Abstract
A fossilized human cranium was discovered by miners quarrying at Broken Hill (now Kabwe ) in 1921. Broken Hill is one of the best preserved hominins ever recovered from a later Middle Pleistocene locality. Remarkably, no comprehensive descriptive or comparative account has been published since 1928. Overall, Broken Hill resembles Homo erectus . The frontal is flattened with midline keeling, the vault is low, and the massive face is “hafted” to the braincase in such a way as to accentuate facial projection. At the same time, there are apomorphic features shared with later humans. Brain size is 1280 cm3, the temporal squama is arch-shaped, and the upper scale of the occipital is expanded relative to its lower nuchal portion. Specialized characters of the temporomandibular joint region include a raised articular tubercle and a sphenoid spine. Reorientation of the nasal aperture and placement of the incisive canal suggest that the face may be more nearly vertical than in H. erectus. It is apparent that Broken Hill is similar to other African crania from Bodo , Ndutu, and Elandsfontein as well as European fossils including Arago and Petralona. However, the systematic position of these hominins remains controversial. The material has been grouped into a series of grades within a broad H. sapiens category. A very different reading of the record recognizes multiple, distinct taxa and suggests that speciation must have occurred repeatedly throughout the Pleistocene. Still another perspective holds that differences among the African and European specimens are minor and can be attributed to geography and intragroup variation. It is argued that many of the fossils belong together in one widely dispersed taxon. If the Mauer mandible is included within this hypodigm , then the appropriate name is H. heidelbergensis . Treated in a broad sense, H. heidelbergensis is ancestral to both H. neanderthalensis and H. sapiens . This study will provide a detailed account of the morphology of Broken Hill and its similarities to other Middle Pleistocene hominins from Africa. Comparisons will include Arago, Petralona, and assemblages such as Sima de los Huesos. My approach will address the taxonomic utility of characters of the vault, cranial base and face, species-level systematics, and evolutionary relationships.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Arsuaga, J. L., Gracia, A., Martínez, I., Bermúdez de Castro, J.M., Rosas, A., Villaverde, V. et al. (1989). The human remains from Cova Negra (Valencia, Spain) and their place in European Pleistocene human evolution. Journal of Human Evolution, 18, 55–92
Arsuaga, J. L., Martínez, I., Gracia, A., & Lorenzo, C. (1997). The Sima de los Huesos crania (Sierra de Atapuerca, Spain). A comparative study. Journal of Human Evolution, 33, 219–281.
Bräuer, G. (2007). Origin of modern humans. In W. Henke & I. Tattersall (Eds.), Handbook of paleoanthropology, phylogeny of hominids (Vol. 3, pp. 1749–1779). Heidelberg: Springer.
Bräuer, G. (2008). The origin of modern anatomy: By speciation or intraspecific evolution? Evolutionary Anthropology, 17, 22–37.
Friess, M. (2010). Calvarial shape variation among Middle Pleistocene hominins: An application of surface scanning in paleoanthropology. Comptes Rendus Palevol, 9, 435–443.
Harvati, K., Hublin, J.-J., & Gunz, P. (2010). Evolution of middle-late Pleistocene human craniofacial form: A 3-D approach. Journal of Human Evolution, 59, 445–464.
Harvati, K., Hublin, J.-J., & Gunz, P. (2011). Three dimensional evaluation of Neanderthal craniofacial features in the European and African Middle Pleistocene human fossil record (abstract). American Journal of Physical Anthropology, Supplement, 52, 157.
Howells, W. W. (1973). Cranial variation in man: A study by multivariate analysis of patterns of difference among recent human populations. Papers of the Peabody Museum, 67, 1–259.
Hrdlička, A. (1930). The skeletal remains of early man. Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collection 83. Washington: Smithsonian Institution.
Hublin, J.-J. (1998). Climatic changes, paleogeography and the evolution of Neanderthals. In T. Akazawa, K. Aoki, & O. Bar-Yosef (Eds.), Neanderthals and modern humans in Western Asia (pp. 295–310). New York: Plenum Press.
Hublin, J.-J. (2009). The origin of Neandertals. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA, 106, 16022–16027.
Klein, R. G. (1994). Southern Africa before the iron age. In R. S. Corruccini & R. L. Ciochon (Eds.), Integrative paths to the past. Paleoanthropological advances in honor of F. Clark Howell (pp. 471–519). Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall.
Klein, R. G., Avery, G., Cruz-Uribe, K., & Steele, T. E. (2006). The mammalian fauna associated with an archaic hominin skullcap and later Acheulean artifacts at Elandsfontein, Western Cape Province, South Africa. Journal of Human Evolution, 52, 164–186.
Lahr, M. M., & Wright, R. V. S. (1996). The question of robusticity and the relationship between cranial size and shape in Homo sapiens. Journal of Human Evolution, 31, 157–191.
Lieberman, D. E. (2011). The evolution of the human head. Cambridge: Belknap Press.
Maddux, S. D., & Franciscus, R. G. (2009). Allometric scaling of infraorbital surface topography in Homo. Journal of Human Evolution, 56, 161–174.
Martínez, I., & Arsuaga, J.-L. (1997). The temporal bones from Sima de los Huesos Middle Pleistocene site (Sierra de Atapuerca, Spain). A phylogenetic approach. Journal of Human Evolution, 33, 283–318.
Martinón-Torres, M., Bermúdez de Castro, J. M., Gómez-Robles, A., Prado-Simón, L., & Arsuaga, J.-L. (2012). Morphological description and comparison of the dental remains from Atapuerca-Sima de los Huesos site (Spain). Journal of Human Evolution, 62, 7–58.
McCollum, M. A. (2000). Subnasal morphological variation in fossil hominids: A reassessment based on new observations and recent developmental findings. American Journal of Physical Anthropology, 112, 275–283.
Mosimann, J. E. (1970). Size allometry: Size and shape variables with characterizations of the lognormal and generalized gamma distributions. Journal of the American Statistical Association, 65, 930–945.
Mounier, A., Marchal, F., & Condemi, S. (2009). Is Homo heidelbergensis a distinct species? New insights on the Mauer mandible. Journal of Human Evolution, 56, 219–246.
Mourant, G. M. (1928). Studies of Palaeolithic man. III. The Rhodesian skull and its relationships to Neanderthaloid and modern types. Annals of Eugenics, 3, 337–360.
Pycraft, W. P. (1928). Description of the human remains. In W. P. Pycraft, G. E. Smith, M. Yearsley, J. T. Carter, R. A. Smith, A. T. Hopwood, D. M. A. Bate, W. E. Swinton, & F. A. Bather (Eds.), Rhodesian man and associated remains (pp. 1–51). London: British Museum.
Rightmire, G. P. (1990). The evolution of Homo erectus. Comparative anatomical studies of an extinct human species. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Rightmire, G. P. (1996). The human cranium from Bodo, Ethiopia: Evidence for speciation in the Middle Pleistocene? Journal of Human Evolution, 31, 21–39.
Rightmire, G. P. (1998). Human evolution in the Middle Pleistocene: The role of Homo heidelbergensis. Evolutionary Anthropology, 6, 218–227.
Rightmire, G. P. (2001). Comparison of Middle Pleistocene hominids from Africa and Asia. In L. Barham & K. Robson-Brown (Eds.), Human roots. Africa and Asia in the Middle Pleistocene (pp. 123–133). Bristol: Western Academic and Specialist Press.
Rightmire, G. P. (2008). Homo in the Middle Pleistocene: Hypodigms, variation, and species recognition. Evolutionary Anthropology, 17, 8–21.
Schwartz, J. H., & Tattersall, I. (1996). Significance of some previously unrecognized apomorphies in the nasal region of Homo neanderthalensis. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA, 93, 10852–10854.
Schwartz, J. H., & Tattersall, I. (2010). Fossil evidence for the origin of Homo sapiens. Yearbook of Physical Anthropology, 153, 94–121.
Seidler, H., Falk, D., Stringer, C., Wilfing, H., Muller, G. B., zur Nedden, D., et al. (1997). A comparative study of stereolithographically modeled skulls of Petralona and Broken Hill: Implications for further studies of Middle Pleistocene hominid evolution. Journal of Human Evolution, 33, 691–703.
Stringer, C. B. (1983). Some further notes on the morphology and dating of the Petralona hominid. Journal of Human Evolution, 12, 731–742.
Stringer, C. B. (1993). New views on modern human origins. In D. T. Rasmussen (Ed.), The origin and evolution of humans and humanness (pp. 75–94). Boston: Jones and Bartlett.
Stringer, C. B. (2011). The chronological and evolutionary position of the Broken Hill cranium. American Journal of Physical Anthropology, Supplement, 52, 287.
Stringer, C. B., Howell, F. C., & Melentis, J. K. (1979). The significance of the fossil hominid skull from Petralona, Greece. Journal of Archaeological Science, 6, 235–253.
Tattersall, I., & Schwartz, J. H. (2008). The morphological distinctiveness of Homo sapiens and its recognition in the fossil record: Clarifying the problem. Evolutionary Anthropology, 17, 49–54.
Weidenreich, F. (1943). The skull of Sinanthropus pekinensis: A comparative study of a primitive hominid skull. Palaeontologia Sinnica, new series, D10, 1–484.
Wood, B. (1991). Koobi Fora research project. Hominid cranial remains (Vol. 4). Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Wood, B., & Lieberman, D. E. (2001). Craniodental variation in Paranthropus boisei: A developmental and functional perspective. American Journal of Physical Anthropology, 116, 13–25.
Woodward, A. S. (1921). A new cave man from Rhodesia, South Africa. Nature, 108, 371–372.
Zonneveld, F. W., & Wind, J. (1985). High-resolution computed tomography of fossil hominid skulls: A new method and some results. In P. V. Tobias (Ed.), Hominid evolution: Past, present and future (pp. 427–436). New York: Alan R. Liss.
Acknowledgments
For access to the fossils in their care, I thank my friends and colleagues at the National Museum of Ethiopia (Addis Ababa), the Iziko South African Museum (Cape Town), the Natural History Museum (London), the Institut de Paléontologie Humaine (Paris), and the University of Thessaloniki. Ian Tattersall allowed me to study materials held in the American Museum of Natural History (New York). Graham Avery, George Koufos, Robert Kruszynski, and Chris Stringer helped me with the process of gathering data central to this research. My studies of Middle Pleistocene Homo have been funded by the National Science Foundation, the Leakey Foundation, the Eckler Fund of Binghamton University, and the American School for Prehistoric Research at Harvard University. In the course of these investigations, I have benefited from the anatomical expertise, sound science, and good humor of Yoel Rak.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2017 Springer International Publishing AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Rightmire, G.P. (2017). Middle Pleistocene Homo Crania from Broken Hill and Petralona: Morphology, Metric Comparisons, and Evolutionary Relationships. In: Marom, A., Hovers, E. (eds) Human Paleontology and Prehistory. Vertebrate Paleobiology and Paleoanthropology. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-46646-0_11
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-46646-0_11
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-46644-6
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-46646-0
eBook Packages: Earth and Environmental ScienceEarth and Environmental Science (R0)