The human being...
Blog #12
The human being…
Evolution
and Civilization
Abstracts
The Human, or the Homo sapiens (Scientific name), is a creature from the mammalian
class of the Phylum Chordate along with apes and gorilla. It is assumed that
about 2.5 million years ago the human’s predecessors were evolved from the
species of ape, like chimpanzee or gorilla, scientifically known as Homo sapiens. Thus it is meant
that we were monkeys and gradually evolved as a modern human or a complete man
i.e. the one who could walk upright straight or on two feet, has two hands and
a matured brain, which could plan and accordingly execute on it. The human
history has been divided into several ages, such as the Stone Age, Copper Age, Bronze
Age, Iron Age and now silicon age. The evolution of the human has been started
since the Stone Age with gradual small and minor changes. Human have attained a
lot of changes which have resulted in a complete and modern man which is called
Evolution in scientific term. During the Bronze Age, human was developed enough
to establish their own living style and way of life. presently in the Iron Age,
the human is so technologically advanced that they can plan their actions and
ideas well in advance and execute over it different slots of time. We are also
among a few species in this planet who live in society and have a history of
gradual development of civilization. However, this development in the history
of human’s evolution has countered several stages of improvement and a long
period of time then gradually the modern level of lifestyle has been achieved
and even this is not the end but we are still evolving and trying to become
super human. This is way the nature works not only with the human being but
with other species as well.
Evolution of Human
The evolution of human was a lengthy
and a complex process of gradual changes due to which people originated from
their ape like ancestors. The scientific evidences show that the physical and
mental behavioral traits shared by all people originated from their ape like
ancestors and evolved over a period of approximately six million years. The
development of one of the main human trait- the ability to walk on two legs,
also known as bipedalism became one of the earliest known trait of the early
human beings, defines the evolvement of human from the apelike ancestors about
four million years ago. The other important human trait is a large and complex
brain, which could plan a mission or an idea as well as execute over it. Many
of the traits of the modern human being developed around one million years ago.
The forerunner of the modern human being evolved during the Paleolithic Age,
around 2.5 million years ago. According to the African origin of the modern
human theory, the modern human-beings evolved in the African continent,
probably from the Homo heidelbergensis,
Homo rhodesiensis or the Homo
antecessor and migrated out of the continent about some 50,000 to
1,00,000 years ago, time to time replacing the local populations of Homo erectus, Denisova hominis,
Homo floresiensis, Homo luzonensis and Homo neanderthalensis.
The human
evolution history has been divided as:
1.
Stone Age
The
Stone Age was the prehistoric cultural period in the human history when the
level of human development was characterized by the rapid use of stone for
making armory and tools. The people were using stones to make their entire
required tools, when their livelihood was mainly dependent on hunting. This
period started some 3.3 million years ago. Nevertheless, some simple metal
works were also practiced, mainly of gold and copper for the use of
ornamentation. But the end of this era is marked when the melting and smelting
of copper became widespread across the civilizations on different parts of the
globe.
On
the basis of sophisticated use of stone, the Stone Age is divided into three categories:
a.
Paleolithic
Age
Time period: 2.5 million years to 1
million years ago
The
Paleolithic era or the Old Stone Age was the time in the human prehistory where
the initial developments of the small and basic tools, which in brief describes
the entire human’s prehistorical development and technology. It extends from
the earliest known time when the stone tools were used till the end of
Pleistocene. The Paleolithic era is one of the most important eras as the use
of tools made of stones was at its peak development. The Paleolithic age in
Europe preceded the Mesolithic age, as the date of a period varies
geographically at different and various types of regions, by several years’
variations are shown when a new age started.
The
Paleolithic age is characterized by the use of stones extensively;
notwithstanding, other materials such as stones, beads and new ornamental stones
were also in use. The discovery of fire from this era was one of the earliest
and most important discoveries ever. The people of the Paleolithic age started
using the fire for purposes such as cooking foods and scaring animals. Perhaps
this was the most important discovery in the history of human being which
provided the human an unbeatable edge over the other species and it could have
changed their lifestyle forever.
b.
Mesolithic
Age
Time period: from 1 million years
till 0.8 million years ago
The
Mesolithic or the middle Bronze Age was the period of the old world
archaeological period, between the upper Paleolithic age and the lower
Neolithic age. This was the time period during which the Archaic Homo sapiens evolved. The discovery of the
wheel was a technological discovery during this era. This was a period of
shorter time when compared with that of the Paleolithic Era. This time period
is considered as a significant time period for the discovery in the field of
Science, due to the discovery of the wheel. This period approached 1.8 million
years ago. It lasted till 0.8 million years ago as per the scientific
assumption. It lasted only for 0.5 to 0.6 million years ago, when the humans
started to discover metals such as gold and copper, and made ornaments with
these. The people melted and casted these metals into jewelry such as the
necklaces, bracelets, headgears, etc. the end of the Mesolithic age is marked
when metals became more popular among the people.
c.
Neolithic
Age
Time period: from 0.8 million years
till the beginning of metal age
The
Neolithic age is a very short time period when people started doing experiments
on metals. The Neolithic or the new Stone Age was the final
stage of the three divisions of the Stone Age. The period saw the Neolithic
Revolution, a wide development in the field of construction of structures.
People started to learn about construction of huts from straws and woods. After this the Bronze Age
started.
2.
Bronze Age
The
bronze was the alloy of copper and tin/zinc, which was stronger than copper
itself. In the western Asia, the culture of making bronze became widespread
around 3000 BC. The Bronze Age is the historical period lasting from 3300 BC to
1200 BC. The age is characterized by the frequent use of bronze which replaced
the use of copper and stone. The bronze being stronger than copper, came into
use of making tools for practices such as agriculture, hunting as well as
construction. This age was a new revolution in the journey of mankind, where
the people converted their livelihood to become farmers from hunters.
3.
Iron Age
The
Iron Age is the final epoch of the three metallic ages, after the copper and
the bronze ages. The discovery of iron led to the Iron Age, which is
one of the most important discoveries ever. This age started approximately 500 BC
and is continuing presently. In this age, mankind attained its maximum height
of development till now. The men made heavy machineries, ships, buildings, which
made development possible. Even today, the present age we live
is the Iron Age.
4.
Silicon Age
For last 30-40 years we have been witnessing the
transformation of the civilization from Iron age to the silicon age. This age
is highly technical, based on a magical metal, a semiconductor, called silicon.
The age of silicon started a few decades
ago with invention of diode and triode (transistor). This invention improved at
the most rapid speed in the history of human being, as it covered a journey
from the two-way and three-way circuit system i.e. diode and triode
respectively, the multi-level circuit systems on a single chip called
Integrated Circuit or IC, Large Scale Integrated Circuit i.e. LSI, Very Large
Scale Integrated Circuit i.e. VLSI and Ultra Large Scale Integrated Circuit
i.e. ULSI as a highly technical sophisticated and powerful microchip came into
existence as a gradual development in a very short period of time. Today every
gadget which we are mostly dependent on are operated by the use of this silicon
or semiconductor microchips. In today’s life we cannot even imagine to live
without this technology. Our food processing units, water and electricity
supply channels, communication, business, economy, education, industry and
everything we can think in our life are controlled and operated by semiconductor.
Therefore, it would not be exaggeration to say that we have entered into the
silicon age.
The Human
Civilizations
Mesopotamian Civilization
According
to the available data and research till date, the Mesopotamian civilization is
one of the oldest civilizations in the world. It is a historical region in the
Western Asia, situated between the Tigris and Euphrates river system, north to
the Fertile Crescent. The present day; Mesopotamia is majorly in the country of
Iraq. However, some minor parts of the civilizations also lies in countries
such as Syria, Jordan, Kuwait and turkey. The rivers of Tigris and Euphrates,
on whose fertile basins of the river banks this civilization was flourishing,
were fed up with numerous tributaries. The earliest language spoken in the
Mesopotamian civilization is the Sumerian Language. However, the list of other
languages also included Subartuan, a language of the Zagros was possibly
related to the Hurro-Urartuan language. Other languages spoken during the
empires of different dynasty, such as the languages of the Acadian empire and
the Assyrian empire. During this time period, Sumerian language was also in the
use by the people in some official purposes such as administrative purposes,
literary purposes and religious purposes as well as scientific purposes. The
language of Acadian was spoken in different times in different places, until
the neo-Babylonian period (or the second phase of the Babylonian empire,
approximately between 626 BC-539 BC). The science field of Mesopotamia was
developed and was based on the sexagesimal (also known as base 60, is a numeral
system with sixty as its base, which originated with the Sumerians of the
ancient times, approximately in the third millennium BC, and was passed down to
the ancient Babylonians and is still in use as a modified form; for measuring
as angles, time and geographic or mathematical coordinates). Numeral system
with 60 seconds of a minute, the 60 minutes of an hour, the 24 hours of a day,
the 360 degrees of a circle are the result of the sexagesimal numeral system.
The calendar of the Mesopotamia, known as the Sumerian calendar was lunisolar
with a lunar month of three weeks, each having seven days. In the field of
Mathematics; the Mesopotamians had theorems on certain shapes to find its area
as well as its perimeter. The Babylonians found the circumference of the circle
by adding the diameter three times; and also the area as the one twelfth of the
square of the circumference. The value of pi was taken 25/8 instead of 22/7 (or
3.125 instead of 3.141……). The Babylonians are also recognized by the
Babylonian mile, which is seven times the length of one modern mile
(approximately 11 modern miles).
The Indus Valley
Civilization
The
Indus Valley Civilization or the Harappan civilization flourished during the
Bronze Age approximately around 3300 BCE to 1300 BCE (as per the books and
magazines, however according to the new researches, it has been found that this
civilization has flourished during approximately more than 8000 BCE, research
work is further going on). This civilization was very well developed, located
on the north western part of the Indian subcontinent, on the fertile basins
near the banks of the river Indus as well as its supportive tributaries (river
Indus is the basis on which the civilization is named). The civilization was
laid in present day Sindh and Baluchistan in Pakistan and Punjab, Gujarat,
Rajasthan, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Delhi in India. The Indus valley
civilization is the largest known ancient civilization in the world, which
tends to have urban planned cities and towns. When combined, the whole
civilization is twelve times larger than that of Mesopotamian civilization as
well as Ancient Egyptian civilization in terms of area. Sir John Marshall, who
was the then Director General of the Archaeological Survey of India, led his
team to discover the Indus valley civilization. Dayaram Sahni, an Indian
Officer in the Archaeological Survey of India, dug out and discovered the ruins
of Harappa in the year 1921. The Indus valley civilization is often referred to
as the Harappan civilization; since Harappa was the first site to be excavated
so the Indus valley civilization came to be known as the Harappan civilization.
Following the year; in 1922, Rakhaldas Banerjee, a team member in the
Archaeological Survey of India, was informed by a Buddhist monk that there was
a mound which needed to be excavated, because he believed that there was a
Buddhist stupa engraved inside. Accordingly, as he was informed, a team of
archaeologists was sent to the informed destination to dig the place. While the
work was on operation, Rakhaldas Banerjee came across many unusual objects
found in the ruins of the place while digging. This was how Mohenjodaro,
meaning ‘mound of the dead’ was discovered. Till the present sources, the
civilization extended from east to west from Suktagendor in Baluchistan and
Alamgirpur in Uttar Pradesh respectively. From north to south, it extends from
Manda in Jammu and Kashmir and Bhagatrav in Gujarat respectively. The important
centers of the civilization were Banawali, Kalibangan, Lothal, Rupar,
Alamgirpur, Manda, Chanhudaro, Rangpur and Dholavira. The Indus valley
civilization’s most important feature is its town planning. All of the towns in
the civilization were divided into two parts: the Citadel and the lower city.
The Citadel is supposed to be the place where the then aristocrats used to
live. The other common people lived in the lower city. The citadel also had
prominent buildings such as granary, great bath and the assembly hall. The
major cities, Harappa and Mohenjodaro were located on the river banks. The
streets were laid out in accordance with a grid system. This makes the Indus
valley civilization the most outstanding one.
Ancient
Egyptian Civilization
The
Ancient Egyptian Civilization is known as the gift of the river Nile. The
civilization which flourished in the ancient northeastern Africa came to be
known as the Ancient Egyptian civilization. The river starts from the mountains
in Ethiopia to the Mediterranean Sea. It
was mostly resolute on the banks of the river Nile. The place where the
civilization was flourishing is presently known as Egypt. The civilization
started nearly 3100 BC. The history of Egypt has been unfolded and it seems to
be a series of stable kingdoms, such as the old kingdom in the early Bronze
Age, middle kingdom in the middle bronze age and the new kingdom in the later
Bronze Age. Since its beginning, this civilization has been dependent on the
river Nile, as it presented itself as a lifeline for the civilization. The
fertile plains of this civilization have provided many opportunities for the
people to develop, on a basic practice of occupations such as agriculture. This
was also a highly developed and efficient civilization, which gave us some
knowledge about Mathematics and medicine. The construction of Pyramids has been
a mystery till now. It is still a subject to be discovered that how the huge
stones were carried out to build these huge pyramids. The flora and fauna
(plants and animals) were supported on the region near the banks of river Nile.
This was also the period when the people firstly started to tame as well as
domesticate the animals for the basic purposes such as food (meat as well as
milk from the cattle) and safety. By the time of 5500 BCE, the small tribal
people developed themselves in such a way that they can now do occupational
practices such as agriculture (crop production), horticulture (fruit production)
as well as pisciculture (fish production).
The Mayan
civilization
The Mayan Civilization was present in
the Central America, in the present day Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, Belize,
Nicaragua, etc. The civilization had
started from 1800 BC. But the civilization is actually mentioned from 500 BC to
1000 BC. The period till the Mayan Civilization was present is known as the
Mesoamerican Classical period. The people of this civilization are known as the
Pre-classical Mayan people. The civilization is known for its temples and the
Mayan scripts. These scripts were a sophisticated one; however, it was very
highly developed for the field of writing system in the Pre Colombian America.
The civilization had good road connectivity, art and Mathematics, which were
very developed. The civilization had been looked as a rich place for the development
of Science, Astronomy, Mathematics, Art, and Architecture. This civilization
has also been renowned as a place with its calendar as well as its religion.
The religion followed here id the Mayan religion. The region is still known as
the Mayan region in the Mesoamerica. The Mayan cities which were developed
during the initial stages were developing in the period around 750 BCE; and
after a quarter century, i.e. 500 BCE, these cities flourished up and possessed
many architectural monuments which mainly included large numbers of temples.
When the occupational scopes of the people increased, they started practicing
agriculture; and therefore the main source of income for this civilization was
agriculture itself, cultivating mainly maize. During The 9th
century, the politics of the Mayan Civilization collapsed and it led to the
internal civil wars, where people even had to migrate to the northern part of
the civilization, from the central as well as the southern parts of it. In the 16th century, Spanish empire
rose to its peak and the invaders invaded America and colonized over the
Mesoamerica. The Mayans saw the fall of Nojpeten, the last Mayan city, and this
how the Mayan civilization came to an end.
Conclusion
The
evolution of human life, either biological or social, has been a very lengthy and
complex process, which took thousands of years to develop the modern human
being from their ape like ancestors. Meanwhile during the process, the human
beings underwent many changes and before the human beings were completely
developed, they had discovered many things, such as the fire and the wheel.
After they evolved and developed completely, they started living in a group and
developed their new way of living with many new ideas such as the scripts,
their houses and businesses. This system overall, was known as civilizations.
The civilizations grew very large and also had trade links between them.
Word: 3200+
Sources of Data:
Wikipedia
Google and other websites
Static Times websites
World Bank websites
Britannica Scholar
Other course materials
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