Chap 1

 Fire was used occasionally 8,00,000 years ago, but homo erectus, Neanderthals and
forefathers of sapiens started using it daily only 3,00,000 years ago.
 Relation between cooking, size of intestinal track and size of brain is possible, since
cooking help shorten the intestine, which helped divert more food to our brains, which
kept them large enough. Cooking inadvertently opened jumbo brains of Neanderthals
and sapiens
 A single woman with a fire stick could burn an entire forest within hours. Which couldn’t
be done by animals. Domestication of fire helped in the inception of our dominance
over earth.

Chap 2

 Sapiens populated east Africa 1,50,000 years ago, other human species ( neanderthals,
homo erectus and homo soloensis, homo denisova) were extinct only 70,000 years ago
after which sapiens started doing very special things like driving away all the other
species (in a possible genocide), crossed open sea(45k years ago, to Australia), in period
from 70k to 30k years ago, they invented boats, oil lamps, bow and arrow, needle,
religion commerce, social stratification. Period from 70k to 30k years ago constitutes
cognitive revolution.
 Ivory figurine of lion man from Stadel cave, Germany from approx. 32000 years ago, is
first form of art, imagination, and probably of religion
 Sapiens are only species who can talk about entities they have never seen or touched or
smelled. Legends, myths, Gods appeared from this. From “Careful! A Lion” to “The Lion
is a guardian spirit of our tribe”
 Large numbers of people can cooperate successfully by believing in common myths.
This helped in forming cities with 10s of thousands of people though the maximum size
of a group bonded by gossip can only be 150.

Chap 3

 We are hardwired to gorge on high calorie food, since the early ages, as finding
sweet/good food was rare, and one had to eat as much as they can since, there won’t be
much left once the band finds the source. – Gorging Gene theory
 Women used to fornicate with multiple men, even while they were pregnant so that her
child can get qualities of not only one man, but a good hunter, a good speaker,
storyteller, warrior, etc. And also so that, the child may have many fathers that looks
after it. --- Ancient Commune theory
 Dogs were the first animals to be domesticated (about 20,000-15,000 years ago). 12000
year old fossil of a 50 year old woman with hr left hand on a puppy was found in Israel,
which indicates that this might be one of the first pets.
 Life expectancy was 40 before agri revolution, but this was largely due to child mortality.
Those who survived this were expected to live until 60. There was variety in the food
that they ate. And they also only worked 35-40 hrs a week(1 day for hunting and 5-6hrs
per day to gather. ) compared to current day’s 60-80hr work weeks.
 In sungir, Russia, 1955, archaeologists discovered 30,000 year old burial site belonging to
a mammoth hunting culture. A 50 year old man with 3000 ivory beads, another same
aged man with fox teeth on his head were found, which indicates, they might’ve been
 leaders of this group which supports the hypothesis that foragers lived in a hierarchical
society.
 In another case, two skeletons of a 12-year-old boy and 9-year-old girl were found. The
boy was covered with 5000 ivory beads, fox tooth hat with 250 teeth (60 foxes), the girl
with 5250 ivory beads. Both were covered with various other statues and other ivory
objects. These kids couldn’t have been leaders of any group. But were covered with
work that took 7500hrs i.e., 3 years of artisanship. Indicating weird cultural beliefs.
 A painting from Lascaux cave, 15k – 20k years ago of a man with head of a bird and erect
penis, being killed by a bison.
 Hand prints from about 9k years ago in the hands cave of argentina. It looks as if these
long dead hands are reaching us from within the rock.

Chap 4

 Australia was the first non-Afro Asian island to be colonised about 45,000 years ago. A
group of sapiens (fishermen, travellers, etc) living in Indonesian archipelago built boats,
and learned to steer them. Buka and manus, islands 200km north of Australia were
colonised, which could only happen if they use sophisticated vessels. It was the most
important voyage, since this was the first time sapiens were going out of afro-Asian
continent. They encountered marsupial mammals (2m long kangaroo, 5m long snakes,
Dragon like lizards, koalas far too big to be cuddly, marsupial lion- continent’s largest
predator). Within a few thousand years, of 24 Australian species weighing 50kg or more,
23 vanished.
 The giant diprotodon appeared in Australia 1.5M years ago, survived about 10 ice ages
(which occurs once every 100k years), survived an ice age peak 70k years ago, but
disappeared 45k years ago. More than 90% of Australia’s megafauna disappeared during
this period.
 New Zealand survived all these, but when the Maori, first sapien colonizers to sent foot
in NZ about 800 years ago, about 60% of its bird species vanished.
 Wrangel island in the arctic, 200km north of Siberian coast, had mammoths flourishing
for millions of years. But when sapiens first set foot 4k years ago, they became extinct. –
Homo sapiens = ecological serial killer.
 Homo sapiens were the first humans to reach western hemisphere, America, about 16k
years ago. First Americans arrived on foot, as the sea level was low and north eastern
Siberia was connected with north western Alaska. Siberia – temp reached -50 degrees.
So journey was tougher than Australia.
 Giant armadillos were >3m high and ground sloths >6m high. Elephant bird – 3m tall and
weighed half a ton. Giant lemurs. All these were found in Madagascar – 400km east of
Africa, and were extinct 1500 years ago, exactly when homo sapiens first set foot on the
island.
 In Pacific Ocean – 1500 BC – Polynesian farmers settled in Solomon Islands, Fiji and New
Caledonia. Extinction and colonization moved east – south and north, into the heart of
Pacific Ocean – Samoa and Tonga – 1200BC, Marquis Islands (1 AD), Easter Island, Cook,
Hawaii – 500AD, And finally, New Zealand – 1200AD.
Chap 5

 Agri revolution started 10k years ago. In around 9500 -8500 BC, in south eastern turkey,
western iran and the levent. Wheat and goats were domesticated by 9000BC. Peas and
lentils – 8000BC, olive trees – 5000BC, horses – 4000BC, grapevines – 3500BC, camels
and cashews were domesticated later, but by 3500BC main wave was done.