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The discovery of fire, or, more precisely, the controlled use of fire was, of necessity, one of the earliest of human discoveries. Fire's purposes are multiple, some of which are to add light and heat, to cook plants and animals, to clear forests for planting, to heat-treat stone for making stone tools, to burn clay for ceramic objects. The controlled use of fire was an invention of the Early Stone Age. The earliest evidence for controlled use of fire is at the Lower Paleolithic site of Gesher Benot Ya'aqov in Israel, where charred wood and seeds were recovered from a site dated 790,000 years ago. Not everybody believes that; the next oldest site is at Zhoukoudian, a Lower Paleolithic site in China dated to about 400,000 BP, and at Qesem Cave (Israel), between about 200,000-400,000 years ago. Hearth Fire Construction As opposed to fire, a hearth is a deliberately constructed fireplace. The earliest fireplaces were made by collecting stones to contain the fire, or simply reusing the same location again and again and allowing the ash to act as hearth construct. Earth ovens, on the other hand, are hearths with banked and sometimes domed structures built of clay. These types of hearths were first used during the Upper Paleolithic (ca 40,000-20,000 years BP), for cooking, heating and, sometimes, to burn clay figurines to hardness. The Gravettian Dolni Vestonice site in the modern Czech Republic has evidence of kiln construction, although construction details did not survive. The best information on Upper Paleolithic kilns is from the Aurignacian deposits of Klisoura Cave in Greece (ca 32,000-34,000 years ago). Fuels Although relict wood may have been the original fuel, other sources became important in various places with limited wood supply. In places with scarce wood resources, timber and branch wood for structures, furnishing and tools would have cut back the amount used for fuel. If wood was not available, alternative fuels such as peat, cut turf, animal dung, animal bone, seaweed, and straw and hay. Techniques for discriminating fuel from ashy remains are outlined in the Church et al. paper listed below. But of course, everyone knows that Prometheus stole fire from the gods, the Greek myth as reported by our Ancient History guide. http://archaeology.about.com/od/ancientdailylife/qt/fire_control.htm http://avlgeek.com/stefan/album/Oven.JPG http://www.just-photography.com/abstracts/pic008.jpg
The ability to control fire was a major change in the habits of early humans. Making fire to generate heat and light made it possible for people to cook food, increasing the variety and availability of nutrients. The heat produced would also help people stay warm in cold weather, enabling them to live in cooler climates. Fire also kept nocturnal predators at bay. Evidence of cooked food is found from 1.9 million years ago, although fire was probably not used in a controlled fashion until 400,000 years ago.Evidence becomes widespread around 50 to 100 thousand years ago, suggesting regular use from this time; interestingly, resistance to air pollution started to evolve in human populations at a similar point in time. The use of fire became progressively more sophisticated, with it being used to create charcoal and to control wildlife from 'tens of thousands' of years ago. By the Neolithic Revolution, during the introduction of grain-based agriculture, people all over the world used fire as a tool in landscape management. These fires were typically controlled burns or "cool fires", as opposed to uncontrolled "hot fires" which damage the soil. Hot fires destroy plants and animals, and endanger communities. This is especially a problem in the forests of today where traditional burning is prevented in order to encourage the growth of timber crops. Cool fires are generally conducted in the spring and autumn. They clear undergrowth, burning up biomass that could trigger a hot fire should it get too dense. They provide a greater variety of environments, which encourages game and plant diversity. For humans, they make dense, impassable forests traversable. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fire http://www.world-science.net/images/neanderthals-campfire.JPG http://www.fws.gov/Bowdoin/images/GooseIslandBurn1.jpg http://natureinquiries.wordpress.com/2009/12/07/winter-campfire-4/
The first technical application of the fire may have been the extracting and treating of metals. There are numerous modern applications of fire. In its broadest sense, fire is used by nearly every human being on earth in a controlled setting every day. The use of fire in warfare has a long history. Hunter-gatherer groups around the world have been noted as using grass and forest fires to injure their enemies and destroy their ability to find food, so it can be assumed that fire has been used in warfare for as long as humans have had the knowledge to control it. Fire was the basis of all early thermal weapons. Homer detailed the use of fire by Greek commandos who hid in a wooden horse to burn Troy during the Trojan war. Later the Byzantine fleet used Greek fire to attack ships and men. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fire http://neatorama.cachefly.net/images/2008-07/greek-fire.jpg http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/samurai/swor-04.html http://www.syberg.be/zMentalSpace/sSys/photo%27s/pJ64e/catapult.jpg http://www.php4windows.com/Articles/trojan_horse_in_business_home_software.jpg
Prehistoric stone-working techniques of the Paleolithic are divided into four 'Modes‘, The Mode 1 industries created rough flake tools by hitting a suitable stone with a hammerstone. The resulting flake would have a natural sharp edge for cutting and could afterwards be sharpened further by striking another smaller flake from the edge if necessary (known as retouch). These early toolmakers may also have worked the stone they took the flake from (known as a core) to create chopper cores although there is some debate over whether these items were tools or just discarded cores. The Mode 2 toolmakers also used the Mode 1 flake tool method but supplemented it by also using wood or bone implements to pressure flake fragments away from stone cores to create the first true hand-axes. The use of a soft hammer made from wood or bone also resulted in more control over the shape of the finished tool. Unlike the earlier Mode 1 industries, the core was prized over the flakes that came from it. Another advance was that the Mode 2 tools were worked symmetrically and on both sides (hence the name Biface) indicating greater care in the production of the final tool. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stone_tool http://anthro.binghamton.edu/fieldschool/2007/images/del_pines_points.jpg
Making Stone Tools Stone tools such as spear points were made through a process called flintknapping. Striking a rock in a particular way causes flakes/chips to come off. Learning to strike the rocks in the best way takes lots of practice and involves many mistakes. Even today, with patience and learned skill, people can make spear points out of stone. The first step in making a tool from a piece of raw material is to remove the weathered surface called cortex. The piece of raw material is struck with a hammerstone which causes large flakes to be driven off. Some of these flakes may be used later to make smaller tools such as scrapers or triangular points. Shaping the piece into the desired tool form is the second step in the tool making process. Early stages of this process are done using a hammerstone. For the later and finer work a baton of wood or antler is used to thin the edges and to establish the form. Pressure flaking is the last step in making the stone tool. Very small, thin flakes are carefully removed from around the margins of the tool by applying pressure with an antler tine. This type of flaking strengthens, straightens and sharpens the cutting edges of the tool and shapes the piece into its final form. Hafting spearsEarly spears were different than spears people use today. Today we might find spears with points made of steel and shafts made of aluminum. Early hunters had to use the raw materials that were available around them. Instead of processed metals, they used wood and stone. Hafting is the process of tying a tool to a bone or wood shaft. The end of the shaft was notched or split and the tool was wedged into the notch. Animal sinew or plant fibers were probably used to tie the tool to the shaft. The shaft of the spear was made from wood. Long, straight pieces of wood make the best spears. The bark is stripped and then the piece is straightened if necessary. This took a lot of work and wood was not always available so early people came up with a way to cut down on the number of lost or broken spear shafts. Instead of having one long shaft with the spear point attached to the end, these early people made the shaft in two pieces. The spear point was attached to a short piece of wood, the foreshaft, which then fit into a longer shaft. This two piece construction allowed the main shaft to fall off after the point was stuck in the animal. In this way the shaft didn't get lost or broken if the animal was still able to run from the hunter. http://www.uwlax.edu/MVAC/ProcessArch/ProcessArch/native_tech.html
http://homepage.mac.com/laddie/fire_by_friction.html http://homepage.mac.com/laddie/fire_by_friction.html http://blogs.discovery.com/.shared/image.html?/photos/uncategorized/2008/03/31/mesa_verde_spear_and_knife.jpg
The earliest written symbols were incised "counting tokens" that were created about 9,000 years ago in the Neolithic Fertile Crescent. Later, around 4100 to 3800 BCE, tokens were used as symbols that could be impressed or inscribed in clay to represent a record of land, grain, or cattle. Some of the earliest tokens were found in the excavations of Uruk in Mesopotamia, which had an economy that centered on the cultivation of grain. http://www.biblicalheritage.org/ZYP/tbp0hxd3pd.htm Tokens or tablets, Harappa Terra cotta tokens or tablets from Harappa. In Area G, south of the recently discovered gateway on Mound ET (20), excavators found a concentration of as many as 31 identical cylindrical terracotta tablets (top center), but it is not known what they could have been used for. Concentrations of tablets recovered through recent excavations at Harappa indicate that these tablets become popular during the late part of Period 3B (2450 B.C) and continue on into the final phase of the Harappan occupation, Period 3C (2200 to 1900 B.C.). Seals, Mohenjo-daro. 0ther animal motifs appearing on seals found primarily at the largest cities include dangerous wild animals like the rhinoceros, the water buffalo, the gharial (crocodile) and the tiger. All of these animals would have been familiar to people living at the edge of the thick jungles and swampy grasslands of the Indus plain and they were revered as totemic animals, closely associated with important myths and legends
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Egypt, Sumeria and the Origins of Writing Writing began in ancient Mesopotamia and ancient Egypt. Both writing systems were developed independently, and they are very different from each other. Cuneiform. Cuneiform is the system of writing developed by the ancient Sumerians, between 3500 and 3100 BC. Sumeria was one of the first civilizations to develop in the world. It resided in the area of what is now Iraq, between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. Their system of writing consisted of wedge shaped marks made with the edge of a stylus pressed into clay. The clay would then be baked so the marks could not be removed. “Cuneiform” is a Greek word meaning “wedge-shaped.” Hieroglyphs. The ancient Egyptians, another of the first civilizations, developed a very different system of writing than the Sumerians. It was developed about the same time as cuneiform, but involved tiny pictures or glyphs which were used to represent words. Neither of these writing systems incorporated a true alphabet. The majority of symbols were used to identify whole words, or multiple syllables, unlike our own monosyllabic alphabet. Because of this they incorporated a far greater range of symbols in order to write than cultures using an alphabet. The Phoenicians and the First Alphabet The developers of the first true alphabet were the Phoenicians. The Phoenicians originate from the coast of the Mediterranean, in what is now Lebanon. They were a trading and seafaring culture, and had contact with both the Egyptians and the Sumerians. The Sumerians had originally developed their writing system in order to make trading easier, and so it would be with the Phoenicians. However, the system of writing developed by the Phoenicians would be very different than that created by either the Egyptians or the Sumerians. The Phoenicians had closer contact with the Egyptians than with the Sumerians. For much of their history they were at times under Egyptian control. Their writing symbols developed somewhat from Egyptian hieroglyphs. The Phoenician symbols did not represent entire words, though, but rather single syllables. Having forms that represent a single syllable allow for much more freedom in writing with far fewer symbols. It also allows for the easier writing of words in other languages, because the writing is based on sounds rather than what the word actually means. Any new word that you come across can easily be adapted to writing based on the sound of the word. The Phoenician alphabet took several centuries to develop, but had been fairly well completed by about 1000 BC, over 2000 years after the development of the first writing system in Sumeria. The original Phoenician alphabet consisted of 22 letters, none of which were vowels. Other alphabets such as the Hebrew alphabet would not contain vowels. While many of the symbols have great similarity to our own letters, they often represented very different sounds. For example, there is a letter which looks like an x, but rather represents the “taw” sound.” The Phoenicians were the major traders on the Mediterranean, and they took their alphabet with them as they traded. Many different cultures began to pick up their alphabet, and modify it to their own uses. The most important of these cultures in the ultimate development of our own alphabet were the Greeks. However, there are still remnants of its Phoenician origin in our own language, as we still call the study of how letters actually sound “phonetics.” http://www.googobits.com/articles/1375-the-origins-and-history-of-the-alphabet.html http://www.dkimages.com/discover/DKIMAGES/Discover/Home/History/Asia/Early-Civilisations/Mesopotamia/Writing/Writing-2.html 3000 BC Cuneiform writing on clay slab, front view.
This page is part of the course material for "History of the Alphabets" taught by Prof. Robert Fradkin at University of Maryland. The evolution of the Cuneiform character set.Sumerian pictures evolved into syllabic symbols used by many languages for almost two thousand years before the Phoenicians developed the single-sound symbols we know as an alphabet. The evolution of the Phoenician character set from the Proto-Sinaitic glyphs.These are the pictographs found in the Sinai peninsula, ca. 1500 BC and are assumed to be the source of the sound symbols developed several centuries later by the Phoenicians. The evolution of the Square Aramaic/Hebrew character set from the Phoenician character set. The eventual evolution of the Arabic Character set from its Phoenician roots.
http://lingweb.eva.mpg.de/HunterGathererWorkshop2006/ A hunter-gatherer society is one whose primary subsistence method involves the direct procurement of edible plants and animals from the wild, foraging and hunting without significant recourse to the domestication of either. Hunter-gatherers obtain most from gathering rather than hunting; up to 80% of the food is obtained by gathering. History Hunting and gathering was presumably the subsistence strategy employed by human societies for more than two million years, until the end of the Mesolithic period (about 10,000 BC). The first hunter-gatherers may have lived in mixed habitats which allowed them to collect seafood, eggs, nuts, and fruits and scavenge the occasional dead animal and in this sense were more meat scavengers than actual hunters. Rather than killing large animals themselves for meat, they used carcasses of large animals killed by other predators or carcasses from animals that died by natural causes. Many groups continued their hunter-gatherer ways of life to this day, although their numbers have perpetually declined partly as a result of pressure from growing agricultural and pastoral communities. Many of them reside in arid regions and tropical forests in the developing world. Areas which formerly were available to hunter-gatherers were -and continue to be- encroached upon by the settlements of agriculturalists. In the resulting competition for land use, hunter-gatherer societies either adopted these practices or moved to other areas. Hunter-gatherer settlements may be either permanent, temporary, or some combination of the two, depending upon the mobility of the community. Mobile communities typically construct shelters using impermanent building materials, or they may use natural rock shelters, where they are available. Social and economic structure Hunter-gatherer societies also tend to have relatively non-hierarchical, egalitarian social structures. This might have been more pronounced in the more mobile societies, which generally are not able to store surplus food. Thus, full-time leaders, bureaucrats, or artisans are rarely supported by these societies. In addition to social and economic equality in hunter-gatherer societies there is often though not always sexual parity as well. Hunter-gatherers are often grouped together based on kinship and band (or tribe) membership. War in hunter-gatherer societies is usually caused by grudges and vendettas rather than for territory or economic benefit. A vast amount of ethnographic and archaeological evidence demonstrates that the sexual division of labor in which men hunt and women gather wild fruits and vegetables is an extremely common phenomenon among hunter-gatherers worldwide, but there are a number of documented exceptions to this general pattern. The diets of hunter-gatherers appear to be comparatively well balanced, even when they are lean. Ethnographic accounts of contemporary groups suggest that protein intakes are commonly quite high, comparable to those of affluent modern groups and substantially above world averages. Protein deficiency is almost unknown in these groups, and vitamin and mineral deficiencies are rare and usually mild in comparison to rates reported from many Third World populations. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hunter-gatherer http://www.south-africa-tours-and-travel.com/images/bushman-hunter-gathere-rsa-xauslodge.jpg http://foragers.wikidot.com/sexual-division-of-labor
