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17 - Asian Palaeolithic dispersals

from Part II - The Paleolithic and the beginnings of human history

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 May 2015

By
Robin Dennell
Edited by
David Christian
David Christian
Affiliation:
Macquarie University, Sydney
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Summary

In Palaeolithic Asia, human evolution is discussed as the result of two, and possibly three major, continental-level dispersals. The first, known as Out of Africa 1, comprises the earliest expansion and subsequent colonisation of our own genus Homo from Africa into the Eurasian landmass. The second, or Out of Africa 2, summarises a similar expansion of our species, Homo sapiens, from Africa across Eurasia and ultimately to Australia and the Americas. Some researchers also recognise a third, which was the expansion of an African type of Acheulean, bifacial technology into Southwest Asia and perhaps India and Europe c. 600,000-800,000 years ago. Some recent work in India and the Caucasus challenges this scenario. One major dispersal from Africa into Asia involved the expansion of Acheulean assemblages. The most obvious evolutionary change in the hominin lineage is the increase in brain size over the last 2 million years, from c. 600-750 cc. at Dmanisi to 1,200-1,500 cc. in Neanderthals and Homo sapiens.

Keywords

beliefEuropean scientific revolutionaxial ageWider Worldsecularizationstate of scholarshiphominizationknowledgelanguage
Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge World History , pp. 414 - 432
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2015

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References

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