Photo courtesy of Wikipedia. (Perito Moreno Glacier, Patagonia, Argentina.)

Pleistocene Epoch (1,800,000 to 10,000 years ago): a period of geological history when large glaciers covered much of the Northern Hemisphere; usually referred to as the Last Ice Ages

Holocene Epoch (c. 10,000 to the present): the current geological period that began between 11,500 and 9,000 years ago at the end of the last Ice Age.

Evidence of past climatic conditions

• Ice Cores (primarily from Anartica and Greenland)
• Coral Reefs
• Tree Rings
• Layers from Lake Beds, Ocean Floors, and Peat Bogs*
• Stalactites and Stalagmites
• Geoloigical Formations such as fjords show movement of large glaciers

* Scientists examine each layer for evidence of plant pollens, insect remains, and microogranisms that are sensitive to certain types of climatic conditions. Also, a particularily thick layer might indicate dry conditions or presence of storms.

Researchers are in the process of reconstructing a detailed picture of the past climatic conditions extending back to between 700,00 and 800,000 years ago. Here is a brief overview of some of their findings.

Global Climate Transition from the Pleistocene to the Holocene

• Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) (21,000 to 18,000 years ago): The greatest extent of glaciers during the last Ice Age. Due to large amounts of water being trapped in glaciers, the world's ocean levels were considerable lower than today (about equavilant to a 40-storey building).
• Late Interstadial (14,000 to 12,900 years ago): a warming phase, that last slightly longer than a millennium, towards the end of the last Ice Age. During this fluctuation in the global climatic patterns, conditions became warm and balmy, and temperatures in certain areas even exceeded present-day averages. This period is sometimes referred to as the Allerød and Bølling phases. Another consequence of the warming phase was that ocean levels began to rise. As enormous amounts of fresh water began to flood into the world's oceans, this potentially could have disrupted the world's ocean currents, and brought about another phase of global cooling known as the Younger Dryas.
• Younger Dryas (12,900 to 11,600 years ago): Following the Late Interstadials, for reasons that are not fully understood, the Earth's climate returned to near conditions of the last glaciation. In-other-words, following a period of warming, it appreared that the Earth was going back into an Ice Age. However, this cool, dry phase last just over a millennium. The archaeologist Brian Fagan referred to this as a 1,000-year drought.
• Holocene Begins (11,500): Global climatic conditions began to warm and the world ocean levels rose to their current conditions.

The Hook
The Introduction
Focus Questions
Key Concepts
Essential Terms
Required Reading
Exercises and Activities
Additional Resources

Journal Question: When you hear terms like 'cave man,' 'stone age,' 'rock art,' and 'ice age,' what images pop in your head? Do you have positive or negative feelings about these terms?

In general, how do you believe most people feel about this period of history? How is it portrayed in popular culture, such movies, television, and commercials?

Early human communities understood that their survival depended upon sharing knowledge of resources and survival strategies, and forming social alliances to help each other in times of need.  Therefore, humans realized their best chances for success lie with collectively sharing a body of knowledge and forming social networks.  These are two themes that repeat throughout this course, and into the present day.

The archeological evidence indicates that humans have gone through a long and gradual process of using their intellectual abilities and creative problem solving skills to adapt to a wide-variety of ecological settings (see the chart below).  However, two early periods are especially noteworthy as times of accelerated development:

• 60,000 to 80,000 years ago in Africa (known as The African Middle Stone Age)
• 30,000 to 50,000 years ago in Eurasia (known as The Eurasian Upper Paleolithic ‘Old Stone’ Age)

Although both were significant periods of development, we will primarily examine the events of The Eurasian Upper Paleolithic in the exercise below. 

Discussion Question: Can you think of ways that humans use innovations to adapt their environments to suit them rather than adapting to suit their environments?

Describe some of the adaptive strategies that were necessary pre-requisites for the colonization of the planet. 

What factors may have contributed to the diffusion of these adaptive strategies?   

David Christian referred to the developments of this period as 'the true beginning of human history.' (Christian, 178)  Do you agree or disagree with this statement? Use supporting evidence to explain your answer.  

As stated in the introduction, humans realized that their best chances for survival were connected to their willingness to collectively share knowledge and form social networks.  Through cooperative effort, humans learned the necessary skills to be able to move into a wide-variety of ecological niches.  As these groups became more proficient at implementing these various adaptive strategies, they were able to extend the carrying capacity of particular environment which resulted in a significant increase in population. (Mellars, 9383). 

Another important aspect to consider is that many of the behaviors that are considered as modern, such as art, music, and religion, began during this time.  However, it is quite possible that these behaviors had their roots in survival strategies.  For example, symbolic objects may have been used to form social bonds that would be vital when times were tough. (Wong, 94)  Also, body decoration and personal adornment such as beads and pendants most likely contained social and economic implications as well (Shea, 1).

In this section, we will explore the origins of the technological and cultural developments of the Eurasian Upper Paleolithic that were instrumental in allowing our species to colonize the Earth.

What caused the expansion of Adaptive Strategies?

Once again, most likely, the need to survive as a species was the prompt that initiated the wide-spread diffusion of adaptive strategies. As environmental conditions periodically deteriorated, especially during the last Ice Age, people were required to apply their creative energies in new ways in order to survive. During the last Ice Age, the Southern Hemisphere experienced radical fluctuations between warm, moist conditions and total aridity, and the Northern Hemisphere was often covered by enormous glaciers. In order to survive, humans had to develop new, highly-specialized strategies to help them adapt to their natural environments.  Also, the development of social networks were necessary forms of insurance to help groups out in their times of need, such as drought or other forms of natural disasters.   Therefore, what makes the widespread diffusion of adaptive strategies in Africa (60,000 to 80,000 years ago) and in Eurasia (50,000 to 30,000 years ago) truly revolutionary is that humans began to share a larger body of collected knowledge with many communities over a large geographic area (Christian, 179). 

What evidence do we have about the adaptive and social strategies used during the Upper Paleolithic?       

Conclusion

Although many of the techno-cultural aspects of the Upper Paleolithic had their roots in earlier times and over vast distances, what is truly revolutionary about this period is the sharing of collected knowledge. 

The adaptive strategies developed during the Upper Paleolithic would play a significant role in the global migrations that we will examine in the next section.

Middle to Upper Paleolithic Transition

Early Modern Human Culture

Sources

Abrams, Betsy. "Origins of Modern Humans." Lecture Notes: Anthropology 101: Human Adaptation. [Accessed 27 Sept 2007]

Bar-Yosef, Ofer. "The Upper Paleolithic Revolution." Annual Review of Anthropology. 31:363-93. 2002.

Christian, David. Maps of Time: An Introduction to World History. University of California Press (Berkeley) 2004.

Haviland, William H. Anthropology (9th edition). Harcourt College Publishers (Ft. Worth) 2000.

McBearty, Sally and Alison S. Brooks. "The Revolution that Wasn't: A New Interpretation of the Origin of Modern Human Behavior." Journal of Human Evolution. (2000) 39, 453-563.

Mellars, Paul. "Why did modern human populations disperse from Africa ca. 60,000 years ago? A new model." Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA (103, 9381–9386; first published June 13, 2006; 10.1073/pnas.0510792103). [Accessed 14 Oct 2007]

Oppenheimer, Stephen. Out of Eden: The Peopling of the World. Constable & Robinson Ltd. (London) 2003.

Shea, John J. "The Human Revolution Rethought." Evolutionary Anthropology. 15:42-42. 2006. [Accessed 27 Sept 2007]

Wong, Kate. "The Morning of the Modern Mind." Scientific American. June 2005, 86-95.

Why do people move? List as many potential 'pushes' and 'pulls' as to why someone might want to leave his or her home. Work independently for the first 3-minutes, and then work with a partner for the next 3-minutes to list as many possible pushes and pulls.

Dogs come in all sorts of sizes, shapes, and temperaments. Have you ever wondered why dogs appear so diverse?

In a recent genetic study, scholars argued that all dogs were domesticated from wolves (probably slightly smaller than the Gray Wolf pictured above) in East Asia approximately 15,000 years ago (Savolainen, 1610).

Despite vast differences in appearances, all dogs belong to the same species. This is defined as organisms from the same species are capable of interbreeding and producing offspring that are also capable of reproducing.

In a similar manner, a great variety in appearances exists among human populations; however, ultimately, we all belong to the same species.

Discussion Question: As humans migrated around the world, what factors may have contributed to such diversity in appearance among human populations? Also, what common attributes do all humans share?

Genetics Key Terms

Journey of Mankind

Genographic Project

Viewing:

Journey of Man. DVD (2003). Starring: Dr. Spencer Wells Director: Clive Maltby

Watch the video segment “Out of Africa” from Unit 3: Human Migrations (Bridging World History).  Read the Unit Content Overview. (If you create an account, you will be able to watch this video on-line)

Nowadays, many people seem to be concerned with global warming, but 20,000 years ago, when most of the Northern Hemisphere was covered in the glaciers of the last Ice Age, people were concerned with surviving through the cold.

Humans, in different parts of the world, interact very differently with their natural environments. What relationship do you believe humans should have with the environment?

In this section, we will explore the following topics:

• The Impact of Global Climate Change: 14,000 years ago, it appeared that the Ice Age (the Pleistocene) might finally be drawing to an end as the Earth experienced a warming phase known as the Allerod and Bolling Interstadials . From the end of last 'Ice Age' (the Pleistocene) to was not a smooth transition. The global climate began to warm during the Allerod and Bolling Interstadials , the world began to rather sporadically emerge out of the last Ice Age; ending a period known as the Pleistocene. The Pleistocene set the backdrop for the first two units of study, Adaptive Strategies and Global Migrations. The remainder of this course will

Describe the major ecological and climatic changes that were taking placing at the end of the Pleistocene and throughout the Holocene Epochs.

What factors may have contributed to the extinction of the megafauna?

Based on the theory of continental drift, in an era when dinosaurs still roamed the Earth, all the landmasses were formed into a super-continent known as Pangaea.

Historian, Alfred Crosby, in his book Ecological Imperialism points out that following the break-up of Pangaea, all the plant and animal life on the world zones (Australia, the Americas, and Afro-Eurasia) developed along very different paths (Crosby, 10).

For example, Australia broke away from Pangaea over 150 million years ago, and modern scholars have noted a distinct biogeographical boundary exists between the marsupial-based animals living in Australia and mammalian-based animals of Eurasia. Biologists refer to this division as the Wallace Line / Wallacea. Therefore, prior to the arrival of the Europeans in Australia in the 17th century, the only placental animals (mammals that give life birth) found in Australia were bats, humans (arrived approximately 60,000 years ago), and dingos (brought by humans approximately 5,000 years ago).

Based on the theory plate tectonics, the Earth has undergone three distinct phases of continental drift:

• Convergence: as the Earth's landmasses drifted towards each other.
• Unity: a period when the Earth's landmasses were joined in a super-continent known as Pangaea
• Divergence: as the Earth's landmasses drift apart.

Use the following resources to create an approximate timeline for each period. Make a special note of when Pangaea existed.

Due to mass extinctions of significant portion of the world's megafauna (especially in Australia and the Americas. See the Required Reading) and the divergent lines of species development (plant, animal, and germ) following the break-up of Pangaea, at the end of the last Ice Age (Pleistocene), a high level of biological inequality existed between each of the World Zones (Australia, the Americas, and Afro-Eurasia). As the Earth emerged out of the ice of the Pleistocene, and into our epoch, the Holocene, this biological inequality will play an ever increasing role, such as centers of the domestication of plants and animals and epidemic diseases.

Create a list of plant and animals species that you associate with each World Zone. As we proceed through this course, periodically check to see if your list is correct.

Things to consider:

• What would the world be like if people had not adopted farming?
• Was the adopting of farming a good or a bad idea?

Why did people chose to farm?

What advantages and disadvantages did a farming lifestyle have over a hunting and gathering lifestyle?

Where were the centers of domestication?

Explain the differences between primary and secondary agricultural products.

Evolution, Consequences and Future of Plant and Animal Domestication (Alt)

Cultivation and Domestication

How Farmers Conquered the Earth

WSU: Agricultural Revolution (Student Module)

Read about the 'Secondary Products Revolution' in David Christians "State Formation in the Inner Eurasian Steppes" (pages 55-58).