Our study targeted the questions surrounding the form and rapidity of the first hominid dispersal from Africa, that of Homo erectus. Arrival dates of Homo erectus in Europe and SE Asia were investigated, exploring the effects that bridges and barriers, combined with environmental/climate change, had on human dispersal patterns during the period from 2myr to 1myr ago. Our research shows that the most consistent dispersal scenario is that Homo erectus was limited to 'marginal' existence in mid-latitude forest regions (i.e. Europe), rather than successful dominance of the landscape (fig 1). In addition to this the methodology has been extended to address issues of hominid morphology, shedding light on the issue of Homo erectus diversity during the Plio-Pleistocene, specifically demonstrating that an Africa/Asia division is the natural consequence of biogeography (fig 2). Finally a series of simulations have been completed investigating the application of the methodology to the dispersal of Homo sapiens out of Africa, around 200 kyr. Link to data (used to be) http://archaeologydataservice.ac.uk/archives/view/valdes_nerc_2006/downloads.cfm . The data archived here consists of the vegetation patterns used in constructing the simulations and the patterns of climate variability used to constrain the variations in sea level and vegetation change. From these data it is possible to reproduce the simulation results.
