There is no universal consensus on what is included within the term “archaic Homo.” The term is used as an umbrella category encompassing all the diverse Homo species after H. erectus. Hominin species classified as archaic Homo typically have a brain size averaging 1,200 to 1,400 cc, which overlaps with the range of modern humans. Archaic Homo are distinguished from anatomically modern humans by the characteristics of a thick skull, prominent supraorbital ridges (brow ridges), and lack of a prominent chin. Archaic Homo are viewed as transitional between H. erectus and H. sapiens and display many overlapping and varied traits. It has been proposed that archaic Homo may have been the first species to use language, based on the size of their brains and the fairly large social groups they lived in. Archaic Homo species as presented here will be divided into two groups: the Early Archaic (800–250 KYA) and the Late Archaic (300–30 KYA).
The content of this course has been taken from the free Anthropology textbook by Openstax