Big Era Two
Human Beings Almost Everywhere
200,000 – 10,000 BCE
1
Remember Big Era One?
First, can you
remember what
happened in Big Era
One?
Imagine that your friend got
stuck at the beginning of Big
Era One, but you’ve made it to
the end!
You feel sorry for her, because
you got to see so much. Write
her a LETTER telling her what
happened in Big Era One.
2
What happened in
Big Era One?
Dear __________,
•
The Universe popped up 13 billion
years ago. (That’s where you are,
right?)
•
Stars and Galaxies popped up from
about 12 billion years ago.
•
Our Sun and Earth popped up about
4.6 billion years ago.
•
Life popped up on Earth about 3.8
billion years ago.
3
What else happened in
Big Era One?
Dear __________,
•
Complicated life-forms showed up
after about 600 million years.
•
Some organisms got onto the land
from about 400 million years ago.
•
Dinosaurs ruled the earth until
about 67 million years ago.
•
Then our hominid ancestors
showed up.
4
When did we appear?
Big Era Two is the first era
in which there were
human beings, people like
you and me (ME?)
(Remember, they
appeared at the end of
Big Era One!) So, what
IS so special about
humans?
5
How, when, and
where did we become
human?
• Meet one of our close
ancestors, Homo erectus.
• Homo erectus was one of the
hominid groups that was
developing increasingly large
brains in both Africa and Asia
between about 500,000 and
200,000 years ago.
This is a reconstructed Homo erectus
skull, found in northern China. It dates to
some time after 1.6 million years ago.
Big
Eras
3-9
Brain
Development
Homo
erectus
Big Era
1
1.8 mil.
yrs ago
Big Era 2
500k –250k
200kyrs
yrs ago
ago
27k
10k
Today
6
Homo erectus was a traveler!
Homo erectus
began migrating
to southerly parts
of Eurasia
sometime after
about 1.8 million
years ago.
Big
Eras
3-9
Big Era
Homo
1
erectus
1.8 mil.
yrs ago
Big Era 2
200k yrs ago
27k
10k
Today
7
Homo sapiens
(that’s us!) evolved
from Homo erectus
• By 200,000 years ago, people
whose skeletons were like
those of Homo sapiens were
already living in Africa.
• Between that time and about
100,000 years ago, people who
were both anatomically and
genetically “like us” emerged
in eastern and southern Africa.
Human Origins: Homo sapiens in Africa
S.W. Asia
Big
Eras
3-9
200k yrs ago
100k yrs ago
Today
Big Era 2
10k years
ago
Big Era 1
This is a reconstructed Homo sapiens
skull, found in Israel. It has been dated to
about 90,000 years ago.
8
Homo sapiens traveled
even further than Homo
erectus. From their African
homeland, Homo sapiens
groups migrated to…
…Where?
See the Map!
9
Migrations of Homo sapiens
Europe
40,000 years ago
Siberia
40,000 years ago
North America
12,000-30,000
years ago
Oceania
1600 B.C.E.-500 C.E.
Southwest Asia
100,000 years ago
Human Origins
200,000-250,000
years ago
Australia
as many as 60,000
years ago
Chile
12,000-13 ,000
years ago
Possible coastal routes of human migration
Possible landward routes of human migration
Migrations in Oceania
10
S.W. Asia
Australia
Europe & Siberia
Americas
100k yrs ago
60k yrs ago
40k yrs ago
13k yrs ago
After all, no other
large animals had
spread so widely! So
what was so special
about us?
Big
Eras
3-9
Today
10k years ago
Big Era 2
200k yrs ago
Big Era 1
Human Origins
That’s amazing!
Why were modern humans
able to move into so many
different environments?
11
Language!
• Homo sapiens had language
– so they could exchange complex ideas with each
other.
– and they could store and add to the ideas of
previous generations.
• Because they swapped ideas, they kept finding
– new ways of doing things.
– new ways of living.
Language
New
Ideas
Shared
Ideas
Learning
12
Language made
collective learning possible.
• The stores of
knowledge and skills
humans built up are
called “culture.”
• No other animal can
store and accumulate
knowledge and skills in
this way.
It is what
human history
is about!
It is what
makes us
special!
• We call this ability
“collective learning.”
13
Storing up and building on
new skills and new
knowledge is what set our
species on the path of
continuing cultural
changes that led to the
world we now live in.
Great Zimbabwe, Southern Africa, 1300-1500 CE
Towers, Kuwait City, Today
Monte Alban, Oaxaca, Mexico, 200 BCE
14
How did collective learning change
human culture?
At first, changes in
technology were very
slow.
After about 100,000
years ago, the pace of
change began to
increase.
Evidence appears from
about that time of
humans living in east,
central, and southern
Africa. They were:
•
•
For example,
Blombos Cave
Making more advanced and varied tools.
Experimenting with body decoration and abstract
symbols.
15
Remains discovered at Blombos
Cave are one example of the
more complex culture some
humans were developing as
many as 90,000 years ago.
View looking
out of Blombos
Cave to the
Indian Ocean
The people who lived in this
seaside camp:
•
Made sharp stone spear
points using methods that
appeared in Eurasia only
50,000 or more years later.
•
Made objects from bone, the
earliest use of this material
known.
•
Scored bits of bone and
ochre with marks that may
have had symbolic meaning.
Bone points
from the cave
Ochre piece with scrape
marks. A person may have
scraped the ochre to
get powder to use to make
body paint.
16
Acceleration!
From about 40,000 years
ago, archaeological
evidence shows faster and
faster cultural change and
increasing complexity.
The engraved horse
panel in the Cave of
Chauvet-Pont-D’Arc
in southern France.
The image is about
31,000 years old.
Humans began to:
• Create both naturalistic
and abstract art.
• Make more specialized
tools.
Venus of the Kostenki I site in
Russia dated to about 23,000
years ago. This stone female
head is wearing headgear of
woven basketry.
• Weave and knot fiber.
• Decorate clothing.
• Make jewelry.
• Build semi-permanent
structures.
17
Were other
surviving hominids
changing in the
same way as Homo
sapiens?
•
By the time humans appeared, our
closest living relatives were
probably the hominids known as
“Neandertals” (or, “Neanderthals”).
•
When Homo sapiens groups arrived
in western Asia and Europe,
Neandertals were already there. By
100,000 years ago Neandertals
were living from Spain to Inner
Eurasia.
•
They had a long record of living
successfully in both warm and cold
environments. But they
disappeared from the record about
28,000 years ago.
18
Did Homo sapiens meet Neandertals?
Approximate geographical range of Neandertals, 100,000-28,000 years ago
Approximate geographical range of Homo sapiens by 28,000 years ago
19
Did Homo
Sapiens
meet Homo
Erectus?
•
Members of the two
species may have met in
Southeast Asia.
•
The last physical traces
of Homo erectus, dating
to about 28,000 years
ago, were discovered in
Java. By that time Homo
sapiens was already
living in that region.
Range of last surviving Homo erectus
20
What do you think might
have happened when Homo
sapiens met Neandertals or
Homo erectus?
Would they have:
• Learned from each
other?
• Fought?
• Traded?
• Eaten each other?
• Mated?
21
Homo sapiens and other species
•
We’re not sure what might
have happened if Homo
sapiens met Neandertals or
Homo erectus, but we do
know that these two hominid
species died out.
•
And so did many other large
animals, called megafauna,
which once roamed the
earth.
•
What might these extinctions
tell us about our own
species?
22
Before you answer that
question, let’s review …
What happened in Big Era Two?
• Humans appeared, and they started
TALKING!
• Therefore, they could share new
ideas and build up a store of ideas –
what we call “culture.”
• They learned to live in many
different environments.
• And they migrated to all the world’s
major landmasses and many of its
islands, big and small.
23
So what do you
think is so
special about
Homo sapiens?
Why does
human
history
matter?
What does
it mean to
be human?
Stay tuned
for Big Era
Three!
24
End of Big Era Two
25