For a long period of time after the first departure from Africa, it was primarily lithic industries, far more than human remains, that enabled us to mark out the colonization of Eurasia. The first well-dated traces of man outside Africa, which are hardly open to debate, date back some 1.85 million years. While this date should be regarded as a minimum age, it must be stressed that it corresponds closely to major behavioral changes observed in the African archaeological record. The first Eurasian remains are represented by Oldowayan lithic tools from the Dmanisi deposit in Georgia. The first human expansion outside Africa therefore predates the first developments of the African Acheulean.
The biological nature of the first inhabitants of Eurasia is much debated. However, to date, all known hominin fossils from the Lower Pleistocene of Eurasia are considered to belong to Homo erectus or closely related forms, and the oldest fossil attributed to this taxon has been discovered in East Africa (KNM ER 2598).
Very primitive lithic industries have been found in various regions of southern Asia and Europe. Their age is not always well established, but sometimes approaches 2 million years. They date back 1.66 - 1.55 million years in the Nihewan basin of northern China. The island of Java is another region rich in remains from this period. At Sangiran, human remains discovered in the Pucangan Formation date back no further than 1.66 million years. A similar situation can be observed in Europe, where it is only after 1.2 million years that well-dated and indisputable archaeological and paleontological remains are present. It should be noted that none of these Lower Pleistocene discovery sites are located beyond 40°N latitude.
