Early Humans, Evidence and Writing
Imagine finding a broken old pot in a field. You would ask who made it and when. Archaeologists ask the same questions about our earliest ancestors.
Early human history is the very long period before writing was invented. It is understood mainly through archaeological evidence such as tools, fossils and cave art. Writing began at different times in different places; the historical period is said to begin about 5000 years ago.
Key idea 1: Before and after writing — Before writing (from about 3 million to 5000 years ago, over 99% of human history) we learn about people from artefacts, and dates are only approximate. After writing, documents give names, events and dates such as coronations and wars. Sumerian cuneiform and Egyptian hieroglyphs have been deciphered; the Harappan script has not.
- Easy: Archaeologists study tools, fossils and other remains.
- Medium: A fossil forms when buried remains slowly turn to stone over thousands or millions of years.
- Exam-type: The Harappan script cannot be read, so we depend on objects and on cuneiform records of trade.
In the figure: Our ancestors evolved in Africa and spread across the world.
Key idea 2: Our ancestors — The oldest stone tools are about 3.3 million years old, so early humans are called hominins, the tool makers. Homo habilis made chopper tools; Homo erectus made handaxes and cleavers and was the first to leave Africa, about 2 million years ago; Neanderthals lived in Europe and Southwest Asia until about 40,000 years ago; Homo sapiens evolved about 300,000 years ago and is the only human species alive today. Biological evolution is gradual physical change; cultural evolution is how humans adapted with tools and technology during the Quaternary Period (the last 26 lakh years).
- Easy: Homo sapiens means modern humans.
- Medium: Tools are called extra-corporal limbs because they extend the body.
- Exam-type: Early humans left Africa in waves, around 2 million and around 125,000 years ago.
What happened before? Long before writing, people in West Asia kept count with small clay tokens, each shape standing for goods such as a sheep. Later the tokens were sealed inside hollow clay balls, and marks were pressed on the outside to show what was inside. Then flat clay tablets with signs replaced the tokens. A widely discussed theory by archaeologist Denise Schmandt-Besserat says this is how cuneiform began; some scholars debate the details.
What happened next? At first, writing was used mainly to keep accounts of farm and craft work. Scribes pressed signs into soft clay with a reed, and by 3000 BCE cuneiform was used across Mesopotamia, even by people speaking different languages. Later, tablets also held myths, hymns, laws and lessons. That is why history 'with documents' starts here: people could now speak to us in their own words.
No writing means we read the past from objects, not words.
Thinking early humans were one species. Several human ancestors lived at the same time.
Ancestor order. Memory clue: H-E-N-S = Habilis, Erectus, Neanderthal, Sapiens ('Hens').
Spot the difference
| Time | Main source |
|---|---|
| Before writing | Tools, fossils, art |
| After writing | Documents plus remains |
| Dating | Approximate vs exact dates |
Practice questions
- 1What is early human history?
- 2Where did our earliest ancestors evolve?
- 3What are fossils?
- 4Which early human first left Africa?
- 5Why are tools called extra-corporal limbs?
- 6Why is dating more accurate after writing?
- 7Tokens were sealed in clay balls with marks outside. What did this lead to?
- 8Why can we read cuneiform but not the Harappan script?
Show answers (try them yourself first)
- 1The long period before writing, known mainly from archaeology.
- 2In Africa.
- 3Remains of plants, animals or humans preserved over a long time.
- 4Homo erectus.
- 5They extend what the human body can do.
- 6Documents mention exact events such as coronations and wars.
- 7To flat clay tablets with signs, the start of cuneiform.
- 8Cuneiform has been deciphered; the Harappan script has not yet been.
Stone Age to Iron Age
A smartphone, a steel knife and a clay pot each belong to a different time. In the same way, the tools found at a site tell archaeologists which age it belongs to.
The Stone Age has three stages: Palaeolithic (old), Mesolithic (middle) and Neolithic (new). After it come the Chalcolithic (copper with stone), the Bronze Age (copper mixed with tin) and the Iron Age. The ages are divided by technology and way of life.
Key idea 1: The Palaeolithic hunter–gatherers — People hunted animals and gathered plants. They made handaxes, cleavers, choppers, scrapers, borers and points. In India the oldest settlement is about 2 million years old: Attirampakkam (Tamil Nadu) is about 1.5–1.7 million years old and Isampur (Karnataka) about 1.2 million. The tools were used to chop meat, dig tubers, scrape skin and cleave bones for marrow. Later came the bow and arrow, blades and microblades, cave paintings and beads. Homo sapiens spread across the world between 50,000 and 12,000 years ago.
- Easy: Palaeo means old and lithic means stone.
- Medium: A burin was used to engrave bones and shells.
- Exam-type: Smaller tools with sharp points show more efficient hunting.
In the figure: Each age is marked by new technology.
Key idea 2: Mesolithic and the metal ages — About 12,000 years ago the Earth became warmer; forests and grasslands spread, giving small game, fish and wild grains. This caused the first population explosion. Tiny microlithic tools were fixed in handles and fishing was the mainstay. Caves and rock shelters were painted; Bhimbetka in Madhya Pradesh has hundreds. The Chalcolithic used copper with stone tools. The Bronze Age brought towns, trade and early civilisations. The Iron Age brought stronger tools and weapons.
- Easy: Bronze is copper plus tin.
- Medium: Mesolithic is a transition from hunting–gathering to farming.
- Exam-type: Not every region entered each age at the same time.
Tools and way of life decide the age, not one fixed date.
Thinking all places moved from Stone Age to Iron Age together. They did not.
Age order. Memory clue: P-M-N-C-B-I = 'Please Make New Cups, Bring Ice'.
Spot the difference
| Age | Main feature |
|---|---|
| Palaeolithic | Hunting, handaxes |
| Mesolithic | Microliths, fishing |
| Neolithic | Farming, pottery |
| Chalcolithic | Copper and stone |
| Bronze | Towns, trade |
| Iron | Strong tools, weapons |
Practice questions
- 1What does Palaeolithic mean?
- 2Name two Palaeolithic tools.
- 3Where is Attirampakkam?
- 4What are microliths?
- 5Why was the Mesolithic the first population explosion?
- 6Why is Bhimbetka important?
- 7How is bronze made?
- 8Why do historians divide early history into ages?
Show answers (try them yourself first)
- 1Old Stone Age.
- 2Handaxe and cleaver.
- 3Tamil Nadu.
- 4Tiny stone tools fixed in handles.
- 5The warmer climate gave new landscapes with more food.
- 6It has hundreds of painted rock shelters.
- 7By mixing copper and tin.
- 8By technological progress and changes in lifestyle.
Neolithic Revolution, Mehrgarh and the Early Harappans
Think of a family that stops wandering to look for food and instead plants seeds near home and waits for harvest. That change, repeated across the world, is the Neolithic revolution.
The Neolithic revolution is the gradual shift from hunting–gathering to food production. Its hallmark is domestication: bringing selected plants and animals under human control and developing new breeds.
Key idea 1: Neolithic farmers and Mehrgarh — Farmers made tools for producing and processing food, made pottery of many shapes, and built the first village settlements, which prepared the ground for cities. This shift did not happen everywhere at the same time. Mehrgarh on the Bolan River (now Pakistan) is the oldest Neolithic site in the northwest, about 7000 BCE. People built sun-dried brick houses and granaries, buried the dead, made ornaments of lapis lazuli, carnelian and shell, grew wheat and barley and raised sheep, goats and zebu. By about 4000 BCE they made copper objects, which laid the basis for the Sindhu–Sarasvatī civilisation. By 2500 BCE most of the subcontinent had Neolithic farmers.
- Easy: Mehrgarh is the oldest Neolithic site in the northwest.
- Medium: Domesticated plants and animals gave a steady food supply.
- Exam-type: Neolithic change was gradual, so 'revolution' means a deep change, not a quick one.
In the figure: Life at Mehrgarh.
Key idea 2: Early Harappan stage — Copper tools raised farm output in the Indus and Ghaggar–Sarasvatī plains. Pottery styles, beads, shell bangles, terracotta and copper work continued into the later civilisation. Boundary walls, seals and probably the script began here; beads were made at Harappa, Kunal and Datrana. The ploughed field at Kalibangan shows crossing furrows, like rabi and kharif double cropping. Gabarbands were check dams; Dholavira stored water in deep tanks; Lothal has a dockyard of burnt bricks. Small weights followed 1, 2, 4, 8, 16 and larger ones used multiples of ten. The civilisation emerged by about 2600 BCE.
- Easy: Gabarbands are check dams.
- Medium: Standard weights made trade fair and easy.
- Exam-type: Graffiti on pottery and early seals look like forerunners of the script.
Early Harappan progress made the cities possible.
Thinking the Harappan cities appeared suddenly. They grew from Early Harappan villages.
Mehrgarh facts. Memory clue: B-W-S-C = Bricks, Wheat, Sheep, Copper.
Spot the difference
| Place | Known for |
|---|---|
| Mehrgarh | Oldest farming village |
| Kalibangan | Ploughed field |
| Dholavira | Water tanks |
| Lothal | Dockyard |
Practice questions
- 1What is domestication?
- 2Where is Mehrgarh?
- 3Name two crops of Mehrgarh.
- 4When did Mehrgarh people begin making copper objects?
- 5What do the furrows at Kalibangan show?
- 6Why did Harappans use standard weights?
- 7Why is the Neolithic change called a revolution?
- 8How did the Early Harappan stage lead to cities?
Show answers (try them yourself first)
- 1Bringing plants and animals under human control.
- 2On the Bolan River, in present-day Pakistan.
- 3Wheat and barley.
- 4By about 4000 BCE.
- 5Double cropping, like rabi and kharif.
- 6To make long-distance trade fair and easy.
- 7It changed food, settlement and tools deeply, though slowly.
- 8Copper tools, crafts and economic integration led to urban centres.
Mesopotamia
Two big rivers flow through dry land. Wherever water and fertile mud meet, people settle and grow food. That is how the world's first city-based civilisation began.
Mesopotamia means 'land in between': the land between the Euphrates and Tigris rivers in West Asia. Its crescent-shaped farmland is called the Fertile Crescent. Large cities became city-states with their own governments.
Key idea 1: Sumer — Farming began here about 12,000 years ago and copper tools arrived around 4500 BCE. The four great powers were Sumerian, Akkadian, Assyrian and Babylonian. The Sumerians built cities such as Ur, dams and canals, and houses of mud and burnt bricks. Each city built a ziggurat, a stepped temple, for its chief god, and the economy was tied to the temple. They invented the wheeled cart and the sailboat and used the number 60, which gave us the 60-minute hour and the 360-degree circle. Writing in cuneiform began around 3200 BCE.
- Easy: Cuneus means wedge in Latin.
- Medium: Scribes held high status like priests.
- Exam-type: Cuneiform lasted until the end of the first millennium BCE.
In the figure: Powers rose and fell in turn.
Key idea 2: Akkad and Babylon — Akkad rose in 2334 BCE and built the world's first dynastic empire; both Akkadians and Sumerians used cuneiform. King Sargon's tablets mention trade with Dilmun (Bahrain), Magan (Oman) and Meluhha, which is generally identified with the Sindhu–Sarasvatī civilisation. Beads, ivory, timber and gold dust were traded. Hammurabi became king of Babylon in 1792 BCE, conquered neighbours and compiled the Code of Hammurabi. By 1400 BCE Babylon weakened due to Hittite attacks, new technologies of rivals, pressure on land and internal problems.
- Easy: Dilmun is Bahrain and Magan is Oman.
- Medium: The Epic of Gilgamesh is among the earliest stories.
- Exam-type: Mesopotamia was closer to the Harappans, so contact and trade were strong.
What happened before? Hammurabi became king of Babylon in 1792 BCE. Babylon was a small city-state then, but he conquered the neighbouring regions and made it a large empire. Rules for civil and social conduct were then gathered for the whole empire. They were carved in cuneiform on a tall stone pillar (stele), topped by a picture of the king receiving the law from Shamash, the god of justice.
What happened next? About 600 years later, an Elamite king carried the pillar off as loot to his capital, Susa, in present-day Iran. Meanwhile scribes kept copying the laws for over a thousand years. Between December 1901 and January 1902, a French team digging at Susa found the pillar in a few large pieces. Today it stands in the Louvre Museum in Paris.
Mesopotamia was the first city-based civilisation.
Thinking Mesopotamia was one kingdom. It was many city-states and four major powers.
Order of powers. Memory clue: S-A-A-B = 'Sweet Apples Are Better' (Sumer, Akkad, Assyria, Babylon).
Spot the difference
| Power | Known for |
|---|---|
| Sumerians | Cities, ziggurat, cuneiform |
| Akkadians | First dynastic empire |
| Assyrians | Assur city-state |
| Babylonians | Code of Hammurabi |
Practice questions
- 1What does Mesopotamia mean?
- 2What is a ziggurat?
- 3What is cuneiform written on?
- 4Which king's tablets mention Meluhha?
- 5Who compiled the famous code of laws in Babylon?
- 6Why was the Hammurabi stele found in Iran?
- 7Name two reasons Babylon weakened.
- 8Why were temples so important in Sumerian cities?
Show answers (try them yourself first)
- 1Land in between.
- 2A stepped temple tower of a Sumerian city.
- 3Soft clay tablets.
- 4Sargon's.
- 5Hammurabi.
- 6An Elamite king took it as loot to Susa, about 600 years later.
- 7Hittite attacks and internal problems (also pressure on land).
- 8All economic activity was tied to the temple authority.
Egypt, China and What They Share
Look at a map: Egypt, Mesopotamia, Harappa and China all began beside big rivers. Rivers gave water, rich soil and routes for trade.
Four early civilisations grew in river plains: Harappan (Sindhu and Sarasvatī), Mesopotamian (Euphrates and Tigris), Egyptian (Nile) and Chinese (Huang He). They were Bronze Age civilisations that grew independently.
Key idea 1: Egypt — The Nile flooded every summer and left rich black mud, so Egyptians called their land Kemet, 'the black'. Ditches and reservoirs needed teamwork, which helped local government grow. Their calendar had 12 months of 30 days plus 5 days, based on the rising of Sirius. Pharaohs ruled; mastabas stacked on each other became pyramids such as the Step Pyramid at Saqqara. Egyptians believed each person had a ka that lived on if the body was preserved by mummification. Society had a pharaoh, officials, nobles and priests, artisans and merchants, and serfs and slaves. Records were written on papyrus.
- Easy: Kemet means the black land.
- Medium: Egyptian women could own property and run businesses.
- Exam-type: Papyrus was made from the inner trunk of the papyrus plant.
In the figure: Common features of early civilisations.
Key idea 2: China and the shared story — Chinese civilisation grew along the Huang He and the Yangtze. Cities began around 1600 BCE. Shang (1600–1046 BCE) and Zhou (1046–256 BCE) belong to the Bronze Age; iron became common by 600 BCE. The name China probably comes from the Qin dynasty (221–206 BCE); the Han followed. The earliest Chinese records are oracle bones, heated until they cracked. The script is logographic, with characters for whole words. Jade, bronze and silk were famous crafts, and the Great Wall began from 680 BCE against raiders. Across all four civilisations, farming surplus led to cities, writing, administration and social classes.
- Easy: Oracle bones were animal bones and tortoise shells.
- Medium: Silk became a major trade item under the Han, giving the Silk Route its name.
- Exam-type: Egypt and China have little tangible evidence of direct contact with the Harappans.
What happened before? In July 1799 Napoleon's army was repairing an old fort near Rosetta (Rashid) on the Nile. French engineer officer Pierre-François Bouchard noticed a dark slab with three kinds of writing, one of them Greek. He understood it might unlock a lost script, so he saved it and it was sent to scholars in Cairo.
What happened next? When the French surrendered to the British in Egypt in 1801, the stone passed to Britain; it reached Portsmouth in February 1802 and has been in the British Museum since. Scholars worked from copies. In 1822 Jean-François Champollion showed how hieroglyphs worked, and the surprise is that he had not seen the stone itself; he saw it only once, in 1824. Thomas Young in England had also made early progress.
What happened before? China was split into rival kingdoms for years in the Warring States period. Ying Zheng, king of the state of Qin, defeated the other six major states. In 221 BCE, aged about 39, he took a new title, Qin Shi Huangdi, the 'First Emperor of Qin'.
What happened next? He then made the whole land follow common rules: one script, one money, common weights and measures, and even one width for cart axles. Even small bronze weights carried an order to follow the standards. More than 2,000 years later, in March 1974, farmers digging a well near Xi'an hit a clay head, the first find of the Terracotta Army, thousands of clay soldiers buried near his tomb.
River, surplus, cities, writing: the pattern repeats in all four.
Thinking these civilisations copied each other. They emerged independently.
Rivers. Memory clue: N-H-E-I = Nile (Egypt), Huang He (China), Euphrates (Mesopotamia), Indus (Harappa).
Spot the difference
| Civilisation | River |
|---|---|
| Harappan | Sindhu and Sarasvatī |
| Mesopotamian | Euphrates and Tigris |
| Egyptian | Nile |
| Chinese | Huang He and Yangtze |
Egypt, China and What They Share
In the app you can move this figure with your finger.
Open in the appPractice questions
- 1Why did early civilisations arise in river plains?
- 2What does Kemet mean?
- 3Why did Egyptians mummify bodies?
- 4What were Chinese oracle bones?
- 5Which dynasty probably gave China its name?
- 6Why could Champollion read hieroglyphs with the Rosetta Stone?
- 7What did Qin Shi Huang do after unifying China?
- 8Which two civilisations had strong contact, and why?
Show answers (try them yourself first)
- 1Rivers gave water and fertile soil, so surplus food led to cities.
- 2The black (land).
- 3They believed the ka lived on if the body was preserved.
- 4Bones and shells heated until they cracked, read to foretell the future.
- 5The Qin dynasty.
- 6The stone had the same text in Greek, which people could still read.
- 7He standardised writing, money, weights and measures and axle width.
- 8Mesopotamia and Harappa, because they were geographically closer.