1. The First Humans

2. The Beginning
The First Humans originated from Africa’s Great Rift Valley area, (located in present day Ethiopia, Kenya and Tanzania) and from there migrated to all over the world in search of homes and food. The most recent of these migrations out of Africa is thought to have occurred between 60,000 and 100,000 years ago.

6. Food and Shelter
Humans were able to adapt to their environments. They were, and are, collectively able to create fire and tools, as well as find shelter from the environment. Early humans were hunter gatherers, people who get their food from hunting animals and searching for wild vegetables, like roots and berries.

7. Blombos Cave

9. Life at Blombos
Ancient garbage shows that humans who lived at Blombos cave ate a great deal of seafood. They also used shells as decoration, showing an early interest in symbols and adornment.

11. Early Tools
Humans created tools such as spears and axes as far back as 100,000 to 200,000 years ago. This was an important development, as it allowed them to do many new activities. They combined sharpened stone and wood using resin, such as tree sap, and straps, often made out of animal sinew.

12. Big Game
Humans used these tools and teamwork to hunt game, or animals, much larger than themselves, such as the wooly mammoth. They harvested meat, fur and skins to survive the often harsh environments.

13. The Bushmen
There are still groups today who live in hunter gatherer communities. The bushmen in Southern Africa are one such group, although decreasing open land and wild game has caused them to become more and more sedentary (staying in one place).

14. Living by Foraging
For 95% of human history, humans foraged for their food. This means they gathered food directly from nature, instead of farming. Foraging is what animals do in nature, but humans used language and their large brains to be more effective. Humans, and their ancestors, have also used fire for perhaps millions of years to cook food, which provides more nutrients.

16. Foraging ain’t easy
During our time as hunter gatherers, life was hard. People had to constantly move to get food. Groups were small, often only people, and babies were rare. However, anthropologists (people who study early humans) think these groups were very egalitarian. That means that women and men had equal say in decisions.

17. Farming changed a lot of this…