HUMAN EVOLUTION

Human evolution is the lengthy process of change by which people

originated from apelike ancestors. Scientific evidence shows that the
physical and behavioral traits shared by all people originated from apelike
ancestors and evolved over a period of approximately six million years.
One of the earliest defining human traits, bipedalism -- the ability to walk on
two legs -- evolved over 4 million years ago. Other important human
characteristics -- such as a large and complex brain, the ability to make and
use tools, and the capacity for language -- developed more recently. Many
advanced traits -- including complex symbolic expression, art, and
elaborate cultural diversity -- emerged mainly during the past 100,000
years.
Humans are primates. Physical and genetic similarities show that the
modern human species,Homo sapiens, has a very close relationship to
another group of primate species, the apes. Humans and the great apes
(large apes) of Africa -- chimpanzees (including bonobos, or so-called
pygmy chimpanzees) and gorillas -- share a common ancestor that lived
between 8 and 6 million years ago. Humans first evolved in Africa, and
much of human evolution occurred on that continent. The fossils of early
humans who lived between 6 and 2 million years ago come entirely from
Africa.
Most scientists currently recognize some 15 to 20 different species of early
humans. Scientists do not all agree, however, about how these species are
related or which ones simply died out. Many early human species -certainly the majority of them left no living descendants. Scientists also

debate over how to identify and classify particular species of early humans,
and about what factors influenced the evolution and extinction of each
species.
Early humans first migrated out of Africa into Asia probably between 2
million and 1.8 million years ago. They entered Europe somewhat later,
between 1.5 million and 1 million years. Species of modern humans
populated many parts of the world much later. For instance, people first
came to Australia probably within the past 60,000 years and to the
Americas within the past 30,000 years or so. The beginnings of agriculture
and the rise of the first civilizations occurred within the past 12,000 years.
TOOL MAKING
Some chimpanzee communities are known to use stone and wood as
hammers to crack nuts and as crude ineffective weapons in hunting small
animals, including monkeys. However, they rarely shape their tools in a
systematic way to increase efficiency. The most sophisticated chimpanzee
tools are small, slender tree branches from which they strip off the leaves.
These twigs are then used as probes for some of their favorite foods-termites and ants. More rarely, chimpanzees have been observed using
sticks as short thrusting spears to hunt gallagos in holes and crevices of
trees where they sleep during the day time.

It is likely that the

australopithecines were at least this sophisticated in their simple tool use.

The first unquestionable stone tools were evidently made and used by
early transitional humansand possibly Australopithecus garhi in East
Africa about 2.5 million years ago. While the earliest sites with these
tools are from the Gona River Region of Ethiopia, simple tools of this

kind were first discovered by Mary and Louis Leakey associated with Homo
habilis at

Olduvai

named Oldowan

Gorge

in

Tanzania.

Hence,

they

were

tools after that location. These early toolmakers were

selective in choosing particular rock materials for their artifacts. They

usually chose hard water-worn creek cobbles made out of volcanic rock.
There were two main categories of tools in the Oldowan tradition. There
were stone cobbles with several flakes knocked off usually at one end by
heavy glancing percussion blows from another rock used as a hammer.
This produced a jagged, chopping or cleaver-like implement that fit easily in
the hand.
hammering,

These core tools most likely functioned as multipurpose

chopping,

and

digging

implements. Efficient

use

of

this percussion flaking technique requires a strong precision grip. Humans

are the only living primates that have this anatomical trait. Probably the
most important tools in the Oldowan tradition were sharp-edged stone
flakes produced in the process of making the core tools.

These

simple flake tools were used without further modification as knives. They
would have been essential for butchering large animals, because human
teeth and fingers are totally inadequate for cutting through thick skins
and slicing off pieces of meat. Evidence of their use in this manner can be
seen

in

cut

marks

that

still

are

visible

on

bones.

Some

paleoanthropologists have suggested that the core tools were, in fact, only
sources for the flake tools and that the cores had little other use.
CAVE PAINTINGS
Cave paintings are paintings found on cave walls and ceilings, and
especially those of prehistoric origin, which date back to some 40,000

years

ago

in

both

Asia

and

Europe.

The

exact

purpose

of

the Paleolithic cave paintings is not known. Evidence suggests that they
were not merely decorations of living areas since the caves in which they
have been found do not have signs of ongoing habitation. They are also
often located in areas of caves that are not easily accessible. Some
theories hold that cave paintings may have been a way of communicating
with others, while other theories ascribe a religious or ceremonial purpose
to them. The paintings are remarkably similar around the world, with
animals being common subjects that give the most impressive images.
Humans mainly appear as images of hands, mostly hand stencils made by
blowing pigment on a hand held to the wall.
The earliest known cave paintings/drawings of animals are at least 35,000
years old, at Maros on the island of Sulawesi inIndonesia, according to
datings announced in 2014. Previously it was believed that the earliest
paintings were in Europe.[1] The earliest figurative paintings in Europe date
back to theAurignacian period, approximately 30,000 to 32,000 years ago,
and are found in the Chauvet Cave in France, and in theColiboaia
Cave in Romania.[2] The earliest non-figurative rock art dates back to
approximately 40,000 years ago, the date given both to a disk in the El
Castillo cave in Cantabria, Spainand a hand stencil in Sulawesi. There are
similar later paintings in Africa, Australia and South America, continuing
until recent times in some places, though there is a worldwide tendency for
open air rock art to succeed paintings deep in caves.

A hunter-gatherer or forager[1] society is one in which most or all food is

obtained from wild plants and animals, in contrast to agricultural societies,
which rely mainly on domesticated species.
Hunting and gathering was humanity's first and most successful adaptation,
occupying at least 90 percent of human history, and until 12,000 years ago,
all humans lived this way," [2] but following the invention of agriculture,
hunter-gatherers

have

been

displaced

or

conquered

by

farming

or pastoralist groups in most parts of the world.

Only a few contemporary societies are classified as hunter-gatherers, and
many supplement their foraging activity with horticulture and/or keeping
animals.
Archaeological evidence
In the 1950s, Louis Binford suggested that early humans were obtaining
meat

via scavenging,

not hunting.[3] Early

humans

in

the Lower

Paleolithic lived in forests and woodlands, which allowed them to collect

seafood, eggs, nuts, and fruits besides scavenging. Rather than killing
large animals for meat, according to this view, they used carcasses of such
animals that had either been killed by predators or that had died of natural
causes.
According to the endurance running hypothesis, long-distance running as
inpersistence hunting, a method still practiced by some hunter-gatherer
groups in modern times, was likely the driving evolutionary force leading to
the evolution of certain human characteristics. This hypothesis does not
necessarily contradict the scavenging hypothesis: both subsistence

strategies could have been in use sequentially, alternating or even

simultaneously.
Hunting and gathering was presumably the subsistence strategy employed
by human societies beginning some 1.8 million years ago, by Homo
erectus, and from its appearance some 0.2 million years ago by Homo
sapiens. It remained the only mode of subsistence until the end of
the Mesolithic period some 10,000 years ago, and after this was replaced
only gradually with the spread of the Neolithic Revolution.
Starting at the transition between the Middle to Upper Paleolithic period,
some 80,000 to 70,000 years ago, some hunter-gatherers bands began to
specialize, concentrating on hunting a smaller selection of (often larger)
game and gathering a smaller selection of food. This specialization of work
also involved creating specialized tools, like fishing nets and hooks and
bone harpoons.[5] The transition into the subsequent Neolithic period is
chiefly defined by the unprecedented development of nascent agricultural
practices. Agriculture originated and spread in several different areas
including the Middle East, Asia,Mesoamerica, and the Andes beginning as
early as 12,000 years ago.
Forest gardening was also being used as a food production system in
various parts of the world over this period. Forest gardens originated
in prehistoric times along jungle-clad river banks and in the wet foothills
of monsoonregions. In the gradual process of families improving their
immediate environment, useful tree and vine species were identified,
protected and improved, whilst undesirable species were eliminated.
Eventually superior foreign species were selected and incorporated into the
gardens.

Many groups continued their hunter-gatherer ways of life, although their

numbers have continually declined, partly as a result of pressure from
growing agricultural and pastoral communities. Many of them reside in the
developing world, either in arid regions or tropical forests. Areas that were
formerly available to hunter-gatherers wereand continue to be
encroached upon by the settlements of agriculturalists. In the resulting
competition for land use, hunter-gatherer societies either adopted these
practices or moved to other areas. In addition, Jared Diamond has blamed
a decline in the availability of wild foods, particularly animal resources. In
North and South America, for example, most large mammal species had
gone extinct by the end of the Pleistoceneaccording to Diamond,
because

of overexploitation by

humans,[7] although

the overkill

hypothesis he advocates is strongly contested.

As the number and size of agricultural societies increased, they expanded
into lands traditionally used by hunter-gatherers. This process of
agriculture-driven expansion led to the development of the first forms of
government in agricultural centers, such as the Fertile Crescent, Ancient
India, Ancient China, Olmec, Sub-Saharan Africa and Norte Chico.
As a result of the now near-universal human reliance upon agriculture, the
few contemporary hunter-gatherer cultures usually live in areas unsuitable
for agricultural use.
Archaeologists can use evidence such as stone tool use to track huntergatherer activities, including mobility.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Websites
www.ducksters.com/.../mesopotamia/daily_life
www.mesopotamia.co.uk/writing/.../sto_set.htm
www.ancient.eu/urbanization
Books & Magazines
Early Human and his life by Dr. Hussain Shah Sidduqi
Human Origin and its facts by George Randy