When did human history beigin?

Question

I'm doing an essay about this and i am kind of stuck. I cannot find a site where i can get good information from. But all i really need is to know when and then i am ready to go!Thanks!

Answer 1

Actually, it all depends on how you define "HISTORY". Most of the time, scholars distinguish "history" from "pre-history", and the division comes with the introduction of WRITTEN RECORDS. You see, history is about TELLING the story (remembering, repeating, interpreting, etc).

To clarify a bit -- we're at the least speaking of records of human EVENTS, not 'accounting records' (which is what we have in the earliest etchings we can decipher). History is NOT about how many sheep I had yesterday!

Some would go even further and require a more self-conscious effort -- not just a simple record of events, but an effort to 'tell the story', to interpret a series of events for posterity.

At any rate, the earliest possible "history" would then be found in the 4th millennium BC, in Mesopotamia (among the Sumerians) and, very shortly after that, in Egypt. I would suggest you do some searches on "early Mesopotamia", "ancient Sumer" and "ancient Egypt" to pinpoint the earliest materials.

Answer 2

Human History started the first time man walked upright. I think you are asking when was human history first recorded. I would start with the Bible. I am not sure which came first, the Bible or the Egyptians. The Old Testimony is thousands of years old and so is the history of Egypt. I suggest you check them first. Don't forget that reading and writing was not that important to the people of those times. Most did not know it even existed.

Answer 3

That depends upon how you define the human.

In biological terms, human species begins with Homo Habilis, the first "Homo" species. They evolved from Australopithicus.

On the other hand, human history could be defined as starting with the recording of history, in which history is only a few thousand years old, beginning probably with the writing of the Old Testament, the first really historical (as opposed to mythic) document.

Answer 4

Around six million years ago, according to my source. Here are two others to check, if you like links:

http://www.tyrellmuseum.com/
http://www.becominghuman.org