The Evolution of Humans and the Paleolithic Era

When did the first humans appear?

What’s different about

humans?

How did humans live

in the Paleolithic?

Middle School WorkshopsSession 2Craig Benjamin

WHG Era 1 – The Beginnings of Human Society: Beginnings to

4000 B.C.E./B.C.• basic features and differences between hunter-gatherer societies

and pastoral nomads• Analyze and explain the - Geographic- Environmental- Biological- and cultural processes that influenced the rise of the earliest

human communities, the migration and spread of people throughout the world, and the causes and consequences of the growth of agriculture.

W1.1 Peopling of the EarthDescribe the spread of people in

the Western Hemisphere in Era 1.• In the first era people spread throughout the world. As

communities of hunters, foragers, or fishers, they adapted creatively and continually to a variety of contrasting, changing environments in the Americas.

6 – W1.1.1 Describe the early migrations of people among Earth’s continents (including the Berringa Land Bridge)

6 – W1.1.2 Examine the lives of hunting and gathering people during the earliest eras of human society (tools and weapons, language, fire).

Pt. 1: What’s different about humans?

• The key difference:– An enhanced ability to ‘adapt’

• All living creatures ‘adapt’ to their environments, but:– Humans adapt much faster than any other creature– Humans adapt so fast they start creating new

environments– Humans adapt faster than is possible through

‘natural selection’

Why do humans ‘adapt’ so much more effectively?

• ‘Natural Selection’ is one way of adapting

• ‘Learning’ is a second way of ‘adapting’

– Animals with brains can ‘adapt’ during their lifetimes

Mouse learning to run a maze

• But Animals cannot share most of what they learn with others, so:- Most of what they learn is lost when they die-Each individual has to start from scratch

So learning does not accumulate from generation to generation!

What’s different about humans? A third way of adapting

• Symbolic language is the key:– Imagine a lecture given only in mime– Words are symbols that can convey

much more information about • Things that are not present [e.g. Africa]

• Things in the past or future [e.g. next Christmas]

• Things that don’t exist [e.g. pink elephants]

• Words can convey complex information precisely [e.g. how to make a bow and arrow]

Symbolic Language• Allows humans to share what they learn

with other humans– In detail– With precision

• So learning is – shared and pooled and– accumulates from generation to generation

• Over time, humans learn more and more ways of adapting to their environment

• This is why they adapt more successfully than any other large animal on earth

Human History v.Natural History

Collective Learning• In Human history, collective

learning supercedes natural selection

• Culture takes over from Genes

• So– ‘NATURAL HISTORY’ is

based on genetic change– ‘HUMAN HISTORY’ is based

on cultural change (sometimes called ‘Memetics’)

Pt. 2: How did humans acquire symbolic language?

• Explaining the origins of human language is difficult– Because language leaves no direct archaeological

evidence• We don’t yet have a full explanation• We know that:

– Preconditions accumulated

slowly, over millions of years

(e.g. large brains)

– Symbolic language proper

appeared quickly, within the

last 50,000 years

How much linguistic ability do apes have?

• Chimps have perhaps 30 different calls

Kanzai, a Bonobo Chimpanzee, learning to ‘speak’,using ‘tokens’

• Some have been taught to the level of a 2-year old child

But chimps are not capable of ‘collective learning’

• They cannot store new ideas efficiently• So, chimp behavior has not changed much in

the last 100,000 years• i.e. their ‘history’, like all other animals, was

governed by– Natural Selection, not by

Collective Learning

– By Genetic Change, rather than Cultural Change

What makes the difference? Brain size and structure?

What’s inside your head!

Large brains are vital for symbolic languageBUT: Evolving very large brains is hard, which is why few species have them

What’s the problem with large brains?

The downside of large brains

• Big brains demand lots of energy– The human brain is only 3% of our weight– But demands 20% of the energy we use

• Big brains mean that babies are very dependent– It takes time for brains to develop the wiring

necessary for children to function well

• Big brains make birth difficult

• No wonder large brained species are rare!

Brains, Primates and Hominines• Very roughly, brain size correlates with brain power• Primates have larger brains for body size than most

mammals• Hominines have even larger brains for body size

– Chimp brains, c. 300-400 cc– Australopithecines: c. 380-450 cc– Homo habilis: c. 600-800 cc– Homo erectus/ergaster: c. 850-1,000 cc– Homo sapiens: c. 1,350 cc

Brains evolved rapidly in the last 200,000 years

Neanderthal skull Human skull

Neanderthals appeared more than 200,000 years ago, mainly in Europe and W. Asia.

Their brains may have been larger than those of modern humans

Modern Reconstruction

Does this mean Neanderthals were capable of ‘collective learning’?

• They ‘adapted’ better than earlier hominines– They had brains as large as ours– Their stone tools were more sophisticated

than those of other hominines– They migrated into ice age lands– They used improved hunting technologies

• But – They probably had limited language ability– They adapted less successfully than modern humans– They died out: the last Neanderthals perished in the

S. of France about 30,000 years ago

Approximate geographical range of Neandertals, 100,000-28,000 BCE

Approximate geographical range of Homo sapiens by 28,000 BCE

Comparing the range of Neanderthals and modern Humans

Range of Neanderthals

Range of modernHumans by 28,000 years ago

The problem: brain organization is as important as brain size

Broca’s area

Tiny changes in the wiring may have made all the difference

How did modern humans acquire language?

• Our best guess: – Recent research suggests one or two ‘language

genes’ may make the difference

• Allopatric speciation may have kicked in:– In isolated populations, evolutionary change can occur

rapidly [allopatric speciation]

• The key changes:– Slight changes in brain structure– May have given some individuals linguistic skills– That enabled them to survive much better than others– So their genes rapidly spread– To create a new species: Homo sapiens

Pt. 3: African Genesis: The Appearance of Homo Sapiens

• There is still some debate about where and when humans evolved, but this is the best current story:

• Genetic evidence: Comparing the genes of humans today shows:– We are very similar genetically, so we probably had a

common ancestor about 250,000 years ago– Greatest genetic diversity is in Africa, so that is

probably where we evolved

• Archaeological evidence: African remains of early humans and their artifacts suggest that:– Our common ancestors lived in Africa– For the first 100,000 years of their existence

Early Archaeological evidence of Collective Learning?

McBrearty & Brooks, ‘The Revolution that wasn’t’, 2000

Improved stone tools

Pigments imply symbolic language

Shellfish: new lifeways

Exchanges of information

New materials, new techniques

At first, changes in technology were slow.

After about 100,000 years ago, the pace of change began to increase.

Evidence appears from about that time of humans in east, central, and southern Africa

How did collective learning change human culture?

for example, Blombos Cave

making more advanced and varied tools

experimenting with body decoration and abstract symbols.

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.

Photos: Arizona State University, College of Liberal Arts and Scienceshttp://clasdean.la.asu.edu/news/images/bone/

View looking out of Blombos Cave to the Indian Ocean

Bone points from the cave

Ochre piece with scrapemarks. A person may havescraped the ochre to get powder to use to makebody paint.

Blombos Cavec. 90,000 years ago

Pt. 4: Accelerating Change:The last 100,000 years

• From c. 100,000 years ago evidence of change gets clearer

• Collective learning is leading to increasing skills and increasing ability to adapt

irving.lps.org/.../ Paleo/pages

Migrations demonstrate increased ability to adapt

ChimpChimprangerange

Range ofRange ofEarly humansEarly humans

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’Arcin southern France. The image is about 31,000 years old. (http://www.culture.gouv.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.)

More rapid technological and cultural change

An early calendar?

Engraved mammoth tusk

c. 25,000 years old

Czech Republic

Lascaux, France

(c. 13,000 years ago)

Clovis points: N. America from c. 11,500 years ago

Mastodon hunting, 10,000 ys ago: What these points were used for?

Museum of Anthropology, Mexico City

A dangerous speciesOur impact on other species?

• As humans migrated into more and more environments, they displaced– other species of hominines (e.g. Neanderthals), and – other types of animals

• Driving them to extinction

Our arrival marks a fundamental turning point in the history of life on earth!

Pt. 5: The‘Paleolithic Era of Human History’• Literally, the ‘Old Stone Age’

– i.e. technologies dominated by stone tools

• Paleolithic Era of human history: C. 200,000- c. 10,000 years ago

• Often neglected in World History, but• It is when we were formed as a species

– It is when we became what we are

• It is the foundation of World History, so we have much to learn by studying it closely– Everything else in history starts here

• It includes c. 95% of human history!

Main events of the Paleolithic Era

• Climatic Changes: the Ice Ages

• Extensification, i.e.:–Spread of humans around the world as they develop

–New technologies for new environments

: climate.uvic.ca/.../ afanning-glaciation.html

Climatic Changes

• In the last million years, there have been – Regular ‘Ice Ages’

– Each lasting c. 100,000 years

– With warmer ‘interglacials’ lasting c. 10,000 years in between

• The last ice age began c. 110,000 years ago– The last ‘interglacial’ began c. 11,500 years ago

– We’re overdue for a new ice age!

Ice-sheets during the last Ice Age

Looking Down the Fox Glacier

Extensification

1. an increase in the range of humans, without

2. any parallel increase in the average size or density of human communities, and

3. consequently, with little increase in the complexity of human societies

i.e.: there’s a lot going on in the Paleolithic even if we don’t see any cities or

governments

‘Extensification’ II

• Collective learning is evident in– New tools and technologies– Art– Migrations

• New technologies allowed humans to settle in new environments

• So human populations grew

• But the size and complexity of human communities did not increase

www.museums.org.za/ sam

Some of the major changes:

• Desert technologies—arid regions

• Forest technologies—forest regions

• Sea-going technologies—sea crossing

• Cold-region technologies (fire, improved hunting techniques, tailoring)—zones affected by ice age glaciation

New technologies for new environments

Migrations: Adapting within Africa

Learning to live in deserts

Learning to live in tropical forests

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The Main ‘Event’ of the Paleolithic: New technologies allowed Global Migrations

from 100,000 BP

Chimprange

Range ofEarly humans

60,000 Ys agoSea-going technologies

40,000 Ys agoNew hunting techniques; adaptations to cold

13,000 Ys agoMany new technologies required

Pt. 6: How did people live in the Paleolithic

Era?• We have no written evidence and no names for 95%

of human history:• What evidence is available?

– Archaeological Remains:• Bones• Tools• Living sites

– Analogies with modern societies most like Paleolithic societies

– But both forms of evidence can be misleading

‘Foraging’ as a way of living• Foraging means

– gathering foodstuffs and other needed materials from the environment

• Foragers need a large territory to support themselves• So populations were

small• Foragers live in

– Tiny, family-sized groups from 10-50 people in size

– Sometimes splitting into smaller groups

– Sometimes meeting in larger groups

www.museums.org.za Rock painting of San Hunter-Gatherers

Living in small groups:Do it yourself!

• There was no government to take care of things

• Everything had to be done within the family– Most people met less than

500 people in their lives– Family was ‘society’– Justice, education, eating,

ceremonies, all took place in small groups

Aboriginal ‘family’ groupmigrating in Central Australia

www.artsci.wustl.edu

Living in

small groups

• Gift-giving was a vital way of holding groups together• Ceremonies were equally vital• Contacts with neighboring groups were made at regular meetings

and rituals, where– gifts and information were swapped and – marriages made

• Justice was personal– No police meant ‘Do-it-yourself’ justice

Apache Ritualwww.dam.brown.edu

Do-it-your-self death penalties: Justice among the ‘San’

‘Twi had killed three other people, when the community, in a rare move of unanimity, ambushed and fatally wounded him in full daylight. As he lay dying, all the men fired at him with poisoned arrows until, in the words of one informant, ‘he looked like a porcupine.’ Then, after he was dead, all the women as well as the men approached his body and stabbed him with spears, symbolically sharing the responsibility for his death.’

Would you do the same if a murderer was on the loose and there were no police and no courts?

The importance of large gatherings

• Where resources were plentiful (eg Bogong moths)• Foragers gathered for periodic meetings (e.g.

‘corroborrees’), at which:– Gifts were exchanged

– Marriages were made

– People moved from group to group

– Ideas were exchanged

– Rituals were held and games played

• Paleolithic equivalents of Parliaments or the Olympic Games!

www.hockin.org/ ~thockin/australia/

Foraging ‘technologies’

• To modern eyes, foraging technologies appear simple

• But to live from them, you need immensely detailed knowledge of your environment

• And a very wide range of skills

What would I need to survive as a Paleolithic

forager?

Living in cold climates in the recent past

Inuit hunting whales from ‘kayaks’ & ‘umiaks’: Special clothing, special equipmentPainting from the 1830s

Living in cold climates: Mezhirich: Ukraine, 20,000 BP

A mammoth bone house

Bone needle with an ornamental head, probably used to fasten garments, found at the Mezhirich site.

Stone Age tools; and

hafted stone axes

‘San’ hunters of the KalahariCould you survive by hunting and gathering?

‘San’ Cave paintings:

E. Zimbabwe

These paintings are thousands of years old

They show scenes from the daily life of the San

Paleolithic ideas about the world

• Foragers lived very close to nature– And thought of themselves as part of the natural world

– Many believed that their spirits would return in the form of other animals or natural features of the landscape

– They believed in a world full of spirits of many different kinds

• Such ideas made up the ‘science’ and ‘religion’ of foraging societies

Mammoth bone figure from Dolni Vestonice,

c. 26,000 BP

What does it mean?

Did such figures have ritual or magical significance?

We don’t really know!

Triple Burialat Dolni

Vestonice, c. 26,000 BP

Awareness of an ‘after life’?

Did Paleolithic foragers live

well? ‘Living Standards’

• The traditional view: their lives were ‘nasty, brutish and short’

• Modern views: their lives were– More egalitarian than ours (no states, no jails)– Healthy (fewer diseases, good, varied food)– Less stressful (more leisure, less pressure, strong sense of

community)• Was the Paleolithic ‘the original affluent society’?

[Marshall Sahlins]

1. Firestick farming

Australian aborigines ‘fired’ the land to increase productivity for perhaps 60,000 years

By doing so, they transformed the landscapes & environment of an entire continent

‘Fire-stick farming’ was also practiced by foragers in Eurasia and the Americas

Paleolithic Impacts on the World?

2. ‘Megafaunal Extinctions’

• As hunting and foraging techniques improved, many large animals were driven to extinction

• Large animals reproduce slowly and often have small populations so they are very vulnerable

• Rates were highest in the newly colonized lands of Siberia, Australia and the Americas

Silhouettes of Australian Megafauna

c. 60 species of Australian megafauna went extinct after humans arrived

‘Homo neanderthalis’ & the species that drove it to extinction

Neanderthal skull Human skull

Paleolithic Impacts

• So, even in the Paleolithic era

• Humans had a significant impact on

– Plant life

– Landscapes

– Other species of animals

Conclusion: Collective Learning in the Paleolithic Era

• Change was slow:– Change seems almost imperceptible to us

– Small populations and small communities slowed the accumulation of ‘collective learning’

• But there was lots of change nevertheless:– Many new technologies were developed

– Humans ‘adapted’ to many new niches by constructing new technologies

– Humans spread around the world

See you all after the break!