13.2: Archaic Homo Sapiens

Defining Characteristics

Archaic Homo sapiens share our species name but are distinguished by the term “Archaic” as a way of recognizing both the long period of time between their appearance and ours, as well as the way in which human traits have continued to evolve over time—making Archaic Homo sapiens look slightly different from us today, despite being considered the same species. Living throughout Africa, and the Middle East during the Middle Pleistocene, Archaic Homo sapiens are considered, in many ways, transitional between Homo erectus and modern Homo sapiens.

Archaic Homo sapiens share the defining trait of an increased brain size of at least 1,100 cc and averaging 1,200 cc, although there are significant regional and temporal (time) variations. Because of these variations, scientists disagree on whether these fossils represent a single, variable species or multiple, closely related species.

An active area of scholarship in the discipline involves reconciling the diversity of species from this time period and establishing the phylogenetic relationships between them. The term “Archaic Homo sapiens” can mean different things to different scholars within the discipline.

Since there is no consensus on the classification of this fossil material, this chapter will rely on the widely used naming conventions that refer to many fossils from this time period as Archaic Homo sapiens and will consider them as a unit, with the exception of a particularly unique population living in Europe and West Asia known as the Neanderthals, which will be examined in the next section.

When comparing Homo erectus, Archaic Homo sapiens, and anatomically modern Homo sapiens, one can see that Archaic Homo sapiens are intermediate in their physical form. For some features, this follows the trends first seen in Homo erectus with other features having early, less developed forms of traits seen in modern Homo sapiens. For example, Archaic Homo sapiens trended toward less angular and higher skulls than Homo erectus. However, the archaic skulls were not as short and globular and had less developed foreheads compared to anatomically modern Homo sapiens. Archaic Homo sapiens had smaller brow ridges and a less-projecting face than Homo erectus and slightly smaller teeth, although incisors and canines were often about as large as those of Homo erectus.

Archaic Homo sapiens also had a wider nasal aperture, or opening for the nose, and a forward-projecting midfacial region, which is later seen more fully developed among Neanderthals and is known as midfacial prognathism. The occipital bone often projected and the cranial bone was of intermediate thickness, somewhat reduced from Homo erectus but not nearly as thin as that of anatomically modern Homo sapiens. The postcranial skeleton remained fairly robust. Identifying a set of features that is unique to Archaic Homo sapiens is a challenging task, due to both individual and geographic variation—these developments were not all present to the same degree in all individuals. Neanderthals are the exception, as they had several unique traits that made them notably different from modern Homo sapiens as well as their closely related Archaic cousins.

The one thing that is clear about Archaic Homo sapiens is that, despite general features, there is a lot of regional variation, which is first seen in the different Homo erectus specimens across Asia and Africa. While the general features of Archaic Homo sapiens, identified earlier, are present in the fossils of this time period, there are significant regional differences. The majority of this regional variation lies in the degree to which fossils have features more closely aligned with Homo erectus or with anatomically modern Homo sapiens.

It is important to remember that this time period is represented by many branching relationships and assuming an evolutionary trajectory that follows a single linear path would not be correct. Even still, Archaic Homo sapiens mark an important chapter in the human lineage, connecting more ancestral forms, such as Homo erectus, to modern Homo sapiens. During this period of climatic transition and fluctuation, Archaic Homo sapiens mirror the challenges of their environments. Showing increasing regional variation due to the need for local adaptation, there is no single archetype for this group; the defining characteristic seems to be variability.

This page was adapted from the following source:

Wolcott Paske, Amanda and AnnMarie Beasley Cisneros (2023). 11.3: Defining Characteristics of Archaic Homo Sapiens. In Explorations: An Open Invitation to Biological Anthropology, second edition, edited by Beth Shook, Katie Nelson, Kelsie Aguilera, and Lara Braff, which is licensed under CC BY-NC 4.0