The dispute about the timeline has much more to do with where to draw the lines between species as opposed to who was where when. Homo heidelbergensis is sometimes classified as homo sapiens heidelbergensis or more often as Homo Sapiens (archaic) as opposed to Homo Sapiens Sapiens (Modern). If heidelbergensis is a seperate species, then 120k years ago is the start of homo sapiens. If heidelbergensis is a part of homo sapiens, 500k. Either way, me thinks this axe dating is off by a zero.
How can Homo heidelbergensis be considered archaic Homo sapiens when it predated Neanderthal man?
What about Homo antecessor?
Homo erectus made stone tools also, didn't it? Perhaps this is a Homo erectus' product.
50,000 years ago would be clearly H. sapiens.
>>Either way, me thinks this axe dating is off by a zero.
It looks to be a typical Acheulian hand axe, Early Paleolithic, between 700K and 400K in Europe, depending on where you are. What makes you think it is only 50K years old?