Concise Oxford Dictionary of Archaeology (316 page)

Songs in praise of gods, such as
The hymn to Apollo
. Not composed by Homer , or even belonging to his time, but carefully written in the Homeric epic style by later poets, perhaps in the 5th or 4th centuries
bc
.

 
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General term for the family of mammals represented by the single genus
Homo
, and today by one species:
Homo sapiens
. The term is a contraction of
HOMINOIDEA
, and is used to describe all the species within the family of man and its evolutionary predecessors. Hominids probably reached their greatest diversity around 2 million years ago when there were probably five contemporary species of Australopithecines and
Homo
.

 
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The superfamily including hominids and pongids.

 
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The genus to which humans belong. See
HOMO HABILIS
,
HOMO ERECTUS
,
HOMO SAPIENS
,
HOMO NEANDERTHALENSIS
.

 
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An early and long-lived human species (the name means ‘upright man’) that appeared about 1.8 million years ago and survived until at least 250000 years ago. It is the first human species found outside Africa and appears to have colonized Asia, Indonesia, and Europe around 1 million years ago. The ancestry of
Homo erectus
is uncertain. The species may have derived directly from the Australopithecines, but differed from them in a number of ways:
homo erectus
was heavier and taller, had a more linear body form, better bipedal movement, less sexual dimorphism, and a larger brain.
Homo erectus
was also the first hominid to have a projecting nose. Alternatively,
Homo habilis
may stand on the evolutionary line between the gracile Australopithecines and
Homo erectus
. The stone and flint industries associated with
Homo erectus
are almost exclusively
ACHEULIAN
. It is possible that following the dispersion of the species around the globe there were significant regional developments within the species, leading, for example, to recognizably related species such as
homo neanderthalensis
.

 
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An early human species (the name means ‘handy man’) that lived in Africa between 2 million and 1.5 million years ago. The species was identified from fossils found at Olduvai Gorge in 1964 by Louis Leakey , John Napier , and Philip Tobias . It has since also been identified at Koobi Fora. It is probably
Homo habilis
that is responsible for the Oldowan industries and that the species developed directly from the gracile Australopithecines (Australopithecus afarensis and Australopithecus africanus).
Homo habilis
appears to have been contemporary with the more robust Australopithecines (A. robustus/paranthropus), and perhaps also early
Homo erectus
.

 
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