What Were Humans doing 100,000 Years Ago?

we live in a time where technology and culture change fastly in as little as a few years though our reality is far different than the world that humans have found themselves living in for the majority of our history historically technological innovation has been quite slow and foremost essentially non-existent even in the 18th and 19th centuries one would hardly notice the many advancements that were occurring especially in rural areas the concept of a new product coming out every few years which drastically changed the world simply did not exist for the average person when looking further into the depths of History we find cultures that existed in more or less the same ways for hundreds if not thousands of years people lived and died with the exact same technology of their forefathers without any advancements these people are thought to have been equally as cognitively complex as modern humans though Innovation was still slower than a snail's pace we must not forget that our species and our genus submerged from a dark world of tooth and Claw human mind as we know it is a cultured domesticated product of thousands of years of miraculous ideas Concepts so obvious to us such as sewing needles or fishing hooks had to be invented by the Einsteins of the day furthermore symbolic Creations such as carvings or drawings are a whole other level of cognitive innovation though we consider ourselves so intelligent we only are because of the advanced Global culture that we live in if The Offspring of modern humans were thrown into a world of stone and hypothetically survived many simple ideas might take thousands of years to emerge with this in mind you must lies that every culture on Earth is just as much the product of millions of years of evolution as our bodies are the cultures and people that existed a hundred thousand years ago were undeniably Advanced especially when looking at our species by a hundred thousand years ago our species in the anatomical sense had already existed for roughly two hundred thousand years though they are considered anatomically modern this should not be confused with behaviorally modern the homo sapiens living 300 000 years ago looked virtually identical to humans in the modern day but they did not behave in a similar way as in they did not display a complex material culture including symbolism or displaying particularly unique social relationships as the middle Paleolithic went on more modern behavior began to appear particularly around a hundred thousand years ago however it should be noted that many paleoanthropologists believe that homo sapiens did not become fully behaviorally modern until around 50 000 years ago this evidence of course comes with material remains but also importantly with a handful of genetic mutations which spread around populations during the time some of the first evidence of behaviorally modern humans appears around a hundred thousand years ago from lombos cave in South Africa here complex technology as well as various forms of art have been found first and foremost these people were making excellent Stone points these spearheads or knives were bifacially flaked and were made in three complex phases first a hard Hammer likely a stone was used to reduce much of the stone core next a softer Hammer perhaps made of bone or antler was used for further shaping with thin flakes finally a tool such as an antler tine or horn tip was used to push off small flakes this is called pressure flaking and the points at bombo's Cave are the earliest examples of this technique ever found this is important because pressure flaking is among the most important techniques utilized in the creation of stone tools this technique would only become common throughout the world post fifty thousand years these people were really ahead of their time another amazing thing about these points is that some of them were heat treated before they were napped any kinds of stone are quite rough and do not create clean flakes by heating them in the center of a hot fire stone can become much more brittle and in turn much easier to Flint nap this is also some of the earliest evidence of stone being heat treated before being napped the last thing to mention about these points is that they may have had an artistic or symbolic value beyond their utilitarian function the points appear to have been made much finer than they practically need to be aspects of their production including the projection of certain blanks has suggested to some researchers that they had a deeper aesthetic value some even appear to have been left behind in rock shelters for some reason Beyond practicality points of this quality would not really appear anywhere in the world until the times of the salutarian culture in Europe a culture which almost certainly made him practically thin and refined points to display their flint-napping ability beyond the stone tools elaborate bone tools have also been found at the site bone all's points and even an engraved Point have been found at the site once again this kind of Technology would not become common in the world for around 50 000 more years but there is still much more to be found in this cave multiple forms of art have been found a rock fragment with nine red lines drawn on its dates to 73 000 years ago not quite a hundred thousand years though it is still relevant to my opinion since it is the oldest drawing ever found the red lines were created with red ocher an iron-rich material commonly used in art across the world more than 8 000 pieces have been found in the cave many of the pieces were clearly engraved or shaved to produce a powder some were engraved with intricate geometric patterns they are considered some of the oldest rock art ever found alongside them two portable ocher pigment kits were found they consisted of a large abalone shell filled with crushed ocher charcoal and mammal bone a rock placed on top of the shell was seemingly used to grind and pound up the mixture the fatty mammal bone and the other ingredients would have created a thick sticky paste perhaps useful for painting the bodies of tribal members for symbolic rituals though this idea may be a little far-fetched this ocher was almost certainly being used for something deeper than simple survival use of red ocher goes back hundreds of thousands of years and continues to this day though this example is very important because it is such a direct example of its use other remains from the cave include shell beads beads are found throughout many ancient human cultures and are an important marker of complex social stratification the last thing to mention about this amazing cave is the variety of animal remains found inside of it various aquatic animals including fish shellfish seals and even dolphin have been found at the site terrestrial animals include large games such as Eland smaller mammals and tortoise the diversity of their diet suggests that many different specialized techniques must have been employed the findings at bombo's Cave Have Been instrumental in our understanding of this early period in our evolution however they are far from the only Advanced remains in Africa during this time on the simliki river in what is now the Democratic Republic of the Congo multiple complex harpoons have been found dating to around 90 000 years ago the points were large and robust with multiple barbs and Crews for hafting it is thought that they were used to spear large fish such as giant catfish these harpoons were found around the remains of thousands of catfish bones suggesting that this culture may have heavily relied on aquatic resources conditions of Eastern and Northern Africa were quite wet during this time perhaps allowing for a widespread culture of fishermen moving East aside from Kenya displays some of the oldest evidence of burial in our species three-year-old child appears to have been buried in a small pit chemical analysis along with how the remains were deposited strongly suggest that they were intentionally buried crushed snow shells below the remains may also be evidence of symbolic Mortuary Behavior this is not the earliest evidence of burial in any human species the Neanderthals may have done it first but it is the earliest evidence of our ancestors partaking in this Behavior moving to North Africa we find the arterian culture this culture appeared around 150 000 years ago and flourished until around 20 000 years ago it is well known for its production of Tanked points these points are much different than the points being produced anywhere at this time the slim Tang would have allowed them to be hafted much easier than the common lavalwell points of the time this would have allowed for not only a more sturdy projectile but may have also provided more penetration their small size also suggests that they may have been used as the tips of throwing Spears or even for atlatable darts atletos or spear throwers are a device which allows for lighter darts to be thrown much farther and faster than simple throwing Spears it is unknown when this technology appeared our earliest direct evidence comes from around 20 000 years ago from Western Europe however atletos don't leave much of a trace in the archaeological record if made only of wood as they often are it is possible at Tyrion points were attached to light at lateral darts though they could have also just been used for good old Spears the culture also made complex by facial points the vowel points and even specialized bone knives with their array of hunting tools they hunted a variety of game including Antelope Buffalo rhinoceros and even elephant besides tools artistic artifacts such as shell beads and ocher are found at some of their sites though Shelbys are not unheard of in this time period there is still a marker of modern human behavior some of these shells come from this East Shore and are found very far inland suggesting long distance trade Networks other sites in Africa from this period display that materials were occasionally transported up to 300 kilometers or 185 miles it is clear that a hundred thousand years ago our species was up to important stuff in our homeland of Africa though even at this time our species expanded elsewhere even very early on in our Evolution our species was living in the Middle East the oldest unquestionably Sapient fossil found outside of Africa is a Jawbone dating to 190 000 years ago from Israel in the subsequent tens of thousands of years our species appear to have radiated in parts of the Middle East this may be the first region that our ancestors encountered other distinct human species it has long been known that Neanderthal populations ranged all over the Middle East of a recent discovery found another distinct population that once lived in the area a skull and jawbone from a site in Israel dubbed the national ramla hominins are fairly distinct from neanderthals or homo sapiens The Remains stayed between 140 to 120 000 years ago examinations of the skull characteristics suggest that this group was quite archaic its job was robust and is similar to that of early neanderthals or lay Tidal brigensis researchers believe that these remains may represent a middle ground between Neanderthal and Homo sapiens this would make sense considering both species lived in the area as far back as 200 000 years ago it is unknown how long population similar to these remains existed though we can imagine that the Middle East would have been a Crossroads of human diversity 100 000 years ago neanderthals appeared to have been the most common common in the Middle East remains from a number of caves in the region display that these neanderthals were engaging in complex behaviors such as the burial of the dead and the use of red ocher I just made a three hour long project on the Neanderthals so I will try to keep this section short neanderthals from across Eurasia are often only depicted as big game Hunters though in reality neanderthals hunted and forged for a variety of food sources evidence of Mammoth hunting does exist though so does shellfish exploitation and the consumption of mushrooms Beyond filling their stomachs neanderthals also appear to have been capable of abstract and symbolic thought even over a hundred thousand years ago a strange construction was made in the brunu quilt cave consisting of hundreds of stalagmites and artistic elements are widely known throughout their other sites neanderthals widely used red ocher as well as modifying remains in strange ways at the site of crepina in Croatia Eagle towns appear to have been strung together to form a necklace while remains of a fellow neanderthal's forehead show strange cut marks visual may have been de-fleshed in a strange Mortuary ritual around a hundred thousand years ago Neanderthals appear to have been on par with the complexity of our own species during this time our species was still largely restricted to Africa and parts of the Middle East some migrations appear to have made it perhaps as far as the Indian subcontinent though this remains unknown other hominins have been living in East Asia for as much as 2 million years East Asia is a very diverse land full of high mountain ranges tropical forests and Islands these conditions led to a very diverse array of hominins older remains are typically classified as erectus though middle Paleolithic finds are quite hard to classify first let's look to the Northeast where we know that Anisa Vince roamed the Denise events have gained a lot of popularity in recent years this is partially because the remains had denisova cave are truly stunning however many of the material remains that the site may actually have been made by Homo sapiens due to their age only being around 50 000 years old regardless we know that Denise Evans were still living here two specimens day to around a hundred thousand years ago one of them denisova 11 nicknamed Denny was found to be the hybrid offspring of a neanderthal mother and a Denise of an father this is the furthest East Neanderthals have been found and I guess the furthest west that Denise events have been found this cave may represent the furthest edge of the range of these two species unfortunately we only have two different sites with unquestionable Denise event remains from denisova cave in Siberia and the other one from Northwest China these are the only two places where Denise who in DNA has been found so far as far as material remains of Denise vinsco they appear quite typical of the middle pleistocene large chopping hand axes and the use of mainly wooden Spears though one Discovery in northern China is quite Advanced for the time the rib of a large mammal was engraved with multiple intersecting lines even had evidence that it was covered in a red ocher pigment though it might not look all that impressive you must remember that this object is over a hundred thousand years old and it is likely only a fraction of the complex material culture utilized by these people but this object may actually have been made by a different hominin from the area homologi is the name given to the nearly complete skull from the Northeast China Plain the skull is broadly similar to some other middle Pisces seen Chinese specimens and has similarities to the jahi mandible the original describers of the skull believed that it may actually be the skull of a denisovan though this seems like it may be the case we do not know unless genetic testing can be performed a similar dilemma can be found in Southeast Asia modern human populations south of Malaysia have significantly more denisovan DNA than other Asian populations this may suggest that Denise events were present if not common in Southeast Asia before the arrival of modern humans remains of ancient humans are found around Island South Asia such as Java Man or the solo man remains though they are typically categorized as Homo erectus some researchers believe that they may actually be the remains of denisovans it is certainly a possibility but DNA evidence would need to definitely prove it as of now researchers identify many of Southeast Asian remains as the last surviving populations of erectus regardless of how we would classify them their material remains tell their own story at the Soloman site there is evidence of complex bone and stone technology Stingray points that the site may have served as points or knives a long piece of bone with barbs along its sides may have also been used as a harpoon round Stone balls may have been used as hammers for Flinch napping or smashing bone some even suggest that they may have also been used as bolus for tripping animals their actual stone technology seems to be relatively simple the true range of this population of hominins is unknown especially since we know that other hominin species were also living in Island Southeast Asia on the small Indonesian island of Flores there lived the smallest member of our genus homo floresiensis full-grown adults for around 1.06 meters or three foot six inches tall and only weighed around 35 kilograms or 55 pounds these hominins are thought to have evolved to be so small due to eilish dwarfism an evolutionary process that selects small individuals due to limited resources this same process appears to have affected modern inhabitants of the same island who are quite small despite having no connection with fluoresciensis despite the smallest stature of this species they appear to have lived in similar ways to other mainland hominins other animals on the island included large monitor lizards giant storks and dwarf elephants the reality that these people lived in appears almost like science fiction to us one can only imagine how strange it would be to see these people live their day-to-day lives one day they Feast on a dwarf stegadon and the next day giant dragon comes and eats one of their own hard to wrap your head around that this place existed for hundreds of thousands of years until our species showed up and presumably ruined it the last species that we know was walking the earth a hundred thousand years ago was homolus onensis remains from a cave on the island of Luzon from around 70 000 years ago proved to be a unique population from the others in Island Southeast Asia remains consist of teeth finger and toe bones and a femoral shaft DNA extraction failed though the remains appear to be more similar to australopithecines than they do to recent members of our genus this suggests that they may be the descendants of a very early wave of hominins or perhaps just the derived descendants of erectus in the area human presence on Luzon dates at the latest to 771 thousand to six hundred and thirty one thousand years ago though it is unknown how old this species actually is regardless we know that they would have been present around a hundred thousand years ago they appear to have been quite small like fluoresciensis but we don't have good enough evidence to make a good estimation another interesting thing about these people is that they had to cross the Huxley line to get to the island of Luzon this would have required a substantial sea Crossing perhaps suggesting that they had simple seafaring technology their Stone technology appears to have been quite simple though they also seem to have engaged in the hunting of local deer turtles and lizards the world a hundred thousand years ago was a diverse Place full of many long isolated populations but even all those years ago our species was clearly advancing in a number of profound ways you are creating complex technology and even more importantly symbolic objects in art though our species was not the only one up to amazing stuff neanderthals in the heart of Europe were in many ways on par with our development they were creating complex tools and other peculiar remains that cannot simply be explained as survivalistic other species in Asia were undoubtedly up to important things as well this area is poorly studied compared to the caves of Europe or the tripods of Africa in the next decade you will undoubtedly learn much more about this area and hopefully get a better understanding of the enigmatic denisovans and small island men thanks for watching if you like this video go ahead and drop a like and comment for the algorithm I am finally back in the States and I'm looking forward to increasing the output of these videos I hope you'll enjoy them thanks karate cheers [Music]

Channel: NORTH 02

Views: 1,039,033

Keywords: ancient animal, documentary, north 02, animal, fossil, evolution, paleoanthropology, human evolution, science, discovery, Proof of evolution, full documentary, history, fossils, videos, family friendly, learn, anthropology, paleo, paleonotology, ancient human, homo erectus, neanderthal, denisovan, human, humanoid, hominin, hominid, human history, prehistory, archaeology, education, human origins, what were humans doing 100000 years ago, what were human, 100000000 years ago, 10000 bc

Id: 3bzwZHt_6dI

Length: 22min 4sec (1324 seconds)

Published: Sat Jun 17 2023