The variety or species of humans that was intermediate between Homo erectus and modern humans. The earliest archaic humans may have appeared shortly after 800,000 years ago in Southern Europe and East Africa. Elsewhere in the Old World, the transition to archaic humans began around 400,000 years ago or later. The most well known late archaic humans were the Neandertals. Archaic humans are also known as archaic Homo sapiens and premodern humans. See Homo heidelbergensis.