Evolution of Humankind
Senior 1 · History and Citizenship
Evolution of Humankind
Lesson 4 of 5
22 min
This painting is on a rock face at Tassili n'Ajjer, in the middle of the Sahara Desert in south-eastern Algeria. Today almost nothing grows there. Look at the animals and people, then answer: what were these people doing, and what does the painting suggest about the Sahara when it was made?
Worked example: analysing rock art as a source
Verdict: reliable evidence that herding existed in a green Sahara; weak evidence for exact dates or for the meaning the artists intended.
Over hundreds of thousands of years, Stone Age people made discoveries that changed human life. The table lists them from oldest to youngest, with African evidence for each. A few, such as burial and pottery, are known even earlier elsewhere: pottery was being made in East Asia about 20,000 years ago.
| Discovery | When (approximately) | Evidence and where | Why it mattered |
|---|---|---|---|
| Controlling fire | at least 1 million years ago | burnt bone and plant ash in Wonderwerk Cave, South Africa | warmth, light, protection from animals, cooking |
| Fishing with harpoons | c. 90,000 years ago | carved bone harpoons at Katanda, eastern DR Congo, north of Lake Kivu | a new, reliable source of food |
| Burying the dead | c. 78,000 years ago | a child carefully buried in Panga ya Saidi cave, Kenya | care for the dead; beliefs about death |
| Art and ornaments | c. 75,000 years ago | engraved ochre and shell beads at Blombos Cave, South Africa | signs of symbolic thought and perhaps language |
| Bow and arrow | c. 60,000 years ago | tiny stone arrow tips with traces of glue at Sibudu Cave, South Africa | hunting from a safe distance |
| Pottery | c. 11,000 years ago in Africa | pots in the southern Sahara, in present-day Mali | cooking and storing food and water |
| Farming and herding | c. 10,000 years ago in south-west Asia; cattle in the Sahara from c. 8,000 years ago; sorghum grown in Sudan c. 5,000 years ago | seeds, animal bones, rock art | food surpluses, settled villages, larger populations |
Definition
Domestication: the process by which people tame wild animals and cultivate wild plants over many generations, until they depend on people. Example: wild cattle were domesticated into the herds shown in Saharan rock art.
Definition
Neolithic Revolution: the change from hunting and gathering to farming and herding, which began about 10,000 years ago and led to permanent villages. It is also called the Agricultural Revolution; "Neolithic" means "New Stone Age".
Definition
Rock art: paintings or engravings made on rock surfaces such as cave walls and cliffs. Example: the paintings of Tassili n'Ajjer in Algeria and of Kondoa in Tanzania.
Between about 14,000 and 5,500 years ago, heavier rains turned much of the Sahara into grassland with lakes and rivers. Hunters, fishers and then cattle herders lived there, and they left thousands of rock paintings and engravings, such as those at Tassili n'Ajjer. As the rains weakened, the Sahara slowly became desert. Many people moved to places that still had water, especially the valley of the Nile.
This matters for the next unit. The farming villages that grew up along the Nile, and some of the people and ideas that came from the drying Sahara, were part of the background to the rise of ancient Egypt.
Tip
Memory hook for the discoveries, oldest first: Fire, Fishing, Burial, Art, Bows, Pottery, Farming: "Four Fat Bees Ate Big Purple Flowers".
PBS Eons: "When We Tamed Fire". Listen for the difference between using natural fire and being able to make fire, and for how cooking changed our bodies.
Class debate: Which Stone Age discovery changed human life the most: fire, art, the bow and arrow, or farming? Choose one, give two reasons, and answer one argument for a different choice.
Practice
Sources and credits
This lesson adapts CC BY-SA material and is shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.
