Up to 12,000 Years Ago

Early African roots

We first appeared, in Africa, approximately 200,000 years ago. The earliest history of Homo sapiens is sketchy and it appears that the human mind was not well-developed in the earliest part of our existence.  Signs of culture and burials only begin to appear 100,000 years ago, and even then most of the cultural growth flowered 60,000 to 30,000 years ago.  We didn’t migrate out of Africa until about 70,000 to 50,000 years ago.  A lot seems to have happened in a relatively short span from 100,000 to 50,000 years ago.  If I had to pick a time when Homo became human, I would pick that era.

Much of our existence in Africa was challenged by climate. An indication of the types of climate changes is the finding that 13,000 years ago the Sahara desert was actually a swamp and jungle.  The Sahara is on a 20,000 year cycle in which it switches back and forth from desert to jungle.  (This is suspiciously close to the 26,000 year cycle during which the tilt of the earth rotates a circle that encompasses 3 stars – the current North Star being Polaris.) There were considerable climate changes in Africa during our development there.  It’s likely that our adaptability, because of our mind, enabled us to be successful in those changing climates.   The reverse is also probably true, the changing climate nurtured evolution of advanced cognition – it led to Darwinian survival. 

Out of Africa

All waves of human development have come out of Africa. DNA analysis has enabled us to study our lineage. Mitochondrial DNA has been particularly valuable in looking at the X chromosome that is unpaired in males.  Because it is unpaired, genetic variations in that part of the chromosome remain in male lineage and serve as markers that can be used to trace lineage.   The oldest people in terms of being closest to the original genes have the greatest DNA variability. The San bush people in Africa are the oldest tribe as determined with genetic marking.  Even today the San bushmen language has clicks in it; perhaps coming directly from the animal world?  No other human language has such clicks. The genetic evidence indicates that we all trace our ancestral roots to a very small group of people in northeastern Africa, perhaps only 600 people (Wells), lending strength to the concept of Adam and Eve.

We migrated from Africa somewhere between 80,000 and 50,000 years ago.  This is the same time during which there is growing evidence of our art, culture, and burials.  The climate conditions in Africa were difficult at the time – likely prompting our exploration.  Our adaptability, fueled by our growing cognitive skills, enabled us to spread quickly and widely.

As we moved into Asia, we must have encountered Homo heidlebergensis and Neanderthals, the latter of which don’t disappear from the fossil record until only 28,000 years ago.  The Neanderthal genome has been mapped, and there is no evidence of inter-breeding (Wells) between us and them.  It is interesting to surmise the interactions that occurred between these Homo species. Our war-like history suggests we may not have been kind to our inferiors. Obviously we survived and they did not; intelligence won the survival game.  As one example, Homo sapiens developed projectile weapons whereas Neanderthals had only hand weapons.  Many Neanderthal remains show many broken bones – likely because they needed to get closer to their prey.  We could go after big game more safely. 

The first migration from Africa was around the southern shores of the Arabian Peninsula and down the coast of India to the Kerala area on the western tip of South India, about 70,000 to 50,000 years ago. The oldest genetic person outside of Africa has been found in Kerala (Woods, Wells). In neighboring Tamil Nadu, geneticists testing DNA of local peoples, genes have been found from 50-60,000 years ago.  In Kerala there are ancient Brahman chants (mantras) that appear to be unrelated to any known language (Woods).  These chants have been passed down for centuries – precisely sounded and taught from one generation to another.  They have patterns but no known meaning.  The sounds and rhythms have been related to birds, perhaps from a time when our speech patterns evolved from animal sounds.

From South India the migration path continued along the southern shoreline of Asia, arriving in Australia sometime between 60,000 and 46,000 years ago. The 150 miles of water between Asia and Australia may have been crossed by boat, or perhaps the ice age had lowered the oceans to create a land bridge.

Figure.  Our migration paths out of Africa. 

From: http://www.handprint.com/LS/ANC/disp.html

About 45,000 years ago a second group migrated from Africa up into the Middle East, and from there into central Asia. We were establishing ourselves in the Middle East and Asia, but there was no trace of humans in Europe.  It took another 10,000 years for humans to arrive in Europe. The ancestors of the Europeans came from Central Asia (current Kazhakstan) – not directly from the Middle East.  Europe was experiencing the Ice Age much worse than in the Middle East, making it more difficult to settle. Cave drawings in southern France from 30,000 years ago show the Ice age – mammoths and such.  Early European ancestors mostly lived in caves for protection from the climate.  It is possible that in caves we evolved lower skin melanin in order to let through enough UV to create vitamin D – hence developing lighter skin color.  Evolution proceeds quickly.

There is evidence that human big game hunters arrived in northeast Asia (Siberia) around 35,000 to 30,000 years ago.  This area was apparently settled from the south and also from the west.  About 15,000 years ago we migrated to the Americas, almost certainly crossing the Bering Sea on a land bridge created by the lower ocean levels associated with an ice age.  We arrived in current-day US about 13,000 years ago. In only 800 years we had also peopled South America. 

Human status, 12,000 years ago

By 12,000 years ago, we had largely populated our planet.  Because of our adaptability and intelligence, we had become the dominant species on our planet, most likely hunting many other animal species into extinction. It has been estimated there may have been as many as 5,000,000 people on the planet at that time. For the first time in 4 billion years of life on this planet, a single species dominated the planet.

We were excellent at conquering and dominating the animal world.  This is demonstrated by the fact that we drove to extinction many of the major land mammals in existence during our rise to the pinnacle of life on the planet. North America might be the best example of our ability to conquer and drive animals into extinction.  We arrived in the US about 13,000 years ago.  13,000 years ago, the following major North American mammals were seen for the last time on Earth: Dire Wolf, Smilodon, Cave Lion, Giant beaver, Ground sloth, Mammoth, American Mastodon, American Camel, American Equine, and American lion all became extinct around that time. (Wikipedia, 2011)

“So God created man is his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.
And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth. Genesis 1; 27-28.

Evolution has continued during the years of our dispersion around the planet.  Evidence of this is seen by the regional characteristics that Homo sapiens have developed – resulting in the racial differences in appearance we can observe today. Once we had peopled the planet, large migrations were unlikely and Boeing 747’s had not yet been invented….resulting in considerable localized in-breeding that nurtured localized evolutionary branches. Evolution proceeds quickly.

However, even though we had attained the dominant life position on this planet, we were still hunter gatherers.  We had not yet controlled the plant world with agriculture, and there is no evidence of permanent dwellings other than caves.  We were still largely nomadic and apparently lived in small groups – perhaps as tribes. Of course, each small group of people had no concept of the size of the world, nor of other groups except for those with whom they came in direct contact.

We had conquered the planet, but our groups were still living similarly to animals.  Our groups were probably structured around dominance hierarchy. Our group-think abilities had enabled us to cooperate with one another in small groups. This cooperation and group intelligence made us the best hunters and we had almost certainly attained some forms of specialization for small group efficiency. However, our group-think abilities had not yet enabled us to harness nature or to structure larger groups.  We were still living in an animal world.

Our sense of group was very strong. We felt strong kinship within the group, but probably did not feel kinship with any being outside of the group – including other Homo sapiens.  We almost certainly felt no kinship with earlier homo species versions from which we came.  For example, did Homo erectus feel kinship with Lucy? Did we feel any kinship with Homo erectus or Neanderthal?  The record cannot support that and indicates the opposite.  We probably drove earlier homo species into extinction, the same way we did many species of large animals. We played by Darwinian rules.

How did we behave during this time? Were we parsimonious in terms of taking only that which we needed?  Or, did we adopt the attitude that this was natural to do.  The horizons probably seemed limitless, and when we conquered one location and stripped it of animal and plant resources, we moved on to the next.  The world seemed infinite in size.  The result was sort of an unintended scorched earth policy. 

Were there any conversations about the morality, or long term effects?
I doubt it, our communication probably only extended to the nearby human groups and not much beyond.  We had no concept of the size of the world: writing had not yet been invented.  Our insensitivity to destroying the resources in the environment around us is nicely chronicled in Collapse by Jared Diamond.   

How did we behave towards one another?  We were still hunter-gatherers and our groups were still probably quite small – limited to bands of people.  Towns, villages, and cities were not yet developed and we were still largely cave dwellers.  Did we cooperate with neighboring bands?  Or, did competition drive us to conflict with one another.  Almost certainly both kinds of behavior occurred; unfortunately recorded history of more recent times suggests conflict may have been very common.  Base human behavior appears to be aggressive between groups. 

Humans are not only combative and triumphant over other animal life…we are also combative with one another. Human history is literally strewn with evidence that we pursue Darwinian struggle with one another.  Human history is even typically taught in terms of who is on top and the wars they fought to get there. 

It took us only about 50,000 years to populate and dominate the planet after leaving Africa.  It has taken us a mere additional 12,000 years to attain our current status on this planet.