All of Human History

Earliest stone tools

Sharp-edged flakes and cores knapped from river cobbles at Lomekwi, predating the genus Homo.

East Africa

"Lucy" (Australopithecus afarensis)

Lucy, a member of Australopithecus afarensis, lives in the Afar region of Ethiopia. Her skeleton is one of the most complete early hominin skeletons ever found.

Ethiopia

Earliest known member of the genus Homo

A partial lower jaw from Ledi-Geraru, Ethiopia, is the oldest fossil currently attributed to the genus Homo.

Ethiopia

Oldowan tool industry

A systematic tradition of choppers, scrapers and hammerstones associated with Homo habilis.

Africa

Percussion flaking at Lomekwi

Hominins struck large cobbles with hammerstones to produce heavy cutting flakes, a technique older than the Oldowan refinements.

East Africa

Homo habilis and the enlarging brain

Fossils from Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania show a hominin with a markedly larger braincase associated with stone tool debris.

East Africa

Homo erectus appears

Homo erectus emerges in Africa, with long legs, a tall body and proportions close to those of modern humans.

East Africa

Homo erectus disperses out of Africa

Long-limbed, endurance-walking hominids spread across Eurasia.

Africa and Eurasia

Acheulean handaxe

The symmetrical teardrop biface, made to a mental template rather than by opportunistic flaking.

Africa

Systematic butchery with stone flakes

Cut-marked animal bones across East Africa show hominins routinely dismembering large carcasses with sharpened flakes.

East Africa

Controlled use of fire

Hearths at Wonderwerk and Gesher Benot Ya'aqov show deliberately maintained fire.

Africa and Levant

Ochre processing for symbolic use

Hominins ground red ochre into powder, likely for body decoration and hide treatment.

Africa

Hearths at Gesher Benot Ya'aqov

Repeated burnt clusters at an Israeli lakeside site record deliberate, maintained fires and cooked plant foods.

Levant

Homo heidelbergensis appears

Homo heidelbergensis appears in Africa and Europe, with a larger brain than Homo erectus.

Africa and Europe

Neanderthal and sapiens lineages split

Genetic evidence indicates that the lineage leading to Neanderthals and Denisovans separated from the lineage leading to Homo sapiens around this time.

Hafted spears

Stone points bound to wooden shafts, as at Kathu Pan.

Southern Africa

Sima de los Huesos

Remains of at least 28 individuals at Sima de los Huesos in Atapuerca, Spain, show early Neanderthal-lineage features.

Spain

Wooden throwing spears

The Schoeningen spears, balanced javelins of spruce, preserved in waterlogged sediment.

Central Europe

Neanderthals emerge

Neanderthals emerge as a distinct population in Europe and western Asia, adapted to cold climates.

Europe and western Asia

Prepared-core Levallois technique

Knappers shaped a core in advance so a single blow released a predetermined flake.

Africa and Eurasia

Long-distance obsidian exchange

Middle Stone Age groups in the Olorgesailie basin carried volcanic glass tens of kilometres from its source.

East Africa

Earliest Homo sapiens fossils

Remains from Jebel Irhoud in Morocco push the origin of our species back across the whole African continent.

North Africa

Homo naledi in South Africa

Homo naledi, a small-brained human species known from the Rising Star cave system, lives in South Africa around the time early Homo sapiens appear.

South Africa

Denisovans in Asia

Denisovans, a sister group of Neanderthals known mainly from DNA and a few fossils from Denisova Cave in Siberia, live across Asia.

Siberia and Asia

Clothing and tailored hides

Genetic dating of body lice suggests regular clothing use by this period.

Africa

Shellfish harvesting at Pinnacle Point

Coastal caves in South Africa preserve the earliest systematic use of marine food and tidal timing.

Southern Africa

Deliberate burial of the dead

Groups at Qafzeh and Skhul interred bodies with grave goods.

Levant

Pigment workshops

Ochre-processing kits with abalone shell containers at Blombos Cave.

Southern Africa

Homo sapiens reach the Levant

Early Homo sapiens live at the Skhul and Qafzeh caves in present-day Israel.

Levant

Shell bead ornaments

Perforated Nassarius shells from Blombos Cave were strung and worn as personal decoration.

Southern Africa

Engraved abstract designs

Cross-hatched ochre blocks from Blombos, made with intent and repetition.

Southern Africa

Main dispersal out of Africa

The main dispersal of Homo sapiens out of Africa begins, roughly 70,000 to 60,000 years ago.

Africa and Eurasia

Peopling of Australia

Occupation at Madjedbebe in Arnhem Land shows humans established across open water in Sahul.

Australia

Bow and arrow

Microlithic points at Sibudu Cave bearing impact fractures consistent with arrows.

Southern Africa

Ostrich eggshell water flasks

Engraved eggshell containers let foragers carry water across dry country.

Southern Africa

Interbreeding with Neanderthals

Homo sapiens and Neanderthals interbreed, roughly 60,000 to 50,000 years ago. Most people outside Africa today carry about 1–2% Neanderthal DNA.

Western Asia

Seafaring to Sahul

Deliberate open-water crossings carried people to Australia and New Guinea.

Southeast Asia and Oceania

Homo floresiensis disappears

Homo floresiensis, the small-bodied "Hobbit" of Flores, Indonesia, disappears from the fossil record.

Indonesia

Bone flutes

Vulture-bone and mammoth-ivory flutes from the Swabian Jura, tuned to a scale.

Central Europe

Homo sapiens arrive in Europe

Modern humans arrive in Europe, where they overlap with Neanderthals for several thousand years.

Europe

Sulawesi cave art

Ochre paintings of warty pigs and hunting scenes rank among the oldest figurative art known.

Southeast Asia

Figurative cave painting

Ochre animal figures at Sulawesi, Chauvet and El Castillo.

Eurasia and Southeast Asia

Neanderthals go extinct

Neanderthals disappear, leaving Homo sapiens as the last surviving human species.

Europe and western Asia

Tally marks on bone

Notched bones such as the Lebombo and Ishango records suggest systematic counting.

Africa

Ceramic firing

The Venus of Dolni Vestonice, fired clay figurines made before pottery vessels.

Central Europe

Spun fibre and textiles

Impressions of twisted cordage and woven netting in fired clay.

Central Europe

Eyed sewing needle

Fine bone needles allowed close-fitted, layered clothing.

Siberia

Fired ceramic figurines

The Venus of Dolni Vestonice was baked from loess clay long before pots were made.

Central Europe

Wild cereal grinding at Ohalo II

Charred barley and wheat grains with grinding stones show cereal processing millennia before farming.

Levant

Pottery vessels

Cooking pots from Xianrendong Cave, made by foragers long before farming.

East Asia

Jomon pottery

Hunter-gatherers in the Japanese archipelago made cord-marked cooking vessels among the world's oldest.

Japan

Peopling of the Americas

Coastal and interior routes carried people from Beringia into two continents.

Americas

Domestication of the dog

Wolves entering the human niche become companions, guards and hunting partners.

Eurasia

Bread before agriculture

Charred flatbread crumbs at Shubayqa in Jordan were baked from wild cereals and tubers.

Levant

Gobekli Tepe

Monumental carved stone enclosures raised by people who had not yet farmed.

Anatolia

Fig cultivation at Gilgal

Parthenocarpic figs found in the Jordan Valley could only be propagated by human cuttings.

Levant

Agriculture

Wheat, barley, lentils and peas brought under cultivation in the Fertile Crescent.

Fertile Crescent

Emmer and einkorn wheat domesticated

Farmers in the Fertile Crescent selected non-shattering wheat strains.

Fertile Crescent

Domestication of sheep and goats

Herded flocks provide meat, milk, wool and hide on demand.

Southwest Asia

Rice domestication in the Yangtze

Communities along the middle and lower Yangtze began selecting and sowing wild rice.

China