Big History Project: Humans

Human Evolution

Crash Course Big History takes a look at Humans, one of the weirdest examples of change in the Universe. Around for only 250,000 years, we are truly one of the most complex things in the cosmos.

We didn't descend from chimps or bonobos — they're just our cousins. We all descended from a common shrew-like ancestor. After a slow 7 million years of evolving, developing bipedalism, collectively learning, and tinkering with primitive tools, a powerful new species ruled the Earth.

Using Tools, Shelter, and Fire

Out of Africa

Homo erectus lived between 1.9 million and 143,000 years ago. They're thought to be the first of our ancestors to have migrated out of Africa.

Cousins?

Chimpanzees and humans share 98% of their DNA. That's not all that's shared, either. Jane Goodall's scientific observations have shown that chimps make and use tools, and their social interactions mirror those of humans.

Acheulean stone axes — © Alfredo Dagli Orti/The Art Archive/CORBIS

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Earliest tools

These 1.5-million-year-old Acheulean stone tools, probably made by Homo erectus, represent a revolution in tool making. Stone tools were used for digging, cutting wood, and cutting and skinning game.

Shelter from the elements

Early humans excelled at adapting to their environment, often using natural formations for shelter. Sites like Blombos Cave, above, have given researchers a glimpse into their daily lives.

Controlling fire

Scientists aren't sure when humans started using fire, but evidence suggests its controlled use occurred between 400,000 and 1 million years ago.

Foraging, Migration, and Beyond

Though walking upright with big brains, humans were still a pretty primitive species at the time. They travelled in small groups, foraging for edible foods and hunting animals. But they also survived the ice ages. Tools for survival included the controlled use of fire and better clothing technology. They also met others, told stories, and exchanged knowledge through the development of symbolic language and art, such as drawings on cave walls. Change was slow, but change was on the move.

Early Migration — © The Big History Project

Hey, where are you going?

Humans had to use collective learning to come up with new adaptive strategies as they migrated in search of food, moving into environments they had never experienced before. They also altered landscapes and hunted many species to extinction.

Activity

Human Migration

Track human migration since the beginning of our existence

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Writing and Saving Knowledge

Writing likely originated as a system of accounting as elites and power brokers who were accumulating more and more resources tried to keep track of their wealth. Eventually, the symbols used for accounting evolved to convey all the nuances of everyday languages and generate literature, history, and proper writing.

A library for a king

In the seventh century BCE, Assyrian King Ashurbanipal built a library in his palace consisting of thousands of clay tablets containing legal texts, accounting records, scientific information, and mythology. Among them was the Flood Tablet, the 11th tablet of The Epic of Gilgamesh.

Egyptian Hieroglyphs

This system, dating back to about 3200 BCE included as many as 800 basic symbols — some representing objects or ideas, some representing sounds. Hieroglyphs were difficult to learn, time-consuming to create, and only priests and civil officials used them.

Cuneiform

This style of writing on clay tablets with reeds dates back to Uruk, 3500 BCE. Preserved by baking, this system of sticklike drawings offers us the earliest written glimpses of human civilization.

The Dead Sea Scrolls

These 981 texts are among the oldest known Hebrew writings. The Temple Scroll, above, dating from between 408 BCE and CE 318, describes a Jewish temple, never constructed, and details rules and regulations. The scroll measures about nine meters (30 feet) and is written in ink on parchment.

Thee Gutenberg Bible — © Harry Ransom Center

The Gutenberg Bible

The 48 existing copies of the Gutenberg Bible ‐ just 21 complete ‐ were printed in the 1450s and are widely considered some of the most valuable books in the world. The text was completed in the early fifth century and remained the definitive edition for the next 1,200 years.

Moveable type

Pi Sheng was a commoner about whom little is known, yet he invented the earliest known form of moveable-type printing in the eleventh century CE. Thanks in large part to Sheng's innovation, the Sung Dynasty became famous for achievements in literature and art.

Quiz: Threshold 6

Collective Learning

Ingredients
Goldilocks Conditions
New Complexity

Which of the following is NOT an ingredient for collective learning?
- Symbolic language Incorrect, Try again
- Powerful brains Incorrect, Try again
- Stereoscopic vision Correct
Which condition contributed directly to the collective learning process?
- The process of storing and sharing information Correct
- Advances in science and technology Incorrect, Try again
- A universal spoken language Incorrect, Try again
In addition to connecting with each other and learning new things, how else did collective learning support the advancement of homo sapiens?
- The ability to adapt without genetic changes Correct
- The development of new trade and commerce routes Incorrect, Try again
- The discovery of fire Incorrect, Try again

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Agriculture

Complex Civilization Begins

At the end of the last Ice Age, many humans decided to stay put instead of migrating any further. Communities grew denser and they had to draw more resources from a smaller area. Using their learned knowledge from the environment, humans began to experiment with agriculture, which became a revolution. Farming produced a surplus of food, allowing others to take up new work. Societies became diverse, populations exploded, and collective learning thrived.

The greatest places to eat, 11,000 years ago

Once people learned how to plant crops and domesticate and raise livestock, they no longer had to move around to follow their food. They were able to generate powerful networks of collective learning — civilizations.

The Rise of Civilization

The pace of collective learning grows

When agriculture appeared, history seemed to speed up. Five thousand years after the appearance of agriculture, the number of humans had increased from just a few million to almost 50 million. This rapid growth was made possible by an increase in the number of innovations.

Strong as an ox — © Bojan Brecelj/CORBIS

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Farming power

An ox delivers about ten times more power than a human. So when farmers domesticated their livestock it represented a revolution, as animals could till more land and carry more goods over distances, helping farmers connect to and feed more communities.

Irrigation produces a surplus

Humans began using irrigation techniques to help control water supplies and produce larger harvests. These food surpluses freed up others to specialize in other areas.

The first law of the land

As towns and cities grew, some sort of social organization was needed. One of the greatest legacies of Mesopotamia may be the The Code of Hammurabi, one of the earliest records of law.

Cornerstones of the earliest civilization

Along with specialization, eight key characteristics distinguish agrarian civilization: cities, monumental architecture, rulers, hierarchies, tax systems, armies, peasant farmers, and writing.

Creating Settlements

Did religion sow the seeds of civilization?

As humans abandoned foraging, farming claims the vast majority of credit in explaining the birth of civilizations. But what if it wasn't farming at all? A recent discovery in the limestone pillar ruins at Göbekli Tepe, Turkey, archaeological evidence suggests that this was a temple. Almost 12,000 years ago nomadic tribes made the pilgrimage here to worship, share community, or perhaps to simply stand in awe.

It would have taken hundreds of people to construct Göbekli Tepe. Yet there were no rooms built for dwelling. No hearths for fire or cooking. Water was about three miles away. There was simply nothing about the site to suggest anything domestic.

As exploration of this site continues, its Big History meaning is still being debated. Most notably, did religious gatherings have a fundamental role in farming technologies — creating the need for settlements and society? Do we need to reevaluate our thinking?

© Vincent J. Musi/National Geographic Society/CORBIS

The First Cities and States

A new, more complex society is born

Fueled by surplus crops, people living in agrarian civilizations could specialize in jobs other than farming. New roles and complex, interdependent societies emerged. Elites, farmers, and the menial classes became intertwined and the toeholds of the first cities took shape. States began to function as a coordinating mechanism among these sophisticated relationships. And the state could impose its will by force.