Migration and Human Development

Australopithecus

200,000 BCE

Existed 4.5 million years ago. They were the first hominids. They were located in central Africa (present day Ethiopia). They lived in the trees and were animal like. They ate mostly fruits, berries and nuts. They are the start of the evolutionary chain.

Homo Habilis

200,000 BCE

2.5 million years ago. “Able human” They had a larger brain and a smaller face and teeth. Their larger brains allowed for more learning and possibly communication. They were the first hominids to make stone tools. Located in central Africa (present day Ethiopia). Ate leaves, woody plants and animal tissue.

Homo Erectus

200,000 BCE

1.8 million years ago. “Standing human” They were the first hominids to stand up. They moved outside of Africa. Were the first to have human like proportions. Longest living early human species. There was an increase in their body size compared to their predecessors.

Homo Sapiens

200,000 BCE

200,000 years ago. Dispatched all other human like organisms. There were two types: Neanderthals and Homo Sapiens Sapiens. The Homo sapiens Sapiens survives due to collective learning and language. They evolved during a dramatic climate change.

Fire

200,000 BCE

(Tools) It is unclear when fire was first tamed by humans but it was somewhere between 1.5 million- 230,000 years ago. This was essential to humans survival. It allowed them to cook food, ward off predators and survive in harsh cold climates. It also has social aspects because people would gather around the same fire and stay up later. In the beginning fires were made out of charred animal bones and plant remains.

Hammerstone

200,000 BCE

(Tools) About 3 million years ago. This was one of the first tools used. In fact it’s so ancient our chimp relatives used it before us. They were flat and sharp rocks. It wasn’t until about 2.5 million years ago they used them to kill animal carcasses. They were useful for their time because they were better than using their hands, but were later replaced by spears and bows and arrows because they couldn’t kill from a long distance.

Mount Toba Eruption

70,000 BCE

(Migration) 74,000 years ago. Mount Toba erupted which caused about 670 cubic miles to be destroyed by ash and lava. It also sent the world into a severe Ice Age. This nearly cause the extinction of humans. Many humans had to migrate to areas with warmer weather and away from the destructed land. They also had to make adaptations to their new surroundings. Like wearing warmer clothing and finding warmer places to sleep.

Out of Africa Theory

65,000 BCE

(Migration) The out of Africa theory is that all humans originally came from Africa and moved out of there. According to it we left Africa around 2 million years ago. This challenged the multi regional theory that says we came from different places and all ended up with the same body structures. The out of Africa theory is important because it explains why we have the same basic structure but the little differences came from adaptations based on our environments once we left.

Beringia Land Bridge

12,600 BCE

(Migration) 20,000 years ago. Connected Asia to the Americas. Allowed migration of people between Asia and the Americas. Began to disappear beneath the sea around 13,000 years ago. Theories that first Americans lived on the land bridge for thousands of years. This was important because without the land bridge we most likely wouldn’t have made it over to the Americas until much later because they didn’t have the technology to travel overseas.

Domestication in the Zagros Mountain

9000 BCE

(Neolithic) Wild sheep and goats were domesticated in the Zagros Mountain. This was hypothesized to be the first domestication of these types of animals. It was important to the society because sheep could be used for a number of things like making clothes. It also effected migration patterns because the people would have to move where there was grass for their herds to eat.

Pottery

6000 BCE

(Neolithic) 18,000 years ago. During the Neolithic revolution we see the first use of pottery. Along with being art they were very useful people traded them and used them for food preparation and storage. This was important later on because the symbols and patterns they painted on the pottery told us a lot about their way of life even though they are scarcely found.

Irrigation

6000 BCE

(Neolithic) Irrigation was first seen in Mesopotamia and Egypt. They used water from the Nile and Tigris/Euphrates rivers to water their crops. This system was useful for civilizations that didn’t get a lot of rainfall. Their system was to divert floodwater in the fields for 40-60 days then drain it back into the river. This was important to the Neolithic revolution because it changed the way they farmed making it easier and faster. As time went on irrigation systems got more advanced.

The Plow

4500 BCE

(Tools) It was invented in the Middle East during the Neolithic revolution. The plow was used to farm. It is used to break up soil, bury crop residue and help control weeds. It was important because it made farming easier and quicker since they no longer had to dig holes with their hands. In the beginning the plows were pulled by humans but later they were pulled by animals making it even easier and faster. This helped with the creation of cities because it helped set the foundations of farming.

Ice Age

3300 BCE

(Migration) 2.6 million years ago. Ice and glaciers covered all of the Earth. Ocean levels were low. Some theories contain a land bridge connecting current day North America to present day Europe. Climate was much colder and drier than present day. People began to make their own clothes to stay warm and caves were used as shelters. This was important because people were forced to migrate to better conditions and they had to adapt to their new environments.