the herd and had to make tremendous efforts to rejoin them. The men recognized the chance to bring down a large animal. Hunters who are equipped with the minimum of natural or artificial weaponry, as our group is, need to rely on cunning. The ability to move quietly and to blend into the environment and the knowledge of when to strike are these hunters’ most potent weapons .
Finally, an opportunity presented itself and, with unspoken agreement, the three men moved into strategic positions. One of them let loose a rock with precision and force, striking a stunning blow; the other two ran to immobilize the prey. A swift stab with a short, pointed stick released a fountain of blood from the animal’s jugular. The animal struggled but was soon dead .
Tired and covered in the sweat and blood of their efforts, the three men were exultant. A nearby cache of lava cobbles provided raw material for making tools that would be necessary for butchering the beast. A few sharp blows of one cobble against another produced sufficient flakes with which to slice through the animal’s tough hide and begin exposing joints, red flesh against white bone. Swiftly, muscles and tendons yielded to skillful butchering, and the men set off for camp, carrying two haunches of meat and laughing and teasing each other over the events of the day and their different roles in them. They know a gleeful reception will greet them .
There’s almost a sense of ritual in the consumption of the meat, later that evening. The man who led the hunting group slices off pieces and hands them to the women sitting around him and to the other men. The women give portions to their children, who exchange morsels playfully. The men offer pieces to their mates, who offer pieces in return. The eating of meat is more than sustenance; it is a social bonding activity .
The exhilaration of the hunting triumph now subsided, the men and women exchange leisurely accounts of their separate days. There’s a realization that they will soon have to leave this congenial camp, because the growing rains in the distant hills will soon swell the stream beyond its banks. For now, they are content .
Three days later the group leaves the camp for the last time to seek the safety of higher ground. Evidence of their evanescent presence is scattered everywhere. Clusters of flaked lava cobbles, whittled sticks, and worked hide speak of their technological prowess. Broken animal bones, a catfish head, eggshells, and remnants of tubers speak of the breadth of their diet. Gone, however, is the intense sociality that is the camp’s focus. Gone, too, are the ritual of meat eating and the stories of daily events. Soon, the empty, quiet camp is flooded gently, as the stream gently laps over its bank. Fine silt covers the litter of five days in the life of our small group, entrapping a brief story. Eventually all but bone and stone decay, leaving the most meager of evidence from which to reconstruct that story .
Many will believe that my reconstruction makes Homo erectus too human. I do not think so. I create a picture of a hunter-gatherer lifestyle, and I impute language to these people. Both, I believe, are justifiable, although each must have been a primitive version of what we know in modern humans. In any case, it is very clear from the archeological evidence that these creatures were living lives beyond the reach of other large primates, not least in using technology to gain access to foods such as meat and underground tubers. By this stage in our prehistory, our ancestors were becoming human in a way we would instantly recognize.
CHAPTER 5
THE ORIGIN OF MODERN HUMANS
O f the four major events in the course of human evolution which I outlined in the preface—the origin of the human family itself, some 7 million years ago; the subsequent “adaptive radiation” of species of bipedal apes; the origin of the enlarged brain (effectively, the beginning of the genus Homo) , perhaps 2.5 million
Finally, an opportunity presented itself and, with unspoken agreement, the three men moved into strategic positions. One of them let loose a rock with precision and force, striking a stunning blow; the other two ran to immobilize the prey. A swift stab with a short, pointed stick released a fountain of blood from the animal’s jugular. The animal struggled but was soon dead .
Tired and covered in the sweat and blood of their efforts, the three men were exultant. A nearby cache of lava cobbles provided raw material for making tools that would be necessary for butchering the beast. A few sharp blows of one cobble against another produced sufficient flakes with which to slice through the animal’s tough hide and begin exposing joints, red flesh against white bone. Swiftly, muscles and tendons yielded to skillful butchering, and the men set off for camp, carrying two haunches of meat and laughing and teasing each other over the events of the day and their different roles in them. They know a gleeful reception will greet them .
There’s almost a sense of ritual in the consumption of the meat, later that evening. The man who led the hunting group slices off pieces and hands them to the women sitting around him and to the other men. The women give portions to their children, who exchange morsels playfully. The men offer pieces to their mates, who offer pieces in return. The eating of meat is more than sustenance; it is a social bonding activity .
The exhilaration of the hunting triumph now subsided, the men and women exchange leisurely accounts of their separate days. There’s a realization that they will soon have to leave this congenial camp, because the growing rains in the distant hills will soon swell the stream beyond its banks. For now, they are content .
Three days later the group leaves the camp for the last time to seek the safety of higher ground. Evidence of their evanescent presence is scattered everywhere. Clusters of flaked lava cobbles, whittled sticks, and worked hide speak of their technological prowess. Broken animal bones, a catfish head, eggshells, and remnants of tubers speak of the breadth of their diet. Gone, however, is the intense sociality that is the camp’s focus. Gone, too, are the ritual of meat eating and the stories of daily events. Soon, the empty, quiet camp is flooded gently, as the stream gently laps over its bank. Fine silt covers the litter of five days in the life of our small group, entrapping a brief story. Eventually all but bone and stone decay, leaving the most meager of evidence from which to reconstruct that story .
Many will believe that my reconstruction makes Homo erectus too human. I do not think so. I create a picture of a hunter-gatherer lifestyle, and I impute language to these people. Both, I believe, are justifiable, although each must have been a primitive version of what we know in modern humans. In any case, it is very clear from the archeological evidence that these creatures were living lives beyond the reach of other large primates, not least in using technology to gain access to foods such as meat and underground tubers. By this stage in our prehistory, our ancestors were becoming human in a way we would instantly recognize.
CHAPTER 5
THE ORIGIN OF MODERN HUMANS
O f the four major events in the course of human evolution which I outlined in the preface—the origin of the human family itself, some 7 million years ago; the subsequent “adaptive radiation” of species of bipedal apes; the origin of the enlarged brain (effectively, the beginning of the genus Homo) , perhaps 2.5 million
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