Transcript Era One

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 really 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 our closest ancestor, 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
Big Era
Homo
1
erectus
1.8 mil.
yrs ago
Big Era 2
250k yrs
yrs ago
ago
500k – 200k
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
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.
Big
Eras
3-9
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
Australia
Europe & Siberia
60k yrs ago
40k yrs ago
Americas
S.W. Asia
100k yrs ago
After all, no other
large animals had
spread so widely! So
what was so special
about us?
Big
Eras
3-9
Today
13k yrs ago
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.
New
Ideas
Language
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.
• We call this ability
“collective learning.”
It is what human
history is about!
It is what
makes us
special!
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
View looking out of
Blombos Cave to
the Indian Ocean
Remains discovered at Blombos
Cave are one example of the more
complex culture some humans
were developing as many as
90,000 years ago.
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.
Photos: Arizona State University, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences
http://clasdean.la.asu.edu/news/images/bone/
16
Acceleration!
From about 40,000 years
ago, archaeological
evidence shows faster and
faster cultural change and
increasing complexity.
Humans began to:
 Create both naturalistic and
abstract art.
 Make more specialized tools.
 Weave and knot fiber.
 Decorate clothing.
 Make jewelry.
 Build semi-permanent
structures.
The engraved horse
panel in the Cave of
Chauvet-Pont-D’Arc
in southern France.
The image is about
31,000 years old.
(http://www.culture.g
ouv.fr/culture/arcnat/
chauvet)
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. (New York Times, Dec. 14,
1999. Photo: Bill Wiegand,
University of Illinois.)
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