Homo heidelbergensis ( / h oʊ m oʊ h aɪ d əl b ɜːr ɡ ɛ n s ɪ s / ) is an ancient human species that lived during the Middle Pleistocene in Europe, Africa, and possibly Asia, depending on how scientists classify them. Scientists debate how to classify humans from this time, a problem called the "muddle in the middle," because human populations from this era showed many different physical traits. H. heidelbergensis is sometimes considered the last common ancestor of modern humans, Neanderthals, and Denisovans, or it may be a completely separate group.
H. heidelbergensis was first described in 1908 by German anthropologist Otto Schoetensack, based on a jawbone called Mauer 1, found in a sand pit near the village of Mauer, 10 km (6.2 mi) southeast of Heidelberg. This fossil was the oldest human remains found in Europe at the time. Schoetensack called it an "antediluvian race" (before the Great Flood), believing it would eventually evolve into living Europeans. By the mid-20th century, scientists grouped all ancient human species into subspecies of either H. erectus or H. sapiens, claiming one evolved into the other without overlapping. H. heidelbergensis was often labeled as H. e. heidelbergensis. However, British anthropologist Chris Stringer revived the species in 1983, redefining it as an ancestor of modern humans and Neanderthals in Europe and Africa. He used skulls like Kabwe 1, Petralona 1, Bodo, and Arago, which share similar brow ridge features.
H. heidelbergensis may have evolved from H. ergaster (African H. erectus) after a major population decline between 800,000 and 900,000 years ago. By 700,000 years ago, these humans had spread into Europe, bringing tools called Late Acheulean stone tools. By 500,000 years ago, their settlements became more permanent. H. heidelbergensis may have hunted large animals like straight-tusked elephants and rhinoceroses, but some groups also relied on plants and small animals for food. Fire was not used often, but huts and temporary shelters may have been built in Europe. Some pebbles show simple etchings, and ochre (a type of colored rock) was sometimes heated or modified, possibly for symbolic purposes.
Research history
On October 21, 1907, miners found a large human mandible (lower jaw) about 24.1 meters (79 feet) deep in the Grafenrain sand pit near the village of Mauer, which is 10 kilometers (6.2 miles) southeast of Heidelberg, Germany. German geologists Ernst Wilhelm Benecke and Adolf Sauer had previously described the area as diluvial deposits (remnants of the Great Flood) from the Tertiary period. Mauer 1 was the oldest known human fossil in Europe at the time. German anthropologist Otto Schoetensack first reported the discovery in 1908, classifying it as a new human species, Homo heidelbergensis. After Neanderthals (Homo neanderthalensis), it was the second human species named in the genus Homo.
Schoetensack noted that the jaw had very primitive features, such as its large size and lack of a chin, but also showed more modern traits, like small teeth. He concluded that Mauer 1 represented an ancient European ancestor, supported by development stages in humans. He also stated that the jaw’s similarities to non-human apes suggested it was close to the last common ancestor of apes and humans. Based on the animal remains found at the site, Schoetensack believed the jaw was from the antediluvian age (before the Great Flood). However, he did not find evidence of Adam, whom he claimed was the ancestor of all humans, including Homo heidelbergensis, but not Aboriginal Australians.
The dimensions of Mauer 1 are large compared to modern European objects. However, when compared to present-day lower races, the difference disappears. — Otto Schoetensack, 1908
In 1909, Croatian archaeologist Dragutin Gorjanović-Kramberger suggested renaming Mauer 1 Homo amentalis ("chinless") because other human jaws in the genus Homo had at least a weak chin. In the same year, Italian paleontologist Guido Bonarelli proposed creating a new genus, Palaeanthropus heidelbergensis, to reflect its age and primitive traits. German anthropologist Hans Weinert suggested Europanthropus heidelbergensis, and Ludwig Wilser proposed Rhenanthropus heidelbergensis for similar reasons. In 1927, Czech-American anthropologist Aleš Hrdlička classified it as a European variant of Pithecanthropus erectus (now Homo erectus erectus). In 1928, German anatomist Franz Weidenreich made a similar claim. In 1937, American archaeologist Theodore D. McCown and British anatomist Sir Arthur Keith suggested using Palaeoanthropus for fossils with Neanderthal-like features, with P. heidelbergensis as the oldest member. They also included P. neanderthalensis (specifically La Chappelle-aux-Saints 1 and Neanderthal 1), P. ehringsdorfiensis, P. krapinensis, and P. palestinensis.
By the middle of the 20th century, with the development of modern evolutionary theory, scientists began placing all ancient human fossils into the genus Homo, assigning only one species at any time: Homo erectus, which evolved into Homo sapiens (anagenesis). Many archaic human species, including heidelbergensis, were grouped as subspecies of Homo erectus or Homo sapiens. This made Homo erectus and Homo sapiens highly variable in anatomy. In 1963, Russian-American geneticist Theodosius Dobzhansky noted significant differences in anatomy and technology between Western and Eastern Eurasia during the Middle Pleistocene. He suggested these groups might represent distinct but contemporary species (cladogenesis), with Homo erectus in the East and the ancestors of Homo sapiens in the West.
In 1972, American paleoanthropologist Bernard Campbell divided Middle Pleistocene Homo erectus into two chronological subspecies: one including H. e. heidelbergensis, H. e. mauritanicus, and H. e. pekinensis; the other including H. e. leakeyi (Olduvai Gorge Bed IV) and H. e. erectus. At this time, H. e. heidelbergensis included Mauer 1 and the Hungarian Vértesszőlős 2.
In 1974, British physical anthropologist Chris Stringer noted that the Greek Petralona 1 was anatomically similar to the Zambian Kabwe 1, Mauer 1, and Vértesszőlős 2 but different from East Asian Homo erectus. He proposed classifying them as Homo sapiens heidelbergensis—a widespread Euro-African group and the last common ancestor of modern humans (Homo sapiens sapiens) and Neanderthals (Homo sapiens neanderthalensis). In 1983, he suggested classifying them as a unique species, either Homo heidelbergensis or Homo rhodesiensis (named in 1921 with Kabwe 1), depending on whether Mauer 1 was included. The usefulness of Homo heidelbergensis is complicated by its definition based on a jaw, which is rare in Middle Pleistocene deposits and has few diagnostic traits. However, Kabwe 1, Petralona 1, the Ethiopian Bodo cranium, and the French Arago have often been grouped as representatives of Homo heidelbergensis, mainly due to their brow ridge anatomy.
Although Homo heidelbergensis became widely used, in 2000, American anthropologists Sally McBrearty and Alison S. Brooks argued that Homo heidelbergensis should only be used for the direct ancestors
Anatomy
In 1908, Schoetensack described H. heidelbergensis using the Mauer 1 jaw. He noted that this jaw had a thick lower jaw, a wider part where it connects to the skull (from front to back), and no chin. Kabwe 1, Petralona 1, Bodo, and Arago are often grouped together as examples of H. heidelbergensis. The first three do not have jawbones, but the Arago jawbones are similar to Mauer 1.
All four skulls have tall brow ridges. These ridges are flat on the front, curve at the top near the face edges, and are highest over the eye sockets. The rest of their faces vary somewhat.
Based on body fossils from the Middle Pleistocene, humans likely averaged about 165–170 cm (5 ft 5 in – 5 ft 7 in) in height. A female skeleton from Jinniushan is estimated to have been 165 cm (5 ft 5 in) tall. The Kabwe tibia suggests the person was about 181.2 cm (5 ft 11 in) tall, which is among the tallest estimates. However, this person might have been unusually tall or had longer legs compared to others.
Early modern humans were taller. Males from Skhul and Qafzeh averaged about 185.1 cm (6 ft 1 in), and females averaged 169.8 cm (5 ft 7 in). This might have helped them travel long distances more efficiently with longer legs.
Culture
During the Middle Pleistocene, many communities ate large animals more often than earlier groups, and meat became a key part of their diet. In Europe, humans known as H. heidelbergensis often cut up some of the largest animals in the region, such as straight-tusked elephants, aurochs, and rhinoceroses from the genus Stephanorhinus. While some animal remains may have been found by scavenging, certain sites in Africa and Europe show evidence of hunting specific animals. For example, the Olorgesailie site in Kenya has over 50 to 60 butchered baboons (Theropithecus oswaldi), and the Spanish sites of Torralba and Ambrona have remains from elephant graveyards. Eating large animals might have required group hunting strategies. At Torralba and Ambrona, animals may have been surrounded and driven into swamplands by a group of hunters before being killed.
Some groups used plant resources extensively. At the 780,000-year-old Gesher Benot Ya'aqov site in Israel, people gathered and ate 55 types of fruits, vegetables, seeds, nuts, and tubers. They may have used fire to cook certain plants that were otherwise hard to eat. They also ate amphibians, reptiles, birds, and insects, in addition to large animals like elephants and fallow deer.
The Lower Palaeolithic (Early Stone Age) includes the Oldowan tool industry, which used simple choppers and flakes. This was later replaced by the Acheulean industry, known for making symmetrical hand axes. By the Middle Pleistocene, the Late Acheulean culture spread across Europe and Africa, linked to the movement of H. heidelbergensis. These tools were thinner and more symmetrical than earlier Acheulean tools made by H. erectus, with more flaking scars. Some sites have smaller hand axes that may belong to the African Middle Stone Age. The Late Acheulean reached Western Europe by the mid-Middle Pleistocene, but some sites, like Arago, still used choppers and flakes instead of hand axes.
At the 500,000-year-old Boxgrove site in England, people may have prepared platforms for making tools and used bone and antler as hammers. Other Late Acheulean sites shaped tools from pre-prepared stone cores called "Large Flake Blanks" (LFB), making prepared platforms unnecessary. LFB Acheulean tools spread from Africa into West and South Asia before 1 million years ago and appeared in Southern Europe after 600,000 years ago. In northern Europe and the Levant after 700,000 years ago, people used soft hammers because they worked with small, thick flint nodules. The first prepared platforms in Africa come from the 450,000-year-old Fauresmith industry, possibly a transition between the Early Stone Age (Acheulean) and the Middle Stone Age.
Some tools may have been attached to spears. In Africa, the earliest evidence of this comes from the 500,000-year-old Kathu Pan 1 site in South Africa. A horse bone from the Boxgrove site shows a puncture wound that matches a spear wound. Evidence of attaching tools to spears became more common after 300,000 years ago.
The Kapthurin Formation in Kenya has the oldest evidence of small blade and bladelet technology, dating to 509,000 to 545,000 years ago. This type of tool is rare in the Middle Palaeolithic and is usually linked to Upper Palaeolithic modern humans. It is unclear whether this represents a long tradition of blade-making or if blade technology was lost and rediscovered multiple times by different human groups.
Despite moving into colder areas, evidence of fire use is rare in the archaeological record until 300,000 to 400,000 years ago. Some fire remnants may have degraded over time, but sites like Arago and Gran Dolina, which have long, undisturbed layers of occupation, show little evidence of fire. This might mean that people developed new ways to start or maintain fire around this time, and fire was not a regular part of life in Europe before then. In Africa, humans may have used fire from natural wildfires, which occur more often there, as early as 1.6 million years ago. The oldest continuous fire site outside Africa is at Gesher Benot Ya'aqov.
In Europe, evidence of built dwellings—structures with solid foundations and roofs made of branches or poles—dates back to the Cromerian Interglacial, with the earliest example being a 700,000-year-old stone foundation in Přezletice, Czech Republic. Other possible dwellings from the Holstein Interglacial (starting 424,000 years ago) have been found in Germany, France, and Normandy. These were likely used during winter and were small, around 3.5 meters by 3 meters, for sleeping. Other activities, like keeping fire, probably happened outside. Tent-like structures may have been used in Europe during the Lower Palaeolithic.
Upper Palaeolithic modern humans are known for creating engravings with symbolic meaning. As of 2018, only 27 Middle and Lower Palaeolithic objects have been suggested to have symbolic engravings, though some have been ruled out as natural or non-symbolic. Examples include a 350,000 to 400,000-year-old bone from Bilzingsleben, three 380,000-year-old pebbles from Terra Amata, and 18 pebbles from Lazaret, France, dating to about 200,000 years ago.
Early modern humans and late Neanderthals (especially after 60,000 years ago) used red ochre, which creates a blood-like color, likely for symbolic reasons. Ochre may also have had practical uses, such as medicine. Other sites where ochre was used include Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania, Ambrona in Spain, and Terra Amata in France. These uses might show early preferences for certain colors, though such practices were not widespread.
Several Acheulean sites in France, England, and Germany have many perforated, spherical Porosphaera globularis sponge fossils,