in Jebel Irhoud, Morocco. Both the date of the fossils — skulls, limb bones and teeth from at least five individuals — and their location were surprises — “a blockbuster discovery.” [Source: Will Dunham, Reuters, June 8, 2017 ^]

Florisbad Skull

Will Dunham of Reuters wrote: “The antiquity of the fossils was startling - a “big wow,” as one of the researchers called it. But their discovery in North Africa, not East or even sub-Saharan Africa, also defied expectations. And the skulls, with faces and teeth matching people today but with archaic and elongated braincases, showed our brain needed more time to evolve its current form. “This material represents the very root of our species,” said paleoanthropologist Jean-Jacques Hublin of Germany’s Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, who helped lead the research published in the journal Nature.

“Before the discovery at the site called Jebel Irhoud, located between Marrakech and Morocco’s Atlantic coast, the oldest Homo sapiens fossils were known from an Ethiopian site called Omo Kibish, dated to 195,000 years ago. “The message we would like to convey is that our species is much older than we thought and that it did not emerge in an Adamic way in a small ‘Garden of Eden’ somewhere in East Africa. It is a pan-African process and more complex scenario than what has been envisioned so far,” Hublin said. ^

Florisbad Skull (260,000 Years Old) from South Africa

The Florisbad Skull is an important hominin dated to 259,000 years ago (±35,000 years). Designated as either late Homo heidelbergensis or early Homo sapiens, it was discovered in 1932 by T. F. Dreyer at the Florisbad site, Free State Province, South Africa. The skull was dated using enamel samples from the tooth found with the skull and electron spin resonance dating. [Source: Wikipedia]

The Florisbad Skull was initially classified as Homo helmei (Africanthropus) by Dreyer in 1935. Also in 1935, C. U. Ariëns Kappers noted the close resemblance of the fossil to Homo sapiens. M. R. Drennan (1935, 1937) emphasized its resemblance to Neanderthals, proposing his classification as Homo florisbadensis (helmei). Scientists of the 1950s to 1970s have drawn parallels to archaic African human fossils such as Saldanha and Kabwe crania (now assigned to Homo heidelbergensis). Clarke (1985) compared it to the Ngaloba Skull (Laetoli Hominid 18, LH 18) and Omo 2, described below, which are now considered early anatomically modern human fossils.

In 2016 Chris Stringer argued that the Florisbad Skull, along with the Jebel Irhoud and Eliye Springs specimens, belong to an archaic or "early" form of Homo sapiens. The Florisbad Skull was also classified as Homo sapiens by Hublin et al. (in 2017), in part on the basis of the similar Jebel Irhoud finds from Morocco. Lahr and Mounier (2019) also classify the Florisbad Skull as an example of early Homo sapiens, which they suggest arose between 350,000 and 260,000 years ago from the merging of populations in East and South Africa. Scerri et al. (2018) offer the fossil as evidence for "African multiregionalism", the view of a complex speciation of Homo sapiens widely dispersed across Africa, with substantial hybridization between Homo sapiens and more divergent hominins in different regions.

The Florisbad Skull belonged to a specimen within the size range of modern humans, with a brain volume larger than modern averages, at 1,400 cubic centimeters. The skull was also found with Middle Stone Age tools. The fossil skull is a fragment; preserved are the right side of the face, most of the frontal bone, and some of the maxilla, along with portions of the roof and sidewalls. A single, upper right, third molar was also found with the adult skull. The skull also showed extensive porotic hyperostosis as well as a large number of healed lesions, including pathological drainage or vascular tracts. There are also a couple of large puncture marks and scratch-like marks which may reflect hyena chewing.

The Florisbad skull was part of an assemblage of mostly carnivore prey remains, caught in vertical spring vents. It shows damage by hyena chewing. The spring vents were later sealed by deposits. The wider Florisbad site has also produced a large and diverse fauna, including springhares, rabbits, rodents and reptiles.The large mammal component of the site suggests an open grassland with a body of water in the immediate vicinity.

Image Sources: Wikimedia Commons, Nature, phys.org and Natural History magazine

Text Sources: Live Science, Nature, National Geographic, New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Smithsonian magazine, Nature, Scientific American. Discover magazine, Discovery News, Natural History magazine, Archaeology magazine, The New Yorker, Time, BBC, The Guardian, Reuters, AP, AFP and various books and other publications.

Last updated May 2024