Clovis spearheads. Credit: wikimedia, CC BY-SA
For the primary few million years of human evolution, applied sciences modified slowly. Some three million years in the past, our ancestors had been making chipped stone flakes and crude choppers. Two million years in the past, hand-axes. 1,000,000 years in the past, primitive people typically used hearth, however with problem. Then, 500,000 years in the past, technological change accelerated, as spearpoints, firemaking, axes, beads and bows appeared.
This technological revolution wasn’t the work of 1 individuals. Innovations arose in several teams—fashionable Homo sapiens, primitive sapiens, presumably even Neanderthals—after which unfold. Many key innovations had been distinctive: one-offs. Instead of being invented by completely different individuals independently, they had been found as soon as, then shared. That implies a couple of intelligent individuals created a lot of historical past’s huge innovations.
And not all of them had been fashionable people.
The tip of the spear
500,000 years in the past in southern Africa, primitive Homo sapiens first certain stone blades to wood spears, creating the spearpoint. Spearpoints had been revolutionary as weaponry, and because the first “composite instruments”—combining parts.
The spearpoint unfold, showing 300,000 years in the past in East Africa and the Mideast, then 250,000 years in the past in Europe, wielded by Neanderthals. That sample suggests the spearpoint was regularly handed on from one individuals to a different, all the way in which from Africa to Europe.
Catching hearth
400,000 years in the past hints of fireside, together with charcoal and burnt bones, grew to become frequent in Europe, the Mideast and Africa. It occurred roughly the identical time in every single place—moderately than randomly in disconnected locations—suggesting invention, then fast unfold. Fire’s utility is clear, and maintaining a hearth going is straightforward. Starting a hearth is tougher, nonetheless, and was most likely the principle barrier. If so, widespread use of fireside doubtless marked the invention of the fire-drill—a stick spun towards one other piece of wooden to create friction, a software nonetheless used right this moment by hunter-gatherers.
Curiously, the oldest proof for normal hearth use comes from Europe—then inhabited by Neanderthals. Did Neanderthals grasp hearth first? Why not? Their brains had been as huge as ours; they used them for one thing, and residing by means of Europe’s ice-age winters, Neanderthals wanted hearth greater than African Homo sapiens.
Serengeti spearpoint. Credit: Nick Longrich, Author supplied
The axe
270,000 years in the past in central Africa, hand-axes started to vanish, changed by a brand new know-how, the core-axe. Core-axes appeared like small, fats hand-axes, however had been radically completely different instruments. Microscopic scratches present core-axes had been certain to wood handles—making a real, hafted axe. Axes rapidly unfold by means of Africa, then had been carried by fashionable people into the Arabian peninsula, Australia, and finally Europe.
Ornamentation
The oldest beads are 140,000 years outdated, and are available from Morocco. They had been made by piercing snail shells, then stringing them on a twine. At the time, archaic Homo sapiens inhabited North Africa, so their makers weren’t fashionable people.
Beads then appeared in Europe, 115,000–120,000 years in the past, worn by Neanderthals, and had been lastly adopted by fashionable people in southern Africa 70,000 years in the past.
Hadzabe hearth drill. Credit: Nick Longrich, Author supplied
Bow and arrow
The oldest arrowheads appeared in southern Africa over 70,000 years in the past, doubtless made by the ancestors of the Bushmen, who’ve lived there for 200,000 years. Bows then unfold to fashionable people in East Africa, to south Asia 48,000 years in the past, on to Europe 40,000 years in the past, and at last to Alaska and the Americas, 12,000 years in the past.
Neanderthals by no means adopted bows, however the timing of the bow’s unfold means it was doubtless utilized by Homo sapiens towards them.
Trading know-how
It’s not inconceivable that folks invented comparable applied sciences in several components of the world at roughly the identical time, and in some instances, this should have occurred. But the only rationalization for the archaeological information we’ve got is that as a substitute of reinventing applied sciences, many advances had been made simply as soon as, then unfold broadly. After all, assuming fewer improvements requires fewer assumptions.
But how did know-how unfold? It’s unlikely particular person prehistoric individuals traveled lengthy distances by means of lands held by hostile tribes (though there have been clearly main migrations over generations), so African people most likely did not meet Neanderthals in Europe, or vice versa. Instead, know-how and concepts subtle—transferred from one band and tribe to the following, and the following, in an unlimited chain linking fashionable Homo sapiens in southern Africa to archaic people in North and East Africa, and Neanderthals in Europe.
Kondoa beads. Credit: Nick Longrich, Author supplied
Conflict may have pushed alternate, with individuals stealing or capturing instruments and weapons. Native Americans, for instance, received horses by capturing them from the Spanish. But it is doubtless that folks usually simply traded applied sciences, just because it was safer and simpler. Even right this moment, fashionable hunter-gatherers, who lack cash, nonetheless commerce—Hadzabe hunters alternate honey for iron arrowheads made by neighboring tribes, for instance.
Archaeology exhibits such commerce is historic. Ostrich eggshell beads from South Africa, as much as 30,000 years outdated, have been discovered over 300 kilometers from the place they had been made. 200,000—300,000 years in the past, archaic Homo sapiens in East Africa used instruments from obsidian sourced from 50–150 kilometers away, additional than fashionable hunter-gatherers sometimes journey.
Last, we should not overlook human generosity—some exchanges could merely have been presents. Human historical past and prehistory had been probably stuffed with battle, however then as now, tribes could have had peaceable interactions—treaties, marriages, friendships—and should merely have gifted know-how to their neighbors.
Stone Age geniuses
The sample seen right here—single origin, then unfold of improvements—has one other outstanding implication. Progress could have been extremely depending on single people, moderately than being the inevitable final result of bigger cultural forces.
Consider the bow. It’s so helpful that its invention appears each apparent and inevitable. But if it actually was apparent, we would see bows invented repeatedly in several components of the world. But Native Americans did not invent the bow—neither did Australian Aborigines, nor individuals in Europe and Asia.
Hadzabe archer. Credit: Nick Longrich, Author supplied
Diffusion of the bow and arrow out of Africa. Credit: Wikipedia (map) & Nick Longrich
Instead, it appears one intelligent Bushman invented the bow, after which everybody else adopted it. That hunter’s invention would change the course of human historical past for hundreds of years to return, figuring out the fates of peoples and empires.
The prehistoric sample resembles what we have seen in historic occasions. Some improvements had been developed repeatedly—farming, civilisation, calendars, pyramids, arithmetic, writing, and beer had been invented independently world wide, for instance. Certain innovations could also be apparent sufficient to emerge in a predictable trend in response to individuals’s wants.
But many key improvements—the wheel, gunpowder, the printing press, stirrups, the compass—appear to have been invented simply as soon as, earlier than turning into widespread.
And likewise a handful of people—Steve Jobs, Thomas Edison, Nikola Tesla, the Wright Brothers, James Watt, Archimedes—performed outsized roles in driving our technological evolution, which suggests extremely artistic people had a big impact.
That suggests the chances of hitting on a serious technological innovation are low. Perhaps it wasn’t inevitable that fireplace, spearpoints, axes, beads or bows could be found once they had been.
Then, as now, one particular person may actually change the course of historical past, with nothing greater than an thought.
Out of Africa: The path of Homo sapiens
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