Humans
“What are those?” the Mouse asked the Owl
“Those are humans” said the Owl
“What are they going to do?” asked the Mouse
“I don’t know” said the Owl
An image of Samburu women in traditional dress taken in Kenya by K Kahiri on 26 October 2022. The Samburu are semi-nomadic pastoralists who have herded cattle across South-eastern Africa for thousands of years.
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We evolved 300,000 years ago. But before we ever built skyscrapers, flew airplanes or wrote things down we radically changed the planet. Let’s dive in, to the origin of humans. Â
An image of Stonehenge, one of the most famous and important prehistoric monuments in the world created roughly 4,000 years ago. It was taken K Hodge in Wiltshire, England in October 2006.
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The skulls of Homo erectus, Homo heidelbergensis, a Neanderthal and a modern human from the London Natural History Museum
The evolution of flaked stone tools an Oldowan chopper or core, Acheulean handaxe, Mousterian point, bifacial Middle Stone Age point, Upper Paleolithic blade (more details here)
An image of many early human ancestor reconstructions (P. Plailly, E. Daynes – Science photo library)
The story of humans...
Humans like to think we are special. And we are. Along with every other glorious creature with whom we share the planet.
But it is easy to think we are really special. And that we are different from all other species. And that we came out of nowhere and consequently owe the world around us very little.
That’s not true. Humans, like every animal, slowly emerged as a species along with many similar variants. Most people are familiar with a few human relatives, like Neanderthals or that ‘Lucy’ fossil. However, in reality, there were hundreds of populations of upright apes walking around the planet all slightly different tailored to some ecological niche. Some were stocky and stout and specialized in surviving harsh icy winters. Others lived on the coast and were better swimmers eating mainly fish. A few were even gorilla-esque gentle giant vegetarians.
Large numbers of these species have only just been discovered. In the last 10 years, specimens of at least 5 new hominid species have been unearthed. Imagine how much we will know in 50? Imagine how many were out there, we will never know about, because they were not lucky enough to survive the trials of time?
Evolution doesn’t set a course to a predetermined destination. Instead, a canopy of branches spread out across time, which are semi-regularly pruned. We were the branch that survived. But it could very well have gone differently.
It would probably be good for us to keep that in mind. It might ground us a little going forward.
An image of a neanderthal caveman (reconstruction). Learning to manage and use fire was an important step in human evolution.
Human evolution: A timeline
An image of the Altamira bison, a 36,000 year old cave painting from the Altamira caves in Cantabira, Spain. This reproduction is from the Museo del Mamut, Barcelona. Further details here.
How did we become US?
The rate of technological development over past decades has been breathtaking. Humans went from the first plane flight to a moon landing in less than a single lifetime. It’s unfathomable. Human culture and political systems are still reeling from these changes. Their long-term effects on the human psyche are yet to be determined.
However, these changes are easy. To go from a car to a rocket is nothing once you’ve worked out the scientific method and what atoms are. It’s just a matter of following the path.
But how do you find that path in the first place? How do you begin to imagine and create, when no-one ever has before? When you have no language to communicate with, no brushes to paint with, you’ve never heard music, don’t understand why the sun sets and all you’ve ever had access to are your own thoughts?
It’s hard. It took humans more than a million years to go from a hand axe to an axe with a shaft.Â
The early human artists were the greatest of us – the purest and most creative artists. They invented inventing. The 21st century is a benefactor of their legacy. We owe them a great debt.
When were the first 'humans'? Would we notice one walking down the street?
What were the first tools? Were they any good?
When was the first art? Was it beautiful?
A field of wheat in Zelenyi Hai, Ukraine taken by P Rytova on 21 June 2018. One of the most important steps in the evolution of the modern world was when humans settled down and began growing grain.
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