ABSTRACT
This chapter explains how the ‘Savannah’ theory of evolution became accepted in the 19th century. It was assumed that, because pre-hominid apes lived in a forest habitat and we humans are on ‘terra firma’, early hominins must have come down from the trees onto the savannah where they evolved as ‘hunter-gatherers’. No other intermediate evolutionary scenario was considered. This theory became adopted in archaeological teaching and public perception of human evolution, without any scientific evidence other than fossil remains.
