2006-12-18 17:50:21 · 17 answers · asked by Rez K 1 in Social Science ➔ Anthropology
The origin of modern Homo sapiens is not yet resolved.
The oldest fossil evidence for anatomically modern humans is about 130,000 years old in Africa, and there is evidence for modern humans in the Near East sometime before 90,000 years ago.
Before that Homo erectus (H. heidelbergensis, H. ergaster, et. al.), which are all classified as "human" but not modern human, appears in the fossil record about 2 million years ago.
2006-12-19 04:44:38 · answer #1 · answered by poethical 3 · 2⤊ 1⤋
Let's be clear on the nature of your question first. Are you asking for the first verifiable incident of a human being making something physical that told a story? In other words... when did human 'history' begin? (as opposed to, when did 'human beings' begin).This would mean you're looking for some kind of physical record of an idea or a story or an event or a transaction that needed to be communicated to many others in the distant past. It would require some kind of writing system that could be shared among a larger population, and the record of this written language could be found and interpreted as such today. So you'd have beginnings (plural) of histories (plural) as various writing systems came and went - or stayed. For example, varieties of proto-writing (think pictographs) are first found from sometime in the 4000-3000BC period in Mesopotamia, but from around 6000BC in the area of China. But, is that the answer you were looking for?
2006-12-19 06:10:06 · answer #2 · answered by amacanuck 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Nobody really knows. Since, the definition of mankind is not an exact kind of thing. Like the definitoin of the car or wheel or snake. What characteristics can be considered human ?
If tools and burned wood from a fire are found near some bones in Africa or somewhere in Asia that are 3.5 or 4.5 million years old. That's a clue how old humans might be. Give or take 500 000 years or maybe even older sites will be discovered later. Im not sure if Ramapithecus can be considered ape or ma. But it's considered our earliest know ancesor. It lived in Africa and India.It's supposed to be a hominid. Rama- Hindu God,pithecus-ape. It supposedly lived 15 000 000 years ago.
2006-12-19 06:25:23 · answer #3 · answered by sandwreckoner 4 · 0⤊ 2⤋
The history of mankind began after Adam and Eve got kicked out from Paradise.
2006-12-22 21:41:53 · answer #4 · answered by angel007 3 · 0⤊ 1⤋
the history of mankind began when a comet hit the earth. the comet was filled with ice that then melted which contained microsopic stuff that later formed us
2006-12-19 02:15:49 · answer #5 · answered by devin c 2 · 0⤊ 1⤋
mankind who can think get back to 20000 years ago.but researchers could find some fossil and the evidence for human evolution from 2-3 million years ago.
2006-12-19 02:00:17 · answer #6 · answered by celever 2 · 0⤊ 2⤋
Cave paintings date to about 25,000BC.
Early pictographs date from the 7th century BC.
The first true writing systems date to the dawn of civilization -- 4000BC.
Pick which one you want to define as history -- a written record.
2006-12-19 13:16:46 · answer #7 · answered by novangelis 7 · 0⤊ 2⤋
When writing was first discovered and used by the then advanced Mediterranean societies.
2006-12-19 02:02:01 · answer #8 · answered by Nikolas S 6 · 0⤊ 1⤋
According to the Bible it was when God blew the breath of life into the nostrils of the first man, Adam.
According to scientists it was when the single celled amoeba evolved into what we are today.
2006-12-19 02:05:35 · answer #9 · answered by ♨ Wisper ► 5 · 1⤊ 2⤋
When we started writing it down.
So prehistoric = before the invention of writing.
2006-12-19 02:02:42 · answer #10 · answered by randomstupidhandle 3 · 2⤊ 1⤋