Human Prehistory

4/14/2019 CHAPTER 3: HUMAN PREHISTORY
CWC PRIMER CHAPTER 3: HUMAN PREHISTORY
CHRONOLOGY and THEMES: Paleolithic Era c. 6.5 million BP-9,000 Before

Present (BP), Humans as hunter-gatherers
Ø About 6.5 million BP a population of African apes split into two distinct
species. One of these evolved into human beings. The other to
chimpanzees.
Ø About 4 million BP the hominid species, Australopithecus, began walking
predominantly in an upright stance.
Ø Around 2 million BP homo erectus began fashioning tools
Ø Emergence of Modern Humans in Africa; ca. 200,000 BP; earliest
migrations out of Africa, ca. 150,000 BP
Ø Pleistocene Era ca. 2 million-9000 BP; influence of climate changes on
human development
Ø Neolithic Revolution c. 8000-7000 BC in the Near East, domestication of
plants and animals
The purpose of this chapter is to explore human development from its origins
through to the advent of settled agricultural existence. Human settlement, based on
the domestication of plants and animals, has long been identified as having occurred
around 8000/7000 BC in ancient Iraq, This region is known to scholars as the
Ancient Near East or as Mesopotamia. The latter term is the ancient Greek word for
the land between two rivers, namely, the Euphrates and the Tigris. During
prehistoric times the Ancient Near East functioned as a land bridge between Africa
where modern humans originated around 200,000 BP and other regions of human
habitation, including Eurasia, East Asia, Australia, and the Americas. According to
the available evidence modern humans migrated from Africa as far as the Americas
between 150,000 and 24000 BP. The evidence for these conclusions is susceptible to
revision due to the accelerated pace of discovery during the past decade. Alongside
traditional analysis of archaeological assemblages of prehistoric remains, current
investigators utilize an array of tools to reconstruct this history, including genetic
mapping -- of both humans and other organisms -- climatology (to explain human
migration during the ice Age) -- and linguistics (using language history to confirm
the results of the other methods). To be certain, much of this research is speculative
and subject to intense debate even among specialists. However, the unquestioned
reliance placed on DNA evidence in judicial procedures as well as the importance of
https://web.ics.purdue.edu/~rauhn/CWC_text/CWC_3.htm 1/21
climatological evidence to the current debate regarding global warming

demonstrates the need to take this data seriously.
Before proceeding there is need to address the issue of deep seated religious beliefs
and to reassure the reader that the purpose of this work is not to challenge these. The
objective here is to present a summary of scientific data obtained through empirical
research that addresses human origins. These findings in no way deny questions of
faith. As will become apparent, this book exhibits a healthy respect for all religious
world views. Along with fields such as philosophy and astrophysics, religion is one
of a few disciplines that asks the vital questions, why are we here, where did we
come from, and where are we going. Having said this, the increasingly consistent
record that is emerging for human origins, confirmed by a bewildering array of
scientific data, inevitably confronts the written record of ancient religious texts. The
latter were compiled by humans, however divinely inspired, without the benefit of
modern science or technology. If anything, the scientific data has demonstrated that
human origins are far more complicated that religious thinkers writing around 1000
BC in ancient Israel, for example, could have conceived. These findings in no way
discard essential questions regarding the existence of god. As we contemplate the
significance of the 'Big Bang' some 10 billion years ago, the finite character of the
universe expanding through a limitless void of space, or the formation of the planet
earth some 4 billion years ago, it becomes difficult to comprehend the purpose of
existence by other means than faith.
Prehistoric Africa
Africa is the second largest landmass in the world. It is also the highest and the
oldest landmass in the world. The continent presents itself as a vast plateau, rising
steeply on all sides from various coastal strips and extending along a north-south
axis. Mountains and divides form basins in various regions, most notably the basin
of the Congo River, at the Equator, where the rain forests are very dense. The vast
unbroken extent of the African plateau causes rivers to drain through cataracts and
magnificent waterfalls on their way to the sea. Apart from the Nile, no African
rivers are navigable beyond the coast. The continent's most remarkable feature
remains the Great Rift Valley, formed by the tectonic movement of the Arabian
landmass away from Africa. Over tens of millions of years this earth movement
created long, deep valleys southward through the African plateau. Several of these
valleys form large enclosed highland lakes. Lake Victoria, sitting 3700 ft above sea
level, is the third largest lake in the world. Waters beginning in this region flow
northward 4000 miles to form the two branches (White and Blue) of the Nile, the
longest river in the world. The Great Rift actually extends beyond the continent
under the Red Sea all the way to the Dead Sea/Jordan River valleys of Israel. It is
here along the cliffs of the Great Rift Valley in Africa that the earliest remains of
humans have survived.
As the accompanying table displays, DNA analysis indicates that archaic humans or
hominids evolved from African primates approximately 6.5 million BP. DNA of
modern humans has been demonstrated to be 99% compatible to that of
Chimpanzees, for example.
SPECIES FOSSILS DNA PROXIMITY TO HUMANS
Primates 35 million BP
Baboons 30 million BP
Gorilla 10 million BP 97%
Chimpanzee 8 million BP 99%
Hominids 6.5 mill. B 100%
Many attributes that primates hold in common with humans -- including

stereoscopic vision, sexual pairing to care for young, group social behavior, and the
tendency to use fore limbs to perform tasks other than locomotion -- clearly
facilitated human development. Around 4 million BP hominids known as
Australopithecus descended permanently from the canopy of the African rain forest
to walk in an upright manner. Apart from the obvious advantage this had in freeing
hands to perform work and to fashion tools (and thus render food gathering and
preparation more amenable), the most significant development in this regard was the
anatomical transformation associated with upright posture. By balancing the
cranium on the spinal column, hominids reduced the need for massive muscular
structures that quadrupeds utilize to suspend their heads out in front of their
forelimbs. When one looks at images of apes and other mammals such as horses,
lions, and cows, the size of their neck and shoulder muscles is striking especially in
comparison with those human. These muscles are connected to the skull by means
of bundled sinews of ligament and tendon the weight of which, suspended, actually
restricts the size of the skull. By balancing the cranium on the spinal cord through
upright poster, archaic humans reduced the need and therefore the size of these
muscle parts, albeit gradually and imperceptibly over millions of years. As muscles
receded cranial capacity (and brain size) expanded, enabling hominids to gain in
intelligence and advance ahead of their primate relatives. Advances in tool use and
manufacture, emerging social formations based on extended clans, hunting bands,

and tribes, and even the harnessing of fire by 350000 BP all reflect advances made
by archaic human species during Paleolithic times in Africa, all prior to the advent
of modern humans.
SIDEBAR: HOMINIDS
Australopithecus hominid, 6-2 mill. BP
Theoretically, upright posture resulted in anatomical changes; front limbs were freed for tool use
and food preparation, reducing muscular structure of skull and expanding cranial capacity.
A second factor in human development during prehistory was climatic; namely, the Pleistocene
Era, 2 million - 9000 BP
(Ice Ages) see below
Homo Erectus, 1.6 mill.-400,000 BP, first out of Africa 1.2 million BP (Europe, China).
More than a dozen species of archaic humans existed in Africa during this period,
most of which wandered off into extinction. Populations of hominids appear to have
risen and collapsed as they confronted changing environmental conditions.
Approximately 2 million BP hominids known as Homo erectus began to fashion
stone tools (chipped and flaked stone tools, bone tools, and fire) and to enjoy greater
mobility. By 1.2 million BP elements of this species migrated out of Africa,
wandering as far as East Asia by 400,000 BP. Climatological evidence indicates that
the impetus for this migration was environmental, originating with the advent of the
Pleistocene era (Ice Age) around 2.5 million BP. Recent analysis of climatological
and paleoenvironmental data now demonstrates that the intensely variable climate
that occurred globally between 2.5 million and 9000 BP played a defining role in
human development, at the very least by limiting and shifting the habitable regions
of the globe. The timing of the movement of Homo erectus out of Africa in
association with the emergence of the Ice Age is too uncanny, for example, for these
to have been coincidence. This needs to be sorted out more fully before proceeding
with any discussion of human origins.
Pleistocene Era
Researchers since the 1950s have greatly revised our understanding of the
Pleistocene era, a geological time period characterized by variable climate
punctuated by extreme changes between colder and warmer weather globally.
Analysis of numerous indicators, including measurements of oxygen isotopes in
artic ice cores, vestiges of highly sensitive organisms in sea floor sediments, residue
of tree and grass pollen from lake sediments, and even remains of climatically
sensitive materials such as beetle remains and cave deposits (speleotherms), all
demonstrate a trend toward global cooling during this period. This trend was
reflected by steeper latitudinal climate gradients and increased seasonality and
variability. The causes of global cooling are so complex and interrelated that they
defy simple explanation. Potential factors include lithospheric plate motions,
vertical tectonism, weathering reactions, fluctuating atmospheric CO2 content,
volcanism, biologic evolution, changes in oceanic circulation, and cyclic variations
in the earth's orbit around the sun. The geomorphic results have been spectacular,
culminating in a series of ice ages that repeatedly covered as much as 30% of
the land area with glaciers (Bloom 1998; 49). Since the reversal of the earth's
magnetic field about 750000 years ago the planet has undergone at least seven
phases of glaciation. Ice cores obtained from Antarctica indicate that cold prevailed
for much of this period, especially during the last 400,000 years. Sustained periods
of cold climate were interspersed by much shorter warm periods known as
interglacials. The pattern was clearly a global phenomenon as the same features are
evident in the data obtained from ocean sediment cores in the tropics as they are
from polar ice cores. Since around 400,000 BP, the pattern has been broadly
consistent. Each ice age ended rapidly and was followed by an interglacial lasting
around 10,000 years. The climate then slipped back into long sustained periods of
glacial coldness, thus lending the temperature record a remarkable saw tooth
appearance. (see chart)
As opposed to today, where sea water is evaporated and deposited on land as rain
eventually to work its way back to the sea, Ice Age atmospheric moister was
deposited on land surfaces as snow and gradually accumulated into ice sheets that at
their peak in 27000 BP rose to more than 3km in altitude. In the northern
hemisphere, where most of the planet's landmass is situated, the ice extended
southward to form a line of glaciers extending from Chicago across the north
Atlantic to Glasgow and Stockholm. At their greatest extent these massive ice sheets
not only made higher latitudes much colder than today, especially during winter, but
their great height meant that weather systems flowed around their fringes rather than
northward across the artic basin in confluence with deep-water ocean currents. This
had the effect of shifting all weather systems farther south. At the same time, as
more and more sea water evaporated and became permanently deposited on land
surfaces, the sea level plunged as low as 130m below current levels, exposing some
25 million km2 of coastal shelf. Neighboring regions such as Britain and Europe,
Indonesia and Australia, Siberia and Alaska became linked through now submerged
land bridges. These exposed coastal lowlands and land bridges formed passageways
for human migration and survival during Paleolithic times. The extreme variability
of the Pleistocene era needs to be emphasized. The interdecadal variance in
temperature and its impact were some tenfold greater than today, rendering the
Pleistocene climate immeasurably more demanding. Early humans and the life
forms they depended on for survival had little choice but to adapt to a flexible and
migratory lifestyle in order to survive.
During sustained periods of intense cold, areas such as Europe north of the
Pyrenees, the North American plains, the Middle East, and the Sahara became
extremely cold, arid and uninhabitable. Flora and fauna in these regions either
migrated to more habitable environments or went extinct. Discernible patterns have
emerged regarding which areas supported human life during these long periods of
intense cold. Habitable regions included the more temperate lands near the equator
such as central Africa, southeast China, Indonesia, Australia, and New Zealand, all
of which show evidence of moderate cooling at worst. They also included coastal
lowlands of the Mediterranean, Red Sea, Indian and Pacific Oceans, where the
presence of the sea helped to moderate cold temperatures and furnished early
humans with aquatic food sources. In addition, early humans came to inhabit
extensive east-west trending regions of grassland and tundra in eastern Russia and
southern Siberia. As difficult as this may be to comprehend, these regions were too
distant from large bodies of water for ice sheets to accumulate. Archaeological
remains indicate that they teemed with animal life, particularly large herbivores such
as mammoths and reindeer, thus enabling populations of hunter gatherers to flourish.
Lastly, even in the frigid cold of Europe various refugia, or isolated pockets of
wetlands, sustained human and other forms of life in mountainous regions along the
northern shore of the Mediterranean and the Balkans.
SIDEBAR; ARCHAEOLOGY OF THE ICE AGE

Global cooling, and with it a trend toward steeper latitudinal climate gradients and increased seasonality and
variability, seems to have been the climatic trend through the Cenozoic era (65 mill.BP-present). The causes are
so complex and interrelated that they defy simple explanation. Potential factors include lithospheric plate
motions, vertical tectonism, weathering reactions, fluctuating atmospheric CO2 content, volcanism, biologic
evolution, changes in oceanic circulation, and cyclic variations in the earth's orbit around the sun. The
geomorphic results have been spectacular, culminating during the last 2.5 million years in a series of ice ages
that repeatedly covered as much as 30% of the land area with glaciers. Even today, in what some refer to as
"postglacial' time with excessive optimism) 10% of the land remains ice covered, including the entire continent
of Antarctica and most of the larges t island, Greenland. We are living in an ice age although all 6000 years of
recorded human history have been within the Holocene epoch, one of the numerous brief interglacial intervals
when the extent of the ice cover has been reduced. (AL Bloom, Geomorphology a Systematic Analysis of Late
Cenozoic Landforms (Prentice Hall, 1998), 49)
During periods of sustained cold the effects of climate change were felt even in
warmer regions such as equatorial Africa. Food resources which archaic humans
depended on for survival diminished and populations accordingly declined, entering
into genetic moments known as "bottlenecks". Eras of climatic intensity imposed
extraordinary stress on human development, compelling archaic humans to adapt, by
developing stone tools, for example, and by migrating.
Homo erectus, for example, migrated out of Africa via the Middle East around 1.2
million BP, and pursued an eastward trending route along the more temperate,
exposed coastal lowlands of the Indian and Pacific Oceans all the way to China.
This route was repeatedly utilized by early humans in following millennia. By
500,000 BP a species known as Neanderthal migrated out of Africa into the Middle
East and northward into Europe where they adapted to the harsh climate and
survived as hunter-gatherers until around 30,000 BP. Surviving primarily off large
mammals these people enjoyed enormous stature (on average 30% larger than
modern humans), tremendous body strength, and cranial capacity in fact larger than
modern humans. Modern humans in turn appear to have migrated repeatedly out of
Africa, first around 150,000 BP, then around 74000 BP, and finally around 50,000
BP.
Migrations of Homo sapiens
DNA analysis indicates

that modern humans
(Homo sapiens sapiens)
originated around
200,000 BP in the
region of the African Great Rift. This is confirmed by the discovery of human
remains in Ethiopia, dated to 160000 BP. Geologically this coincides with the
penultimate era of glaciation that occurred from 330000-130000 BP. The period was
characterized by extreme desiccation across much of Africa and probably led to
widespread population collapse among archaic humans living in the continent at the
time.
Through analysis of mitochondrial DNA obtained from females of various ethnic

backgrounds, researchers have determined that all humans alive today descended
from one female, commonly referred to as 'Eve', who lived approximately 7600
generations ago. Analysis of male Y chromosome samples obtained from throughout
the globe reveals the existence of some 10 "descent groups" or haplotypes that
presumably descended from a common male ancestor who mated with Eve. Eve, her
hypothetical mate, and these 10 males were not the first, nor the only modern
humans living in Africa at that time. Rather, these were the only people from a much
wider population of modern humans whose progeny survived until today. Due to the
challenges of intense climate change and variability, these elements also began to
move about the landscape. Some 20 haplogroups have been identified based on
lineage sequences in male Y chromosomes. One haplogroup moved southward in
Africa to become the Khoisan or Bushman people, apparently the group most
closely descended from the earliest modern humans. Others settled in the rain
forests to become pygmies and others still, living in the grasslands north of the
central African rain forest survived as Negroid elements who as Bantu speaking
cultures came to dominate sub-Saharan Africa.
Most early modern human population remained in Africa, but some small portion of
the population migrated to the Middle East around 150,000 BP. The remains of this
culture have been found in caves at Skhuyl and Quafzeh in modern Israel, dated to
100,000 BP, in close vicinity to Neanderthal settlements.
According to the data obtained from genetic mapping, however, this first migration
ultimately failed, probably due to a prolonged phase cooling that set in around
100,000 BP. When this era of advancing glaciation reached its minimum
temperatures around 87000 BP the Middle East ceased to be inhabitable.
Intriguingly, mtDNA research of dog chromosomes indicates that dogs separated
from wolves at approximately the same time. Conceivably this genetic marker
records the moment at which dogs began to cohabitate with humans, though the
earliest actual evidence for this does not emerge until 14000 BP.
Human assemblages found on the Red Sea coast of Africa, dated to 125000 BP,
combined with the evidence of genetic-mapping indicate that a second migration out
of Africa occurred around 80,000 BP, possibly as a result of dramatic sea level
decline. As opposed to the first attempt at migration, elements of this migration
successfully moved along the shores of the Red Sea, Indian Ocean and the Pacific,
utilizing land bridges and narrowed seas to arrive in Australia by 60,000 BP, and
Southeast Asia by 40-35,000 BP. The genetic evidence indicates once again,
however, that many elements of this second wave -- apparently all those dwelling in
regions west of Indonesia and east of Africa -- disappeared as well. Another
dramatic cooling event, dated by ice cores to 75-70,000 BP, and intensified possibly
by the eruption of a super volcano, Mt. Toba in Malaysia in 71,000 BP, appears to
caused another mass extinction. Like Homo erectus, however, those modern humans
who had successfully migrated beyond Malaysia to Indonesia, Australia and New
Zealand appear to have survived. Genetic mapping of Y chromosome data indicates
that a third migration out of Africa occurred around 55,000 BP during a warming
trend. This migration repopulated the Middle East and continued on through central
Asia into Siberia by 40,000 BP. These elements then diverged in separate directions.
Some headed westward along the northern shores of the Caspian and Black Seas in
to Europe, arriving around 40,000-35,000 BP. Others headed eastward through
Siberia, China, and Mongolia to Beringia, where the existence of a land bridge
enabled them to cross into Alaska and North American by 25,000 BP. Other
migrating elements independently moved eastward along the Indian Ocean to
repopulate those areas abandoned during the earlier migration. This is the only
viable explanation for the marked genetic divide that exists between people living
today in east Asia, New Guinea, and Australia, and those living in India and farther
west. This picture is complicated even more by genetic markers indicating that other
humans descended from the time of the earlier migration in 84,000 BP had by this
time likewise made their way to China and Japan. These humans also migrated
across Beringia into the Americas. Before this occurred, however, another glacial
era descended on the planet between 35,000 and 24,000 BP.
Map of the Last Glacial Maximum
Known as the Last Glacial Maximum, or LGM, this final phase of the Pleistocene
era represented the most intense period of glaciation in human experience. The
millennia between 20,000 and 18,000 BP in particular represented a period of
unrelenting cold throughout the planet, culminating in the 3km tall ice sheets
mentioned above. In comparison with today's global ice cover of 30 million km3 the
ice cover of the LGM was literally 3 fold, or 90 million km3. Sea levels plunged by
130m. The LGM appears to have wiped out the Neanderthal populations in Europe
and unquestionably impaired the progress of modern humans as well. Fortunately,
these latter populations were sufficiently well situated by this time, and adequately
armed with tools and technologies to hunker down in their various regions of the
world and survive.
Origins of Race
It is important to recognize that the bulk of the modern human population remained
in Africa throughout these eras. This had an enormous impact on the way humans
evolved. One researcher compared the repeated exodus of small groups of modern
humans to the equivalent of removing the playing cards, 7, 8, and 9, from a deck of
52. Those populations that remained in central Africa, by and large thrived in its
moderate climate, continued to mix their gene pool, and otherwise developed
attributes of "complex societies." Already before 70,000 BP (the period during
which modern humans migrated as far as Australia), African cultures exhibited
components of what is referred to as a "Paleolithic Revolution," including blade and
microlithic technology, bone tools, increased geographic range, specialized hunting,
exploitation of aquatic resources, long distance exchange networks, systematic
processing of pigment, art and body decoration. Although the archaeological
evidence for these attributes of modern human cultures does not occur in
combination at any one place or time in Africa, the overall picture suggests that their
packaging was assembled prior to the departure of migrating bands to distant
continents around 84,000 BP. These same attributes become manifested as rock art
in Australia, cave art in Spain and France, a bone flute found in Germany (39,000
BP), kiln-fired ceramic figurines in Moravia (20,000 BP), kiln-fired pottery in Japan
(14,000 BP), and exotic grave good in the Middle East and Europe, the last
mentioned demonstrating the existence of social hierarchy and trading networks.
Small groups of modern humans obviously carried these attributes out of Africa
prior to their becoming isolated by insurmountable barriers of mountain, desert,
glacier, and ocean, only to lose contact with one another for tens of thousands of
years. What is more, the variability of the Pleistocene era with its repeated,
sustained periods of intense cold inevitably reduced those populations that migrated
out of Africa significantly. Fluctuations in human populations had a huge impact on
the rate at which natural selection operated, leading to a phenomenon known as
genetic drift. During genetic drift decline in breeding numbers induced changes in
the genetic composition of an isolated human population. As population levels fell
to very low numbers, simple chance allowed some genetic variations to spread
through the surviving population in lieu of others that disappeared altogether. In
such a situation, genetic drift, genetic bottlenecks, and founder's effect influenced
the genetic record of this group not so much through "survival of the fittest" as
"survival of the luckiest." (Burroughs 139) Another theoretical outcome of
widespread population decline was the occurrence of genetic bottlenecks. As human
populations declined everywhere except Africa around 100,000 BP, for example,
those small elements that survived would have found themselves dispersed into
geographically separated groups. As populations rebounded tens of thousands of
years later, each group started from what was essentially a separate genetic base. In
Africa the DNA evidence indicates that these separated elements of modern humans
continued to mix with one another as their populations expanded and merged.
However, those handfuls of groups that migrated out of Africa inevitably colonized
the rest of the world based in their particular group's unique genetic heritage. In
essence they forged a genetic bottleneck out of which all non African based
populations of modern humans ultimately arose.
It is generally assumed, for example, that such a bottleneck occurred around 80-
70,000 BP for the reasons given above. The genetic evidence indicates that the
global human population crashed at this time to a maximum of 40,000 people. The
genetic lineage of the resurgent populations who began migrating around 50,000 BP
was inevitably different from that of earlier migrating humans. Climatically induced
changes in their level of development are likely. Researchers mapping the mtDNA
of human body lice have determined, for example, that the particular species of
louse that infests human populations evolved at approximately the same time
(70,000 BP). Since the genetic lineage of this particular louse directly descends from
animal lice, the evolution of human head lice is presumed to mark the moment at
which modern humans began to fashion clothing from animal skins to keep warm.
**********************************
SIDEBAR: Dogs, Fur, and Human Head Lice in the Americas
DNA evidence of head lice, two genetic lineates that separated ca. 1.2 million BP.
This coincides roughly with the time when archaic humans, Homo erectus, first
ventured out of Africa. These humans lived in East Asia until about 50,000 BP, and
the only way modern humans could have picked up their form of louse is by some
social contact. The geographical distribution of the two forms of louse is also
interesting. One is found on people all over the world, the other is almost exclusive
to the Americas. This suggests that the modern humans that crossed Beringia into
the Americas carried the form of louse that had survived for so long on our human
cousins, Homo erectus. (Borroughs 133).
Over time the natural process of genetic mutation caused isolated populations to
"adapt" in various ways, particularly in terms of their physical appearance.
Geneticists and molecular anthropologists have determined, for example, that the
genetic variants that determine skin color and facial features involve only a few
hundred of the billions of nucleotides in human DNA, a genetically insignificant
number. Two classes of melanin, red/yellow and black/brown, are present in the
epidermal layer of human skin and hair. The spectrum of pigmentation observed in
different geographic regions of the world is the result of varied production,
distribution, and packaging of these two classes of melanin among long isolated
populations. Those most exposed to strong sunlight, such as humans dwelling in
African grasslands near the equator, needed to generate large amounts of melanin to
defend their bodies against harmful UVA sunlight. The genetic "hard-wiring" of
people in these regions led to the evolution of Negroid peoples who eventually came
to dominate most of sub-Saharan Africa. As isolated elements of modern humans
migrated into less sunny climates, however, their body chemistry's need for melanin
diminished in inverse proportion to the need to generate Vitamin D from diminished
sunlight, and thereby avoid diseases such as rickets. The genetic markers that
controlled melanin production for these people inevitably 'relaxed," enabling
mutations in the direction of lighter colored hair and skin. As a result, northerly
situated humans acquired lighter, paler skin, lighter colored eyes, and reddish and
blond colored hair.
Similar transformations occurred with respect to body size and proportion that affect
human thermoregulatory response to varying climates around the world. Longer
slender frames were more suitable to hot climates, whereas, stocky, thicker frames
that retain body heat were more suitable to cold. Similar explanations have been
made for the shape of the nose, width of nostrils, and texture of hair. The time
required for adaptations such as these to take hold was hardly brief, perhaps as many
as 500 generations (10,000-12,000 years), but neither was this necessarily long in
archaeological terms. Theories about genetic drift, bottlenecks, and founder’s effect
furnish, therefore, not only some sense of proportion to the scale of the migration
that left Africa, but it also demonstrates that all other people of the world, regardless
of their appearance, descended from one and the same human stock, however
separated by time, barriers, and distance.
The Emergence of Human Settlements
During the LGM enormous changes in human populations took root throughout the
globe. Homo erectus was already extinct before 50,000 BP, though not before
coming in contact with modern humans heading toward the Americas. Neanderthal
culture likewise went into extinction around 30,000 BP. In Europe three distinct
Paleolithic cultures of modern humans are discernible: Aurevignian in southern
France and Spain, Gravettian in the Balkans and Black Sea area, and Solutrean in
the Pyrenees/Basque region. Thriving on food sources of large herbivores and
positioning themselves along their migration routes. These cultures exhibited
advanced levels of culture and social organization, as demonstrated by their
magnificent cave art, highly perfected stone and bone tools, and body decoration.
With the end of the LGM around 16,000 BP and the trend toward warmer climate
this rather hearty lifestyle was overturned as their food sources migrated northward
or were hunted into extinction. Rapidly changing climate conducive to population
rise around 10,000 BP anticipated the final transformation in human development,
commonly referred to as the Neolithic revolution.
Neolithic Revolution
The driving force of the Neolithic revolution is identified with a dramatic shift in
climate at the end of the Pleistocene era, something known as the Younger Dryas era
that occurred 12,900-9,500 BP. Prior to this period, around 15-13,000 BP a dramatic
warming trend generated expanding vegetation and more abundant yields of wild
fruit, seed, and game animals in many parts of the globe. These in turn altered
lifestyles for several modern human populations. In Europe north of the

Mediterranean this meant the emergence of vast forests that severely reduced the
available grazing territories of large herbivores. Animals such as mammoths quickly
went into extinction while others such as reindeer migrated further northward as
glacial ice sheets retreated leaving tundra and grasslands in their path. Big-game
hunter gathering as a lifestyle thus became threatened. The inhabitants of this region
were compelled to radically change their diet from one dominated by reindeer to one
dominated by forest-oriented deer, boar, and oxen. A likely indication of this is
afforded by the genetic lineage of Basque, Celtic, and Finnish peoples, which has
now been shown to be directly related. Apparently, at the end of the LGM, those
populations surviving in the Pyrenees (today known as the Basques) migrated
northward through France, Britain, Ireland, and Scandinavia following their animal
food sources. Investigators theorized that this migration continued southeastward
into the Baltic region of central Europe, thus imparting the ancient Celtic population
with its uniquely dispersed pattern of settlement. Other peoples migrated into the
region from the Black Sea region as well as the Middle East; however, it is
significant to observe that some 80% of the contemporary population of Europe
owes its descent to the peoples who migrated into the continent from central Asia
around 40,000 BP, whereas, only 20% can trace its genetic lineage to the Middle
East.
In more temperate regions such as the Middle East, China, and South America
formerly arid landscapes became remarkably lush in plants and small game. Hunter
gatherers dwelling in these regions adapted to harvesting these resources out of
necessity. For example, the Natufian culture in Syria and Israel, 14.5-12000 BP, (a
new settlement has been identified at Abu Hureya in northern Syria around 13,500
BP), left in their assemblages evidence of agricultural implements such as querns,
pounders, pestles, mortars, and sickles made of bone and flint. This culture had
clearly adapted to a sedentary quasi-agricultural lifestyle. The Natufians benefited
from the fact that that cereals readily susceptible to domestication, emmer wheat,
barley, and einkorn, existed naturally in the well watered foothills of this region,
with areas of wild cereal vegetation extending in a great arc from Israel northward to
Anatolia and southeastward to the Zagros Mts. of Iran. Since these cereals tend to
yield heavier seeds and denser seed heads naturally through repeated cycles of
sowing, growing, and harvesting, their domestication through simple use was all but
inevitable. Repeated production of these cereals had the effect, moreover, of
selecting grains that exhibited less tough husks around the kernel, making the grain
more suitable to digestion and thus life supporting.
Similar evidence has emerged for rice production in China. Phytoliths (fossilized
grains) of rice have been identified in archaeological contexts dated to 13,900 BP. In
the Americas equally early evidence of human cultivation of plants such as squash is
emerging for this time period. The changing climate combined with the
disappearance of animal food sources that peoples in these regions had depended on
for millennia appear to have forced adaptations toward sowing and harvesting.
Another likely source of compulsion was the presence of growing hunter gather
populations in the vicinity, thus eliminating the time worn option of migration. In
previous millennia when wild plants and animals became scarce, foraging peoples
simply moved to new locations. Finding ways to use the land more intensively may
have been a better alternative superior to conflict with neighbors (Olson 99). The
end result appears to have been a pattern of sedentism at least in specific regions,
compelling archaeologists to reevaluate assumptions about the dawn of agriculture.
As rapidly as this era of warmer wetter climate emerged, however, climatic

conditions abruptly 'flickered" for a brief moment, reverting back to colder, drier
conditions for approximately two millennia (11,500-9000 BP). Populations of hunter
gatherers that had adapted to a more sedentary lifestyle in sensitive regions such as
China and the Middle East were compelled to transport their subsistence strategies
to adjacent areas less affected by cooler climatic conditions. Especially in areas
where precipitation levels differ appreciably over short distances -- for example,
northern Mesopotamia -- decreased annual yields of wild cereals and game animals
would have compelled cultures with unsustainable populations, such as the
Natufians, to adopt a strategy of deliberate cultivation. In essence, they carried their
newly invented agricultural technologies with them as they moved. Some have
argued that the dearth of evidence for agriculturally based sedentism during the
Younger Dryas era possibly resulted from a reversion in settlement to coastal
lowlands, where possible remains of agricultural communities now lie submerged
below the sea. The speed with which agriculture emerged with climate amelioration
after 10,000 BP suggests, nonetheless, that the Natufians and other groups retained
their knowledge of agricultural technology throughout the Younger Dryas period
and reapplied these to their respective environments as climatic conditions improved
Around 10,000 BP a very steep warming period occurred which ultimately

stabilized into the climate we know today. Weather systems changed dramatically
throughout the globe. For our purposes what was particularly noticeable was a
progressive phase of dessification that emerged, extending along an east-west axis
from the Sahara, Arabia, Mesopotamia, across northern India, central Asia, and
Mongolia. Sea levels likewise rose with sufficient rapidity to compel people settled
along coastal lowlands to move their camps and settlements to higher ground with
each succeeding generation. Violent storms and 100-year floods would have
generated storm surges of such proportions that they possibly induced traditions of
flood myths world wide. In addition, island populations became increasingly
isolated as land bridges utilized to migrate to these outlying land masses became
submerged beneath the seas.
As populations reemerged in this era their dependence on agricultural technologies

could not be more evident. Rising local populations rapidly consumed available
resources from a hunter-gatherer perspective, and the rise of neighboring
populations precluded the possibility of migrating elsewhere. In the near East
agricultural settlements such as K. Shahir, Shanidar, and the Belt Cave in the Zagros
Mts. began to extend along the highlands of the Fertile Crescent by 9000 BP. People
migrating into the eastern Sahara adapted to a hunting strategy of capturing and
domesticating Barbary sheep between 9-8000 BP. Evidence of the resumption of
rice culture in the Yellow and Yangtze River basins in China occurs around the same
time, and the adaptation to maize cultivation in Mesoamerica and bean culture in
Peru occurred only slightly later, ca. 7000 BP. Many investigators observe that the
domestication of plants and animals in the Americas was all the more remarkable,
not only because the possibility that the inhabitants acquired this technology from
without (and hence through a process of "diffusion") was non existent, but also
because the food sources harnessed by native Americans hold minimal nutritional
value in their natural state, and thus required greater manipulation. Maize for
example requires deliberate, methodical efforts at cross-pollination to generate
sufficiently large ears of corn to suffice as a food source. The emergence of
agriculture in the Americans confirms not only that the timing of this adaptation
world wide was linked to the arrival of modern climate, but also that the Native
Americans were extremely ingenious with agricultural experimentation.
The timing of this development throughout the globe and its increasingly identified
connection to global warming at the end of the Ice Age has prompted the
observation that geographical determinism played a large role in the emergence of
Neolithic cultures where they did. Eurasia, with its east-west trending geography
lying principally in the northern hemisphere, allowed for the spread of those food
resources most suitable for domestication -- cereals such as emmer wheat and
barley, and animals such as pigs, sheep, goats, cows, -- to extend along a broad band
from the Mediterranean to central Asia, this being the global area where they
naturally occurred. In fact, two thirds of the 50-60 cereals and grasses that can be
domesticated occur naturally somewhere in western Eurasia, whereas, only 6 grow
naturally in east Asia, and only 2 in Australia and South America. Of the 14
domesticable animals that survive on the globe (out of a possible 148 species), nine
resided in the Near East, whereas, only 1 (the llama) existed in south America, and
none at all in North and Central America, Australia, or sub-Saharan Africa. The
north-south trending alignment of Africa and the Americans played a role in this.
Natural and environmental barriers prevented the spread of domesticable plants and
animals along the lengths of these continents. Without human help animals simply
could not migrate across extensive environmental terrain harmful to their survival.
Moreover, from an agricultural standpoint progress in Africa and in other equatorial
climates was impeded by obstacles such as poor soil conditions (owing to a lack of
frost that selectively enforces dormancy on pests, parasites, and disease vectors and
aids in topsoil formation) and labor-crippling diseases such as malaria. From an
agricultural standpoint some regions of the globe have clearly been blessed with
greater advantages in this regard than others.
Nonetheless, the highly Eurocentric character of archaeological research should not

be allowed to disguise the fact that rising sedentism and adaptation to the
domestication of plants and animals was a global phenomenon. As the modern
climate took root, human elements worldwide were compelled to accept new
subsistence strategies entailing sedentism. In this respect the decline in climatic
variability played a formative role in the development more settled societies.
Agriculture simply could not be achieved in a Pleistocene climate characterized by
intense variability.
THE FIRST CITIES
Farming in the foothills of neighboring mountains was largely dependent on patterns

of rainfall, the limits of which tended to restrain carrying capacity. As soil nutrients
became depleted, farmers tended to move to more productive terrain, by employing
an environmentally destructive "slash and burn" strategy of land clearance. As
sedentism took root unique confluences of resource, climate, and location enabled
dense populations bordering on urban societies to develop. Two Ancient Near
Eastern communities in particular vie for the title of the earliest cities on the globe,
Jericho in Israel and Chatal Huyuk in Anatolia.
Jericho was situated below sea level in the extremely arid environment of the Dead
Sea Valley where a large spring opens onto the valley furnishing a lush environment
for wild grasses. Today it survives as a mound some 8m tall and 80m across.
Elements of the Natufian culture first saw the advantages of this site but quickly
abandoned it, probably during the coldest phase of the Younger Dryas. Around 8000
BC a permanent settlement of perhaps 12000 inhabitants developed on the site.
Although they remained predominantly hunter gatherers they clearly experimented
with agricultural production of wheat, barley, lentils, and chickpeas in the watered
vicinity of the spring. The culling of male animals from herds (as indicated by
remains of animal bones) points to the domestication of animals as well. The scale
of this site and evidence of imported wealth (obsidian, turquoise, cowrie shells)
clearly set Jericho apart from other communities emerging throughout the region.
Their wealth and prosperity apparently earned the inhabitants unwelcome attention.
Before 7000 BC they constructed a massive wall around their town some 3m wide at
base, 4m tall, and 215m in circumference. At one end of the bastion stood a tower
three stories tall. Surrounding the wall was a moat 9m wide and 10 ft deep.
Although some have argued that the purpose of these structures was flood control,
the location of this wealthy settlement, situated as it was along one of the main
migration routes of the Ancient near East, appears to exposed it to repeated attacks
of invaders, compelling its inhabitants to engage in the massive defensive
construction that have survived. (Olson, 97)
Chatal Huyuk (7300-6200 BC) survives as a mound some 32 acres broad situated
on the flat plain of the Anatolian plateau about 30km south of modern day Konya.
To sustain themselves the estimate 5000-6000 inhabitants practiced cereal farming
and sheep and goat herding as well as hunting in nearby plains. They constructed
flat-roofed mud brick houses in tightly arranged circular rows that possibly offered a
means of defense. Access to the houses was obtained through apertures adjacent
roofs. Evidence of stone knapping seems to have been ubiquitous throughout the
site, indicating that the inhabitants fashioned blades and tools from obsidian
obtained from nearby mountains. Since these artifacts have emerged in
archaeological assemblages as far removed as Israel, this activity seems to have
played a formative role in the development of this community. Most significant
among the archaeological findings is the widespread evidence of religion inside the
dwellings. Clay figurines of female goddesses call to mind the Venus figurines of
Gravettian culture. A shrine adorned with bulls' heads points to the existence of
organized cultic activity.
Jericho and Chatal Huyuk offer crucial signposts to the transitions underway in
Neolithic cultures. Sedentism and domestication of plants and animals enabled
societies to develop into food producers as opposed to food gatherers. Food
production inevitably led to surpluses capable of sustaining populations through
fallow winter months; stable food supplies also enabled populations (or some
elements thereof) to focus on activities unrelated to food production, such as

obsidian production for export purposes at Chatal Huyuk. Other innovations such as
weaving, ceramic production (wheel turned pottery by 6000 BC, metallurgy (copper
tools by 5000 BC), rapidly followed. Theorists argue that several additional
cognitive and physiological innovations occurred during this transition as well.
Since a family of four consumes essentially a metric ton of grain/year the need for
food storage facilities became similarly important and possibly helped to stimulate
concepts of ownership and private property. Similarly settled agricultural existence
arguably altered gender roles. Abundant food supplies and sedentary lifestyles
possible raised levels of female body fat, thus shortening the time between
pregnancies. Since increased pregnancies produced more labor for farm work this
change was probably viewed as advantageous by emerging farmers. However, the
evidence also indicates that it led to higher overall maternal mortality.
It remains important to recognize that the Neolithic Revolution marks a transitional

phase in human existence, not an era. It occurred first in the highlands of
Mesopotamia c. 9000-7000 BC. The technology then radiated outward to
neighboring regions. It did not occur on the Nile River in Egypt until c. 5000 BC.
The Indus/ Ganges River cultures adapted to agriculture c. 7-6000 BC, the Yangtze
(Yellow) River settlements in (China) devised a rice-based agricultural technology
independently c. 5000 BC. Rise of agriculture in Britain did not occur until 2000
BC; in Australia, 1000 AD. In South America, Neolithic culture emerged totally in
isolation by 5000 BC. The date of this development would seem to point to
necessity (possibly as a result of climate change) as the engine to human adaptation
to agricultural technology world wide before 5000 BC. Bronze metallurgy arose by
3500 BC. Bronze Tools, in turn, facilitated riverine cultures consisting of large
dense settlements
USEFUL BIBLIOGRAPHY
AL Bloom, Geomorphology a Systematic Analysis of Late Cenozoic Landforms

(Prentice Hall, 1998
W. J. Burroughs, Climate Change in Prehistory: The End of the Reign of Chaos.

Cambridge, 2005
J. Diamond, Guns, Germs, and Steel, The Fates of Human Societies, ny, Norton,
1997
Steve Olson, Mapping Human History: Genes, Race and our Common origins:
Boston, NY, Houghton Mifflin/mariner, 2003
R. J. Wenke, Patterns in prehistory. Humankind's First 3 Million Years. 4th ed.,

Oxford, 1999

Human Prehistory

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4/14/2019 CHAPTER 3: HUMAN PREHISTORY

CWC PRIMER CHAPTER 3: HUMAN PREHISTORY

CHRONOLOGY and THEMES: Paleolithic Era c. 6.5 million BP-9,000 Before

climatological evidence to the current debate regarding global warming

SPECIES FOSSILS DNA PROXIMITY TO HUMANS

Many attributes that primates hold in common with humans -- including

manufacture, emerging social formations based on extended clans, hunting bands,

(Ice Ages) see below

SIDEBAR; ARCHAEOLOGY OF THE ICE AGE

Migrations of Homo sapiens

DNA analysis indicates

Through analysis of mitochondrial DNA obtained from females of various ethnic

Map of the Last Glacial Maximum

The Emergence of Human Settlements

lifestyles for several modern human populations. In Europe north of the

As rapidly as this era of warmer wetter climate emerged, however, climatic

Around 10,000 BP a very steep warming period occurred which ultimately

As populations reemerged in this era their dependence on agricultural technologies

Nonetheless, the highly Eurocentric character of archaeological research should not

THE FIRST CITIES

Farming in the foothills of neighboring mountains was largely dependent on patterns

elements thereof) to focus on activities unrelated to food production, such as

It remains important to recognize that the Neolithic Revolution marks a transitional

AL Bloom, Geomorphology a Systematic Analysis of Late Cenozoic Landforms

W. J. Burroughs, Climate Change in Prehistory: The End of the Reign of Chaos.

R. J. Wenke, Patterns in prehistory. Humankind's First 3 Million Years. 4th ed.,

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