Rise of Man Theory ‘Out By 400,000 Years’

Rise of Man Theory ‘Out By 400,000 Years’

The Times Online has an interesting article today about some new archaeological findings in North and East Africa that suggest Homo erectus took up settled life 400,000 years earlier than previously thought. Here’s an excerpt:

The accepted timescale of Man’s evolution is being challenged by a German archaeologist who claims to have found evidence that Homo erectus — mankind’s early ancestor, who migrated from Africa to Asia and Europe — began living in settled communities long before the accepted time of 10,000 years ago.

The guy who made the discovery and is positing the claim, Professor Helmut Ziegert, has a great quote:

The first archaeological revolution in fact was not triggered by anatomically ‘modern humans’ in the neolithic, or indeed in the technological and cultural revolution associated with the upper palaeolithic, but by Homo erectus, upright Man, an altogether different ancestral species making waves at the dawn of humanity.