The habitats and lifestyle of the most ancient man are very different from ours. In those days, both nature and climate were completely different. A person who was new at that time had to adapt in his own way to changing environmental conditions.
Homeland of mankind
Deciphering the human genome has allowed scientists to draw an amazing conclusion. It turns out that all people are distant relatives. We all come from one small tribe. The place where the ancient man lived is in Africa, a little south of the Sahara.
The neighborhood of the Olduvai Gorge is considered our oldest ancestral home. It is the natural radiation that came out of the fault that scientists consider to be the cause of the onset of mutation. The oldest remains of anthropoids are 5 million years old. Knowing the original habitats, it is easy to determine the countries where the most ancient people lived . This is Ethiopia, Tanzania, Kenya.
Another hotbed where the oldest hominids were found is Tibet in the Himalayas. Here, the age of the finds is 3.5 million years. Thus, the main territory where the ancient man lived is the continents of Africa and Eurasia.
World capture
From the ancestral territory where the ancient man lived, he went to explore the whole earth. It was 40-45 thousand years BC. e. The first step was to develop the territory of the Arabian Peninsula. A man crossed the Strait of Gibraltar and first came to Europe. At the moment, in-depth resettlement was not possible. With the retreat of the glacier, Europe turned into one huge swamp.
Another group went to explore the East. The settlement took place along the narrow coastal strip of the Indian Ocean. It should be noted that the sea level at that time was completely different. Where sea waves are now splashing, one could walk overland.
Some of the tribes turned back and later merged with the population of Europe. Another group continued to move along the ocean. The modern Aleutian Islands were then a single piece of land. According to her, people got to Australia.
America mastered also without sailors. Cape of Providence and Alaska united on the ground. Between North and South America there was also a land isthmus.
At first, only territories along the shores of the oceans were mastered, the glacier and the swamps left by it prevented them from going further. The glacier was rapidly retreating, the swamps were drying up, giving people more space for life. So, back in the Stone Age, the territory where an ancient man lived, continents covered everything.
What sent a man on the road?
The area where the ancient man lived was very favorable. Mild climate, a large number of animals and fruit trees. So what prompted a person to go explore unknown lands?
Climate warming and the melting of the glacier in connection with this caused the migration of cattle. Mammoths - the main source of Neanderthal food - cannot live in heat. It turns out that people had to follow the food. Perhaps all the resettlement happened in the migration behind the herds of mammoths and other large animals.
Although theoretically the entire path could have been completed in 2 years, the resettlement lasted as long as 50,000 years. People had nowhere to hurry, the glacier receded gradually. They built houses, settled in the territory and sometimes moved on after several generations.
The retreat of the glacier gave more space to our ancestors. Gradually, not only coastal zones were developed. Man continued on his way into the depths of the continents. Soon the whole planet came under the rule of a human tribe.
The home of the ancients
Previously, it was unreasonably believed that people settled in spacious caves. But where the ancient man lived, traces of his activity always remained. Later it was concluded that the caves were used mainly for ritual purposes. This is evidenced by cave paintings and later temples.
People preferred to settle in open spaces along the banks of rivers. For the construction used branches, logs, animal bones. From above they were covered with skins of animals hunted. From below the canopy was reinforced with stones or heavy skulls.
The dimensions of the buildings where the ancient people lived differed from each other. Some preferred to build large family huts with several outbreaks. Others are small family half-dugouts. The shape was preferred round or oval. The roof most often had a conical shape.
What did our distant ancestors look like?
Our oldest ancestor, although he had already learned to walk, looked more like a monkey in appearance. In the places where the ancient man lived, it was very dangerous, and large tenacious hands often saved lives. The brain remained underdeveloped, which gave out a small sloping forehead. The jaw and chin, on the contrary, were too developed in comparison with modern man. Humanization had just begun, the body was still covered in thick hair.
Gradually, the proportions of the body changed. Hands were shortened as they lost their supporting function. The spine straightened and legs became longer. The brain developed very quickly, along with it the cranium also increased. When a person began to use fire for cooking, the need for a powerful jaw disappeared.
The only thing that could not find a reasonable explanation is the loss of hair. But this is precisely what prompted the person to create clothes.
Prehistoric fashion
While the hair was preserved and the places where the ancient people lived, were in a hot climate, there was no need to hide yourself. The primitive man was not ashamed, being naked: it was natural.
The need to get dressed arose in connection with the relocation. In colder regions, people began to freeze and someone guessed to wrap themselves in the skin of a dead animal. Such a robe was hardly comfortable and constantly wore off when worn. Another man made a hole in the middle and stuck his head in there, and tied his belt around with his tail.
More than one generation of people has contributed to the emergence of what we modern people can call clothing. Gradually, sewing appeared. Several pieces of skins were sewn together using a bone needle and the veins of animals hunted. In this way, they began to make not only clothes, but also canopies for quick erection of tents.
The same skins served to create shoes. Over time, the technique of dressing the skin improved. Appearing more and more convenient forms of clothing and shoes. Later, plant fiber was also used. The oldest flaxen thread found is 35,000 years old.
In the course of evolution, man has been able to achieve much on the path of improvement. People managed to adapt and survive in the most difficult natural conditions. They "tamed" the fire. We learned how to make tools from the material surrounding them: wood, stones, animal bones. Sew clothes and much more. The origins of our comfortable lives lie there, in the ancient past of mankind.