22. Homo erectus was probably the first human to live in a hunter-gatherer society, and anthropologists such as
Richard Leakey believe that it was socially more like modern humans than the more Australopithecus-like species before
it. Likewise, increased cranial capacity generally coincides with the more sophisticated tools occasionally found with
fossils.
The first theory is that H. erectus migrated from Africa
during the Early Pleistocene, possibly as a result of the
operation of the Saharan pump, around 2.0 million
years ago, and dispersed throughout much of the Old
World. Fossilized remains 1.8 to 1 million years old
have been found in Africa (e.g., Lake Turkana[5] and
Olduvai Gorge), Europe (Georgia, Spain), Indonesia
(e.g., Sangiran and Trinil), Vietnam, China (e.g.,
Shaanxi) and India.[6]
The second theory is H. erectus evolved in Asia and
then migrated to Africa. The species occupied a West
Asian site called Dmanisi, in Georgia, from 1.85 million
to 1.77 million years ago, at the same time or slightly
before the earliest evidence in Africa. Excavations
found 73 stone tools for cutting and chopping and 34
bone fragments from unidentified creatures.
