Buia skull (Homo erectus of Eritrea)
Cráneo de Buia (Homo erectus de Eritrea)
- Date
- 1995-1998 (cráneo de c. 1 Ma) · confidence medium
- Place
- Buia (Buya), Danakil Depression, Eritrea
- Credited to
- Ernesto Abbate and an Italian-Eritrean team
- Field
- Cosmos & Earth
What was discovered
A nearly complete skull of a woman c. 1 Ma old found in Danakil sediments, with features intermediate between African Homo erectus and archaic H. sapiens. It is the northernmost hominin of that age in the eastern Horn of Africa.
Published by Abbate and colleagues (Nature, 1998). The date (c. 1.0 Ma, range 0.8-1.0) comes from palaeomagnetism and fauna. The coordinates are approximate.
What it led to
- connection of Rift Valley populations with the Red Sea in the Pleistocene
- a site with thousands of Acheulean tools and associated fauna
- debate over whether H. ergaster/erectus evolved towards sapiens in Africa