Ancient Civilizations

Australopithecus

200,000 BCE

Existed 4.5 million years ago.
Was the 1st Hominid.
Located in Central Africa or present day Ethiopia.
Lived in the trees and were animal-like.
They ate fruits, berries, and nuts.
They didn't have very man special qualities.
They are important because it is the start of the evolutionary chain.

Homo Habilis

200,000 BCE

2.5 million years ago.
Means abled human.
They were the first ones to actually use and make stone tools. Teardrop shaped hand axes.
Allowed them to hunt and process things.
Important because it's the next step in our evolutionary chain and was a huge step in learning and communication.

Homo Erectus

200,000 BCE

Existed 1.8 million years ago.
Translates to Upright Man.
Located in Africa mainly Northern, Eastern, and Southern.
The appearance of Homo erectus in the fossil record is often associated with the earliest handaxes, the first major innovation in stone tool technology.

Homo Sapiens

200,000 BCE

Existed 200,000 years ago.
Displace all other forms of “human-like” organisms
Evolved in Africa
They gathered and hunted food, and evolved behaviors that helped them respond to the challenges of survival in unstable environments.
Translates to wise man

Spears

200,000 BCE

From 200,000 BC onwards, Middle Paleolithic humans began to make complex stone blades with flaked edges which were used as spearheads. These stone heads could be fixed to the spear shaft by gum or resin or by bindings. During this period, a difference remained between spears designed to be thrown and those designed to be used in hand-to-hand combat. This impacted them by being able to hunt from a further distance and ultimately making it easier to kill for food.

Fire

200,000 BCE

Fire provided a source of warmth, protection, an improvement on hunting and a way to cook food. (Wikipedia) These advancements allowed for human geographic dispersal, cultural changes, and changes to diet and behavior. Creating fire also allowed the expansion of human activity to proceed into the dark and colder hours of the evening. This impacted civilizations by giving them a source of light in the dark and able to cook food.

Mount Toba Catastrophe

75,000 BCE

Happened in Southern Asia
Led to the expulsion of ash and a volcanic winter. It spewed thousands of tons of ash into the atmosphere, enough to create a decade-long volcanic winter, leading to massive die-offs of vegetation and the end of some species. That was followed by up to one thousand years of cooler than normal temperatures. This impacted civilizations by making them adapt to the cold and having to adapt to new die-offs happening.

Out of Africa Theory

65,000 BCE

There were at least several "out-of-Africa" dispersals of modern humans, possibly beginning as early as 270,000 years ago, and during 130,000 to 115,000 ago in northern Africa. These early waves appear to have mostly died out or left by 80,000 years ago.
Spread throughout Eurasia over thousands of years. (Wikipedia)

Bow and Arrow

64,000 BCE

Used to make hunting easier from a distance. The bow and arrow appear around the transition from the Upper Paleolithic to the Mesolithic. After the end of the last glacial period, use of the bow seems to have spread to every inhabited region, except for Australasia and most of Oceania. The makeup of a bow is a pair of curved elastic limbs, made from wood, joined by a riser. Both ends of the limbs are connected by a string. By pulling the string backward the arrow is able to launch.

Land Bridge

13,000 BCE

About 15,000 years ago, giant glaciers still locked up much of the Earth's waters, sinking sea levels so that a massive land bridge the size of Poland, called Beringia, connected the eastern tip of Russia to Alaska across what is now a 95km-wide stretch of sea called the Bering Strait. In those days people could cross by foot from Asia to North America, a land that had until then probably been free from human habitation.

Agriculture Revolution

10,000 BCE

Also known as the Neolithic Revolution. Marked the transition in human history from small nomadic bands of hunter-gatherers to larger, agricultural settlements and early civilization. The Neolithic Revolution started around 10,000 B.C. in the Fertile Crescent, a boomerang-shaped region of the Middle East where humans first took up farming. Civilizations and cities grew out of the innovations of the Neolithic Revolution. Diseases spread quickly because of the animals. People started farming.

Early Humans Follow Coastlines

8000 BCE

When leaving Africa, human groups followed coastal routes to the Americas and South-East Asia.
Followed the coastline because it was easier to find resources.
One example of a resource is seafood which they were able to get with their invention of spears. Eating seafood was an easy source of food.

Fish Hooks

7000 BCE

The fish hook or similar device has been made by man for many thousands of years. The world's oldest fish hooks (they were made from sea snails shells) were discovered in Sakitari Cave in Okinawa Island dated between 22,380 and 22,770 years old. They were first made by homo sapiens for an easier way to gather food.