Life changing discoveries our ancestors made

Things that we see every day like people farming, wearing clothes, and cooking food are so normal that it would be hard to imagine a time when these things didn’t exist. Before our ancestors became what we now recognize as humans, they lived during a time when clothes weren’t worn and meals were eaten in a similar way to all the other animals on the planet, but piece by piece the human race discovered things that changed their lives. Here are some of the earliest life changing discoveries our ancestors made and why they changed life for everyone.

Fire – up to 2 million years ago

Tiny traces of wood ash have been found and dated to be between 1.7 and 2 million years old, and have been found in small campfire-sized patches, suggesting they were purposely started and controlled. The use of fire by Homo erectus, a species believed to be a direct descendant of modern-day humans has been using fire since around 1 million years ago, which was started by striking flint onto a hard surface like pyrite or some kind of metal ore.

Clothes – up to 170,000 years ago

It’s estimated that modern humans began to start wearing clothes around 70,000 years ago when they moved from warmer climates into the colder regions of the world. There has been a study by the University of Florida that followed the evolution of lice, and it found that around 170,000 years ago, lice changed dramatically from some kind of new food introduced into their diet. This suggests they could feed on and live in clothing of some sort which gave them the ability to live longer, but this is only a theory and the true date of when people started to wear clothes will never be known as it would be impossible for anything this early to survive for so long.

(The remains of a preserved shoe from the late stone age, around 11,000 years ago)

Tools and weapons – 2.6 million years ago

Evolution and the dates things happened at is hotly debated, but one thing that is universally agreed on is that the species known as Homo habilis is the earliest member of the Homo genus that modern-day humans evolved. They also happen to be the first ones to use tools as early stoneworking began around 2.6 million years ago, 200,000 years after the species is believed to have appeared. Tools and weapons remained very basic up until around 10,000 BCE when they started to become more advanced, or as advanced as you can get with stone tools and weapons.

(A selection of stone age axe, spear and arrow heads)

Shelter – Unknown

People often think of our early ancestors as cavemen because of the image of a group of hairy individuals sitting around a fire inside a cave somewhere, but unlike people’s views of pirates, this one is actually quite accurate. Our very early ancestors would have been more animal-like and used to the elements, not to mention that early humans originated from the much warmer areas of the world where shelter would be less of a priority. We can only assume that people started to live in, or at least take shelter in caves ever since there were people. As for the oldest evidence of a shelter built by our ancestors, a structure made from mammoth bone supports has been found in Russia that dates to 25,000 BCE, believed to have been built there as a winter shelter since it’s located next to a spring that would provide unfrozen water all year round, something hard to come by in stone age Russia. It’s highly likely that people would drape animal skins or use things like reeds or turf to cover shelters with, but since none of these materials would preserve for very long we have no evidence of anything older.

Farming – 12,000 years ago

There has been some evidence found that suggests plants were purposely planted as long ago as 25,000 BCE, but they seem to be small isolated plantings that couldn’t possibly support people alone. The earliest known use of agriculture as a method to move away from the hunter-gatherer lifestyle began 12,000 years ago in a fertile area of land surrounding a river system in an area that is now made up of several Middle Eastern countries. Between modern-day Israel, Syria, Jordan, Palestine, Iraq, and Iran, a small selection of plants were grown such as barley, wheat, lentils, peas, and beans. This was also around the same time that people began to domesticate animals and gain access to things like eggs and milk, something difficult to gather from a 500 kg wild cow.

The written word – 3,400 BCE

The oldest known writing system was developed by the Mesopotamian civilization who lived in an area now known as Iraq, but unlike other technologies, it wasn’t passed onto other civilizations and was instead invented independently several times around the world. The Egyptians were the first to invent a lasting written language which started in 3,200 BCE and lasted for over 2,000 years. Symbols are much older than any written language but aren’t able to convey whole messages and instead only represent single meanings, such as a god or a mountain.

Metals – 9000 Years ago

After the various stages of the Stone Age came the first metal age, which was when people learned how to melt and use copper. It’s likely that people found other metals before this like lead and tin, both of which have very low melting points and would be easy to melt out of their ore in a fire, but both are completely useless for making tools or weapons based on how soft they are. The copper age lasted until around 3,500 BCE when people learned that combining copper and tin makes a new metal called Bronze, a material much stronger than either metal alone.

Iron – 5000 BCE

the oldest evidence of iron smelting comes from Mesopotamia and dates to around 5000 BCE, but it was only used for ceremonial purposes and as a status symbol. It appeared in Egypt as early as 3,000 BCE but again seemed very expensive or difficult to produce and wasn’t used in everyday tools and weapons. The Iron Age began about 1,500 BCE in certain areas of the world but it didn’t hit Britain until 800 BCE. It seemed to have been invented at different points instead of the technology being shared, which would make sense as metallurgy advancements within various civilizations would lead them to discover the technology naturally for themselves.

Boats – 130,000 years ago

Evidence of early humans on small islands has been found on the island of Flores and dated to 900,000 years ago, but it’s hard to say if some kind of now-flooded land bridge existed in such areas. The island of Crete has evidence of human ancestors living there from 130,000 years ago, and Australia is believed to have been inhabited since 40,000 years ago, something that could only be achieved if humans learned how to traverse large bodies of water. In terms of an actual “Boat” though, these wouldn’t have been produced until the Bronze Age around 3,000 BCE and weren’t exactly safe for long sea voyages. Early boats would most likely have been log rafts or hollowed-out tree trunks, but these kinds of materials wouldn’t survive the ages.