Re: Homo erectus

Alex Duncan (aduncan@mail.utexas.edu)
29 Jun 1995 13:08:08 GMT

>> Okay, here is another memory test.
>> This time, on H. erectus and his tool industry.
>> Any corrections would be greatly appreciated.
>>
>> Homo Erectus - Java and Peking Man
>> ==================================
>>. 1.5 mya - 400 kya

In article <herwin-2706952219030001@192.0.2.1> Harry Erwin,
herwin@gmu.edu write

>1.9+ to 0.4- MYr

There are old references to Chinese and Javanese H. erectus dated to
nearly 2.0 Myr. In most cases those were based on biased interpretations
of limited paleomagnetic data (like the White et al. claim for the age of
A. ramidus). Right now I think 1.8 Myr is the oldest well-dated H.
erectus.

A comment about Ngandong. Most folks seem to agree its about 200,000 yrs
old. They don't agree on whether they belong to H. erectus or not. They
have a confusing combination of features -- larger brains than most H.
erectus combined w/ robust, well-buttressed crania. (if you have casts,
check out the occipital region -- these guys (& girls) were BUILT).

Alex Duncan
Dept. of Anthropology
University of Texas at Austin
Austin, TX 78712-1086
512-471-4206
aduncan@mail.utexas.edu