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When did Homo erectus spread from Africa into Asia?
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Pleistocene Epoch
Ice sheets during the Wisconsin glacial episode penetrated deep into North America.
Homo erectus is believed to have originated in Africa and began dispersing quickly throughout Eurasia, including South and Southeast Asia, starting approximately 1.9 million years ago during the Pleistocene Epoch.1
While the exact timing of this migration is recorded imprecisely, fossil evidence indicates that the species flourished over a long interval of time. By roughly 1.7 million years ago, H. erectus populations were already established in various regions, with specimens from sites in Java, such as Sangiran and Mojokerto, approaching the age of African fossils found at Koobi Fora.2