Out of Africa to the Ends of the Earth: First Migrations

     Evidence has shown that humans first originated from Africa, with the first 150,000 years of human experience being on the continent. Homo Sapiens first emerged in eastern and southern Africa some 200,000 to 250,000 years ago. Although evidence is scarce due to the climate of the region as well as the sheer amount of time since, there is evidence of human activity in the region. These include human remains in areas where no other hominids had traveled before and evidence of technological innovations such as spears and hand axes, which later resulted in hunting and fishing. Grave sites indicate that these humans practiced rituals and other social behaviors. But the greatest feat of all is how these humans branched out of Africa into other parts of the world during the last Ice Age with only stone tools and hunting technology.

     From Africa, humans first migrated through the Middle East, then to Europe, and finally to Asia in the east. In the west, archaeologists have found that due to the colder Ice Age climates, those living in the northern part of Europe were pushed to the south to seek out warmer climates. Additionally, these people left behind cave drawings and paintings depicting their everyday lives and leaving images of human beings. In the east, in what is now Central Europe, Ukraine, and Russia, evidence shows these people developing various new technologies, such as multilayered clothing, pottery, and storage pits. They also lived somewhat underground with mammoth bones and tusks used to build shelter. Interestingly, these Eastern European peoples had numerous carvings of female figurines found all throughout Eurasia, raising questions such as the presence of a network of human communication, was the movement in Eurasia from west to east or vice versa, and what was the status of women in these communities?

     The humans who migrated to Australia came from Indonesia and had access to the boat, a new technological invention. Although Australia's population was limited, they had developed about 250 languages  and collected a wide variety of wild wheat. They also hunted a great amount of large and small animals. Along with their technological simplicity, they developed a new outlook on the world known as Dreamtime, which expressed stories through ceremonies and rock art. Dreamtime was a way for these humans to explain how the world worked and further reinforced how these peoples were part of an interconnected network.

     Due to the difficulty of traveling through Siberia, settlement in the Western Hemisphere occurred years after the settlement in Australia. Historians disagree about the method of transportation into the Americas, with some arguing that it was through the Bering Strait, while others believe it was by sea down the west coast of North America. The Clovis culture was one of the first defined and widespread cultures in America, with archaeological records indicating that Clovis men were hunters of very large mammals, such as mammoths and bison. However, during what scholars believe to be the end of the Ice Age, all traces of the Clovis culture abruptly disappeared. Historians connect this disappearance to the extinction of the mammoth, could mean that the Clovis people either hunted these animals to extinction, or died due to the lack of a food source from the suddenly drier climate. After the end of the Ice Age, various groups of people learned to adapt to their new climates, ultimately forming cities and states.

     The migration in the Pacific was remarkable, since it involved transportation through vast bodies of water. Additionally, the fact that many of these people, both men and women, traveled with plants and animals on board meant that they had intentions of colonizing other parts of the world. This resulted in the expansion of the Austronesian family of languages, making it the most geographically widespread in the world. In many of the settlements, two developments followed. One was the creation of a stratified society with appointed chiefs leading the commoners. The other was the rapid extinction of many of the region's animal species.