INTRODUCTION OF EARLY MAN

M an

like other animals, is a product of organic evolution. He is the

mostintelligent vertebrate on this planet. The supremacy of man is mainly

due tothe evolution of his hand and his brain. Recent discoveries support
origin ofman from apes. The early stages of human evolution are studied by
means ofcomparative study of fossils. Later stages are studied using the
archaeologicalinvestigations. Human beings belong to a group of mammals
called primateswhich also includes tarsiers, lemurs, monkeys and apes.
Charles Darwin in hisbook The descent of man, suggested that man and
apes had a commonancestor. About 25-30 million years age ape and man
stalk diverged from that of monkeys and subsequent separation of apes and
human ancestors occurred5-10 million years ago.
The first humans originated in Africa. They later migrated to Europe, Asia
and Australia. Eventually, early humans reached North and South America.
The primary form of government was anarchy, whereby there were no rules,
laws or leaders. The focus was on survival and people did whatever they
had to do in order to live.
The first humans believed that everything in nature had a spirits. Whether
it was a rock, blade of grass or tree, it possessed a spirit. They often used
cave paintings to worship these spirits so that they could provide them with
food and shelter.

EARLY MAN WEAPONS AND TOOLS

Humankind has successfully survived because within our cultures we use many
different types of tools. Tools are used all of the time by peoples living everywhere
on Earth. Some types of tools are quite ordinary, but many are amazingly
unexpected. Humans are not the only creatures which use tools. Birds build nests,
and nests are tools. Chimpanzees chew leaves and then use the partly chewed leaves
to soak up water to drink; the leaves are tools. Gorillas "fish" for ants using a twig;
the twig is a tool. So, what is a tool, anyway?
Tools can be incredibly simple; such as a rock used to crush seeds. Some tools are
incredibly complex; consider the computer used to write these words into sentences.
There are some tools that are not immediately obvious as being tools; like clothing,
blankets, shelters and houses and fire.Often tools must be used to skin the hide from a
deer, which is sewn together using an awl and sinew thread to make clothing.
Consider the saw which cuts the wood, which is hammered into place as a house is
built. The knife, awl, sinew thread, hammer and saw are all tools used to fabricate
other tools like clothing and shelter. All of these tools have been modified and
manipulated to make work and survival easier.
The earliest tools were crudely chipped stones used by early humans, living in Africa,
about 2 million years ago. Those crude stones, modified into tools, were used to
make work and survival easier. Eventually, because tools had become more complex,
the skill of tool making became necessary and, through experimentation, stone tools
were further modified and made more efficient and intricate.As the knowledge and
science of toolmaking expanded the toolmakers began to invent tools designed to suit
a particular job or need. This succession of tool use, tool modification, tool making
and tool invention and deign to suit a job required much time (2 million years),
experimentation and invention to occur. In the end humans were using tools in every
aspect of life and survival.
The "People" had seven technological systems based on the different material
available as resources: stone, wood, plant and fiber, basketry, pottery, bone-hornantler and hide.Stone working made tools for processing seeds and other plant parts,
for cutting wood, shredding plant fibers, incising and polishing bone-horn-antler and
cutting and scraping hides. Various types of stone had properties which allowed them
to be flaked, pecked or ground.
For stone to be fashioned into a useful tool it must be hard, tough and of a smooth,
fine-grained consistency. Flint, chert, jasper, chalcedony, agate and obsidian are all
types of stone which are solid, but have the property of a cooled, heavy liquid which
is also somewhat elastic and free of flaws and cracks. These particular types of stone
were the most frequently used for tools because they have a fine-grained consistency
and behave like glass, and will break along a controlled line, rather than crumbling as
will granite. Breaking along a controlled line meant that a toolmaker could break off
flakes that were razor-sharp.
By working these assorted kinds of stone with various techniques many different tools
were fashioned. The finer-grained the stone, the flatter and more leaf-like the flakes
that could be chipped loose from it.

EARLY MAN ORNAMENTS

Jewelry in its most basic form has been used since the dawn of of man, in conjunction
with the earliest-know use of both clothing, and tools. Evidence of the first humans
dates back some 6 to 7 million years, based on a recently discovered skull that was
found in the Central African country of Chad. These first humans were nicknamed the
"Touma," but very little is known of their lives.
Until recently, researchers had believed that the ability to use/appreciate symbolism
did not develop until humans had migrated to the continent of Europe some 35,000 to
40,000 years ago, but it now appears as though the spark of creativity was ignited far
earlier than previously believed.
Before written language, or the spoken word, there was jewelry. In the late 1800s,
British archaeologist Archibald Campbell Carlyle said of primitive man "the first
spiritual want of a barbarous man is decoration" [2]. More than just a curio from the
past, jewelry, like art, is a window into the soul of humanity, and a poignant reminder
of that which separates humankind from the animal kingdom a desire to capture
the essence of beauty, to posses its secrets, and to unlock its mysteries.
The first jewelry was made from readily available natural materials including animal
teeth, bone, various types of shells, carved stone and wood. It is believed that jewelry
started out as a functional item used to fasten articles of clothing together, and was
later adapted for use as an object for purely aesthetic ornamentation, or for use as a
spiritual and religious symbol.
The first gemstones were probably "gathered" in much the same manner as was food.
It is likely that gems were found inadvertently at first, maybe while searching for food
by picking through gem-bearing alluvial gravels in a dry river-bead. What must these
primitive humans have thought of these dazzeling, yet seemingly useless objects
harder than any other naturally-occurring material, and capturing/possessing the
warmth of fire, the brilliance of the sun, or the blueness of the sea and sky.
The earliest signs of crude metallurgy occurred over 10,000 years ago, when humans
first began using native copper, meteoric iron, silver and tin to create tools and
possibly even jewelry ornamentation. Copper awls that date back to around 7,000 BC
have been found on the Anatolia plateau of eastern Turkey. The tools were found at
the "pre-pottery" Neolithic Site of ayn Tepesi near the upper Tigris River valley,
and the copper appears to have been mined from an ore deposit at Ergani Maden,
some 20 km away .These first crude attempts at metalworking appeared to be lest than
successful, as the native copper was not annealed (hardened) using cold-hammering,
but was instead hammered using pyrotechnology, or the controlled use of fire. The
first alloying of metal to make bronze was not developed until around 3,500 BC,
ushering in the "Bronze Age."Unfortunately, the oldest evidence of written language
dates back to around 3,000 BC, so the motives, customs and practices of Stone Age
humans is subject to interpretation, and vast amounts of speculation. Human behavior
was documented in petroglyphs (cave drawings) that are 10,000 to 12,000 years old,
but these pictographs are very basic, and their "meaning" is not fully understood.

Early Humans Life

In early days, human life was very hard. They spent their life in caves, wrap
animal skin and tree leaves over their body and hunt animals for food. With
time, they discovered many good things like fire, tools, farming etc. that made
their life better than earlier. But these changes in early humans life had taken a
very long time. Through Early Human's Life' educational series, we are trying
to take some snapshots of efforts made by early humans to become civilized.

Early Human's Life

Today, we live a better life in concrete flats and facilitated with TV, Video, schools and
colleges; have variety of nutritional foods, and better means of communication and
transportation. But can you imagine a life without such facilities for us? A life where there is no
big society, no house to live, no good food, no clothes to wear etc. How does it feel to listen?
Yes, you are right. We are talking about the wild life. And this was the life of none other than
our ancestors (Early man) who used to live in jungle and lived a very hard life.

Life style and food of early humans:

Early humans lived in jungle and were afraid of bigger and stronger wild animals. Earlier they
had no house to live in and they spend their time on the trees or hide themselves behind the
bushes. But it could provide them security from wild animals, rain, winter and sun heat. So,
they started living in caves.
As food and clothes is the basic necessity of humans, they started wrapping tree leaves and
animal skin over their body to protect themselves from cold and heat. But they needed food
also to live. They do not know how to grow crops in fields and finding food was not easy. In
search of food, they had to go from one place to another. Earlier, they used to eat fruits from
tree or roots of plants. Then they started hunting animals for food.

Discovery of Fire:
Early humans ate raw flesh as they did not know how to cook their food. They had seen broken
out fire in jungle severally, but did not know how to make it and how they could use it. Rather,
they were afraid of it like animals. With time, they felt that they could use it for keeping
themselves warm in winter. But making fire was really a big problem. So, they decided to keep
jungle fire burning and started to adding dry grass or leaves to it. But it was not a permanent
solution.
One day, they saw sparks coming out from rubbing stones who were rolling down from the
hills or some other way and got idea to make fire by rubbing two stones. This was really a great
discovery as now they were able to make fire whenever required. With time, they learnt other
uses of fire too. They found that they can light up their caves and protect their family from cold
and wild animals using fire. They also came to know that the roasted food is much softer than
raw one and also tastier to eat and this was the beginning of cooked food.

In this article, we discussed about hard life of early humans and their efforts to make it more
comfortable. We explored the ways he invented tools, fire and searched better place to live in.
In our next article, we shall discuss some more very interesting discoveries by early human and
the expected ways he explored them. We shall also discuss his efforts to be more cultured and
what make him social in behavior.

CAVES
Human occupation of caves dates to some time within the Paleolithic period (2
million to 10,000 years ago) of the Stone Age, when early hominids first began to
create and use stone tools. This period also saw the evolution of the human species
into true modern humans, Homo sapiens. Caves were obvious natural shelters for
early humans, offering effective protection from the elements. However, scientists
theorize that before early humans would have been able to safely live in caves, they
would have needed fire-making skills in order to drive out cave-dwelling predators
and keep others at a distance outside. Chinese caves contain some of the earliest
evidence of human use of fire, approximately 400,000 years ago, though scientists
believe that the earliest use of fire may have occurred about 100,000 years before that.
As archaeological sites, caves have enormous scientific potential because they usually
provide ideal conditions for preservation of normally perishable materials such as
bones, textiles, baskets, and charcoal. Such materials can be dated using C-14 or K-Ar
dating methods, which use radioactive isotope proportions to establish age. Some
caves document a continuous or intermittent sequence of human occupation for
thousands or even hundreds of thousands of years. Accurately dated cave materials
can also help archaeologists to establish dates for non-cave archaeological sites and
artifacts within the same region. In this sense, caves can be viewed as prehistoric
"time capsules" for a given area. Unfortunately, commercially valuable cave artifacts
are often looted by unethical collectors before archaeologists have an opportunity to
study the finds.
Some of the earliest and most spectacular evidence of human artistic expression has
been found in caves, most notably in Spain and France; cave wall paintings and
engravings depict animals, geometric designs, and occasional human figures. One of
the best known art caves in the world is Lascaux in France, though the Cave of
Chauvet-Pont-d'Arc is the oldest of these cave-art sites, dating back 31,000 years.
Some coastal caves occupied by humans during the Ice Age are now flooded and
difficult to locate because of the worldwide rise in sea level since that time. However,
coastal caves are the ideal places in which to search for evidence of early maritime
cultures. For example, archaeologists exploring France's Cosquer Cave, along the
Mediterranean Sea and now 37 m below sea level, discovered rare depictions of
marine mammals and birds, including seals, auks, and penguins. In Daisy Cave along
California's Santa Barbara Channel, artifacts date human use of the area to around
11,600 years ago and provide the earliest evidence yet for utilization of watercraft in
the Americas. Caves have also been used for religious and ceremonial purposes for
thousands of years. Some of the earliest Buddhist temples and shrines are in Chinese
caves that are still in use today. Feather Cave on BLM lands in New Mexico was used
for ceremonial purposes and contains paintings of masks and other ceremonial
artifacts.
EARLY MAN HUNTING

Hunting has a long history and may well pre-date the rise of the Homo sapiens.
Studies carried out on the early humans fossils, artefacts, fossil bones of animals that
co-existed with the early humans show that for the most part our earliest Hominid
ancestors were probably frugivore (chiefly fruit-eating) or omnivore (eating both
animal and plant foods). Scientific evidence shows that the early Homo, and possibly
Australopithecine species used large animals for subsistence.
Hunting is the practice of tracking and pursuing living animals (usually wildlife) for
food, recreation, or trade. In present-day use, the species which are hunted are
referred to as game and are usually mammals and migratory or non-migratory gamebirds. The pursuit, capture and release, or capture for food of fish is called fishing,
which is not commonly referred to as a form of hunting.
Excavations by archaeologists and palaeontologists at the areas where early humans
lived has yielded evidence on the early mans way of life. From the fossil bones of
early humans and animals, and the sediments excavated in this archaeological sites
scientists have been able to deduce the period in time that the early humans lived, how
they interacted with the environment, the animals that lived there, the tools they used,
what they ate, how they got their food, and the climatic conditions they faced in their
time. It is possible to recreate early mans life.
The Olorgesailie region, in southern Kenya has been a region of study by the
Smithsonian Institution in conjunction with the Department of Earth Sciences at the
National Museums of Kenya for many years. In one of their excavations the
Smithsonian team discovered a site which has come to be known as the elephant
butchery site in a layer dated 990,000 years old. At this site, they found more than
2300 stone artefacts were found surrounding the bones of an extinct elephant, Elephas
recki. Many of the artefacts were sharp flakes, which could have been used to remove
flesh from the elephant, as shown by cut marks on one of the elephants ribs, and
some of the vertebrae. The excavators extended their search to nearby areas, where
they found a few tools at first but eventually found other butchery sites of zebra and
an antelope. This is evidence that the early humans hunted and butchered animals for
meat and their nutritious bone marrow.
Hunting was a necessary activity of early humans. Throughout the palaeolithic period
it was their chief means of obtaining food and hide for clothing before the
domestication of livestock and the dawn of agriculture. In the Neolithic period, when
agriculture developed, hunting was still important. The early mans hunting
techniques included the use of wooden or stone projectile spears which were thrown
at the intended prey to fell it. About 50,000 years ago modern humans developed
sophisticated hunting techniques (such as trapping pits or driving animals off cliffs).
As human culture advanced, different populations of humans introduced novelty to
existing technologies: artefacts such as fish hooks. The early man hunted many
animals which are now extinct species of waterbuck, hartebeest, springbok,
pig,caribou, zebra, antelopes and hippopotamus.
While it is undisputed that the early humans were hunters, the importance of this fact
for the final steps in the emergence of the Homo genus out of earlier
Australopithecines, with its bipedalism and production of stone tools, and eventually
also control of fire, are emphasized in the hunting hypothesis, and de-emphasized in
scenarios that stress the omnivore status of humans as their recipe for success, and

social interaction, including mating behaviour as essential in the emergence of

language and culture.
In palaeoanthropology, the hunting hypothesis postulates that human evolution was
primarily influenced by the activity of hunting for relatively large and fast animals,
and that the activity of hunting distinguished human ancestors from other primates.
Advocates of the hunting hypothesis tend to believe that tool use and toolmaking
essential to effective hunting were an extremely important part of human evolution,
and trace the origin of language and religion to a hunting context.
EARLY AGRICULTURE
Anciant man ate the seed without knowing what the seeds were finally realized, but
that if the seed fell, and began planting crops grown gardens. The desire to have
solved quite excited, instead of increasing stimulus solution. In any case, do not have
to emigrate, with a garden big enough, at best, and build permanent housing. Instead
of following the herd, as some had done, began breeding. Per 10,000 bC, the man had
spread into virtually every habitable places on earth.
In the northern hemisphere back from 10,000 to 8000, the last of the continental
glacier. When the glaciers back, began to replace agriculture in small steps, the culture
of hunting. In an area called the Fertile Crescent, hunter-gatherers camped next to the
fields of wild wheat or barley and wheat. It was the game - like gazelles. Soon they
were planting gardens to supplement their hunting. In the year 7000 BC the sowing of
seeds has become an important source of food. They began farming and raising
livestock on farms and anchored to one place. Agriculture was also developing
elsewhere. It spread to Greece. Developed around 6000 BC, in agriculture as an
independent between hunter-gatherers in southern Mexico.
In North Africa at the headwaters of the Nile, the people were always sorghum, millet
and wheat. 5,500 were men in crops in China. In 4500 was the agricultural sector
from Greece to Central Europe, which have been in 4000 BC, people spread with a
wooden plow. For the year 4500, agriculture was again in sub-Saharan Africa in the
Niger Basin in the west. The Sahara was then grass and forest with abundant rainfall,
rivers, lakes, fish and aquatic life. The people there were arable and sheep, goats and
cattle.
Agriculture created to eat more food and more to more people as possible. More
people kept rural communities to the brink of inadequate nutrition. And farmers
dependent on the type that they were hunters and gatherers who are free of drought,
more wildlife to areas with drift and foodstuffs. Domesticated plants are susceptible to
the ravages of insects, so that wild plants do not. Archaeologists have the bones of
children in agricultural societies more symptoms of malnutrition than those who have
found life as hunters and gatherers, and the average height of the early farming
community was established less than the hunters and gatherers.
Farmers knew enough about the fertility associated with sex. They believed that their
gods of sex, the father and the mother of God created copulates created with his son
and daughter of the gods and men and women in their areas as a religious ritual,

suggests that their gods must grow their crops. When growing seasons went, people
saw their god of fertility and the dead, and if the growing season have been returned
to their god for increases - since the beginning of the resurrection as an approach. One
of the gods worshiped by the Greeks Adonis. Adonis was believed their annual death
with the goddess Persephone in Hades Pass - also known as hell. Every year when the
growing season was again seen to be resurrected, and was believed to be living in
blissful union with the fertility goddess of love Aphrodite. In agricultural societies has
been unfortunate, explains how the work of angry gods, and the first farmers were
willing to please the gods by gifts that they could. It was believed that someone is
killed or sent to an animal, the child, in the spirit form of the invisible world of gods.
People saw the dispatch of one or more members of the groups to the gods, like a
good deal to the extent that the survival of a company serves. Or someone could be
killed, who had been kidnapped abroad any prisoners of war - the solution to the
problem of what happens to a prisoner of war, which would otherwise rely for the
supply of valuable human food do. Animal and human sacrifices were apparently less
common in hunter-gatherer societies such as the plains of North America and
Australia. Human sacrifice was among agricultural people in India, Egypt and
elsewhere in Africa, agriculture and farmers in Europe and made the Middle East.

The tools
Cattle were one of the power sources: Wooden ploughs [4] were fastened to the
horns of a couple of cows. The ploughs were lightly built as they did not have to turn
over the soil. Still, sometimes they were shod with bronze like the one in the picture
on the left.
Other animals performed agricultural tasks too. Instead of covering the seeds by
harrowing, pigs, sheep or goats were used to tread them into the ground. Animals did
the husking of the emmer when they were driven around the threshing floors.
But most of the work was done by humans, with implements seemingly designed to
render the task as backbreaking as possible.
Hoes [3] consisted of a wooden handle not much longer than the lower arm. A
wooden blade was connected to it, but could not be set immovably as we are
accustomed to nowadays. Instead its position vis--vis the handle was determined by a
piece of rope.
The shortness of the handle required the hoer to work bending down, which put
great strain on the back. (To this day, hoe handles are shorter in southern than in
northern countries.)

The Nile did all the fertilizing needed and much of the irrigation. But some crops
had to be watered continually and since the 16th century BCE the shadouf, a
container tied to a pivoting pole with a counterweight, was used to raise water to
higher levels. The height difference was less than 3 metres and the amount raised
smaller than 2 litres per second.
.

Sickles [2], made of two pieces of wood, had the form of a donkey's lower jaw, with
serrated pieces of flint in place of the teeth set in a groove and glued tight. These flints
were often prepared with two edges, so they could easily be re-used. The serration is
vital. When smooth edged flints were used in an experiment cutting corn stalks, they
very quickly lost their edge.
When harvesting, the reaper held the ears in his left hand and cut the stalks with a
sweeping motion of the sickle towards his body.
By Roman times sickles were generally made of iron: a tapered iron arch with a
tang at the wide end for fastening a wooden handle to it. The inside of this arch had a
groove along its whole length into which serrated steel strips could be fitted.
The wheat was spread on the threshing floor and animals were driven over it, their
trampling separating husk from corn. The remaining stalks were removed with a
winnowing fork and the mixture of chaff and grain thrown into the air with scoops.
The lighter chaff would be carried off by the wind separating it from the heavier
grain unaffected by the wind.

ARTS
They painted in the same caves, so they must have known where they were. The land
around these caves was hard to reach. Yet, Cro-Magnon painters sought out these
caves. The entrances to the stone caves were narrow, cramped, and tight. The
painters had to crawl or squirm through them to get to the large natural chambers in
the cave where they painted their pictures. The painters had to bring their light (a
torch or spoon lamp) and their paints, while crawling. But nothing seemed to stop
them. It must have been very important to these early people to add their art to the art
already in the cave.
The painting done by early man was not done in charcoal, but in naturally occurring
pigments such as red (iron oxide) or black (manganese). The animals were drawn
with attention to detail, but the people were usually stick figures. Many of these early
man artists also drew outlines of their hands. Was this a way of signing their art? To
see some of this early man cave art, click here!
Interestingly enough, these caves and their paintings were not found by archeologists.
The first caves with cave paintings were found in France. Some children, playing in
the woods, discovered the entrance to a cave, long forgotten. The entrance was
hidden by a tree. Once the first cave had been found, and its importance realized,
people started looking for more caves and found them. It is very likely that more
caves with more cave paintings are still waiting to be found.

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During the most recent ice age, from about 20,000 years
ago (see Ice Ages), large mammals such as bison roam on
the sub-arctic tundra of Europe and Asia. They are preyed
upon by two groups of hunters, both much smaller and
weaker than themselves - but both with a sufficiently
developed social system to enable them to hunt and kill in
packs.
These hunters are humans and wolves.
The typical pack of wolves and of humans is surprisingly
similar. It is family-based, led by a dominant male whose
female partner is likely to have an authority second only to
his. Members of the group are friendly to each other but
deeply suspicious of outsiders. All members (not just the
parents) are protective of the newly born and the young.
Both species are good at interpreting the moods of others
in the group, whether through facial expression or other
forms of body language.
Legend acknowledges these shared characteristics in
stories of children suckled by wolves. The other side of the
same coin, in real life, means that wolf cubs adapt easily to
life among humans.

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