I. Pre-Paleolithic Period (6 mil-2.5 mil)  [NOTE: new biochemical evidence indicates that the last common ancestor of hominids and apes occurred between 5 and 10 million years ago, probably closer to 5, so I arbitrarily chose 6 mil] "Historians rely mostly on documents to create their pictures of the past, but no written records exist for the prehistory of humankind.  In their absence, the story of early humanity depends upon archaeological and, more recently, biological information, which anthropologists and archaeologists use to formulate theories about our early past.
            "Although modern science has given us more precise methods for examining prehistory, much of our understanding of early humans still relies upon considerable conjecture.  Given the rate of new discoveries, the following account of the current theory of early human life might well be changed in a few years.  As a great British archaeologist Louis Leakey reminded us years ago:  `Theories on prehistory and early man constantly change as new evidence comes to light'" (Spiel.5th ed.2).
            All apes, including humans, converge to a common ancestor who lived about 18 million years ago.  "Studies in genetics, biochemistry, and anatomy suggest that the chimpanzee is our closest living relative.  At the genetic level, we are at least 98 percent identical, from which it is estimated that our evolutionary lines must have separated from a common ancestral stock somewhere between 5.5 and 8 million years ago" (Haviland 66).  Molecular biology and genetics have opened a window to our past evolution so that, "We don't need fossils to peer back into history.  Because DNA changes very slowly through the generations, history is woven into the fabric of modern animals and plants, and inscribed in its coded characters" (Dawkins TAT 20).  [Note on the unity of life:  "Humans and bacteria have DNA sequences which are so similar that whole paragraphs are word-for-word identical" (Dawkins TAT 24).
            A crucial development occurred when apes became differentiated into tree-dwelling and ground-dwelling apes (hominids.  By 4.4 mil years ago bipedalism appeared.  Recently an ancestor of Lucy that dates from 4.4 mya was announced, Ardipithecus ramidus (Ar. ramidus); i.e., archaeologists have found a hominid that predates Lucy by a million years!  "Ardi" is not chimp-like, and is bipedal like humans.  "Ardi stood 47 in. (120 cm) tall and weighed about 110 lb. (50 kg), making her roughly twice as heavy as Lucy. The structure of Ardi's upper pelvis, leg bones and feet indicates she walked upright on the ground, while still retaining the ability to climb. Her foot had an opposable big toe for grasping tree limbs but lacked the flexibility that apes use to grab and scale tree trunks and vines ("Gorilla and chimp feet are almost like hands," says Lovejoy), nor did it have the arch that allowed Australopithecus and Homo to walk without lurching side to side. Ardi had a dexterous hand, more maneuverable than a chimp's, that made her better at catching things on the ground and carrying things while walking on two legs. Her wrist, hand and shoulder bones show that she wasn't a knuckle walker and didn't spend much time hanging or swinging ape-style in trees. Rather, she moved along branches using a primitive method of palm-walking typical of extinct apes" (Time.com, Oct. 1, 2009).  "Ardi, who was discovered in 1992, lived in a 'woodland with small patches of forest,' a discovery that downplays the importance of open grassland to human evolution" (New York Times October 9,2009).
     In the 1970s archaeologists had found an example of one of the earliest known hominids, Australopithecus ("Southern Apes"), in the form of a female who has been named "Lucy.  She was determined to be in the species A. afarensis, a species dating from around 3.9-3.0 mil yrs. ago.  Since these creatures ("pre-humans" "proto-humans") with a  cranial capacity of 375-550 cc still only have the Intelligence of modern chimps (and dentition more similar to humans than chimps), rather than being called strictly "human," we call them hominids.  

 II. Paleolithic Period (2.5 mil-10,000 BC)

          1. The Paleolithic Period begins with earliest tool-making human beings and ends when people learned to produce higher quality tools around 10,000 BC and to farm around 8,000 BC  They needed tools for butchering meat (for protein): cutting meat, scraping hides & cracking bones to extract marrow.  "While the probe is not unlike the stick, the stone tool is unlike the lump of stone.  Thus, the toolmaker must have in mind an abstract idea of the tool to be made, as well as the specific set of steps that will accomplish the transformation" (Haviland 75).
 

             2. The importance of this period cannot be exaggerated.  The fundamental mental, physical and social development of human beings occurs during the Paleolithic Age.  As well as revealing evidence of gradual changes in the human species, the archaeological record, as we shall see below, also contains evidence of the developing skills of early man.  A major problem does arise, though, in that the sequence of events in human evolution is still largely speculative and open to interpretation, and anthropologists have yet to agree upon a phylogentic tree of the human lineage.  Below is the best reconstruction to date.
 

            3.  During the Lower ("early") Paleolithic (75% of Paleolithic period) - at least 3 species of genus Homo ("man") inhabited earth:

            1) Homo habilis ("man having ability") 2.4-1.5 mya,was discovered (parts of skull, hands, legs & feet) in digs from 1960-64 by Louis S B Leakey in Tanzania, E. Africa.  He walked erect (4' tall; males= twice the size of females), had an average brain size of pushing 750cc, and used crude tools (bones of large animals, limbs from trees, chunks of stone the size of one's fist.  "Habilines with their brains pushing the 750 cc barrier, have crossed the Rubicon and are human" (Dawkins TAT 76).

                     Stone tools were also found between 1992 and 1994 in the Gona area of Ethiopia which are probably 2.5-2.6 million years old "based on dating of the volcanic ash above and dirt below the layer where about half the tools were found" (Malcolm Ritte, Associated Press, Jan. 1997)

2) homo erectus (1.8mya-300,000ya) and H. ergaster

                        Java man:  remains were discovered dating on the island of Java in 1891.  This creature was 5' tall with a smaller difference in body size between the sexes; brain size (1000cc) significantly greater than homo habilis (650cc), dentition was more like ours, and they used group hunting techniques by 400,000 years ago.

                        Peking man:  remains were found between 1926-30 of creatures who knew the use of fire (by 500,000) to cook food (made foods more digestible, easier to chew, etc. and contributed to evolution) and kept warm; evidence of the first true hand-ax was also found.

                       So these were the first hominids to leave Africa, and now anthropologists have realized these were the same creatures and call them homo erectus, a definite step in the evolution of human beings. Recently a minority opinion has emerged that  doubts that erectus is part of the human lineage.  Instead, H. ergaster, 2 mya, may be in our line.   Having a much larger brain than habilis, the minority opinion also claims H. ergaster has more generalized skull features than erectus; rounder head, higher cranial dome, less protruding, lighter facial features, very slight eye ridges. Indeed, they claim H. ergaster is morphologically closer to H. sapiens than erectus.  The Ergasts come from Africa and persisted from about 1.8 mya to 250,000 ya.  "They are widely accepted as the immediate predecessors, and partial contemporaries , of the Archaics who are in turn the predecessors of us Moderns" (Dawkins TAT 76).

 NOTE: tool-making stages: 

3) homo sapiens (to see how complex paleoanthropology can be:       http://www.modernhumanorigins.com/ )

              (1) homo sapiens Neanderthalensis:  Neanderthal man (130,000 -30,000 BC ), found in Neander Valley near Düsseldorf, Germ. 1856 (also found in Belgium, Spain, Italy, Yugoslavia, Russia, & Palestine) so closely resembles modern man that he used to be classified as member of the same genus Homo and species sapiens: homo sapiens Neanderthalensis.  Neanderthal man is now seen to be an offshoot of Archaics (Dawkins 63).  He was about 5'4" tall with a receding chin and heavy eyebrow ridges.  His cranial capacity, 1450 cc,  was slightly greater than modern Caucasians; he probably could speak and pass on information verbally to succeeding generations (though not anatomically advanced enough to speak like modern humans--pharynx didn't drop low enough to for sophisticated articulation of vowels).

                        There is evidence in Neanderthal caves of flint-working floors and stone hearths.   Neanderthals also cared for dead by burying tools and other objects of value (shells & ornaments made of ivory and bone) and placing them in the fetal position.  Some remains indicate ritualistic or religious behavior in the form of animal cults (especially cave-bear cults).
 

            (2)archaic homo sapiens (heidelbergensis):  The problem is that a more modern looking species has been discovered so that Neanderthals are no longer considered to be in the human line of evolution.  In fact, "Neanderthal mitochondria are quite distinct from those of all surviving humans" (Dawkins 64).  "Archaic forms of Homo sapiens first appear about 500,000 years ago. The term covers a diverse group of skulls which have features of both Homo erectus and modern humans. The brain size is larger than erectus and smaller than most modern humans, averaging about 1200 cc, and the skull is more rounded than in erectus. The skeleton and teeth are usually less robust than erectus, but more robust than modern humans. Many still have large brow ridges and receding foreheads and chins. There is no clear dividing line between late erectus and archaic sapiens, and many fossils between 500,000 and 200,000 years ago are difficult to classify as one or the other" (http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/homs/species.html). "By 200,000 a species of homo more advanced than erectus appears.  By 35,0000 at least one population of archaic H. sapiens [brain size of 1200cc] evolved into modern H. sapiens.  By 30,000 only anatomically modern humans exist, called Cro-Magnons.
 

            (3) homo sapiens sapiens:  Modern forms of Homo sapiens first appear about 195,000 years ago. Modern humans have an average brain size of about 1350 cc.  By 40,000 BC Cro-Magnon [*Upper ("Late") Paleolithic*] appears.  "At this point in human evolution, culture had become a more important force than biology. As the smaller features of Upper Paleolithic peoples suggest, physical bulk was no longer required for survival.  New technological developments had contributed to the increasing complexity of the brain by the time of archaic H. sapiens, and this complexity now enabled people to create an even more sophisticated technology...Intelligence henceforth provides the key to humanity's increased reliance on cultural rather than physical adaptation" (Haviland 92).

NOTE: ca. 40,000 years ago Cro-Magnon appears and by 30,000 Neanderthal man disappears.

Cro-Magnon gets his name from early finds in the Cro-Magnon cave in Dordogne, France.  He was over 6' tall, broad shouldered, with a high forehead and well-developed chin. His cranial capacity was equal to modern man's (1350 cc).  ("wouldn't warrant a second look on a subway car today"--Newsweek, Sept. 16, 1991, p. 53).  Not being exterminated like other hominids and by 20,000 BC Cro-Magnon & other homo sapiens sapiens inhabited Europe, Asia, Africa & Australia and had moved across the Bering Strait to America.

            His culture was markedly superior to previous beings:

1) The quality & variety of tools was better (reindeer horn and ivory as well as flakes of stone and an occasional shaft of bone;  bone needle, fishhook, the harpoon, darts and eventually bow & arrow

2) We also know he wore clothing: buttons and toggles of bone and horn have been found as well as needles  (no weaving of cloth, but sewed animal skins together).  They even made a new type of shelter (outside caves) of wood poles or sticks covered with animal hides).

3) He cooked his food, but no houses yet (but only semi-nomadic)

4) Group life was more regular and highly organized (as evidenced by the workmanship displayed in tools and weapons.  In addition the highly developed artistic techniques indicates at least some division of labor.

The Evolution of Human Groups

5)There is more indication of a possibility of belief in the afterlife: more care bestowed on bodies of dead than Neanderthal (painting corpses; folding arms over heart; pendants, necklaces, richly carved tools & weapons left in graves. 

            The supreme achievement of Cro-Magnon man was his art! It was an achievement so original and resplendent that it ought to be counted among the 7 wonders of the world.  Nothing else illustrates so well the great gulf between his culture and that of his predecessors:

 (1) Sculpture, painting, carving and engraving were all represented (maybe 34,000 years ago!)

[ The ceramic arts (pottery) and architecture are still lacking.]

 (2) Painting was his forte (cf. Chauvet cave found in 1994 containing more than 300 paintings of animals, p. 4 Spiel. 7th)):

NOTE:  What do we make of these paintings?  They may be examples of sympathetic magic, the belief that something done to an image of an object could affect the object itself, in this case the painting of a hunt might have been thought to ensure a successful hunt:

 BUT it does not seem that early man did it for the sake of creating beautiful objects since the paintings were usually in the darkest and most inaccessible parts of the caves (therefore, probably reflect idea of sympathetic magic).  

SUMMARY OF PALEOLITHIC ACCOMPLISHMENTS

1. tool-making (to dig up roots; peel bark off trees; trap, kill & skin animals; make clothing [hides sown together]; fashion fishnets) 

2. control of fire (cook meat; stay up late to plan next day; warmth, protection); effect on evolution:  teeth could get smaller.

3. development of language [at least 100,000 ya]

4. developed rules of conduct & religious beliefs such as:
    animism-From the Latin anima ("soul," "life," "breath") it is the belief that not only humans contain a "soul" but rocks, trees, celestial objects, nature itself is permeated by "forces" that           
                    explain movement.before science had biochemistry, meteorology, physics (gravity), to explain movement in nature. 
    shamans- medicine men or holy men that had special powers to communicate with these spirits and even control them.  
    burying of dead  
     fertility goddesses of ivory, wood & clay

 III. Neolithic (New Stone Age) Period (last stage of preliterate period of human history; 10,000 to 3,000 B.C.)

  1. stone weapons & tools now generally made by grinding & polishing instead of chipping or fracturing  

 2. Neolithic Revolution (8000-3500 B.C.): humans went from being hunter-gatherers to producers with development of domestication of animals (dog, cow, goat, sheep, pig) and agriculture.  This revolution would change the way human beings live more than any other factor in history until the Industrial Revolution of the 17^th Century.  For instance, some results were:

1)      promotion of settled existence:  villages, instead of wandering bands of 20-30 people.
2)      increase in population
3)      growth of institutions (family, religion, state)
4)      technical advances:  knitting, spinning & weaving of cloth
5)      first pottery 
6)      production of fire by friction
7)      houses of wood & sun-dried mud
8)      copper & gold implements

 3. This new culture would be the first to be distributed over the entire world through migrations!

SUMMARY OF NEOLITHIC ACCOMPLISHMENTS

1. polished stone tools
2. agriculture
3. domestication of animals
4. villages 
5. pottery (cooking, storing food & water)
6. cloth
7. brew beer 

 (also nature spirits evolved into deities, wheel, sail, plow & ox yoke, metallurgy: copper)

III.  THE FIRST CIVILIZATIONS

            1. The first villages developed in Neolithic times lacked the complexity and sophistication to be regarded as civilized cultures.  .Anthropologists & historians have concluded that for a culture to be considered a civilized society (i.e., and an "advanced" culture) it must have developed certain basic characteristics, namely:

1) division of labor (specialization)

2) monumental architecture

3) organized government and a complex religious structure

4) system of writing (necessary to preserve, organize, and expand knowledge & allows conduct of civic and religious affairs in more efficient way)

 [some add 5) art that goes beyond the merely decorative ]

2.  Importance of religion as the central force in the primary civilizations (at center of both Mes. & Egypt. civ., inspiring law, gov't, art, lit. & science):

1) provided satisfactory explanations for the operations of the universe

2) helped ease fear of death

3) justified traditional rules of morality (law considered sacred--commands of god

4) united people in common enterprises needed for survival

5) promoted creativity in art & literature

6) power of rulers derived from religion (regarded as gods or agents of gods)

The problem with religion: the mythopoeic view of the world (in which myths and gods were used to interpret both nature and life) would hinder the dev. of a consistently and self-consciously rational method of inquiring into physical nature and human culture.

Send comments and questions to Dr. Richard Baldwin, Gulf Coast State College.
This page last updated 3/17/12