Unit 1 - Timeline of Human Development

Unit 1: Foundations of Community

Timeline of Human Development

2,000 years ago

Jesus of Nazareth (ca. 4 BCE - 30 CE)

200,000 years ago

You are here.

Homo sapiens emerged around 200,000 years ago. The name means "wise human," referring to this species' rapid brain development and high intelligence.

These anatomically modern humans gave rise to two very important species...

1.8 mya - 143,000 years ago

150,000 years ago

Homo sapiens sapiens

"Wise, wise humans" emerged between 200,000 and 150,000 years ago. We are the only human species left in existence.

Until about 10,000 BCE, Homo sapiens sapiens continued to use stone tools as their ancestors had done for over 2 million years.

Slowly our species migrated across all parts of the globe, adapting to vastly different environments through mastery of tools and language.

Hunter-gatherers lived in small bands of about 20-30 members.

The end of the last ice age and the gradual transition to settled agriculture led to the total transformation of this extremely ancient way of life.

100,000 years ago

30,000 years ago

Homo neanderthalensis

"Neanderthals"

100,000 - 30,000 years ago

This subspecies of homo sapiens was an anatomically modern human with some slight differentiation. Neanderthals lived alongside our own subspecies and are named for the valley in Germany in which their fossils were first discovered. Also discovered among Neanderthal remains were the earliest signs of ritual human burial, indicating a possible belief in afterlife and complex social development.

DNA has been recovered from more than a dozen Neanderthal fossils, all from Europe; the Neanderthal Genome Project is one of the exciting new areas of human origins research.

(Smithsonian Institute, www.humanorigins.si.edu)

Neanderthals (Neander-thal, the ‘th’ pronounced as ‘t’) are our closest extinct human relative. Some defining features of their skulls include the large middle part of the face, angled cheek bones, and a huge nose for humidifying and warming cold, dry air. Their bodies were shorter and stockier than ours, another adaptation to living in cold environments. But their brains were just as large as ours and often larger - proportional to their brawnier bodies.

(Smithsonian Institute, www.humanorigins.si.edu)

Neanderthals made and used a diverse set of sophisticated tools, controlled fire, lived in shelters, made and wore clothing, were skilled hunters of large animals and also ate plant foods, and occasionally made symbolic or ornamental objects. There is evidence that Neanderthals deliberately buried their dead and occasionally even marked their graves with offerings, such as flowers. No other primates, and no earlier human species, had ever practiced this sophisticated and symbolic behavior.

(Smithsonian Institute, www.humanorigins.si.edu)

500,000 years ago

2.95 million years ago

2.5-1.6 mya

500,000 years ago

First evidence of human ancestors using fire.

Homo erectus

1.89 mya - 143,000 years ago

The name refers to this species ability to walk upright, but erectus was not the first hominid to do so. This species is particularly important, because its arms and legs were in roughly the same proportion as our own, and erectus is the direct ancestor of Homo sapiens.

This guy coexisted in Africa with all these guys.

Australopithecus afarensis

Homo habilis

2.5 - 1.6 million years ago

Homo rudolfensis

Homo habilis

Paranthropus boisei

3.85 - 2.95 million years ago

This early member of the homo genus is believed to be the earliest human ancestor to use stone tools.

Australopithecus means "southern ape" and refers to a genus of hominid, which lived in eastern and southern Africa. This particular species, afarensis, flourished for around 900,000 years - over 4 times as long as our own species has existed. The first fossil of this species was discovered in 1974 and nicknamed "Lucy."

habilis - "handy man"

Roman Empire through Today

2 million years ago

1 million years ago

3 million years ago

Beginning of the Common Era