Ancient Beginnings

Human Origins & Migration

Sophia Kottke
The Starting Line
People have existed since the beginning when God made the heavens, the Earth, and everything

else. There are other opinions, but every belief starts with a human of some kind in the beginning of

time. They create a civilization, a culture, expand, evolve (physically, mentally, and/or technologically),

and then they are modern people. How did all this happen though? Where and how did these

advancements take place? All of these people have a history to explore, and an origin people crave to

know.

The Great Leap Forward

race forever. The Homo Sapien, or better known as the modern human, came into existence. This event

can be known as The Great leap forward (Diamond 39), or for Christians it is essentially the Garden

of Eden when Adam and Eve were created by God. This move forward is the origin of mankind, but

many questions surround it. Where did it take place? Why? For what reason? How? And as for the view

point, is it purely evolution based or does it include creationism? Whatever the answers to these

questions may be though, clearly the great leap forward is the origin of humans as they are today.

The great leap is the sudden jump forward from neanderthals, which are also known as cavemen, to

modern day humans 50,000-100,000 years ago. The event has two significant questions surrounding it.

What was the triggering cause? And where was the geographic location of this change? As for the

cause, it is related to the need for human creativity and excellence of the voice box. There is no simple

explanation for the location though.

There is the possibility that the great leap forward occurred in one area, or in parallel in multiple

locations. Evidence of the modern human skull was found Africa, dating back to 100,000 years ago.

This evidence supports the one geographic location idea, with the leap occurring specifically in Africa.
Then again, there are also aspects of similarity in people today living in China and Australia (aboriginal

Australians) as skulls in China and Indonesia from hundreds of thousands of years ago. If this evidence

is true, it can possibly prove that the leap happened in parallel in multiple locations instead of one

specific place such as Africa or the Garden of Eden. It is a question that is still unsolved today. Even

today's geniuses can not understand how immediately home erectus (neanderthals) turned into homo

sapiens with the sudden creation of a voice box, creativity, and imagination thousands of years ago. The

location also poses many unanswered questions and unconcluded results.

Ignoring the evidence between modern day people in Asia and their ancestors, the one geographic

location theory would seem more correct. Now in the view of creationism, the origin of mankind is the

Garden of Eden, where man and woman were created by God. The possibility that the African skulls

and Eden are connected may be more likely. In fact, in the Bible it says And a river went out of Eden

to water the garden; and from thence it was parted, and became into four heads... (Genesis 2:10-14).

These four heads are the Pison, Gihon, Hiddekel, and the Euphrates. Geographically, the Gihon goes

directly into Africa through the Red Sea and eventually enters Ethiopia and goes through a majority of

the land.

In Ethiopia, two adults and one child homo sapien skull were found near a village called Herto

(Sanders 1). They date back to 160,000 years ago when the first modern human features suddenly

occur. After more excavation of the area, it was found that these people used stone tools to craft, eat,

and survive in Africa. Their discovery could possibly exemplify the probability of a single geographic

leap location, and the chance of Eden being there.

Figure 2: A Drawing of what people looked like 160,000 years ago based on the found skull

In an evolutionists eye though, this group of people were just a step further in the evolution of
humans from neanderthals. In fact, before the great leap it is believed that the first evolving ape could

have been in Africa 7 million years ago. From the origins in Africa of evolving apes to humans, they

very slowly spread to Eurasia and apparently evolved into homo erectus, and after the sudden great

leap, modern day humans. Or another possible theory is that neanderthals evolved through reproduction

between homo erectus and homo sapien, or were just bred out (Stewart 1317-1321). After the great

leap though, humans expanded their horizons and once again, beginning to slowly populate multiple

continents.

Figure 3: The Evolutionist view of the spread of humans around the world
Migrating Out of Africa
The theory is that human origins began in Africa, and then began to migrate into Europe and

Asia. After the great leap forward though, intelligence was enhanced and the spread increased. The Ice

Age also affected the migration of people. Three hundred feet of water became frozen in glaciers

during the ice age (Mann 18). This resulted in shallow seas becoming land masses or land bridges.

Areas such as the Indonesian islands of Sumatra, Borneo, Java, and Bali became dry land (Diamond

41). The edge of Southeast Asia was expanded seven hundred miles east of its present mainland due to

the lowered ocean levels. After the great leap, mass migrations covered these locations. The modern

human had the capability to expand to what are now islands in the South Pacific.

Even though people had migrated greatly, they still needed the technology of a watercraft to

reach other islands, or places like New Guinea and Australia that had deep water channels surrounding

them. The occupation of Australia and New Guinea happened around 30,000-40,000 years ago. It is

momentous because somehow, 30,000 years (43,000 years ago to this date) before any other evidence

of a watercraft appeared in the Mediterranean (which was 13,000 year's ago to this date), people

reached Australia and New Guinea. It is speculated that perhaps it could have been an accident when a

group of men and women were swept to sea on a fishing raft. This is a very extreme scenario though.

Especially since evidence proves that other islands near New Guinea, and New Guinea itself, were

soon populated later, 35,000 years ago. Some of these islands were also at least one hundred miles

away from any other landmasses. Thus it shows these people were capable of intentionally travelling

over water.

Australia and New Guinea are labelled with a second momentous first besides the first

watercraft and over sea migration. They are known for the first mass extinction of large animals. Today,

we view Africa as the continent with large animals. What people fail to realize today, is that humans

have co-existed and evolved with these creatures in Africa for millenniums, whereas Australia was
inhabited thousands of years later. We can still find massive animals in Africa, Europe, and Asia

because those are the continents people have lived in the longest. The animals were able to adapt as

neanderthals suddenly became homo sapiens and their hunting technology and intelligence improved.

The creatures in Australia did not have this benefit. Modern humans arrived on the continent with

already advanced technology and weapons. Large creatures were made extinct as the population and

intelligence further grew. From fossils, it is seen that Australia previously boasted massive kangaroos,

rhino marsupials (diprotodonts), marsupial leopards, four hundred pound ostrich-like flightless birds,

one ton lizards, giant pythons, and land dwelling crocodiles. These large giants in Australia and New

Guinea, now extinct, are known as megafauna (Diamond 42-43). The megafauna disappeared after the

arrival of humans. Unfortunately, these creatures never stood a chance since they had never seen things

like humans, and simply let the modern homo sapien walk up to them and kill them. Now Australia's

largest animal is a one hundred pound kangaroo.

The western continents (North and South America), Europe, Asia, and even Africa, also faced

some extinction as well. None was to the extent of the megafauna in Australia and New Guinea though.

Eurasia and Africa coexisted and evolved with large animals, and the western continents, and especially

Australia did not have that opportunity. After all this had happened, the next significant advancement is

how the modern human being arrived in North America.

How Humans Got to North America

neanderthals had never made it past northern Germany since their lack of intelligence resulted in no

known way to survive the cold weather. Once the great leap occurred, the technology to survive the

hazardous weather was created. Needles to make warm clothing, warm shelters, etc, made it possible to

explore and populate Siberia (Russia) around 20,000 B.C. This was during the ice age when a fifty-five
mile land bridge, known as the Bering Strait, connected Siberia and Alaska. It was crossed by what are

called Paleo Indians which were the first Native Americans. They went from Siberia, into Alaska, and

within 2,000 years, people had made it to the tip of South America, which is modern day Patagonia

The Bering Strait is assumed to have been crossed, due to the oldest human remains in Alaska,

in 12,000 B.C. The idea is based off of a shared shoveled shaped incisor found near the Bering Strait.

Later advances in DNA technology proved the theory of the strait (Renault 1B). So yes, a tooth is the

reason we have proof that Paleo indians made the crossover from Siberia into North America. In fact,

teeth have helped in multiple cases in learning human history.

More evidence, found in Clovis, New Mexico, shows that the natives moved downward a

thousand years later (Diamond 45). Since they were found near the town Clovis, the kind of Indian

locations with certain technology such as spear points, are referred to as clovis sites. These sites can be

found all throughout the lower forty-eight states and into Mexico. Paleo Indians continued the 8,000

mile trek from the Canadian/U.S. border to Patagonia by 10,000 BC. Thus, the Native Americans

blanketed the western hemisphere and began the creation of many prosperous Northern and Southern

American civilizations.
The Americas Advancements
The Paleo indians that first arrived to North America grew to be in fact, very advanced and

excelled technologically. Though never as much as the Europeans. This was due to something called

the Neolithic Revolution (Mann 20). This revolution occurred in the Middle East and expanded into the

fertile crescent, south Turkey, and eventually Europe. It was essentially the invention of farming and

simply evolved from there. The foraging societies in the eastern hemisphere grew into villages and

learned how to cultivate wheat and barley, and soon after, bread was created. Within the next few

millennia the wheel and metal tools were made. This led to first actual civilization, the Ancient

Sumerians, in Mesopotamia. They put together these tools and added the first known form of writing,

Cuneiform, estimated to have been created around 3000-3500 BC (Mark 1).

Image of cuneiform

By this time, the Paleo people had already long since migrated across the Bering strait to the western

hemisphere, meaning they missed out on all of the crucial advancements. Which in the end, was the

reason for their ultimate demise after Columbus reached the Americas. They did have their own

Neolithic Revolutions though, they were just smaller and later on. This gave Europe the upper hand

once the western hemispheres were found. As Europe advanced in agriculture, weapons, and immunity

to diseases, The Paleos went on to create the bow and arrow, pottery, and eventually even their own

food. These people were not as uncivilized as they were depicted by early explorers though. They were

in fact able to grow and create their own civilizations, deities and religions, languages, farming

techniques, and even maize (Mann 21). Yes, the Paleos were able to somehow make maize, which we
know as corn today. It is assumed that they somehow did it by evolving a mountain grass called

teosinte to make what they called maize. The descendants of maize are wheat, barley, millet, and rice.

Which complicates things more because maize, and even corn, cannot reproduce on their own due to

the seeds being wrapped up securely in the husk. Meaning that the indians would have had to develop it

from another species (Mann 21). Also, for it to evolve into more, the natives would have had to

somehow do that as well. How were the natives able to create this food? It is a question still unsolved

today, that even the most intelligent biologists cannot figure out. However it was done though, the early

Paleos strived from a diet of maize, beans, squash, and avocado.

As their intelligence grew they created stone spear points attached to a long wooden shaft for

hunting large animals like mammoths. They aso hunted smaller game such as elk, deer, and moose.

Later they created the bow and arrow which greatly improved hunting and warfare (Breidinger The

Meridian Star)*. As they further advance we can see that great civilizations like the Inca, Aztec, and

Mayans appear over time, though long after the migration down to patagonia 10,000 years ago. These

were very advanced societies that were intelligent in astronomy, math, medicine, and much else. They

are many times, specifically the Inca, compared to the Egyptians. In fact, the capital city of the Aztecs,

Tenochtitlan, had canals, clean streets, a calendar, and smaller civilizations under their domain. The

Paleos evolved into many successful civilizations. Which is actually quite amazing considering that

these people started completely from scratch with nothing but the clothes on their backs when they

crossed the Bering Strait in search of food and shelter.

Machu Picchu, an incredible creation by the Inca in Peru

to disease. When the Europeans crossed the Atlantic after Columbus found it 1492, with them they

brought more than just explorers, colonists, and crew. On board they carried rats, new animals and bugs

the western hemisphere had never seen, and disease that people in the east had spent centuries

becoming immune to. After their arrival many civilizations fell to the advanced weaponry and/or

disease killing massive amounts of natives. It was actually smallpox that helped bring on the end of the

Aztecs, it wiped out over of the population. After that a man by the name of Hernan Cortes finished

his attack and overtook the capital, Tenochtitlan, conquering the great civilization. Many had similar

stories to this, peace was avoided in order for greedy conquistadors (meaning conquerors) to overpower

the natives and get their gold (Bollinger 288). The Majority of those conquered were killed or enslaved,

and forced to convert to catholicism/christianity by cruel explorers and missionaries from Spain. If the

natives refused, many were burned at the stake. The spaniards set horrible examples, making the

indians less and less interested in learning about these faiths, resulting in much death.

Those uninterested in overtaking empires simply went on missions for gold to become wealthy,

glorious, and famed back in Europe. The reality was that they had a higher chance of dying. More and

more explorers travelled across the Atlantic in search for gold and exploring the new land, very few

were successful after Columbus though.

One success story is that of Amerigo Vespucci. He was a man that helped to clear up that the

Americas were not part of Asia, but instead two continents. He sailed to settle the dispute of what and

where the western hemisphere was. Once Columbus returned claiming he had landed in India, many

expected riches, spices, gold, and trade. When none of these treasures were reported to be found, much

uncertainty arose. Vespucci travelled across the Atlantic to find the truth and find a waterway passage.

He sailed up and down the South American coast, which now bears his first name-South America (from
Amerigo). Vespucci's map proved that this was clearly not India or any other part of Asia, but a new

world. A new world that would create a lot of history and provide many opportunities for future

explorers, countries, and many people. (Bollinger 281).

Conclusion
Throughout history we can see that humans do a lot. We transition from a basic caveman to

modern humans with extreme intelligence. People travel to new continents creating new civilizations

that we base things off of even today. We are a very unique and incredible species, that have a long and

complicated history to discover. Humans have done many things, and will continue to grow more and

learn from past mistakes. We will consistently make new societies and civilizations throughout time,

making a more diverse history and more unanswered questions, but we are a species that will always

carry on

Bibliography
Bollinger, Dennis. "Exploration and Discovery." World History. Fourth ed. Greenville, South Carolina:
BJU, 2013. 281-89. Print.

Diamond, Jared M. Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies. New York: W.W. Norton,
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Mann, Charles C. 1491: New Revelations of the Americas before Columbus. New York: Knopf, 2005.
Print.

Mark, Joshua J. "Cuneiform." Ancient History Encyclopedia. Ancient History Encyclopedia, 28 Apr.
2011. Web. 25 Jan. 2017.

*Renault, Marion. "ANTHROPOLOGY - Teeth track diet, lifespan, professor says." Columbus
Dispatch, The (OH) 20 Jan. 2017, First Edition, News: 1B. NewsBank. Web. 25 Jan. 2017.

Sanders, Robert. "06-11-03: 160,000-year-old Skulls Are Oldest Anatomically Modern Humans." 06-
11-03: 160,000-year-old Skulls Are Oldest Anatomically Modern Humans. UC Berkley, 11 June 2003.
Web. 13 Jan. 2017.

*Stewart, J. R., and C. B. Stringer. "Human Evolution Out Of Africa: The Role Of Refugia And
Climate Change." Science 335.6074 (2012): 1317-1321. Professional Development Collection. Web. 27
Jan. 2017

The Lost Rivers of the Garden of Eden." The Rivers of the Garden of Eden. The Bible, Genesis &
Geology Ministry, n.d. Web. 13 Jan. 2017

*The Star, Special to. "A glance at history ... Indian Artifacts come to Frank Cochran Center Saturday."
Meridian Star, The (MS) 22 Jan. 2017, Lifestyles. NewsBank. Web. 25 Jan. 2017

*Printed articles in magazines, read online though