Life environment of the 1 Ma old Homo Erectus in the Eritrean Dankalia: the geological evidences

Since the Miocene the Danakil continental block detached from the Nubian plate and left behind a roughly triangular rift basin filled by sediments and volcanic products. In its northernmost portion this basin was flanked by the uplifting Eritrean plateau margin segmented by offsets. During the Pleistocene one of this offset was located at the foot of a wide watershed collecting clastics from the highest plateau peaks. It gave rise to the 700m thick continental Dandero succession. Age determinations based on abundant vertebrates , magnetostratigraphy and fission track dating constrain the whole succession between ca.1.2Ma and 0.7Ma, and place the Homo horizon at ca. 1Ma (top of the Jaramillo chron). On a regional scale we infer a landscape alternating barriers, corridors and open-space savannahs with permanent lakes, swamps and streams. Abundant artifacts testify that the deltaic and palustrine environments along lake edges were a particularly favourable ecosystem for human activity.