00 1. The beginning of human history-people in the Stone Age

After countless years from the primitive wilderness

Life has gone through a severe test.

Simple life forms in nature have evolved into

More complex plants and animals

Major climate change was once threatened.

The existence of all life forms

But life goes on.

About two million years ago.

Creatures that changed the fate of this planet appeared.

Standing at the farthest end of world history are stone age people.

Man is the son and daughter of nature.

Is the product of billions of years of evolution in nature.

For this long-term human evolution process

People don't always feel it.

It has only been more than a hundred years since mankind really realized this.

Before this, people can only put the origin of mankind.

It comes down to some omniscient God.

So almost every country has it.

God created the myth of human beauty.

Now scientists believe that God created human beings.

It is called creationism or creationism.

Evidence provided by modern scientific research

Is a completely different process of human evolution.

Now please explore with us.

When human ancestors created magnificent world history,

How did you take the first step?

Christianity believes that human beings are created by God.

Genesis in the Bible says

God spent five days creating the plants of heaven and earth day and night.

Aquatic animals and the sun, moon and stars

On the sixth day,

Made a man named Adam out of clay.

Later, I saw Adam alone and pulled out another rib.

Turn it into a woman named Eve.

Marry Adam happily

So we humans are all descendants of Adam and Eve.

People once believed this statement.

This also leads to some interesting theories.

There was an Irish archbishop named Hugh Schell.

According to the Bible,

According to calculations, God created human beings in 4004 BC.

Father of St. John's College, Oxford University

Further accurate the time of Adam's birth to 24 hours.

That is, at 9 am on March 23, 4004 BC.

In the eyes of these priests,

Our world history begins from this moment.

Although creationism has long dominated in various places

But people of all nationalities in the world are not all there.

A parrot.

For example, there were a batch in ancient Greece.

A brainworker who loves wisdom.

Focus on looking up at the universe and overlooking life.

Among them, miletus school

Contrary to the opinion of most people.

Anacker Simander of this school even asserted.

Man is a marine animal like a fish.

alterative

If you don't count the totem worship of primitive people

I'm afraid humans originated in the animal kingdom.

The earliest statement

We call this theory spontaneous occurrence.

According to the level of human understanding today.

Spontaneous theory is closer to the truth than creationism.

But both are actually ancient people.

Hypothesis based on feeling.

Full of innocence.

But with our current knowledge and hindsight,

We can easily rule out this view.

/kloc-the originator of modern biological classification in the 0/8th century.

Swedish botanist Linnaeus

Found that humans and apes have many similarities.

Therefore, when making animal classification system,

Separate man from ape.

Primates, which means first-class intelligence.

This classification is to uncover the origin of human beings.

And the mystery of the beginning of world history.

French scientist Buffon put forward this theory.

Further development.

He put forward the hypothesis that apes are ancestors.

But he is still at the end of the Christian dictatorship.

So as soon as his idea was put forward

He was besieged by the defenders of the Bible.

I barely passed the public trial of the University of Paris.

But his thoughts influenced his student Lamarck.

At that time, the spring breeze of ideological emancipation came from the French Revolution.

Created a free and open ideological atmosphere.

Lamarck is a great pioneer of evolution.

He published the book Animal Philosophy on 1809.

Systematically put forward the viewpoint of evolution.

The core of this theory is the theory of species evolution

People believe that all living things are caused by nature.

To produce.

Evolve with the change of environment

It was simple at first, and it became more and more complicated.

Buffon and Lamarck are two teacher-student relationships.

Break the central theory of creationism

It has made great contributions to the history of human self-knowledge.

The remaining task is to add another fire to evolution.

Refine evolved pig iron into

Persuasive and tenacious good steel

Persuade intellectuals who still believe in creationism

People who shoulder this historical responsibility

It's British biologist Darwin.

Darwin 183 1 the founder of evolution.

I went aboard the British Beagle once.

An inspection tour around the world

I have been to many places in the past five years.

I have been to America and Australia.

Collected many specimens.

18361after returning to China in October 10,

It took him about 20 years.

Collect data and focus on research.

Published an epoch-making masterpiece in 1859.

Origin of species

He pointed out that all animals and plants

Is the product of the long-term evolution of nature.

But it doesn't involve human evolution.

187 1 He published it.

The origin of human beings and their sexual selection.

Described the picture of human evolution for the first time.

Darwin believed that under natural conditions

All living things are influenced by their surroundings.

Then mutate

Species that can mutate beneficially

In order to survive and develop.

Species that cannot mutate beneficially.

Must have been eliminated by the surrounding environment.

This basic principle

In contemporary China, that is, the late Qing Dynasty.

Yan Fu, a famous enlightenment thinker.

Summarized in eight words is

Natural selection, survival of the fittest

At this time, when the western Darwin's theory was put forward,

Was strongly opposed by the church

It has also caused widespread controversy in society.

However, with the progress of science, in old age.

Academic circles no longer doubt evolution.

The subsequent work is all over the world.

Looking for the remains of our human ancestors

Long before evolution was established.

Archaeologists and paleontologists have discovered that

Many ancient fossils and related stone tools

And other handicrafts.

But before evolution was established

People can't imagine that before Adam and Eve appeared.

There will be humans.

So they can't understand the significance of these findings.

The vision of European intellectuals after the establishment of evolution theory

Beyond the boundaries drawn by the church

Began to look for traces of ancient humans around the world.

A large number of ancient human fossils have been successfully discovered.

With the tools they use

These efforts have made us clearly realize that

Man's position in nature

Deeply feel what our ancestors experienced.

A difficult journey

The earliest human fossils on earth are in Africa.

Homo habilis discovered in Oduwe Gorge, Tanzania

The discoverers were the British paleoanthropologist Mr. and Mrs. Leakey.

After Ricky finished his research on African prehistory at Cambridge University,

Go to East Africa to look for ancient human fossils

His idea seemed naive to people at that time.

Because in the first half of the 20th century,

The major discoveries about early humans were concentrated in Asia.

For example, Javanese in Indonesia and Beijingers in China.

But Li Ji insisted on going to Africa.

He chose the plain in northern Tanzania.

Oduwe gorge valley

This is a valley 40 kilometers long and 100 meters deep.

The Leakey couple have worked there for decades.

Therefore, where there is a will, there is a way. Finally, in 196 1,

Found the earliest human remains.

The age is 170 to 190 years ago.

Before homo habilis

There is also an earlier human ancestor Australopithecus.

Australopithecus has existed since 1970s.

A number of fossils with great variation have been discovered one after another.

It existed about five million years ago.

A million years ago,

The discovery of these fossils is of great significance

Because before that, it was generally believed that

The two basic characteristics of human beings are

Walking upright, making tools

These two characteristics appear at the same time

However, the discovery of Australopithecus overturned this conclusion.

Australopithecus can generally walk upright.

But I can't make tools.

The most direct evidence of this.

It's Mrs. Leakey of 1976.

South of Oduwe Gorge Valley in Tanzania

On a plain called Lettori.

Found the footprints of two Australopithecus individuals

There is a volcano on the Lettori Plain.

The volcano erupted.

A thick layer formed around it.

Volcanic ash deposit

Archaeologists were once in a battle.

Hit each other with elephant dung

One of the players fell to the ground and found that

There are animal footprints in the condensation layer of volcanic ash.

Archaeologists dug down this trace.

Dig out dozens of meters of footprints.

In the footprints

There are footprints of two Australopithecus individuals.

One is for adults and the other is for children.

There are many animal footprints around their footprints.

These footprints all look leisurely.

It seems that they are used to volcanic eruptions.

Start with people who are capable.

World history has entered its initial stage, the Stone Age.

Stone tools are the basic weapons of human ancestor struggle for existence.

According to different tool making techniques

The Stone Age is divided into Paleolithic Age.

And the Neolithic Age.

There is a transitional stage between the two main stages.

It is called the Mesolithic Age or the Microlithic Age.

The so-called paleolithic refers to the beaten stone tools.

Among the Stone Age, the Paleolithic Age is the longest.

It lasted from 1.8 million years ago to about 1.5 million years ago.

Due to the long time

Archaeologists want to make it easier to understand.

This period is divided into three shorter periods.

That is, the early, middle and late paleolithic period.

The early Paleolithic period was from 6.5438+800,000 years ago to 20.3 million years ago.

Humans in this period also have the characteristics of apes.

So it's called ape-man.

For example, the earliest brain power was only 500-700 ml.

Can walk upright at the height of 1.2 to 1.4 meters.

Late ape-man

For example, Okotom in Africa and Heidelberg in Europe.

Beijingers and Lantian people in Asia.

Although the brain volume increased to 750 to 1059 ml.

The height is increased to about1.6m.

But it is still obviously different from modern people.

In particular, the skull structure also has the characteristics of apes.

The brow ridge on the kiss is prominent and the forehead is flat.

No or only a small chin.

Apes rely on gathering and hunting to get food.

Their tools for gathering and hunting are mainly

Beat each other with gravel to form a polyhedron

A kitchen knife, such as pyramid chips.

They use these crude tools to kill, hunt and cut.

Medium-sized animals.

Such as giraffes, wild horses, elephants, hippos, antelopes and so on.

As for birds, fish, insects, birds, eggs and plants, tubers.

Fruits and even insects.

It was the food of early humans.

With the accumulation of millions of years of survival experience

People in the early paleolithic period were gradually able to

Produce your own products according to your own expectations.

So there are multi-purpose stone tools.

Like a double-sided hand axe

axe

slicker scraper

Pointer or something.

During the period from 654.38 million years ago to 500,000 years ago.

Ancient humans in some parts of the world

Mastered the skills of manual control of natural fires.

Archaeologists in Cheswoja, Kenya

Xihoudu, Ruicheng, Shanxi, China

Beijing Zhoukoudian ape-man site

Found traces of artificial fire

The use of fire is of epoch-making significance in world history.

You can't overestimate it.

Fire is used to process food.

Heating and self-protection

Cooked food not only tastes good.

But also easy to chew and digest.

Food heated at high temperature

More than 200 new compounds can be formed.

Promote human viscera, brain and bones.

The evolution of the oral cavity has accelerated.

Fire is also used to drive away wild animals and process wood.

It has led to an unprecedented increase in the level of human hunting animals.

Hairy rhinoceros, bison, saber-toothed elephant, these big beasts.

Also became the prey of primitive people.

more importantly

With fire, human beings will no longer live in the wild.

Moved into a cave that can shelter from the wind and rain

such

Among the four major ice ages that began 654.38+0 million years ago,

Humans are not only in the ice and snow in the northern hemisphere.

survive

And moved to most parts of the old world.

As for their social structure, the leaders of the commune.

Usually elected collectively by commune members.

At the clan and tribal stage

Communes also practice strict exogamy.

Members within the commune

You must look for your spouse outside the commune.

Communes practice strict social division of labor.

For example, men go hunting.

Women take care of children at the station.

Collect all kinds of wild plants.

Confirmation of cranial cavity structure in Peking man

The ability of human beings to divide comes from

About 500 thousand years ago, in the early paleolithic period,

The invention of artificial fire in the same period.

The clock goes back to about 250 thousand years ago

That is, the middle paleolithic period.

Humans began to transition from the ape-man stage to our modern people.

Walking upright is actually

Not only liberated people's hands.

This also leads to body parts.

Some related changes

Especially the vocal organs.

Walking upright and lifting the upper jaw

People's kisses shrink.

The mouth and throat will form a right angle, this right angle.

It is one of the places where human beings are different from other animals.

Very conducive to making all kinds of sounds.

In addition, judging from the human situation at that time.

The invention of cooked food made human's

The chewing organs gradually shrink and the gums become smaller.

The range of activities of the vocal organs in the mouth becomes larger.

This is very beneficial to human language.

* * * and the formation of lip sounds

About 50 thousand years ago

Humans entered the late Paleolithic period.

At this time, people are tangible.

No different from us modern people.

The formation process of the three major races has also ended.

Modern anthropology believes that race or race.

It is a human group with * * * homogeneous physical characteristics.

Generally divided into three categories.

The first kind is Mongolian, also called yellow race.

The second category is Caucasian race, also called white race.

The third kind is black, also known as black race.

Yellow people are mainly distributed in Asia.

White people are mainly distributed in Europe and America.

Black people are mainly distributed in sub-Saharan Africa.

Differences in body shape between races.

Mainly in four aspects.

Skin color, eye color.

Color and shape of hair

These different characteristics

Affected by different geographical environments.

For example, most black people have black skin.

Because of this dark skin

Helps protect the body from ultraviolet rays.

Most black people have curly hair.

It's because of this curly hairstyle

Can improve the thermal insulation of the body.

Another example is the majority of Nordic whites.

The bridge of the nose is long and narrow.

Because this nose shape is conducive to the heating of cold air.

These phenomena further prove that

Human physique

Affected by different geographical environments.

Gradually evolved into

But this has nothing to do with the personality of intellectuals.

It doesn't matter whether you are tall or not.

By the late Paleolithic period,

The technology of making stone tools has made great progress.

Like the indirect impact drilling method that appeared at that time

And friction method.

With the continuous improvement of human survival ability

The space for human activities has obviously expanded.

Humans crossed the Bering Strait in the late Homo sapiens era.

Floating on the Pacific islands

Settled in groups in America and Oceania.

So the first immigrants who discovered the new world

Not so much a modern European

More like Paleolithic Asians.

The improvement of material life is accompanied by the progress of spiritual life.

At the end of the Paleolithic period,

Human language is scattered around the world with human beings.

It is divided into thousands of language words and grammatical structures.

Different terms

As long as there are people

Traces of various primitive religions can be found.

Such as totem worship, requiem worship and ancestor worship.

Represented by cave murals and sculptures.

Colorful primitive art

These rock paintings depict dances that express their joy and sadness.

These early human paintings

It is the first step in the long history of Chinese characters.

That's the skill.

Distinguish us from other creatures on earth.

Provides us with a way to preserve history.

This means that this is unprecedented.

The dawn of a magnificent civilized society.

Will rise on the horizon.