1.4 First out-of-Africa event

Around 2 million years ago Homo Erectus rapidly spread north and south from East Africa, and shortly thereafter, around 1.8 million years ago, spread out of Africa for the first time. The drive for this may have been climate change and/or population growth. Coincidentally, other African animals such as giant ostriches and scimitar-toothed cats also left Africa at about this time. Homo Erectus did not leave Africa in a single wave, but several over a long period. Initially Homo Erectus went rapidly via the Middle East to those parts of South Asia and China which, at that time, were nearest to the climates they were accustomed to in East Africa. Remains of Homo Erectus dated about 1.6 million years ago have been found in West China, and it is thought that they only became extinct around 150,000 years ago. A large number of fossil Homo Erectus bones had been found, over many years, in a cave near Beijing. This is where the famous Homo Erectus “Peking Man” was found with evidence of habitation between 500,000 and 240,000 years ago. The cave was near “Dragon Bone Hill” so called because the locals thought the bones were from dragons, so they had been grinding them up and using them as medicines! Homo Erectus probably entered Mediterranean Europe about one million years ago, and a simple hearth has been reported in France of about this date. Also various human fossils have been found in Gran Dolnia, Northern Spain, dated to 800,000 years ago (based on the last switch in the direction of the Earth’s magnetic field 780,000 years ago). Homo Erectus continued to evolve for hundreds of thousands of years, producing regional endemic characteristics, and with their brain size increasing from 900cc to 1100cc. It is likely that Homo Erectus lived in small mobile family groups of about 25, interacting with others with common customs, with perhaps 500 forming a tribe. They would have temporary camps from which they would seek food. From about 1.5 million years ago there is evidence of butchering of animals for meat with stone tools, but at this early date some could have been scavenged rather than hunted. Co-operation between members of the tribe was essential for success, so speech and language would be another unique development of our ancestors that would have been hugely important in terms of working together. From the earliest times some form of simple communication would have been used, but more complex language may have developed as late as 100 to 200,000 years ago.

During the eight major climatic cycles within the past 800,000 years, sea levels varied by up to 150 metres. During the colder (glacial) periods average temperatures fell by up to 15 degrees centigrade, and thick ice sheets and glaciers locked up immense quantities of water. In these times grasslands and steppes were created between the northern ice sheets and the Mediterranean area supporting large herds of mammoth, bison, horses and reindeer. Similar changes occurred in North America. However, some areas became very dry and deserts expanded, so people in parts of North Africa, Near East and India collected together in major river valleys. The continental shelves dried out forming not only fertile plains for the new arrivals, but also land links which, apart from a few straits navigable with simple rafts, stretched from China to Indonesia. Access had become easier to the extent that Homo Erectus arrived in Java, Indonesia as early as 1.7 million years ago during a previous glacial period. The coastal route from Africa to Arabia and India was also used from very early times using rafts and simple boats. In warmer times dispersion might have followed the northern route through Persia to the Tibetan plateau. The mountains would have split these populations, but they both could have ended up in the Far East and S E Asia.