Fig. 11. Cranium of Homo heidelbergensis from Petralona, Greece. Age is un- 
certain, but possibly around 250 kyr. Scale is 1 cm. 
famous Homo erectus in eastern Asia perhaps as much as 1.8 myr 
ago (and perhaps as recently as 40 thousand years (kyr) ago: Swisher 
et al., 1994, 1996); and recently a new hominid species, Homo an- 
tecessor, has been named from an 800 kyr old site in Spain (Ber- 
mudez de Castro et al., 1997). Once humans had left Africa, new 
species were evidently spawned in different parts of the world, ex- 
actly as one might expect, though what was going on in Africa itself 
at around this time remains rather obscure. By about 600 kyr, how- 
ever, we find evidence in Africa of a new hominid species, Homo 
heidelbergensis, at the site of Bodo, in Ethiopia; and also, after about 
500 kyr ago, at sites in Europe (fig. 11). This new species boasted 
a brain within the modern size range, though well below the Homo 
sapiens average (1100—1200 ml, vs. ca. 1350 ml); and it possessed 
flexion of the basicranium to a degree that suggests the ability to 
produce the sounds necessary for articulate speech (Laitman, 1988). 
Curiously, at the European sites there is, in early stages at least, a 
conspicuous absence of handaxe technology, stone tool kits remain- 
ing rather crude. It’s almost certainly significant that we have found 
nothing that is convincingly a symbolic artifact in association with 
Homo heidelbergensis; but it is in the time range of this species, 
about 400 kyr ago, that we find the first evidence of simple struc- 
tures and hearths, both substantial technological advances (fig. 12). 
Again, though, we have to wait for some time, until ca. 300—200 
17 
