When did humans first...

[Maciamo]

Here is a list of the oldest evidence known to archaeology for things that humans did for the first time in prehistory. The purpose is to give a overview of the timeline of technological developments across prehistoric times.


- Humans made stone tools at least 2.6 million years ago in Ethiopia (source). Modern and ancient chimps have been known to make and use stone tools for multiple purposes too (source), so the use of tools may date from well before the split between the two species some 6 million years ago.

- Humans started making stone-tipped spears at least 500,000 years ago in South Africa (source) and 400,000 to 500,000 years ago in northern Europe (source).


==== Neanderthals appear in Europe c. 300,000 years ago / Start of the Middle Paleolithic ====


- Humans cooked food in a hearth at least 300,000 years ago in Israel (source).

- The earliest evidence of religion come in the form of totemism or animal worship (like bear cult) practised by Neanderthals, some time between 100,000 and 300,000 years ago.

- Neanderthals started burying their dead possibly as 300,000 years ago in southern Europe, and indisputably since 130,000 years ago (source).


==== Anatomically modern humans appear in Ethiopia circa 160,000 years ago ====


- Neanderthals made string/rope at least 90,000 years ago in France (source).

- Humans made paint from red ochre at least 75,000 years agoin South Africa (source).

- Humans may have made bow and arrows as early as 64,000 years ago in South Africa (source).

- Homo sapiens made needles at least 61,000 years ago in South Africa (source)


==== Homo sapiens sapiens appears circa 60,000 to 50,000 years ago / Start of Upper Paleolithic ====


- Humans started making fish hooks at least 42,000 years ago in Indonesia (source).

- Humans made the first cave paintings at least 40,000 years ago in Spain (source).

- The oldest known musical instrument is a flute from Germany dating from 35,000 years ago (source).

- Humans first domesticated dogs around 32,000 years ago in Belgium (source) and in the Altai mountains (source).

- Humans started to make ceramic at least 25,000 to 29,000 years ago in Central Europe (source).

- The first pottery vessels appear at least 20,000 years ago in Northeast Asia (source).


==== End of the Last Glacial period circa 12,000 years ago / Start of the Holocene ====


- The cultivation of cereals appear to have started at least 12,000 years ago in the Levant (source), and perhaps earlier in Northeast Africa.

- Humans started building stone structures, including temples, at Göbekli Tepe in Anatolia about 11,000 years ago (source).

- The use of calendars dates from at least from 10,000 years ago in Scotland (source).

- The world's first bricks were made in the Near East at least 9,500 years ago (source).

- Metallurgy may have started in the Balkans with copper working (c. 7500 years ago, source), followed by gold (7000 ybp), bronze (6500 ybp) and silver (6000 ybp).

- The oldest evidence of writing date from 7300 years ago in central Romania (source) and northern Greece (source).

- The world's first cities appeared in southern Mesopotamia some 6,500 years ago (source).

- The first potter's wheel appears in the Near East between 6,500 and 5,200 years ago, during the Ubaid period (source).

- The earliest evidence of horse domestication, and perhaps also horse riding, dates from 6,000 to 5,500 years ago in the Eurasian Steppe (source).

- The oldest trace of glassmaking comes from the Near East circa 5,500 years ago (source).

- Humans started making swords and bronze weapons in the Maykop culture in the northwest Caucasus c. 5500 to 5000 years ago.

- The world's oldest known wheel is approximately 5,200 years old and was found in Slovenia (source).

- The oldest known horse-drawn chariots date from the Sintashta and Petrovka cultures in the Eurasian Steppe, c. 4,000 years ago (source).



Feel free to contribute.

[LeBrok]

- first string/rope - neanderthal 90,000 year old. http://www.newscientist.com/article/...l#.Uvfld_ldUYk

- first paint, red ochre - Iron oxide is one of the most common minerals found on earth, and there is much evidence that yellow and red ochre pigment was used in prehistoric and ancient times by many different civilizations on different continents. Pieces of ochre engraved with abstract designs have been found at the site of the Blombos Cave in South Africa, dated to around 75,000 years ago
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ochre#cite_note-4
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blombos_Cave

- Humans started to make pottery at least 25,000 to 29,000 years ago in Central Europe (source)

I think this means first ceramic object. First pottery as pots and vessels were invented later.

Pottery originates during the Neolithic period. Ceramic objects like the Gravettian culture Venus of Dolní Věstonice figurine discovered in the Czech Republic date back to 29,000–25,000 BC,^[6] and pottery vessels discovered in Jiangxi, China date back to 20,000 BP.^[7] Early Neolithic pottery has also been found in Jomon Japan (10,500 BC),^[8] the Russian Far East (14,000 BC),^[9] Sub-Saharan Africa and South America.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pottery


- needle - A variety of archaeological finds illustrate sewing has been present for thousands of years. The earliest bone needle dates to 61,000 BC and was discovered inSibudu Cave, South Africa.^[4]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sewing_needle


- stone structure - Gobekli Tepe? 11 k years ago. There is a claim that place in south Africa had some stone structure (Adam's Calendar) dating to 75k BP, though I couldn't find anything scientific to make it "real".
http://www.ancient-wisdom.co.uk/africaadamscalendar.htm

- Humans may have made bow and arrows as early as 64,000 years ago in South Africa (source).

Arrow yes, but I'm not sure about Bow part. The oldest arrows were thrown from one-handheld extension. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlatl
The oldest actuall bow fragments come from Europe (8,000BC). Although I find it very likely, looking at small arrowheads, that they were used for arrows shot with bows, which judging by age wouldn't survive being made of wood.

Looking at these first inventions, there is quite a bunch coming from South Africa. Most likely more to come from their sites.

[Maciamo]

Great finds, Lebrok. I will update the OP to add your input.

[ebAmerican]

The development of Sapiens clothing can be guessed around the same time clothing lice diverged from head lice between 83,000 and 170,000 years ago. I would guess around 100,000 years ago when naked Africans walked out of Africa and into colder climates in Eurasia. There may have been minimal clothing like penis pipes going back 3 million years in Africa. http://mbe.oxfordjournals.org/content/28/1/29.full

[bicicleur]

- needle - A variety of archaeological finds illustrate sewing has been present for thousands of years. The earliest bone needle dates to 61,000 BC and was discovered inSibudu Cave, South Africa.^[4]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sewing_needle

to my knowledge, oldest needles discovered in Eurasia are more than 40000 years old in Kostenki near the river Don, by people who where there before Aurignacians came there from the Balkans/Central-Europe

in Western Europe, the needles were used only 20000 years later, during LGM

[bicicleur]

Arrow yes, but I'm not sure about Bow part. The oldest arrows were thrown from one-handheld extension. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlatl
The oldest actuall bow fragments come from Europe (8,000BC). Although I find it very likely, looking at small arrowheads, that they were used for arrows shot with bows, which judging by age wouldn't survive being made of wood.

Looking at these first inventions, there is quite a bunch coming from South Africa. Most likely more to come from their sites.

archery seems to have develloped from the atlatl , around LGM and spread all around the world very fast - tough there is no solid proof : The oldest actuall bow fragments come from Europe (8,000BC)

looks like Howiesons Poort technocomplex was way ahead of his time 60-70000 years ago, but strangely, everything seems to be have been lost again afterwards

[LeBrok]

looks like Howiesons Poort technocomplex was way ahead of his time 60-70000 years ago, but strangely, everything seems to be have been lost again afterwards

That's a news to me. I have to read up more about this part of world and history. I heard that people had to hide in south Africa couple of times during terrible droughts in Africa, during Ice Ages. However I didn't have a clue about high development of this civilization, or almost civilization.

[bicicleur]

That's a news to me. I have to read up more about this part of world and history. I heard that people had to hide in south Africa couple of times during terrible droughts in Africa, during Ice Ages. However I didn't have a clue about high development of this civilization, or almost civilization.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Behavioral_modernity

Great leap forward[edit]

Middle Stone Age bifacial points, engraved ochre and bone tools from the c. 75 - 80,000 year old M1 & M2 phases at Blombos cave^{[citation needed]}(Staged photo - not as they were found)

See also: Upper Paleolithic and Late Stone Age
Most advocates of this theory argue that the great leap forward occurred sometime between 50-40 kya in Africa or Europe, or perhaps simultaneously throughout the occupied world; however some argue for an earlier date and a slower radiation, urging evidence for advanced tool-making (e.g., pyrolithic and bone tools) and abstract designs at Blombos Cave and other sites along the South African coast by at least 80 kya.<sup>[1]


personally I don't believe that what happened 40-50 kya in Europe has anything to do with what happened 80 kya in South Africa</sup>

[Maciamo]

looks like Howiesons Poort technocomplex was way ahead of his time 60-70000 years ago, but strangely, everything seems to be have been lost again afterwards

Or remains undiscovered by archaeologists... I don't think that the most creative of Palaeolithic humans only lived either in Europe, Israel or South Africa. That's only what the archaeological shows because these regions have a substantial number of archaeologists. The biggest part of Africa still needs to be explored and surely will hold a lot of invaluable data.

[LeBrok]

Possible first net for catching small animals.

Dolní Věstonice (often without diacritics as Dolni Vestonice) refers to an Upper Paleolithic archaeological site near the village of Dolní Věstonice, Moravia in the Czech Republic, dating to approximately 26,000 BP, as supported by radiocarbon dating. The site is unique in that it has been a particularly abundant source of prehistoric artifacts (especially art) dating from the Gravettian period, which spanned roughly 27,000 to 20,000 B.C. In
Contrary to popular beliefs regarding the hunting practices of people living in the Upper Pleistocene, the inhabitants of this site did not solely chase mammoths with spears. Indentations of netting on the clay floors of the huts found at the site were preserved in the archaeological record when the structures burned down, hardening the clay. These indentations strongly suggest that these people were using nets to catch smaller prey in addition to hunting mammoths with spears. Finally, shells found at the site have been shown to originate from the Mediterranean, suggesting these people either traveled to collect them or were trade partners with other groups nearby.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doln%C3..._(archaeology)

Gravettians might have been the first to construct HUTS. Walls built of wood with proper floor, grass mixed with clay, and hearth for cooking.

Another example from same time frame:

Nadel and his team have been exploring Ohalo II, a 23,000-year-old fishermen-hunters-gatherers camp on the shores of the Sea of Galilee (Lake Kinneret).The site was uncovered several years ago after the lake had receded drastically because of years of little rainfall in the region.The oval-shaped "mat" that was found is made of grass. Found in the largest of the six brush huts uncovered, the most ancient in the world, the floor covering measures 4.5 meters long. It was located close to the hut wall, around a central hearth.The mat was meticulously crafted from bundles of grass. The charred stems and leaves were covered with a thin, closely pressed layer of clay. According to Nadel, this was apparently intended to preserve the structure and order of the sheaves

https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org...fabedding.html


First Harvest
From same site we learn about high consumption of wheat and barley, 23k years ago.

Some 90,000 seeds and fruit from more than 100 species of trees and plants have been identified so far. Among the grains, wild wheat and barley stand out. These were among the first that humans cultivated at a much later period.

PS. This confirms my conjecture (made in other threads) that humans consumed wheat grains long before it got cultivated. Especially consumption of it was high among women and children, the gatherers.

[LeBrok]

First known weaved basket.

The oldest known baskets have been carbon dated to between 10,000 and 12,000 years old, earlier than any established dates for archeological finds of pottery, and were discovered in Faiyumin upper Egypt.^[1] Other baskets have been discovered in the Middle East that are up to 7,000 years old. However, baskets seldom survive, as they are made from perishable materials. The most common evidence of a knowledge of basketry is an imprint of the weave on fragments of clay pots, formed by packing clay on the walls of the basket and firing.

However, the basket is made of soft organic materials, therefore very perishable. I'm expecting date for first basket to be moved far back, possibly 50-100k years ago.

[LeBrok]

World's oldest leather shoe discovered in Armenia.

The 5,500 year old shoe, the oldest leather shoe in the world, was discovered by a team of international archaeologists and their findings will publish on June 9th in the online scientific journal

http://phys.org/news195326766.html

They are also very perishable in archeological sense, and the invention might be way older, on a scale of tens of thousands of years. There could be a good (long tradition) reason why women love their shoes? :)

[Angela]

World's oldest leather shoe discovered in Armenia.

http://phys.org/news195326766.html

They are also very perishable in archeological sense, and the invention might be way older, on a scale of tens of thousands of years. There could be a good (long tradition) reason why women love their shoes? :)

I meant to respond to this but got distracted by nonsense...

The museum displays of clothing, jewelry, household artifacts, are some of my favorites...

These are some images of Roman footwear...

Good design is obviously timeless, lol.


And yes, our love affair with shoes (and bags and scarves) is a longstanding one...:)

Ed. And one can steal from the ancients without fear of copyright infringement!

[LeBrok]

First boat.
- circumstantial evidence suggest that simple logboat or a raft was invented 900,000 years
- oldest surviving logboat 10,000 years old
- boat made of reed, 7,000 years old in Kuwait
- boat made of planks - probably copper age with first wood cutting tools made of metal, copper axe. (my guess)

Dugouts are the oldest boats archaeologists have found, dating back about eight thousand years.^[2]
Boats have served as transportation since early times.^[3] Circumstantial evidence, such as the early settlement of Australia over 40,000 years ago, findings in Crete dated 130,000 years ago,^[4] and findings in Flores dated to 900,000 years ago,^[5] suggest that boats have been used since prehistoric times. The earliest boats are thought to have been logboats,^[6] and the oldest boats found by archaeological excavation dating from around 7,000–10,000 years ago. The oldest recovered boat in the world is the Pesse canoe, a dugout, or hollowed tree trunk from a Pinus sylvestris and constructed somewhere between 8200 and 7600 BC. This canoe is exhibited in the Drents Museum in Assen, Netherlands.^[7][8] Other very old dugout boats have also been recovered.^[9][10][11] A 7,000 year-old seagoing reed boat has been found in Kuwait.^[12] Boats were used between 4000 and 3000 BC in Sumer,^[3] ancient Egypt^[13] and in the Indian Ocean.^[3]
Boats played a very important part in the commerce between the Indus Valley Civilization and Mesopotamia.^[14] Evidence of varying models of boats has also been discovered in various Indus Valley sites.^[15][16] The Uru wooden big boat was made in Beypore a village in south Calicut, Kerala, in southwestern India. These have been used by the Arabs and Greeks since ancient times as trading vessels. This mammoth wooden ship was constructed using teak, without any iron or blueprints and which has transportation capacity of 400 tonnes.
The accounts of historians Herodotus, Pliny the Elder, and Strabo suggest that boats were used for commerce and traveling

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boat

[Engel]

I don't really fully agree with OOA theory.
God made Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden.
Adam and Eve Sinned, so God cast them out in the outer darkness where
we now live and here OOA may have happened.
So now science has to locate the dam an Eve from the Garden

[Aberdeen]

I don't really fully agree with OOA theory.
God made Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden.
Adam and Eve Sinned, so God cast them out in the outer darkness where
we now live and here OOA may have happened.
So now science has to locate the dam an Eve from the Garden

I think this thread is a discussion of documented fact, rather than mythology.

[Engel]

I think this thread is a discussion of documented fact, rather than mythology.

Are you not aware that the bible is an authentic document

[LeBrok]

Are you not aware that the bible is an authentic document

Yes, it is an authentic document of prophets, poets and visionaries of way back. It is not a document of historians and scientists. Other words not a book to blindly follow.

Listen to this documentary with historians and scientists telling how your god was created and went through evolution of character:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7yzpaIrTFMc

When you know the time when first god was create, or any other human invention, post it here. Otherwise use appropriate threads, please.

[Aberdeen]

Are you not aware that the bible is an authentic document

Are you not aware that the Havamal is an authentic document? Sacrifice to Odin while you still can. But when we talk about scientific evidence, that's something different and is about things that can be confirmed by the use of the scientific method. The ways of the Gods are inscrutable and cannot be understood through the use of the scientific method, so we should discuss their stories in another thread.

[Aberdeen]

I know that clothing must have been invented long before the first example of clothing that has survived to the present, but I'm curious as to whether anyone knows the date of the oldest textiles found so far.

[LeBrok]

I know that clothing must have been invented long before the first example of clothing that has survived to the present, but I'm curious as to whether anyone knows the date of the oldest textiles found so far.

One of oldest proof of textiles are imprints of textiles on ceramic vessels. It happened accidentally when fresh clay pots were touched with fabrics, clothes of pot makers, and their texture got imprinted and as such found by archeologists. I'm not sure where is the article I read it in.

Otherwise textiles must have showed up right after net (for catching animals) invention. It is roughly same idea of weaving pattern, just much denser than when making nets or baskets.

I wonder what was invented first, the weaving pattern or making threads/strings out of fine fiber.

Maybe inspecting ancint cave paintings or figurines would shine some light if they wore textiles of just skins.


This is interesting:

The earliest dyedflax fibers have been found in a prehistoric cave in the Republic of Georgia and date back to 36,000 BP

But they don't give a source.

[Taranis]

Are you not aware that the bible is an authentic document

Which bible? Which version?

The Old Testament was written in Hebrew, the New Testament was written in Greek, and Jesus himself probably spoke Aramaic in everyday life. Which version do you use, which, if any, books that are commonly called "Apocrypha" (both intertestamental and new testament) do you consider to hold authority, or do you agree with the decisions of First Council of Nicea to render them non-canonical?

Also, have you ever wondered yourself why we call the first and second books of Moses respectively "Genesis" and "Exodus", and not "Bereshīt" and "Shemot"? These names come from the Septuagint, a translation of the Old Testament into Greek from the Hellenistic period. There are differences between it and the Masoretic version (written in the original Hebrew), were you even aware of that?

One of the most beautiful examples is the story of the Deluge, which is not an originally Jewish story, it is Sumerian in origin was taken from the much older Epic of Gilgamesh (in some cases, taken to the to the word from the Akkadian standard version).

We can continue the discussion of the origin of the various parts of the bible in another thread, but that certainly doesn't belong here.

[Angela]

Which bible? Which version?

The Old Testament was written in Hebrew, the New Testament was written in Greek, and Jesus himself probably spoke Aramaic in everyday life. Which version do you use, which, if any, books that are commonly called "Apocrypha" (both intertestamental and new testament) do you consider to hold authority, or do you agree with the decisions of First Council of Nicea to render them non-canonical?

Also, have you ever wondered yourself why we call the first and second books of Moses respectively "Genesis" and "Exodus", and not "Bereshīt" and "Shemot"? These names come from the Septuagint, a translation of the Old Testament into Greek from the Hellenistic period. There are differences between it and the Masoretic version (written in the original Hebrew), were you even aware of that?

One of the most beautiful examples is the story of the Deluge, which is not an originally Jewish story, it is Sumerian in origin was taken from the much older Epic of Gilgamesh (in some cases, taken to the to the word from the Akkadian standard version).

We can continue the discussion of the origin of the various parts of the bible in another thread, but that certainly doesn't belong here.

Ah...what a pleasure to read something by someone who knows of what he speaks as to these matters!

@Aberdeen...totally agree.

[Tabaccus Maximus]

The Lembombo Bone of Swaziland near South Africa is the oldest example of mathematical computation at approximately 37 years ago.

http://books.google.com/books?id=nnp...20bone&f=false


On a side note, use some common sense Eupedia posters.

Don't respond to individuals with avatar's named "Engel" with race shown to be "Aryan". He is obviously an agitator from another website as shows up here from time to time.

Stay on topic.

[Aberdeen]

The Lembombo Bone of Swaziland near South Africa is the oldest example of mathematical computation at approximately 37 years ago.

http://books.google.com/books?id=nnp...20bone&f=false


On a side note, use some common sense Eupedia posters.

Don't respond to individuals with avatar's named "Engel" with race shown to be "Aryan". He is obviously an agitator from another website as shows up here from time to time.

Stay on topic.

Good advice. But I think you have a small error in your own post. Shouldn't that be 37,000 years ago and not 37 years ago?