Where did the ancient man live and what was he like?

The habitat and way of life of the ancient man are very different from ours. In those distant times, both nature and climate were completely different. Man, a new kind at that time, had to adapt in his own way to the changing conditions of the environment.

Homeland of mankind

Deciphering the human genome has allowed scientists to draw an astonishing conclusion. It turns out that all people are distant relatives. We all come from a single small tribe. The place where the ancient man lived - in Africa, a little south of the Sahara.

The oldest ancestral homeland is the neighborhood of Olduvai gorge. It is natural radiation that emerged from the fault that scientists consider the cause of the mutation to begin. The oldest remains of the anthropoid are 5 million years old. Knowing the original habitats, it is easy to determine the countries where the most ancient people lived . This is Ethiopia, Tanzania, Kenya.

Another focus, where the most ancient hominids were found, is Tibet in the Himalayas. Here the age of the finds is 3.5 million years. Thus, the main territory where the ancient man lived was the continents of Africa and Eurasia.

The Capture of the World

From the ancient territory, where the ancient man lived, he went to master the whole earth. It was 40-45 thousand years BC. E. The first thing was mastered the territory of the Arabian Peninsula. The man crossed the Strait of Gibraltar and first came to Europe. At the moment, moving inland was impossible. With the retreat of the glacier, Europe turned into one huge swamp.

Another group went to explore the East. The settlement passed along a narrow coastal strip of the Indian Ocean. It should be noted that the level of the ocean at that time was completely different. Where the sea waves are now splashing, it was possible to pass overland.

Some of the tribes turned back and later merged with the population of Europe. Another group continued to move along the ocean. At that time the modern Aleutian Islands were a single piece of land. On it, people and went to Australia.

America also developed without seafarers. The Cape of Providence and Alaska united on the ground. Between the North and South America, too, was the land isthmus.

At first, only the territory was mastered along the shores of the oceans, the glacier and the marshes that had left them prevented further passage. The glacier retreated swiftly, the swamps dried up, giving people more room for life. So, even in the Stone Age, the territory where the ancient man lived, the continent covered everything.

What sent a man on the road?

The area where the ancient man lived was very favorable. A mild climate, a large number of animals and fruit trees. So what prompted a person to go explore unexplored land?

Climate warming and melting of the glacier caused migration of cattle. Mammoths - the main source of Neanderthal food - can not live in conditions of heat. It turns out that the man had to follow the food. Perhaps all the resettlement occurred in the migration of the herds of mammoths and other large animals.

Although theoretically the whole way could be done in 2 years, the resettlement lasted as much as 50,000 years. People had nowhere to hurry, the glacier retreated gradually. They built houses, settled the territory and moved on sometimes after several generations.

The retreat of the glacier gave more and more scope to our ancestors. Gradually, not only the coastal zones were developed. The man continued his way into the interior of the continents. Soon the whole planet was under the rule of the human tribe.

Home of the Ancients

Previously, it was unreasonably believed that people settled in spacious caves. But where the ancient man lived, there always remained traces of his activities. Later it was concluded that the caves were used mainly for ritual purposes. This is evidenced by rock paintings and later temples.

People preferred to settle in open spaces along the banks of rivers. For construction used branches, logs, bones of animals. Above, they were covered with skins of animals that had been hunted. From below, the canopy was strengthened with stones or with heavy skulls.

The size of the buildings, where the ancient people lived, differed from each other. Some preferred to build large generic huts with several hearths. Others are small family semi-zemlyanki. The shape was preferred round or oval. The roof often had a conical shape.

What did our distant ancestors look like?

Our ancient ancestor, although he had already learned to walk, looked more like a monkey. In places where the ancient man lived, it was very dangerous, and large tenacious hands often saved lives. The brain remained underdeveloped, that gave out a small sloping forehead. The jaw and chin, on the other hand, were too advanced in comparison with modern man. Humanization has just begun, the body was still covered with thick hair.

Gradually the proportions of the body changed. The hands were shortened, as they lost their supporting function. The spine straightened, and his legs grew longer. The brain developed very quickly, and with it the skull also increased. When a person started using fire to cook food, the need for a powerful jaw disappeared.

The only thing that has not been possible to find a reasonable explanation is the loss of the hairline. But this is what prompted the person to create clothes.

Prehistoric fashion

So long as the hair was preserved and the places where the ancient people lived were in the hot climate, there was no need to hide themselves. Primitive man did not feel ashamed, being naked: it was natural.

The need to get dressed has arisen in connection with resettlement. In colder regions, people began to freeze and someone guessed to be wrapped in the skin of a dead animal. Such attire was hardly convenient and always worsened when worn. Another person made a hole in the middle and put his head in there, and his belt was tied with a tail.

More than one generation of people has contributed to the emergence of what we, modern people, can call clothes. Gradually, sewing appeared. Several pieces of skins were stitched with the help of a bone needle and lived the hunted animals. This way they began to make not only clothes, but also canopies for the rapid erection of tents.

The same skins also served to create shoes. Over time, the technique of leather dressing improved. More and more comfortable forms of clothes and shoes appeared. Later began to use and vegetable fiber. The age of the oldest found linen thread is 35,000 years.

In the course of evolution, man managed to achieve a lot on the path of improvement. People have managed to adapt and survive in the hardest natural conditions. They "tamed" fire. Learned how to make tools from the surrounding material: wood, stones, animal bones. Sew clothes and more. The sources of our comfortable life lie there, in the ancient past of mankind.