page_title: Homo heidelbergensis
section_title: Research history
hierarchical_section_title: Homo heidelbergensis / Taxonomy / Research history
caption_attribution_description: English: Mandible (lower jaw) of the type specimen of Homo heidelbergenis from Mauer near Heidelberg, Germany (Original) Deutsch: Unterkiefer von Mauer: Typusexemplar von Homo heidelbergensis: Original
context_page_description: Homo heidelbergensis is an extinct species or subspecies of archaic humans in the genus Homo, which radiated in the Middle Pleistocene from about 700,000 to 300,000 years ago. The derivation of H. sapiens from H. rhodesiensis has often been proposed, but is obscured by a fossil gap from 400–260 kya. The species was originally named Homo heidelbergensis due to the skeleton's first discovery near Heidelberg, Germany.
  The first discovery—a mandible—was made in 1907 by Otto Schoetensack. The skulls of this species share features with both H. erectus and modern humans; its brain was nearly as large as that of modern humans. The Sima de los Huesos cave at Atapuerca in northern Spain holds particularly rich layers of deposits where excavations were still in progress as of 2018.
  H. heidelbergensis was dispersed throughout Eastern and Southern Africa as well as Europe. Its exact relation both to the earlier H. antecessor and H. ergaster, and to the later species Neanderthals, Denisovans, and modern humans is unclear.
  Modern humans have been proposed to derive from H. heidelbergensis via H. rhodesiensis, present in East and North Africa from around 400 kya.
context_section_description: The type specimen, Mauer 1 (a jawbone), was discovered by worker Daniel Hartmann in Mauer, to the southeast of Heidelberg, Germany, and was described in 1907 by German anthropologist Otto Schoetensack. He noted a lack of a distinct chin, but conceded that it had clearly belonged to a human form due to the humanlike teeth. More fossils were subsequently found in Steinheim an der Murr, Germany (the Steinheim skull); Arago, France (Tautavel Man); Petralona, Greece; and Ciampate del Diavolo, Italy.
  In 1921, a skull, Kabwe 1, was discovered by Swiss miner Tom Zwiglaar in Kabwe, Zambia (Zambia at the time was called Northern Rhodesia), and was tentatively assigned to a new species, H. rhodesiensis, by English palaeontologist Arthur Smith Woodward. Kabwe 1 dates to around 300,000 years ago. In 1976, the 600,000 year old Bodo cranium was discovered in the Middle Awash, Ethiopia, but was classified into H. heidelbergensis as H. rhodesiensis was beginning to fall out of favour. The 400,000 year old Tanzanian Ndutu cranium has been classified as an "archaic H. sapiens". The South African Saldanha cranium, or Elandsfontein cranium, discovered in 1954 was assigned to H. heidelbergensis.
   
  The Chinese Dali Man and Maba Man could represent Asian H. heidelbergensis.
  In 1992, the 350,000 year old Sima de los Huesos site in the Sierra de Atapuerca in northern Spain was discovered, which has since yielded 5,500 bones belonging to perhaps 32 individuals, about 90% of known H. heidelbergensis remains. These individuals are thought to represent the immediate ancestors to Neanderthals or are themselves early Neanderthals. In 1994, Boxgrove Man was discovered near the English Channel in association with hundreds of hand axes dating to 524–478,000 years ago.
caption: Mauer 1, the type specimen
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