Human Prehistory

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Human Prehistory

• Early humans to the Neolithic revolution

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Human Prehistory

• The first bipedal hominids emerged over 5 million
  years ago in Africa.
• The human species began to emerge in East Africa
  around 2.5 million years ago.
• Between 2.5 million years ago and 100,000 years
  ago, the human species went through a variety of
  evolutionary phases in different parts of the
  world.

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Human Prehistory
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Human Prehistory

• A large number of human species were generated
  over time (all believed to be descended from H.
  Erectus), but most of them disappeared well
  before the appearance of modern humans, Homo
  sapiens sapiens.
• Current theories posit that adverse climatic
  conditions and competition from other species
  (human and non-human) caused the other humanoid
  species to disappear.

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Human Prehistory

• A major pre-agricultural development is the
  experience of massive human species migration.
• Some thousands of years after the human species
  originated in eastern Africa, they began to pour
  out into other regions, most likely in search of
  food.
• Ultimately, humans settled around the world.

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Human Prehistory
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The Paleolithic Age

• The Paleolithic Age (Old Stone Age) lasted for
  almost two million years (until about 14,000
  years ago).
• Humans began to walk more upright and they
  developed a larger brain capacity.
• Humans during this period tamed the use of fire
  (about 750,000 years ago) and used simple (mostly
  stone) tools.
• Wearing animal skins enabled humans to live in
  colder climates.

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The Paleolithic Age
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The Paleolithic Age

• It is believed that the first humans left Africa
  about 750,000 years ago.
• Other species such as Homo pekinensis (Peking
  Man) have been found in China and Indonesia and
  date from 600,000-350,000 years ago.

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The Paleolithic Age

• Human remains have been found in Britain that are
  250,000 years old.
• Humans crossed into Australia (via Southeast
  Asia) about 60,000 years ago.

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The Paleolithic Age

• Humans came across the Siberian land bridge into
  North America at least 25-30,000 years ago (maybe
  earlier).

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The Paleolithic Age

• By 25,000 BCE, Homo sapiens sapiens occupied (in
  small numbers) virtually every region of the
  world that is currently inhabited except New
  Zealand, some other Pacific islands, and Bermuda.

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The Paleolithic Age

• This means human history begins at a point when
  the species was widely dispersed.
• Since humans were spread out, and in small
  numbers, environmental conditions caused the
  formation of local cultures and institutions,
  setting the stage for the current regional aspect
  of human identity.

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The Paleolithic Age

• Modern humans (Homo sapiens sapiens) emerged
  between 240-120,000 years ago.
• Today, every human on the planet is of the same
  species
• H. sapiens sapiens.

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The Paleolithic Age

• H. sapiens sapiens coexisted with other human
  species such as Neanderthals (actually a
  subspecies) for many thousands of years.
• We dont know exactly how H. sapiens sapiens
  triumphed over the other species.

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The Paleolithic Age

• Anatomically, modern humans can be characterized
  by the lighter build of their skeletons compared
  to earlier humans.
• Modern humans have very large brains (avg 1300
  cc).
• Housing and protecting this brain involved the
  reorganization of the skull into what is thought
  of as moderna thin-walled, high-vaulted skull,
  with a flat, near vertical forehead.

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The Paleolithic Age

• Modern human faces also show much less (if any)
  of the heavy brow ridges and prognathism of other
  early humans.
• Our jaws are also less heavily developed, with
  smaller teeth.

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The Paleolithic Age

• It is believed that H. sapiens sapiens had less
  of an advantage with brain capacity and more of
  an advantage with running ability.
• Neanderthals were excellent at long-distance,
  slow running which worked when hunting large
  game.
• But H. sapiens sapiens had the advantage with
  smaller, swifter animals.

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The Paleolithic Age

• So archeologists dont know if H. sapiens sapiens
  simply out-competed other species like
  Neanderthals--clubbed them to death (our species
  was very violent from the outset)or intermarried
  with them.
• Some of you may have more Neanderthal DNA in you
  than you realize?

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The Paleolithic Age

• Soon after the emergence of H. sapiens sapiens,
  sociobiologists believe humans developed what has
  become known as the speech gene (actually an
  articulation gene).
• This gene is hidden among 50,000 other genes.

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The Paleolithic Age

• The speech gene greatly facilitated human
  communication (more talking-less grunting) which
  helped lead to organized human societies.
• From this point onward, there have been no major
  evolutionary changes in the human experience.

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The Paleolithic Age

• The human species, even before H. sapiens sapiens
  was a tool-using animal, more adept than other
  species at finding tools for hunting, gathering,
  or for use as weapons.
• During the Mesolithic (12,000-8,000 BCE) and
  Neolithic Eras (8,000-3,000 BCE) tool use became
  increasingly deliberate.

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The Paleolithic Age

• But instead of just finding tools, humans became
  capable of making them, fashioning rocks, wood,
  and bone into better weapons, better tools, and
  even primitive boats.

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The Paleolithic Age

• About 25,000 years ago, Paleolithic peoples began
  miniaturizing their stone tools.
• Known as micro-blades, these smaller and more
  refined spear points, arrowheads, knives, and
  scrapers were often mounted in antler, bone, and
  wooden handles.

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Paleolithic Art

• In February 2012, a cave was discovered in
  northern Spain (called El Castillio) with
  paintings carbon dated to c. 42,000 years ago
  (the oldest known in the world).
• This date coincides with the earliest known Homo
  sapiens in Europe.
• Some archeologists believe the art to be the work
  of Neanderthals, which has caused some
  archeologists to rethink Neanderthal culture.

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Paleolithic Art

• Paintings from El Castillio (northern Spain)

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Paleolithic Art

• El Castillio.

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Paleolithic Art

• In Australia, cave paintings have been found of
  long extinct fauna (dating to over 40,000 years
  ago), making it one of the oldest known
  Paleolithic art sites.

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Paleolithic Art

• Chauvet Cave (southern France), dates to c.
  35,000-30,000 BCE.

• Megaceros (an extinct deer).

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Paleolithic Art

• A Spotted Hyena (believed to be over 20,000 years
  old) at Chauvet.

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Paleolithic Art

• Cave art from the Mousterian Pluvial in Algeria,
  c. 29,000 BCE.

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Paleolithic Art

• Lascaux (France). Pictures go left to right
  telling a story.
• C. 20-15,000 BCE

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Paleolithic Art

• Lascaux (France)

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Paleolithic Art

• Lascaux (France) The Hall of Bulls.

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Paleolithic Art

• Altamira (northern Spain). Discovered in the
  1880s, it was the first discovered example of
  Paleolithic cave art.
• Considered the Sistine Chapel of cave art.
• Horse and Bison c. 15-10,000 BCE

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Paleolithic Art

• Altamira.

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Paleolithic Art

• The Gua Tewet (Tree of Life) in Borneo. Age
  unknown.
• Historians and archeologists do not know exactly
  how Paleolithic people understood the nonmaterial
  world.

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Paleolithic Art

• The prevalence of Venus figurines and other
  symbols throughout Europe has convinced many
  scholars that Paleolithic religious thought had a
  strongly feminine dimension.
• This was embodied in Great Goddess figurines
  and focused most likely on regeneration and
  renewal of life.

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Paleolithic Art

• Venus of Willendorf (Austria) -carved limestone
  about 41/2 high, c. 25,000 BCE. The most famous
  of the Venus figurines.

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Paleolithic Art

• Carved Venus on a cave wall and Venus of Lespugue
  (carved tusk found in southern France)
• C. 25-15,000 BCE

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The Paleolithic Age

• It seems likely that Paleolithic peoples
  developed a cyclical view of time that drew on
  the changing phases of the moon and on the cycles
  of female fertilitybirth, menstruation,
  pregnancy, new birth, and death.
• Such understandings of the cosmos, which saw
  endlessly repeated patterns of regeneration and
  disintegration, were very different than later
  Western views, which saw time as moving in a
  straight line toward some predetermined goal.

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The Paleolithic Age

• Along with the increased use of tools came the
  domestication of certain animals.
• Tool use and animal domestication set the
  framework for the emergence of agriculture.

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The Paleolithic Age

• Initially the dog was domesticated, and before
  the advent of agriculture, in some parts of the
  world it was also the horse.

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The Paleolithic Age

• Recent published research (May 2013) of DNA
  skeletal evidence in Siberia found that dogs may
  have been domesticated twice as long ago as
  previously thought (32,000 years ago).
• People who had dogs during a hunt would likely
  have had an advantage over those who didn't.

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The Paleolithic Age

• Dogs would also have served as a warning system,
  barking at hostile strangers from neighboring
  tribes. They could have defended their humans
  from predators.
• And finally, though this is not a pleasant
  thought, when times were tough, dogs could have
  served as an emergency food supply.

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The Paleolithic Age

• Sheep (Western Asia) 8500 BCE
• Cat (Mesopotamia) 8500 BCE
• Goats (Western Asia) 8000 BCE
• Pigs (Western Asia) 7500 BCE
• Cattle (Eastern Sahara) 7000 BCE
• Chicken (India) 6000 BCE
• Donkey (NE Africa) 4000 BCE
• Horse (Central Asia) 3600 BCE

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The Paleolithic Age

• Approximately 14,000 years ago the last great ice
  age endedthis enabled humans to live in more
  northern climates.
• About 12,000 years ago (roughly 10,000 BCE), it
  is estimated that there were, at most, 5-10
  million people in the world.
• It is a very small number, very widely dispersed,
  but agriculture will be introduced into this
  framework.

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Hunter-Gatherers

• But before agriculture, humans were
  hunter-gatherers (also known as foragers).
• Theories about why humans migrated out of Africa
  include drought and that hunter-gatherer
  societies require as much as 2.5-4 sq miles of
  space per person.
• Even modest population growth would force
  hunter-gatherers to move a little further to seek
  out new space and new hunting grounds.

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Hunter-Gatherers

• A hunter-gatherer society has the fewest social
  divisions.
• Usually (but not always) the men hunt animals and
  the women gather plants (they dont plant, they
  only gather).
• Even though more prestige is given to the men for
  supplying meat, the women gatherers usually
  contribute more food to the group (up to 4/5ths
  of the total).

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Hunter-Gatherers

• Hunter-gatherer groups are always nomadic and
  usually have between 10-25 members (kinship
  based).
• As food supplies dwindle in one area, they move
  on to another.

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Hunter-Gatherers

• Hunter-gatherer societies place a high value on
  sharing food, which is essential for their
  survival.

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Hunter-Gatherers

• Women tend to breast feed their young for 3-5
  years, both for nourishment and to limit their
  ability to conceive more children.
• A hunter-gatherer society cannot afford to have
  too many mouths to feed and too many young
  children are a burden for a society always on the
  move.
• Between nourishment, disease issues, or
  infanticide, children have only a 50/50 chance of
  reaching adulthood.

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Hunter-Gatherers

• According to some anthropologists, 50 of all
  newborn females were killed by their parents
  during the Paleolithic Age.
• Some societies also practiced senilicide.
• The diet of foragers consisted mainly of gathered
  foodsplants, roots, nuts, small animals, and
  insectssupplemented by scavenging or hunting.

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Hunter-Gatherers

• Of all societies, hunter-gatherers are the most
  egalitarian.

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Hunter-Gatherers

• Since what they hunt/gather is perishable, they
  dont accumulate personal possessions (only what
  they can carry).
• Consequently, there is no concept of
  wealth/poverty within the group.
• There are no rulers and decisions are made
  through discussion at the group level.
• There usually is a shaman, an individual thought
  to be able to influence the spirits.

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Hunter-Gatherers

• Since their needs are basic and they dont
  accumulate material possessions, hunter-gatherers
  have the most leisure time of all human groups.

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Hunter-Gatherers

• Modern anthropologists studying the few remaining
  hunter-gatherer societies have concluded their
  lives are not nasty, brutish, and short as was
  thought but instead they tend to be characterized
  by adequate and varied food supplies, high levels
  of health and fitness from a balanced diet and
  frequent exercise, freedom from disease
  epidemics, and as mentioned, there is ample
  leisure time.

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Hunter-Gatherers

• All human groups were once hunter-gatherers.
• Up until a few hundred years ago, these groups
  were still common.
• Today, there are less than 300 hunter-gatherer
  groups worldwide.
• Pygmies in Africa and aborigines in Australia are
  among those whose traditions are vanishing.

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Origins of Patriarchy

• The most accepted theory on the origins of
  patriarchy (a male dominated society) points to
  the social consequences of reproduction and early
  child-rearing.
• To balance the high death rate and maintain the
  population, women had to have many children.
• Between pregnancy, birth, and nursing, women
  spent much of their lives around the camp.

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Origins of Patriarchy

• With a child at her breast or in her uterus, or
  one carried on her hip or on her back, women were
  physically encumbered.
• These encumbrances led to women staying home (at
  camp) and men becoming the hunters of large
  animals.
• Over time, men became dominant as they hunted,
  made contact with other tribes, traded, and waged
  war.

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Origins of Patriarchy

• Men controlled the instruments of death, the
  weapons of war and of the hunt.
• Men gained prestige by killing animals (protein
  source) to feed the tribe, by being victorious in
  battle, and by accumulating (limited) possessions
  through trade.
• Some sociologists believe that some men may have
  risked their lives as warriors to acquire women
  (as prizes).

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Origins of Patriarchy
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Origins of Patriarchy

• Womens roles, on the other hand, were considered
  routine and not risky.

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Origins of Patriarchy

• Since men tended to risk their lives more often
  than women (hunting, battle, etc) they came to
  believe in their own superiority.
• Many male activities became shrouded in secrecy
  and men created elaborate rules and rituals to
  avoid contamination by females.

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Paleolithic Impact on the Planet

• As early human species spread across the planet,
  they entered continents that had no earlier
  hominine colonization, particularly Australia and
  the Americas.
• Humans proved to be highly adaptable and
  technologically proficient by initiating a wave
  of extinctions among the megafaunal (that is,
  large sized animal) inhabitants of these
  continents.

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Paleolithic Impact on the Planet

• Since these megafaunal animals had no previous
  experience with the introduced predators
  (humans), they became relatively easy prey.
• It is estimated that in the Americas nearly 75
  of all animals weighing over 100 lbs disappeared
  after the arrival of humans. In Australia that
  number is closer to 90.

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Paleolithic Impact on the Planet

• The largest species were the most threatened
  because they moved and reproduced very slowly
  the mammoth, woolly rhinoceros, and giant elk
  disappeared in Eurasia the horse, elephant,
  giant armadillo, and sloth vanished in North
  America, and in Australia dozens of large
  marsupials disappeared.

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Paleolithic Impact on the Planet

• Procoptodon, the worlds tallest marsupial.

• The woolly rhinoceros

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The Mesolithic Age

• The Mesolithic Age (Middle Stone Age) went from
  12,000-8,000 BCE.
• Major changes included the ability to shape and
  sharpen stone tools, make needles out of bone,
  etc.
• More animals were domesticated, like cows.
• Pottery and basket-making begin to be developed
  for use as food storage.

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Mesolithic Art (also called Archaic)

• Figure from Central America and bowls from
  Ireland.

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Mesolithic Art

• Early Jewelry (c. 10,000 BCE)

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The Neolithic Revolution

• The advent of the introduction of agriculture and
  animal husbandry (known as the Neolithic
  revolution) is considered by many historians to
  be one of the two key changes in the human
  experiencesince our species emerged.
• The other key change?

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The Neolithic Revolution

• Archeologists and historians believe agriculture
  was invented in at least three separate places
  sometime between 9,000 BCE and 5,000 BCE.
• The first occurrence was in the northern Middle
  East/Black Sea region with the domestication of
  wheat and barley.
• It probably occurred because of changes in the
  animal supply.

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The Neolithic Revolution

• The earliest traces of wheat and barley were
  found in Iraq.

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The Neolithic Revolution

• Women most likely started the Neolithic
  revolution because as gatherers, they were
  probably the ones who noticed if you drop some
  seeds in the ground, a little later something
  else happened.
• Well never know if this happened by accident or
  by design.

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The Neolithic Revolution

• The second invention occurred in southern China
  and continental Southeast Asia around 7,000 BCE
  with the introduction of rice.

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The Neolithic Revolution

• The third clear separate invention was the
  domestication of corn (maize) in Central America
  around 5,000 BCE.
• Traces of the oldest known corn (Teosinte) was
  found under this boulder in Mexico.

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The Neolithic Revolution

• Agriculture may have been invented in other
  places too, like sub-Saharan Africa and northern
  China. We simply dont know.
• But by 5,000 BCE agriculture had gradually spread
  and was becoming the most common economic system
  for the largest number of people in the world.

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The Neolithic Revolution

• Despite the advantages of agriculture over
  hunting and gathering, its widespread adoption
  was slow.
• One reason for this slow spread was that the
  contacts among relatively far-flung populations
  was minimal (it took several thousand years for
  agriculture to disseminate from the Middle East
  to Europe).

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The Neolithic Revolution

• Not all regions were suitable for agriculture
  some were arid (dry) or heavily forested.
• An alternative economic system based on nomadic
  herding of animals (known as pastoral societies)
  prevailed for a long time over agriculture in
  parts of the Middle East, Africa, the Americas,
  and especially Central Asia (some still exist
  today).

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The Neolithic Revolution

• These nomadic pastoral groups found they could
  tame and breed some of the animals they
  huntedgoats, sheep, pigs, cattle, and camels.
• These pastoral societies developed in regions
  where low rainfall made it impractical to build
  life around growing crops.

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The Neolithic Revolution

• They remained nomadic, following their animals to
  fresh pastures.

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The Neolithic Revolution

• Agriculture involves settling down, which might
  not have appealed to some hunting-gathering
  societies that valued their capacity (freedom) to
  move around.
• Agriculture might have been repellant to
  societies where males were accustomed to boasting
  about their hunting exploits.

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The Neolithic Revolution

• When agriculture was introduced, it brought
  massive changes to the human experience.
• First, it changed the nature of work.
  Agriculture involves more work, particularly for
  men, than hunting and gathering.
• It is estimated that hunting/gathering, on
  average, involves about 3 hours of work a day.

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The Neolithic Revolution

• Agriculture, especially in season, requires
  much, much more.
• Agriculture redefined and increased the work
  expectations of human society.
• Agriculture also redefined gender relations. In
  most hunter/gatherer societies, men did the
  hunting and women the gathering. Since both
  groups contributed to the food supply, women had
  some influence in society.

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The Neolithic Revolution

• In agricultural societies, patriarchal systems
  predominated.
• Since men increasingly assumed the role as the
  principle cultivator of crops, they increased
  their dominance over women.
• In all agricultural societies, not only does male
  dominance over women occur, but older males
  dominate younger ones.
• This characteristic of agricultural societies
  still exists in our world today.

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The Neolithic Revolution

• The most obvious reason for the increase in male
  dominance was that agriculture both permitted and
  required an expansion of the birthrate.
• Domestication also benefited the domesticated
  species (plant and animal) as farmers protected
  them from predators and helped them reproduce,
  ensuring their survival (which is why there are
  so many dogs, sheep, and cows and so much wheat,
  rice, and corn).

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The Neolithic Revolution

• More secure food suppliesthats the principle
  advantage of agriculture over hunting/gathering.
• Producing more abundant and more predictable food
  supplies permitted larger numbers of children to
  be born.
• Agricultural societies needed more children to
  work the land.

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The Neolithic Revolution

• Greater food supplies created new patterns of
  child rearing and an increase in the per capita
  birth rate (usually between 5-7 births per
  family).
• In a hunting-gathering society, children have
  relatively few functions until they reach their
  early teen years.

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The Neolithic Revolution

• In agricultural societies, childhood and work
  became closely associated.
• Virtues, such as hard work and obedience, became
  part of the lessons children learned in an
  agricultural society.

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The Neolithic Revolution

• Early farmers faced limitations on the amount of
  food they could produce since there was a
  shortage of laborers (why so many children were
  needed), water, and nutrients (it would take
  thousands of years for people to understand the
  benefits of animal fertilizer).
• So there were three main farming technologies
  early farmers adopted that reflected these
  limitations.

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The Neolithic Revolution

• 1. Horticulture traditional gardening
  techniques (clearing land, tilling then planting
  then harvesting).
• Since human labor provides all the energy, the
  effectiveness of early tools was critical.
• 2. Swidden (slash and burn) weeding out
  excessive trees to allow more sunlight and
  nutrients to reach the ground.
• Trees/vegetation cut, then area burned, then
  plots cultivated.

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The Neolithic Revolution

• 3. Chinampas created by Mesoamerican farmers,
  growing crops on man-made floating fields of
  timber and soil, anchored in the middle of lakes.

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The Neolithic Revolution

• The advent of agriculture raises some interesting
  questions about human progress.
• First, a major drawback was the introduction of
  new inequalities between men and women.
• A second drawback was that agriculture allowed
  people to settle in clustered communities, which
  exposed inhabitants to periodic epidemic
  diseases.

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The Neolithic Revolution

• A third drawback was that agricultural societies
  altered the local environment in a way that
  hunter/gatherer societies did not.
• Some regional environments were damaged, even
  destroyed, by agricultural communities (which we
  will see later).
• But agriculture clearly had advantages, which was
  why it spread (albeit very slowly).

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The Neolithic Revolution

• Where Agriculture Began (BCE)
• Southwest Asia (Fertile Crescent) 9000
• Egypt and the Sudan (Nile Valley) 8000
• China (Yangtze and Huang He valleys) 7000
• Australasia (New Guinea Highlands) 7000-4000
• Sub-Saharan Africa 3000-2000
• Mesoamerica (Central Mexico) 3000-2000
• South America (Andes and Amazonia) 3000-2000
• Indus valley 2500-2200
• North America (Mississippi valley) 2000-1000

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The Neolithic Revolution

• One of its advantages was that it produced
  products that could be fermented and turned into
  alcohol.
• Some historians believe this is one of the
  reasons why men gave up hunting to adopt
  agriculture.
• Clay, southern Iraq, 3100 BCE (3x4).

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The Neolithic Revolution

• One of the first things agricultural societies
  did when they developed writing was to write down
  recipes for the fermentation of wheat, barley,
  grapes, etc.

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The Neolithic Revolution

• More systematically, agriculture significantly
  increased food supplies.
• This in turn allowed families to have more
  children and resulted in population expansion.
• These conditions prevailed in much of the world
  from about 9,000 BCE until about 300 years ago.

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The Neolithic Revolution

• But agricultural economies were constrained by
  limitations in the amount of food that a worker
  could generate.
• Even the most advanced agricultural economies
  required about 80 of the population to be
  involved in agriculture.

101
The Neolithic Revolution

• This limited the size of cities to be no more
  than 20 of the population (most were less) and
  limited the amount of taxation that could be
  levied.
• More taxes ?
• Only within the last century did Russias
  agricultural society have an urban level that was
  more than 10 of the population.

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The Neolithic Revolution

• Agricultural societies also generated cultural
  emphases, especially by encouraging attention to
  the spring season (and the divine forces
  responsible for creation and renewal).

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The Neolithic Revolution

• The crucial features of agriculture were its role
  in population increase and its capacity to
  generate food surpluses.
• This freed some people to do other things, like
  manufacture containers (pottery) that could hold
  food or seed from one season to the next.

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The Neolithic Revolution

• One of the first areas where agricultural
  societies generated technological advancement was
  in the area of pottery making (needed to maintain
  an agricultural economy) and metal working.

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The Neolithic Revolution-Art

• Rock panel in Scotland (3,000 BCE)

• Megalithic tomb in Ireland

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The Neolithic Revolution

• The worlds oldest known city is Jericho, located
  in todays West Bank (Palestine) and dated to
  about 9,000 BCE.
• The city was surrounded by springs near the Dead
  Sea.

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The Neolithic Revolution

• Jerichos famous walls.

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The Neolithic Revolution

• The second oldest known was a famous Neolithic
  village in southern Turkey Catal Huyuk.
• The map at right was drawn in the 6th millennium
  BCE.

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The Neolithic Revolution

• Catal Huyuk was a thriving village between 7,000
  3,000 BCE.
• Artwork found there includes the worlds oldest
  known murals on human built structures.

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The Neolithic Revolution

• Artifacts from Catal Huyuk.