CHW3M1 history of the world in 100 objects timeline

2 million years ago - Olduvai stone chopping tool

2000 BCE

This chopping tool could be used for many purposes including chopping bones, plants and wood. By using a stone hammer to knock flakes off of a pebble our ancestors could make a tool with a sharp, functional edge. The ability to make tools allowed humans to adapt to new environments and out-compete other animals. Gradually it would lead to humans becoming the most successful animal in the world. All modern technology began with these first chopping tools.

1.6 million years ago - Olduvai Hand axe

1600 BCE

This handaxe represents a tradition of tool-making which began about 1.6 million years ago, produced with great skill by ancestors we would recognize as becoming human.
The makers of hand axes are the first humans to spread across Africa into Central Asia, the Middle East, Europe and Asia. Handaxes reflect the first great spread of humankind and the establishment of a way of life in which we recognize the beginnings of our human characteristics.

13,000 years ago - Swimming reindeer

13 BCE

This sculpture of two swimming reindeer is one of the oldest works of art. It was carved from the tip of a mammoth tusk and made during the last Ice Age. Such works of art could be carried around, bringing images into the daylight.
The artist has depicted a reindeer. Showing the reindeer swimming may suggest migration or a moment when the animals were easy prey for their human hunters. Was this sculpture a charm to guarantee a successful hunt at the start of a bitterly cold Ice Age winter?

13,000 years ago - Clovis spear point

13 BCE

The first clear evidence of human activity in North America are spear heads like this. They are called Clovis points. These spear tips were used to hunt large game. The period of the Clovis people coincides with the extinction of mammoths, giant sloth, camels and giant bison in North America. North America was one of the last continents in the world to be settled by humans after about 15,000 BC. The early Americans were highly adaptable and Clovis points have been found throughout North America.

11,000 years ago - Ain Sakri lovers figurine

11 BCE

This is the oldest known representation of a couple making love in the world. It was found in a cave in the Judean desert. The pebble depicts a couple face to face. One person has wrapped their arms around the shoulders of their lover in an embrace.
The people who made the figurine are known as Natufians and are among the first people to domesticate sheep and goats. Was this work of art used for rituals focused on fertility or is it simply a reflection on human love?

7,000 years ago - bird shaped pestle

7 BCE

This bird-shaped pestle was used in Papua New Guinea, probably to grind the vegetable taro in a mortar. New Guinea was one of seven locations where farming independently developed after the last Ice Age. The pestle's long neck meant it was too delicate to be used often and its bird-shape suggests it may have been used for pounding food on special occasions. Farming created an abundant food supply that for the first time could support large groups, This led to the creation of the first villages.

5000 B.C. - Egyptian model of cattle

5 BCE

This clay model of four cows was made in Egypt over 5000 years ago, and It was placed in a grave. Cows were revered in Egypt as a source of life in the harsh desert landscape and whole cows were buried with people. Later they were worshipped as the cow goddess Bat. After the Ice Age, the climate became drier & people became restricted to the Nile valley, where they used cows for food and as beasts of burden to haul water. all cattle across the World are descendents of these Middle Eastern cows