Homo Erectus
1.9 million – 110,000 years ago
The first long-distance migrants — fire, hand axes, and a two-million-year run.
Every claim in this period carries its evidence with it.
A comparatively rich fossil sample across Africa and Asia, Acheulean handaxe assemblages, and site-level evidence of fire.
- 01
This is the first hominin securely documented far outside Africa, with sites across Eurasia.
- 02
Body proportions are essentially modern in limb ratio, consistent with committed terrestrial locomotion.
- 03
Acheulean bifaces represent a standardised, long-lived technology requiring planning.
Each row states the method, what is actually measured, and — the part usually skipped — what the result does not settle.
| Method | Material | What it constrains |
|---|---|---|
| Palaeomagnetic and radiometric site dating | Sediments and volcanic layers at Eurasian and African sites | Establishes presence at a place and time; it does not trace a migration route. |
| Postcranial morphology | Limb bones and reconstructed skeletons | Indicates stature and locomotor efficiency. Behaviour is inferred. |
| Microstratigraphy of combustion features | Ash, burnt bone and heated sediment in hearth-like deposits | Can show fire in a place. Distinguishing controlled fire from natural burn requires context. |
When did habitual control of fire begin?
Claims range across hundreds of thousands of years depending on how strictly evidence is defined.
One widespread species or several regional ones?
Asian and African samples differ enough that some researchers split them.
“There was a single out-of-Africa migration.”
The record shows repeated dispersals across a long interval, not one departure.
“Handaxes were general-purpose axes.”
Function is debated; use-wear points to butchery and cutting rather than chopping wood.
- What drove the first sustained dispersals out of Africa?
- Why did the Acheulean remain stable for so long?
- How is the Asian material best classified?
Dmanisi site reports
Science
Acheulean technology and fire-use reviews
PNAS / Journal of Human Evolution