This paper reviews some of the main advances in our understanding of human evolution over the last 1 million years, presenting a holistic overview of a field defined by interdisciplinary approaches to studying the origins of our species. We begin by briefly summarizing the climatic context across the Old World for the last 1 million years before directly addressing the fossil and archaeological records. The main themes in this work explore (i) recent discoveries in the fossil record over the last 15 years, such as Homo naledi and Homo floresiensis; (ii) the implications of palaeogenetics for understanding the evolutionary history of, and relationships between, Neanderthals, Denisovans and Homo sapiens; (iii) the interplay between physiology and metabolic demand, landscape use, and behavioural adaptations in the evolution of morphological and behavioural innovation; and (iv) recent advances in archaeological understanding for the behavioural record, in particular that of the Neanderthals. This paper seeks to provide a broad‐scale, holistic perspective of our current understanding of human evolution for the last 1 Ma, providing a reference point for researchers that can be built upon as new discoveries continue to develop the landscapes of human evolution. © 2019 The Authors. Journal of Quaternary Science Published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

No abstract

The Acheulean is a stone tool industry that originates in Africa over 1.7mya. It is characterised by the bifacially shaped handaxe as part of a group of tools commonly referred to as LCTs — large cutting tools. Traditionally, the Lower Palaeolithic/Early Stone Age Acheulean is seen as continuing throughout much of the Old World until c. 0.25mya and the advent of the Middle Palaeolithic, though handaxe usage continues well after this. At least two different hominin species are responsible for making handaxes across this time span,Homo ergaster/erectusandHomo heidelbergensis. It is possible that the earliestHomo sapiensin Africa also made and used handaxes. A long running debate concerns whether or not there is an evolution in Acheulean material culture. This involves the belief that handaxes and other LCTs become more refined and sophisticated as time goes by. There are two schools of thought on this. The first argues that advances in Acheulean material culture march in lockstep with brain and cognitive evolution, whilst the second sees a mismatch between them. In this latter scenario material culture falls behind cognitive evolution. We argue that the key to understanding Acheulean material culture is variability and that symmetry and refinement in handaxes are likely to be situational/local. No long-term trends are visible in the archaeological record which show an increase in refinement or handaxe symmetry. We suggest a ‘variable equilibrium’ model to explain the patterns seen and show how the archaeology maps onto similar biological interpretations

Episodes of Palaeolithic cannibalism have frequently been defined as ‘nutritional’ in nature, but with little empirical evidence to assess their dietary significance. This paper presents a nutritional template that offers a proxy calorie value for the human body. When applied to the Palaeolithic record, the template provides a framework for assessing the dietary value of prehistoric cannibalistic episodes compared to the faunal record. Results show that humans have a comparable nutritional value to those faunal species that match our typical body weight, but significantly lower than a range of fauna often found in association with anthropogenically modified hominin remains. This could suggest that the motivations behind hominin anthropophagy may not have been purely nutritionally motivated. It is proposed here that the comparatively low nutritional value of hominin cannibalism episodes support more socially or culturally driven narratives in the interpretation of Palaeolithic cannibalism.

No abstract