This document provides an overview of key events in Big Era Two from 200,000 to 10,000 BCE: - Homo sapiens evolved in Africa by 200,000 years ago and began migrating to Southwest Asia and other regions. - Language allowed humans to exchange complex ideas, store knowledge across generations through culture, and continuously build upon ideas - a process known as collective learning. - Collective learning through culture enabled humans to adapt to diverse environments more successfully than other species and migrate worldwide. - Neanderthals and Homo erectus inhabited parts of Eurasia but went extinct as Homo sapiens populations expanded and cultural complexity accelerated after 40,000 years ago.

1. 1
Human Beings Almost Everywhere
200,000 – 10,000 BCE
Big Era Two

2. 2
Remember Big Era One?
Imagine that your friend got
stuck at the beginning of Big
Era One, but you’ve made it to
the end!
You feel sorry for her,
because you got to see so
much. Write her a LETTER
telling her what happened in
Big Era One.
First, can you
remember what
happened in Big Era
One?

3. 3
What happened in
Big Era One?
Dear __________,
• The Universe popped up 13 billion
years ago. (That’s where you are,
right?)
• Stars and Galaxies popped up from
about 12 billion years ago.
• Our Sun and Earth popped up about
4.6 billion years ago.
• Life popped up on Earth about 3.8
billion years ago.

4. 4
What else happened in
Big Era One?
Dear __________,
• Complicated life-forms showed up
after about 600 million years.
• Some organisms got onto the land
from about 400 million years ago.
• Dinosaurs ruled the earth until
about 67 million years ago.
• Then our hominid ancestors
showed up.

5. Big Era 2 - Essential Questions
1. Why were human beings able to
adapt to many different biomes
when most animal species could
not?
2. How important was social
cooperation in human adaptation to
a wide range of biomes?
3. Homo erectus, an early hominid
species, adapted to fairly cool
climates in Asia even though we
have no evidence that this species
had language. Could humans have
adapted successfully to any biome if
they had not had language? Explain
why or why not. 5

6. 6
Big Era Two is the first era
in which there were
human beings, people like
you and me (ME?)
When did we appear?
(Remember, they
appeared at the end of
Big Era One!) So, what
IS so special about
humans?

7. 7
1.8 mil.
yrs ago
27k
How, when, and
where did we become
human?
• Meet one of our close
ancestors, Homo erectus.
• Homo erectus was one of the
hominid groups that was
developing increasingly large
brains in both Africa and Asia
between about 500,000 and
200,000 years ago.
This is a reconstructed Homo erectus
skull, found in northern China. It dates to
some time after 1.6 million years ago.
250k yrs ago
Today
Big
Eras
3-9
10k
Brain
Development
500k – 200k yrs ago
Big Era 1 Big Era 2Homo erectus

8. 8
Homo erectus was a traveler!
Homo erectus
began migrating
to southerly parts
of Eurasia
sometime after
about 1.8 million
years ago.
200k yrs ago
Today
Big
Eras
3-9
10k
1.8 mil.
yrs ago
27k
Big Era 1 Big Era 2Homo erectus

9. 9
200k yrs ago
Human Origins: Homo sapiens in Africa
Homo sapiens
(that’s us!) evolved
from Homo erectus
• By 200,000 years ago, people
whose skeletons were like
those of Homo sapiens were
already living in Africa.
• Between that time and about
100,000 years ago, people who
were both anatomically and
genetically “like us” emerged
in eastern and southern Africa.
This is a reconstructed Homo sapiens
skull, found in Israel. It has been dated to
about 90,000 years ago.
100k yrs ago
S.W. Asia
200k yrs ago
Human Origins: Homo sapiens in Africa
Today
Big
Eras
3-9
10kyears
ago
Big Era 2
Big Era 1

10. 10
Homo sapiens traveled
even further than Homo
erectus. From their African
homeland, Homo sapiens
groups migrated to…
…Where?
See the Map!

11. 11
Migrations of Homo sapiens
Possible coastal routes of human migration
Possible landward routes of human migration
Migrations in Oceania
Human Origins
200,000-250,000
years ago
Southwest Asia
100,000 years ago
Europe
40,000 years ago
Siberia
40,000 years ago
Australia
as many as 60,000
years ago
North America
12,000-30,000
years ago
Oceania
1600 B.C.E.-500 C.E.
Chile
12,000-13 ,000
years ago

12. 12
40kyrsagoEurope&Siberia
60kyrsagoAustralia
100kyrsagoS.W.Asia
40kyrsagoEurope&Siberia
60kyrsagoAustralia
100kyrsagoS.W.Asia
13kyrsagoAmericas
200kyrsagoHumanOrigins
That’s amazing!
Why were modern
humans able to move into
so many different
environments? After all, no other
large animals had
spread so widely! So
what was so special
about us?
Today
Big
Eras
3-9
10kyearsago
Big Era 2
Big Era 1

13. 13
Language!
• Homo sapiens had language
– so they could exchange complex ideas with each
other.
– and they could store and add to the ideas of
previous generations.
• Because they swapped ideas, they kept finding
– new ways of doing things.
– new ways of living.
Language Shared
Ideas
New
Ideas
Learning

14. 14
Language made
collective learning possible.
• The stores of
knowledge and skills
humans built up are
called “culture.”
• No other animal can
store and accumulate
knowledge and skills in
this way.
• We call this ability
“collective learning.”
It is what
human history
is about!
It is what
makes us
special!

15. 15
Storing up and building on
new skills and new
knowledge is what set our
species on the path of
continuing cultural
changes that led to the
world we now live in.
Monte Alban, Oaxaca, Mexico, 200 BCEGreat Zimbabwe, Southern Africa, 1300-1500 CE
Towers, Kuwait City, Today

16. 16
At first, changes in
technology were very
slow.
After about 100,000
years ago, the pace of
change began to
increase.
Evidence appears from
about that time of
humans living in east,
central, and southern
Africa. They were:
How did collective learning change
human culture?
For example,
Blombos Cave
• Making more advanced and varied tools.
• Experimenting with body decoration and abstract
symbols.

17. 17
Remains discovered at Blombos
Cave are one example of the
more complex culture some
humans were developing as
many as 90,000 years ago.
View looking out
of Blombos Cave
to the Indian
Ocean
Bone points
from the cave
Ochre piece with scrape
marks. A person may have
scraped the ochre to
get powder to use to make
body paint.
The people who lived in this
seaside camp:
• Made sharp stone spear
points using methods that
appeared in Eurasia only
50,000 or more years later.
• Made objects from bone, the
earliest use of this material
known.
• Scored bits of bone and
ochre with marks that may
have had symbolic meaning.

18. 18
From about 40,000 years
ago, archaeological
evidence shows faster and
faster cultural change and
increasing complexity.
Humans began to:
• Create both naturalistic
and abstract art.
• Make more specialized
tools.
• Weave and knot fiber.
• Decorate clothing.
• Make jewelry.
• Build semi-permanent
structures.
The engraved horse
panel in the Cave of
Chauvet-Pont-D’Arc
in southern France.
The image is about
31,000 years old.
Venus of the Kostenki I site in
Russia dated to about 23,000
years ago. This stone female
head is wearing headgear of
woven basketry.
Acceleration!

19. 19
• By the time humans appeared, our
closest living relatives were
probably the hominids known as
“Neandertals” (or, “Neanderthals”).
• When Homo sapiens groups arrived
in western Asia and Europe,
Neandertals were already there. By
100,000 years ago Neandertals
were living from Spain to Inner
Eurasia.
• They had a long record of living
successfully in both warm and cold
environments. But they
disappeared from the record about
28,000 years ago.
Were other
surviving hominids
changing in the
same way as Homo
sapiens?

20. 20
Approximate geographical range of Neandertals, 100,000-28,000 years ago
Approximate geographical range of Homo sapiens by 28,000 years ago
Did Homo sapiens meet Neandertals?

21. 21
• Members of the two
species may have met in
Southeast Asia.
• The last physical traces
of Homo erectus, dating
to about 28,000 years
ago, were discovered in
Java. By that time Homo
sapiens was already
living in that region.
Range of last surviving Homo erectus
Did Homo
Sapiens
meet Homo
Erectus?

22. 22
Would they have:
• Learned from each
other?
• Fought?
• Traded?
• Eaten each other?
• Mated?
What do you think might
have happened when Homo
sapiens met Neandertals or
Homo erectus?

23. 23
Homo sapiens and other species
• We’re not sure what might
have happened if Homo
sapiens met Neandertals or
Homo erectus, but we do
know that these two hominid
species died out.
• And so did many other large
animals, called megafauna,
which once roamed the
earth.
• What might these extinctions
tell us about our own
species?

24. 24
What happened in Big Era Two?
• Humans appeared, and they started
TALKING!
• Therefore, they could share new
ideas and build up a store of ideas –
what we call “culture.”
• They learned to live in many
different environments.
• And they migrated to all the world’s
major landmasses and many of its
islands, big and small.
Before you answer that
question, let’s review …

25. 25
So what do you
think is so
special about
Homo sapiens?
What does
it mean to
be human?
Why does
human
history
matter?
Stay tuned
for Big Era
Three!

26. 26
End of Big Era Two