Homo heidelbergensis: Hominin #9 - 1/88 Limited Edition

Format: 2160 x 2160 px - MP4 Looping video - 150 dpi

This Hominin bust by the Smithsonian paleoartist John Gurche is built with clay over a cast or 3D print of an ancient skull, from which a silicone mold is taken and the face painted into the mold. Acrylic eyes, and bear or human hair implanted manually and individually.

Materials: clay, casting, 3D printing, silicone, acrylic, paint, bear hair, human hair.

Medium: digital photography, post-production coloring, animation.

Something had changed for members of the human lineage with H. heidelbergensis. About 400,000 to 300,000 years ago, in a cavern in Spain, about 30 human bodies were dropped into a deep hole in what seems a prelude to the practice of burying the dead. Chunks of different colored mineral pigments have been found in African deposits of similar age, some with beveled wear that suggests they were rubbed on something, likely for some symbolic purpose.

None of these symbolic behaviors has shown up in the record for H. erectus. With later H. heidelbergensis, clunky axes are replaced by carefully crafted and aesthetically beautiful tools. They used weighted throwing spears to hunt big game such as horses, rhino and large deer. The first known shelters appear to have been constructed during the time of H. heidelbergensis—the earliest time that a hominin living site would look something like home to us. At least to those who go camping.

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