Human Migration Timeline

Australopithecus

200,000 BCE

Around 4 million years ago. Started in South Central Africa which is now present day Ethiopia. They were only 3 meters tall and lived in the trees. They were the start of our evolutionary change. They walked on two legs but had small brains. They had teeth similar to apes.

Homo habilis

200,000 BCE

Existed around 2.5 to 1.6 million years ago. They were much more advanced then the Australopithecus society as they started making tools out of stone to help them live. These tools consisted of sharp stones and even some spears that helped them hunt. During this time period they started to hunt animals using the tools they constructed.

Use of fire

200,000 BCE

Fire was first used around 500,000 years ago by Homo erectus people.The use of fire was a great impact on the lives of the early people.They used it for many things such as to stay warm, keep animals away, and cook meat.The creation of a controlled fire was life changing to the homo eructus people for many generations to come.They came across fire when it was wild and then gradually learned to make one themselves with forms of friction like sparking stone together or the friction between sticks.

Use of spears

200,000 BCE

Spears were first used around 460,000 years ago. It was first used by sharpening a stick until humans eventually learned to use stones where a sharp stone was tied into the end of a stick. A spear was one of the first inventions discovered by man in an attempt to chase down prey in order to kill it and use it for food, clothing, etc. spears were he first way to get food other than wild berries and grains. Spears opened up a whole new world. They allowed humans to start hunting for more food.

Out of Africa theory

200,000 BCE

Around 200,000 years ago humans started in Africa. This is the opposite of the multi regional model theory. This theory states that humans all started in central Africa and united animals and stayed their to live. But as humans started to evolve they began to kill more animals and develop easier more effective ways to hunt. This then forced them to find more animals and resources so they had to move. As they started to run out of resources they had to migrate and follow new resources to live.

Human Migration

Period: 200,000 BCE to 5000 BCE

Evolutionary events
1)Australopithecus
2) homo habilis
3)Neanderthals
4)homo sapiens sapiens Migration events
1)ice age
2)mount toba
3) out of Africa theory
4) Bering straight Tools
1) use of fire
2) use of spears
3) bone needles Neolithic evolution
1) herding
2) city of Jericho
3)agricultural

Homo sapiens sapiens

150,000 BCE

They lived around 150 to 200 thousand years ago.They replaced Neanderthals eventually and slowly spread over the region out of Africa.Slowly they moved in an effort to follow food and new hunting grounds.They only moved as needed so it took thousands and thousands of years to migrate throughout the world.Throughout time they evolved and got smarter.They specialized new tools and began to settle down constructing houses and making villages and towns.They then began to specialize plants and farm.

Neanderthals

100,000 BCE

Lived between 30,000 and 100,000 b.c.. they were prominently from from Europe and Central Asia as many of their remains were found there. They also used many stone tools but also made clothing from animal skins. They were very good at using all parts of the animals they killed. Neanderthals were adapted to living in the cold harsh environments. They stayed in one place and sophisticated their tools as well as started to control fire. The controlling of fire allowed many opportunities for them.

Ice age

100,000 BCE

During the ice age large parts of ice covered large parts of Europe,Asia,and North America.Eventually this allowed the migration over land bridges.This made humans have to adapt and evolve but was a large threat to human.While sheets of ice started to form and head south towards the equator humans had to adapt.Many animals were dying because they were unable to evolve to the harsh conditions.So humans searched animals who thrived in cold.Humans were forced to adapt using new inventions like fire

Mount Toba catastrophe

75,000 BCE

A super volcanic eruption in South-Eastern Asia that drove the world into a volcanic winter for 6-10 years. This volcanic ash covered the earth in ash leading to the death of food sources including plants and other hunting animals. With this limited amount of resources humans were forced to migrate in search for food. This lead to the discovery of new land outside of Africa because of the movement.

Bone needles

60,000 BCE

Around 62,000 years ago humans were known to turn bones from other animals into needles. This was a very important invention as humans were able to then migrate and follow animals into colder environments. They used the bone needles to sew pieces of animal skins together to make clothing and keep warm. The bone needles could also be made to make tents, bags, and anything they needed.Humans were then able to continue to follow animals into the colder regions and were still able to survive easily.

Bering strait

11,000 BCE

It is possible for people to have entered North America from Asia between 40,000 and 13,000 years ago. During the ice age a 55 mile long piece of land connected Asia with the peninsula of Alaska. Since much of the world was freezing up and being covered in glaciers the sea levels dropped nearly 300 feet which provided a long connector of land masses. This allowed many people to migrate into the continent of North America and start to grow the population there. They found plenty of new resources.

Agriculture

10,000 BCE

Around 12,000 years ago humans began to learn the ways of agriculture. They grew food like rice, maize, wheat, barley, peas, rice, and some seedless fruit. The progression of agriculture greatly improved the lives of early humans as they began to settle down and migrate less. This allowed humans to build cities and focus on other things then finding food. Growing agriculture was much easier than finding animals and hunting them down. At this point in time the earth as warm enough to grow crops.

Herding

8000 BCE

During the Neolithic time period around 10,000 years ago the practice of caring for roaming groups of livestock over a large area began.They could have reliable sources of meat, milk and milk products, and hides for tents and clothing.Instead of killing the animals and using the product shortly they started to herd animals so that they could settle down and stay in one place at a time.They could then take sheep and use the wool for clothing and get milk from them.They did this with many animals.

City of Jericho

7000 BCE

The city of Jericho has been carbon-dated to about 9000 BCE. This city was one of the first established settlements with about 2 to 3 thousand people. This city was great for the people living there. They were safe with a big wall surrounding them and they used agriculture as a main source of food. Since the city had been built permanently this allowed much time for advancement in human life including inventions, art, and new ideas. People made families and built houses. This still exists today.