From The Beginning Of Time | Class 11 History Notes

This chapter introduces the origins of human beings and the long story of human evolution. It contrasts early human forms with modern human beings, and it looks at the earliest encounters with hunter-gatherers in Africa. These are standardised revision notes for CBSE Class 11 History (Themes in World History, Theme 1). For more explainers that connect school topics to the wider world, you can also explore the Learnacy Hub.

Key Terms To Know

• Fossils: The remains or impressions of a very old plant, animal or human that have turned into stone. They are often embedded in rock and are preserved for millions of years.
• Species: A group of organisms that can breed to produce fertile offspring. Members of one species cannot mate with members of another species.

What Are Fossils And How Is Their Age Found?

Fossils of extinct human species provide the evidence for human evolution. The age of a fossil can be worked out directly through chemical analysis, or indirectly by dating the sediments (layers of rock and soil) in which it is buried. By dating fossils, scientists build a timeline of human evolution.

Around 200 years ago, many scholars were hesitant to accept that fossils, stone tools and paintings were actually linked to early forms of human life.

The Story Of Human Evolution

What Are Primates?

Primates are a subgroup of mammals. They include monkeys, apes and humans. Along with body hair and the ability to keep a constant body temperature, they have mammary glands, a relatively long period of care after birth, and several different types of teeth.

History And Background

Around 24 million years ago, primates began to appear in Asia and Africa. Among the primates arose a group of apes called hominoids. The first hominid appeared around 5.6 million years ago.

• Hominoids: A group of primates that includes the anthropoid apes.
• Hominids: The family Hominidae, which includes humans and their fossil ancestors. Hominids emerged out of the group of African apes.

The earliest hominid fossils, the Australopithecines, were found in East Africa around 5.6 million years ago. The oldest fossils found outside Africa are only about 1.8 million years old.

Differences Between Hominids And Hominoids

• Hominids had a bigger brain with smaller jaws and teeth, while hominoids had a smaller brain with heavier jaws and larger teeth.
• Hominoids were quadrupeds (they moved on four limbs) with flexible forelimbs, while hominids were bipeds who walked upright on two legs.
• Hominid footprints were found at Laetoli in Tanzania. The move to walking upright, called bipedalism, can also be traced through fossil limb bones from Hadar in Ethiopia.

What Is Australopithecus?

In the name Australopithecus, the Latin word austral means southern, and pithecus comes from a Greek word for ape. This early human form was named after an ape because it had a small brain compared with the genus Homo, large back teeth, and limited use of the hands.

Because they still spent much of their time in trees, they could not walk fully upright. These early human skeletons are sorted into groups by their bone structure, and the size of the skull and jaws helps tell them apart. Changes in climate and vegetation eventually wiped out the early Australopithecus.

The Earliest Representatives Of Genus Homo

The Latin word Homo means a man, though there is plenty of evidence for the presence of women too. Scientists identified several types of Homo and named them after the defining features they found. The fossils were divided into three groups:

• Homo habilis (the tool maker)
• Homo erectus (the upright man)
• Homo sapiens (the wise or thinking man)

Homo habilis fossils have been found at Omo in Ethiopia and Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania. Homo erectus fossils have been found in Africa and Asia, including Koobi Fora and West Turkana in Kenya, and Modjokerto and Sangiran in Java. Because the finds in Asia are older than those in Africa, hominids probably migrated between 2 and 1.5 million years ago from East Africa to southern and northern Africa, to southern and north-eastern Asia, and possibly to Europe. These species survived for over a million years.

The Earliest Fossils In Europe

Heidelbergensis And Neanderthalensis

Fossils were sometimes named after the place where the first fossil of that type was found. Homo heidelbergensis was named after Heidelberg in Germany, while Homo neanderthalensis was named after the Neander Valley. Both are counted among the earliest fossils found in Europe.

Both belong to the archaic, or ancestral, Homo sapiens group. Fossils of Homo heidelbergensis (0.8 to 0.1 million years ago) have been found in Africa, Asia and Europe. The Neanderthals lived in Europe and in western and central Asia between about 130,000 and 35,000 years ago. They disappeared from western Europe roughly 35,000 years ago.

How do Homo sapiens differ from Australopithecus? Homo sapiens has a larger brain, less protruding jaws, and fewer teeth. A larger brain is linked to greater intelligence and memory, while the changes in the jaws and teeth were almost certainly caused by differences in diet.

Modern Human Beings

The earliest evidence for modern humans comes from various regions of Africa. For a long time, the origin of modern humans has been a matter of debate, and two opposing views have been put forward:

• One view supports regional continuity, with several regions of origin.
• The other supports replacement, with a single origin in Africa.

The Regional Continuity Model

According to the regional continuity model, archaic Homo sapiens evolved at a different pace in different regions, which led to regional differences in when modern humans first appeared. Supporters argue that these differences came from the earlier Homo erectus and Homo heidelbergensis populations that already lived in those areas.

The Replacement Model

The replacement model says that older forms of humans were completely replaced by modern humans everywhere. It is supported by the genetic and anatomical similarity of modern humans, who share a great deal because they descend from a single population that arose in Africa. The earliest fossils of modern humans, from Omo in Ethiopia, also support this model. According to these scholars, the physical differences we see among people today are the result of adaptation over thousands of years by populations that moved to and settled in new areas.

Early Ways Of Obtaining Food

Early humans obtained food in a variety of ways, including gathering, hunting, scavenging and fishing.

• There is little direct evidence for gathering, but plant foods such as seeds, nuts, berries, fruits and tubers would have been collected.
• Carbonisation: One way to learn about plant use is to study plant remains that were burnt. Burning turns plant matter into carbon, a process called carbonisation. Archaeologists have found little carbonised seed evidence from this early period.

Hunting

Hunting began much later, around 500,000 years ago.

• Early hominids may have scavenged meat and marrow from the carcasses of animals that died naturally or were killed by other predators.
• They may also have eaten small mammals such as rodents, birds and their eggs, reptiles, and even insects such as termites.
• Boxgrove in southern England (500,000 years ago) and Schoningen in Germany (400,000 years ago) hold the earliest clear evidence of deliberate, planned hunting and butchery of large mammals.
• Around 35,000 years ago, some European sites show planned hunting. Early humans chose locations such as Dolni Vestonice, which lay next to a river. Such choices show that people understood the movement of animals and how to kill large numbers of them quickly.

From Trees, To Caves And Open-Air Sites

Tool Discoveries

Tens of thousands of flake tools and hand axes have been found at Kilombe and Olorgesailie in Kenya, made between about 700,000 and 500,000 years ago. Several places rich in food resources were visited again and again.

• In such places, people left traces of their activities, including artefacts, which show up as patches on the landscape.
• Less visited areas would have far fewer artefacts scattered about. Hominids, other primates and carnivores may also have shared the same habitats.
• Caves and open-air sites were first used between about 400,000 and 125,000 years ago, as shown by archaeological sites in Europe.

The Lazaret Cave Shelter

A shelter about 12 metres by 4 metres was built against the cave wall in the Lazaret cave in southern France. Inside were two hearths and evidence of many food sources, including fruits, vegetables, seeds, nuts, bird eggs and freshwater fish such as trout, perch and carp. At Terra Amata on the southern French coast, flimsy shelters with wood and grass roofs were built for short, seasonal stays. Between about 1.4 and 1 million years ago, baked clay, burnt bone and stone tools were found at Chesowanja in Kenya and Swartkrans in South Africa.

Why Were Hearths Used?

• Hearths show that fire was used in a controlled way. It gave warmth and light inside caves and made cooking possible.
• Heat helped in the flaking of tools, and fire could be used to scare away dangerous animals.

Tool Making, Language And Art

Aspects Of Human Tool Making

Humans are not the only ones who make and use tools. Some birds make objects to help with feeding and grooming, and some chimpanzees use tools while foraging. But there are aspects of human tool making that apes do not share:

• Certain changes to the hands and the nervous system led to skilled use of the hands, most likely because tools became so important in human life.
• Complex planning skills and greater memory gave humans an advantage over apes in tool making.
• According to archaeological evidence, stone tools were first made and used in Ethiopia and Kenya.

Australopithecus was among the first to make stone tools.

Way Forward

It is not clear whether tools were made by women, by men, or by both. Women in particular may have made and used tools to gather food for themselves and to keep their children alive after weaning. Better animal-killing methods can be seen in new tools such as the spear thrower and the bow and arrow, which appeared around 35,000 years ago.

Meat was most likely processed by removing the bones and then drying, smoking and storing it, so food could be kept for later. Other changes included trapping fur-bearing animals for their fur, and the invention of sewing needles. Sewn clothing first appears around 21,000 years ago. The punch blade technique made small chisel-like tools that allowed people to engrave on bone, antler, ivory or wood.

Language And Art

Language Development

There are several views on how language developed:

• Early hominid language may have used gestures or hand movements.
• Spoken language may have been preceded by vocal but non-verbal sounds such as singing or humming.
• Human speech probably began with calls like those seen among primates.
• Humans may have had only a few speech sounds at first, which slowly developed into full language.

When Did Spoken Language Emerge?

The brains of Homo habilis had features that may have allowed some communication, so language may have begun as early as two million years ago. The development of the vocal tract was also important. Modern humans are more closely linked to this development. A third view holds that language and art developed together, around 40,000 to 35,000 years ago.

Development Of Art

Because both are ways of communicating, the growth of spoken language has been closely tied to the growth of art.

• Hundreds of animal paintings dating from 30,000 to 12,000 years ago have been found in the caves of Lascaux and Chauvet in France, and Altamira in Spain.
• The animals shown include bison, horses, ibex, deer, mammoths, rhinos, lions, bears, panthers, hyenas and owls.

Why Were Paintings Treated As Ritual?

Because hunting was so important, animal paintings were linked to ritual and magic. Painting may have been a ritual to ensure a good hunt. Another idea is that these caves were meeting places for small groups or for group activities. Paintings and engravings also passed information between generations, letting groups share their hunting skills and knowledge.

Early Encounters With Hunter-Gatherers In Africa

Who Were The !Kung People?

The !Kung are a group of San people who live mainly on the western edge of the Kalahari desert, in Ovamboland (northern Namibia and southern Angola) and in Botswana. One account by an African pastoralist described strange footprints in the sand, and people who were so frightened of newcomers that they ran away or left their villages deserted whenever strangers approached.

Hunter-Gatherer Societies From The Present To The Past

Some archaeologists argue that the two million year old hominid sites along the shores of Lake Turkana may have been early dry-season camps, using evidence from present-day groups such as the Hadza and the !Kung. Other scholars believe that data about the San and !Kung cannot be used to understand past societies, because they are too different.

Present-day hunter-gatherer societies take part in a range of economic activities beyond hunting and gathering. These include exchanging and trading minor forest products, and working as paid labourers in nearby farmers' fields.

Diverse Societies

These societies are often pushed to the margins in every way: geographically, politically and socially. Their conditions of life are very different from those of early humans, and present-day hunter-gatherer groups are themselves highly diverse. There is little agreement on how labour was divided when getting food.

• In most societies today, women gather and men hunt. But in some societies, both men and women hunt, gather and make tools.
• Women make a large contribution to food production in these societies. This may give men and women a fairly equal role today, though it is difficult to draw firm conclusions about the past.

The Hadza

The Hadza are a hunter-gatherer people of northern Tanzania. With around 1,300 members, they are one of Africa's last hunter-gatherer groups. Their homeland is the Eyasi Valley and the nearby hills.

• Eastern Hadza country has diets rich in wild foods, and animals were probably even more common at the start of the twentieth century.
• Animals in the area include the porcupine, the hare and the tortoise. Apart from the elephant, all of these are hunted and eaten by the Hadza.

Food Availability

• There is an abundance of plant food, roots, berries and baobab fruit, even in years of drought. The kinds available change by season, but there is never a shortage.
• The honey and grubs of wild bees are eaten, though supplies vary by season and year. Water is plentiful in the wet season but scarce in the dry season.

Camp Locations

• Hadza camps are usually within a kilometre of a watercourse. The Hadza never built camps on open grasslands, but always among trees or rocks, ideally both.
• The eastern Hadza make no claim to land or natural resources. Anyone may live where they wish in Hadza country, hunt, gather roots, berries and honey, and draw water.
• Despite plenty of game, the Hadza live mainly on wild plants. About 80 percent of their diet is plant food, and the rest is meat and honey.
• Camps were small and scattered in the wet season, but large and grouped near water in the dry season.

Why It Still Matters Today

The biggest debate in this chapter is the one between the replacement model and the regional continuity model, and whether modern humans ever mixed with older groups such as the Neanderthals. That old question is now being answered by a brand new science, and it made front-page news.

In 2022, the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine went to the Swedish scientist Svante Paabo for reading the DNA of extinct humans. In 2010 his team managed to extract and sequence the genome of a Neanderthal from bones about 40,000 years old, which was once thought impossible because ancient DNA breaks down and gets contaminated over time. He also discovered a completely new group of extinct humans, the Denisovans, and helped found a new field called palaeogenomics, the study of ancient genomes.

His work changed the textbook debate. It showed that pure replacement is not the whole story. After modern humans moved out of Africa around 70,000 years ago, they met Neanderthals and had children with them. That is why most people alive today whose families come from outside Africa carry a small share of Neanderthal DNA. As the Smithsonian magazine puts it:

Most modern humans share between 1 and 4 percent of their DNA with Neanderthals.

These ancient genes are not just a curiosity. Some of them still shape our bodies, for example how our immune system reacts to infections. So the story that begins with fossils and stone tools in this chapter is still being rewritten in laboratories right now. If you enjoy seeing how school topics connect to live science, browse more study notes in Resources, revisit the full set of Class 11 History Notes, or dig into the wider world on the Learnacy Hub.

Sources

1. Smithsonian Magazine, Svante Paabo Wins Nobel Prize for Unraveling the Mysteries of Neanderthal DNA: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/svante-paabo-wins-nobel-prize-for-unraveling-the-mysteries-of-neanderthal-dna-180980883/
2. The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2022, official facts page: https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/medicine/2022/paabo/facts/
3. NCERT, Themes in World History, Class 11, Theme 1: From the Beginning of Time: https://ncert.nic.in/textbook.php?kehs1=1-11