Migration and Human development

Australopithecus

200,000 BCE

Existed 4.5 million years ago. First hominid. Located in present south central Africa. Lived in the tree, animal like, ate nuts, fruits, and maybe a little meat.

Homo Habilis

200,000 BCE

Existed 2.5 million years ago, name means able human, they were the first to use stone tools, they created the teardrop shaped axes, which allowed them to hunt and process things, next step in our evolutionary chain, they had large brains which lead to a better knowledge.

Homo Erectus

200,000 BCE

Lived 1.8 million years ago, they stood upright, out of Africa, they had proportional bodies, they were the oldest know early humans to have possessed modern human like body proportions with longer legs and shorter arms compared to size of the torso. These features are considered adaptions to a life lived on the ground, indicating the loss of ealier tree climbing adaptations, with the ability to walk and maybe very run long distances

Homo Sapien

200,000 BCE

Existed 200,00 years ago. Displace all other forms of “human like” organisms. Like other early humans that were living at this time, they gathered and hunted food, and evolved behaviors that helped them respond to the challenges of survival in difficult environments.

The Ice Age

200,000 BCE

Began about 2.6 million years ago and lasted until about 11,700 years ago. During peak periods with most of the water frozen, global average temperatures were 5 to 10 degrees C below today’s temperature norms. Created a land bridge that connected Asia and North America over 13,000 years ago. People crossed this land bridge and eventually migrated into North and South America.

Teardrop Axe

200,000 BCE

The teardrop-shaped hand-axes date to about 1.76 million years ago and would have been used for a range of tasks from chopping wood to cutting up meat.

Spears

200,000 BCE

Created about 500,000 BC – 8,000 BC. Spears are one of humankind’s earliest weapons and they were very useful weapons for hundreds of thousands of years. Used to kill big and small game for the early civilizations. Provided protection to the early people as an easy weapon that is always available to be used. Being able to kill animals gives the civilizations another source of food to eat. Having the more food and time they had let them trade food with others.

Out of Africa

200,000 BCE

Major climate changes were happening around 200,000 B.C.E. and it was a sudden cooling in the Earth’s climate which was one of the worst parts of the last Ice Age. This cold snap would have made life difficult for our African ancestors. The human population likely dropped to fewer than 10,000. This climate change was a reason for the people to migrate out of Africa.

The Supervolcano

74,000 BCE

The supervolcano, Toba, erupted 74,000 years ago. It was a volcanic eruption more powerful than any in Earth’s modern history. There was so much ash, dust and vapor in the air, it dimmed the sun for six years. The volcano messed up seasonal rains, choked off streams and scattered miles of hot ash across acres and acres of plants. Berries, fruits, trees, African game became scarce, causing the early civilizations to move to out of Africa. Which led to the population of the world to increase.

Canoes

53,000 BCE

53,000 BCE. Some of the earliest people built rafts made of sticks to move hundredsof miles from Southeast Asia to Australia. The canoes made of hollowed out tree trunks were used to carry people down rivers as another way of transportation. 4,000 BCE a Middle Eastern civilization made a long wooden row boats to sail the Mediterranean Sea. Which allowed them to move out the population would increase because there wouldn’t be other civilizations in the new ground that would cause competition.

Move to Australia

48,000 BCE

About 50,000 years ago. Humans moved in northern Australia, on a boat or raft. The trip was planned because enough men and women arrived to found a new population there. Guided by rivers, the group started to move deeper inland. They found giant mammals, birds, and reptiles for hunting. No other humans were there to challenge them. The near by ocean also was another major food supply for the people.

Agriculture

10,000 BCE

10,000 B.C. This marked the transition in human history from small nomadic bands of hunter-gatherers to larger, agricultural settlements and early civilizations. The Neolithic Revolution started and with climate changes at the end of the last ice age, there were seasonal climates and now there were seasonal plants. More plants gives them a bigger variety of food to eat and with them staying in one area they can mass produce food, having the more food allowed them to trade with other nations.

The Sedentary Life

8000 BCE

The sedentary life was between 8000 BCE - 4000 BCE. Because all the plants and animals they needed were in one area the people started to stay in one spot and learn more about the things they did on a daily basis. The population increased quickly and started to become a real civilization.

Neolithic Villages

8000 BCE

Created about 8,000 B.C. Stone tools were made by polishing or grinding. They started to settle in villages, permanently and also began crafts like pottery and weaving. Humans were no longer dependent on hunting, fishing, and gathering. Neolithic people built permanent dwellings and congregate in villages. Because they didn’t follow the animals and move from place to place they now had time to create crafts.