History- Grade 11 Unit 2- Early development of Human beings

Theories of the origin of human being

Creationist View
● Believes that humans are created by supernatural force with all complete physical shape and
structure.
Scientific View
● 19th century publication of Chales Darwin’s entitled origin of species by natural selection
● This theory explains that human beings developed from lower beings through a gradual and
natural process of change.
● Most convincing of all theories of evolution.
Human Evolution
Hominids- a member of the scientific family made up of human beings and prehistoric human-like
creatures.
The two african apes Gorilla and chimpanzees are the
closest living relative of Human beings.

Anthropologists believe that human beings,chimpanzees

and gorillas are all developed from a common ancestor that
lived 8-5 million years ago.

98.5% of the genes in people and chimpanzees are

identical making chimps the closest living biological
relatives to humans.
This doesn’t mean humans evolved from chimpanzees
but both had a common ape ancestor
The first Humans- Australopithecines
Australopithecines an ape like species that had evolved with two important traits
that distinguish it from apes:

● Small canine teeth and

● bipedalism- walking on two legs

The name australopithecines translates as southern apes in reference to south

africa were the first australopiths fossils were found.

Australopith fossils were also found in Ethiopia, Keneya, South Africa and chad.

Ausralopith had a brain size of 390 to 550 cc( cubic meter) - in the range of ape
brains. Their body weighed from 27- 49 Kg and they stood 1.1 to 1.5m. Their
weight and height is similar to chimpanzees.
The seven species of australopithecines is discussed on your textbook page number 11.

Anthropologist- The study of what makes us human.

Artifacts- an object made by a human being, typically one of cultural or historical interest.

Bifacial- የሁለትዮሽ
Origin of the genus Homo

The genus homo originated in Africa 2.5 million years ago. Australopithecus afarensis may have been the ancestor
of the genus homo. Members of the genus home have larger brains and smaller jaws than Australopithecines.

Homo Habilis

● The oldest human

beings lived in eastern
and southern africa 2
million years ago.
● made the first stone
tools which consist of
flakes and cores and
are known as Oldowan
Technology named
after Olduvai in Gorge
tanzania.
● A partial skull dated to
1.9 million years ago
was found in the Omo
Basin in Ethiopia.
● Other important sites
include olduvai Gorge
in Tanzania,
Sterkfontein in south
Africa and Lake Turkana in northern kenya

Homo erectus

● The first to migrate from Africa to northern Asia and europe.

● Oldest fossils are dated 1.7 to 1.8 million years ago.
● Had a slightly smaller brain and slightly larger teeth than modern human beings.
● They stood over 1.5m tall and walked upright.
● They were the first to master the use of Fire 1.5 million years ago.
● Made little tools known as Acheulean ( named after small city in france called St. Acheulean)
● Important cities in Ethiopia include Omo Basin, Melka- Kunture, Konso -Gardula, middle Awash and
Gadeb. Other were found in Indonesia, Germany and China

Homo sapiens

● Homo sapiens are classified into two. one is archaic homo sapiens and the other is modern humans.
● Archaic Homo sapiens seems to have evolved from homo erectus some time between 300,000 and 600,000
years ago and are considered as intermediate between homo erectus and modern human beings.
● Bodo in middle Awash - a partial cranium and other bones of archaic homo sapiens were uncovered at this
site.
● Modern homo sapiens includes all living people plus those fossil populations from about the last 100,000
years.
● The oldest sites are found in Africa, near and middle east as well as Europe. Several fossils of homo
sapiens including a complete skull which may be more than 100,000 years old are found at Kibish Lower
Omo Basin. A lower jaw dated about the same age has been uncovered from the cave site of Porc Epic near
Dire Dawa.
● Modern human beings lived across Africa, Eurasia and Australia some 35,000 years ago. They also spread
into America.

composite tool- የተቀናጀ መሳሪያ , A microlith is a small stone tool usually made of flint or chert and typically a centimeter
 Email -practicaldream4@gmail.com
Prepared by Bisrat Alemu (MBA)

Early cultural development

Stone Age- period of human technological development characterized by the use of stone as a principal raw material
for tools.

● Archeologists divided the Stone Age into three stages based on different types of tools or tools
manufacturing techniques.
● The Stone Age began roughly 2.5 million years ago and ended in some places 5000 years ago.

Lower Paleolithic (Early Stone

Age)

❖ It Dates from 2.5 million

years ago to about 200,000
years ago.
❖ Two successive tool making
industries characterize lower
Paleolithic namely Oldowan
and Acheulean.
❖ About 2.5 million years ago
early humans in Africa made
the first tool of stone.
Scientists call these tools
and techniques Oldowan
after the site of Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania.
❖ Oldowan tool making involved hitting one pal sized cobblestone against
another. This process created large and sharp sized tools capable of
breaking bones and slicing meat.

Refer to your textbook to access the table on Oldowan sites page 14.

Acheulean- first developed 1.5 million years ago. The term Acheulean now
refers to hand ax industries in Africa, near east, Europe and Asia Dating from
1.5 million to 200,000 years ago. It covers the human evolution from Homo
erectus to Archaic Homo sapiens. Acheulean tools are known to be bi-faces.
Hand Axes are typical examples of Acheulean.

● Among the oldest Acheulean sites in Ethiopia are Konso-Gardula,

Gadeb and Melka Kunture.
● In general, Oldowan tools are identified with Homo habilis while Acheulean is associated with Homo
erectus.

Middle Paleolithic/ Middle stone Age

● Extend from 200,000 years ago until 30,000 years ago.

● It is at this time in which Homo erectus evolved into Human species called Homo sapiens or modern
humans.
● Archeological sites are found around caves.
● In Africa, south Sahara, Hominids stopped making hand axes and large tools about 200,000 years ago.
● The Names of important sites for this stage are Ethiopian rift valley (200,000 years age), Melka Kunture,
Porc Epic and Kone in Ethiopia and Midhishi and Gud Gud in Somalia.

sedentary- not migratory/የማይንቀሳቀስ flakes-ከትልቅ ቁራጭ የተላጠ ወይም የተላጠ

Upper Paleolithic

● Extending from 40,000 years ago to until the end of the last ice age about 10,000.
● Standardized blade industries are dominant.
● Microliths (small, geometric-shaped blade segments become more widespread.
● Rapid Human and cultural evolution.
● Pressure flaking – new tool making technique that helps to produce long and thin blades.
● Distinguished by Micro lithic technology.

Neolithic Revolution

● Refers to the time after 11,000 years ago when food production
through the domestication of plants and animals replaced foraging
as a dominant mode of subsistence.
● 99% of human history as a species was spent on hunting,
gathering and consuming wild products of earth for 4 million
years.
● Nevertheless, about 11,000 years ago some humans began to
produce food rather than collect it. This phenomenon is
considered to be a turning point in the history of human beings that represents a revolution in human beings'
subsistence.
● Human way of life and landscape changed immediately.
● According to scientists, agriculture begins in the Middle East. The first farmers lived in a place called Fertile
Crescent which covers what is now Lebanon and part of Iran, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Syria and Turkey.
● Sites of sedentary life, domestication of plants and animals, new tools and diversification of human diets, implied
diversion of labor were observed.
● Stone houses were built which then developed into villages and little towns. This is then followed by the appearance of
societies who were organized and divided into classes of priests, chieftains, merchants, craftsmen, shepherds etc.
● Neolithic human beings invented the hatchet and millstones to grind cereals. Pottery was also made for food cooking
and storage facilities.
● Artifacts were increasingly exchanged. Human beings learned how to make fire to cook their food and protect
themselves from cold.
● Finally, the population increased and this led to conflict. When a village lost its crops and its herds and when its
population increased, it would attempt to take resources from nearby communities. Under this situation the first
conflicts started.

Neolithic Revolution in Ethiopia region

❖ In Ethiopia and horn of Africa the Neolithic cultural evolution and its development is not valid.
❖ The existence of Neolithic types of culture in the northern part of Ethiopia and horn of Africa is attested
from Gobdera rock shelter (3000 B.C) and Lalibela Cave (500 B.C). Grinding and polished axes have also
been found at Aqordat and Barentu in Eritrea
❖ Archaeologist Dombrowski Had excavated chickpeas and vegetables dated to 500 B.C at Lalibela cave.
Another archeological evidence of possible domesticated cattle dated to the mid-2nd millennium B.C have
been found at lake Basaka site. The other fauna remains dental fragments of camels dated to 2500 B.C from
Gobedra.
❖ Therefore, it is assumed that the practice of agriculture is assumed was already in existence between 3000
to 2000 B.C
❖ During the Neolithic culture in Ethiopia, the presence of diverse environments in Ethiopia and horn of
Africa made the region the homeland of many plant species, which brought about the cultivation of root
plants and crops such as enset, teff, noog, finger millet, chat and coffee.

composite tool- የተቀናጀ መሳሪያ , A microlith is a small stone tool usually made of flint or chert and typically a centimeter