The Man of Tautavel an Homo erectus living 450,000 years ago
It occupies the whole of the Earth
Two million years ago, the Homo erectus began an expansion which was going to lead its descendants to occupy the whole of the Earth. This expansion, very slow at the level of time, was paradoxically fast. The man was so rare (5 million individuals perhaps 35 ' 000 years ago, when appears the current man, Homo sapiens sapiens) that it was an exploit to cross in if little time of similar distances, even if that represents only a few kilometers per generation: 100 ' 000 generations took part in this movement, which begin with the occupation from the unit from Africa, to the shores of the Mediterranean.
One has evidence of a presence of Homo erectus out of Africa before -1 million years, in the Middle East (in Oubeidiyeh, in Israel), in Asia (perhaps -1.8 million years in Indonesia and China) and in Western Europe. In France, certain researchers estimate that it could be already present towards - 2 million years, but the true evidence of a human presence goes back to 900 ' 000 years (Vallonet, then Soleilhac).
It seems however that the man occupied the whole of Eurasia before -1 million years. It lays out, starting from -1.3 million years, of a civilization, the acheuléen, with the already evolved technology, which enables him to carry out a wandering existence of hunter-gatherer. He at that time invents some of the essential components to his future development and his expansion - the language, a true habitat - and controls fire.
But the oceans remain insuperable, and the immense cold extents of the north of Eurasia are not occupied. In fact, the demographic pressure is so low that the expansion is limited to the most favorable areas. This period lasts more than 1 million years: it is the stability and the slowness of the evolution which are the principal characteristics of the man at that time. Acceleration is the fact of a second settlement.
It uses fire and manufactures tools
It will be however with the archanthropiens or Homo erectus that will return the task to really diffuse mankind in most of the old world, of North Africa in the Middle East then in Asia (India, China, Java) and Europe. Their bones start to emerge in the sediments of the African rift there are approximately 1.8 to 1.7 M.A. the majority of the paleoanthropologists gather, under the name of Homo erectus, the whole of the human remainders found in Africa and Eurasia for this period until 500 ' 000 years ago, even less than 250 ' 000 years, according to the areas. Others wish to reserve the term with the Asian fossils which Pithécanthropes and Sinanthropes represent and see in the African documents a more primitive species.
The average cranial capacity of the archanthropiens is almost of 1 ' 000 Cm3 for the whole of the specimens of the sample (approximately 900 Cm3 in Indonesia, nearly 1,040 Cm3 in China), that is to say appreciably below the current average of 1 ' 300 to 1 ' 400 Cm3. Relative cerebral volume, i.e. reported to dimensions of the body, is definitely higher than that of Gay habilis. The cranial walls are thick. The cap is lengthened and still relatively low. Its maximum width is towards the base and not in the higher half as at the modern man. The face is reducing. There is a kind of osseous pad in the shape of visor above the orbits. The cerebral skull presents moreover other horizontal reinforcements of the temporal bones and the occipital one. The mandible shows a negative chin. Dimensions of the teeth are stronger than those of the modern man. The bones of the members are robust. The stature reaches 160 to 170 cm. The posture and the step are the same ones as at the modern man.
The Homo erectus controlled the size of the stone, producing a whole range of tool bits to the Paleolithic inferior of the archeologists, in particular of double-side and the hatchets. They was hunters-gatherers who had increasingly worked out campings with the wire of their evolution. The last of them apparently domesticated fire. They did not have yet a language articulated like ours.