Walking Tall: From 4 Million Years Ago: Australopithecus

Walking tall: from 4 million years ago
Africa is the setting for the long dawn of human history. From about four million
years ago ape-like creatures walk upright on two feet in this continent.
Intermediate between apes and men, they have been named Australopithecus.
Later, some two million years ago, the first creatures to be classed as part of the
human species evolve in Africa. They develop a technology based on sharp tools of
flint, introducing what has become known as the Stone Age.
About a million years ago humans explore northwards out of Africa, beginning the
process by which mankind has colonized the planet.

Out of Africa: more than a million years ago
Homo erectus is the variety of human who moves out of the continent of Africa, to
spread through much of Asia and Europe. This move from Africa is usually dated to
about a million years ago, but this may be too recent. First reports of two skulls
found in 1999 at Dmanisi, in South Georgia, describe them as 1.8 million years old.
Fossil remains of this kind have been found as far afield as Java in southeast Asia
(the first to be discovered, in 1891), Beijing in northern China, and within Europe in
Greece, Germany and England - in addition to numerous sites in Africa. The
European skulls differ from the Asian in various ways (larger brains, smaller
teeth), causing some anthropologists to classify them not as Homo erectusbut as
an archaic version of our own species, Homo sapiens.
The spread of our species: from 60,000 years ago
After Homo erectus has spread through the linked central land mass of our planet (Africa and Eurasia),
he is succeeded within that region by varieties of Homo sapiens- the Neanderthalsand

then modern humans. It is modern humans who take the next step in colonizing the
habitable earth.
The dates are still uncertain and much disputed. But at some time after 60,000 years ago people cross
from southeast Asia to Borneo, the Philippines, New Guinea and Australia. And at some time after
30,000 years ago humans make the short but difficult leap from northeast Asia to northwest America.

Temporary bridges: 60,000 - 10,000 years ago
The Ice Agesplay an essential part in mankind's advance from Asia into both Australia and
America. The effect of an ice age is to lower the sea level by 100 metres and more. This narrows the
gaps between many islands and sometimes even exposes a complete land ridge.
One such sunken ridge is the Sahul Shelf, under the largest stretch of sea between the Indonesian
islands and Australia. Another lies between Siberia and Alaska.
The first Australians: from 60,000 years ago
The islands of Indonesia are like a string of beads pointing towards Australia. Stone Age hunter-
gatherers no doubt find much of their food on the shores and in the shallows, and soon use rafts to
reach offshore reefs. Probably the first people to arrive on slightly more distant islands have been
carried there by accident rather than intention.
But there is a plentiful supply of food wherever they make landfall. With an ice age reducing the level of
the Timor Sea (see Ice Ages), this series of hops for mankind sooner or later reaches Australia. The earliest
traces of human habitation in the continent are now tentatively dated between 60,000 and 50,000 years
ago.

The first Americans: 30,000 - 5000 years ago
During the most recent of the Ice Ages, lasting from 30,000 to 10,000 years ago, an
undersea ridge between Siberia and Alaska emerges from the sea. Known as the Bering Land Bridge, it
lies partly south of the ice cap. It develops a steppe-like ecology of grasslands, grazed by large animals
such as horses, reindeer and even mammoth.
Gradually, in many separate incursions, the hunter-gatherers of the Siberian steppes pursue their prey across
the land bridge and into America. When the melting ice submerges the bridge, about 10,000 years ago,
these northeast Asians become isolated as the aboriginal Americans.
One of the most dramatic and sudden movements of any people in history is the expansion, by
conquest, of the Arabs in the 7th century (only the example of the Mongols in the 13th century can match
it). The desert tribesmen of Arabia form the bulk of the Muslim armies. Their natural ferocity and love of
warfare, together with the sense of moral rectitude provided by their new religion, form an irresistible
combination.
When Muhammad dies in 632, the western half of Arabia is Muslim. Two years later the entire peninsula
has been brought to the faith, and Muslim armies have moved up into the desert between Syria and
Mesopotamia.
The short journey across the water from Africa, bringing an army into Spain in 711,
begins the final thrust of Arab expansionism in the west. In a frequently repeated
pattern of history the invaders, invited to assist one side in a quarrel, rapidly take
control
Mongolia is an ideal starting point for the movement of nomadic tribes in search of new pastures, and
for sudden excursions of a more predatory nature. It lies at the extreme end of an unbroken range of
open grasslands, the steppes, which reach all the way to Europe. Horsemen can move fast along the
steppes. South of this nomadic highway live rich settled communities.

The emergence of the Turks from Mongolia is a gradual and uncharted process. Each successive wave
makes its first appearance in history only when Turkish tribes or warriors acquire power in some new
region, whether they be the Khazars, the Seljuksor one of many other such groups.

Walking Tall: From 4 Million Years Ago: Australopithecus

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Walking Tall: From 4 Million Years Ago: Australopithecus

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Walking tall: from 4 million years ago

Out of Africa: more than a million years ago

he is succeeded within that region by varieties of Homo sapiens- the Neanderthalsand

Temporary bridges: 60,000 - 10,000 years ago

The first Americans: 30,000 - 5000 years ago

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