Before writing: our earliest ancestors

"How do we know about people who lived before anyone could write?" Think of a detective at a scene with no witnesses. There is no diary and no letter, only objects left behind. Early history works the same way: we study it mainly through archaeology (puratattva), the study of things people made, used and threw away.

Writing came at different times in different places. One of the earliest scripts belongs to the Sindhu–Sarasvatī (Harappan) civilisation: a pictographic script found on seals and pottery. But nobody has managed to read it yet; it is still undeciphered. We call it Sindhu lipi.

Two other early scripts, from about the same time, have been read: cuneiform of the Sumerians in Mesopotamia and hieroglyphs of ancient Egypt. With them, about 5,000 years ago, the historical period begins. In India, a script called Brahmi was in use from about 400 BCE, and Emperor Aśhoka (3rd century BCE) made it standard.

Before and after writing (Fig. 4.3):

The book separates two kinds of change:

• Biological evolution: slow changes in the body and genes, by which our early ancestors, the australopithecines ('southern apes'), became modern humans, Homo sapiens.
• Cultural evolution: how people adapted to changing climates by making tools and new techniques, during the Quaternary Period (the last 26 lakh years, up to today).

Over time, people moved from hunting and gathering to farming. Once they could produce extra (surplus) food and goods, the ground was ready for civilisation.

About 3.3 million years ago, one of several human ancestors living at the same time made the first stone tools. That marks the start of 'human behaviour'. Animals do not make such tools. So human beings are called hominins, tool makers. Tools are even called extra-corporal limbs: 'extra body parts' that let us do what our hands alone cannot.

"Where do the clues come from?" People used tools, wore them out and threw them away. The tools got buried, and archaeologists dig them up. Some of our ancestors' bodies were also buried deep and, over thousands or millions of years, turned into stone: fossils (jivashm). Tools and fossils are the main evidence. Archaeologists even make and use copies of old tools to learn how they worked (Fig. 4.5).

Meet our ancestors (Fig. 4.6):

Only Homo sapiens is still alive today.

Out of Africa, twice. Our earliest ancestors lived in Africa. Homo erectus was the first to leave, about 2 million years ago. Their handaxes and cleavers turn up across Asia and Europe. A second big wave left about 125,000 years ago: that was Homo sapiens, who now live all over the Earth. The lands of the oldest settlements, Africa, Asia and Europe, are called the Old World.