I would like to know how far we can go in history before evidence for human existence ceases? I am talking about historical artifacts like writings or drawings or pottery etc and not some vague carbon dating stuff.
History, by definition, involves the analysis of written texts. So history cannot predate writing, which dates from approximately 5400 years ago, during the Bronze Age. Precursors to "true" writing probably date back a couple of thousand years more, in the Neolithic period. But it is obvious that humanity existed long, long before this. There are lots of artifacts in the form of tools, not to mention bones.
I am not sure why you refer to carbon dating as "vague," unless you are trying to make a case for some kind of Young Earth Creationist position.
When you look at artifacts that clearly predate written records, there needs to be some way of estimating just how old they are. Actually, I think there are several ways today (such as tracing changes in the genome, which occur slowly and at a pace that can be estimated).
You should check in with a human origins expert, but I think the usual understanding is that Homo Sapiens (our species) emerged somewhere around 200,000 - 250,000 years ago. Yes, there is some degree of "vagueness" there, but the scale is pretty clear. Homo Neanderthalensis (a species with which we are cross-fertile and some of whose DNA remains in many human populations) probably dates back another 100,000 years or so.
This question hinges on your definition of "human."
The Homo genus is between 2 and 3 million years old, and there are stone tool artifacts from that time frame, likely created by Homo Habilis. On the other hand, the oldest cave paintings are much more recent.
So, how do you define "human"?
If we check history of human on this planet, we need to talk about three species, they are neanderthal , habilis, and sapiens, which is our species. Our species H. sapiens was thought to start with Adam!, however, habilis is supposed to be the oldest. The neanderthal is between habilis and sapiens. The species concerns us is our species, which specialists believe that his history is back to 10 to 12 thousand years, The thing found in some villages of Mesopotamia,Iraq, is about 7000 years-old.
The oldest human artifacts ever found were discovered in Gona, Ethiopia and are 2.5–2.6 million years old. The tools are referred to as Oldowan, after the Olduvai Gorge in Tanzanio, and consist of pieces of sharp-edged rock pounded off of cores. They are used to chop and to scrape meat from animal bones.
Medhat omits Homo Erectus for some reason. More disturbing, he claims that Homo Sapiens dates back only 12,000 years or less. That only takes us back to the dawn of agriculture! Our species expanded across the globe long, long before that - and even this took place after a much longer period in which we dwelt only in Africa.
I am shocked to find such misinformation being spread on a site devoted to science and other forms of research.
Dear Joy: I didn't omit any species I know ! This is the first time to hear about this Species! So, would you please replenish our minds and give us a concise history of each of the four Species? Thank you so much.
Homo erectus emerged after Homo habilis (circa 1 million years ago) and lasted until about 200,000 years ago, at which time Homo neanderthalensis and Homo sapiens were flourishing. "Java man" and "Peking man" were early fossil discoveries of this species, which was apparently widespread. These were the first people to master fire, or so it is believed. Many of their stone tools remain, but of course they cannot be dated as can the bones.
I'm no expert, but I think there were at least a few other species of hominid as well, some of which overlapped with Homo erectus and Homo neaderthalensis. The so-called Denisovans and Homo heidelbergensis would be examples. It's rather sad to consider the diversity that was lost as just one species (ours) evidently out-competed the others and emerged triumphant - but alone.
The attached link leads to my local natural history museum's human origins page, which contains some rather interesting features - such as a reconstruction of a Neanderthal head.
http://peabody.yale.edu/exhibits/fossil-fragments/home
- Badges
- Science topic
- Similar topics
- Statistics
- Survey