Learning Objectives

After reading this chapter, you should be able to:

7.1 Summarize the challenges archaeologists face when interpreting the behaviors and lifestyles of the oldest hominins.
7.2 Explain how the behavior of Homo erectus and the earliest representatives of genus Homo differed from that of earlier hominins.
7.3 Describe Middle Paleolithic tools and the hominin species that may have produced them.
7.4 Explain the significance of the material record for the Upper Paleolithic period.
7.5 Compare theories regarding the initial human settlement of the Americas.