Evolution and History of Man in Time

*under construction

------------------------------------66MYA: beginning of the Cenozoic era-----------------------------------

---Age of Mammals---

The start of the Cenozoic Era came after the mass extinction of the dinosaurs occurred. This is known as the K-Pg event, which stands for Cretaceous-Paleogene extinction event. Some also refer to this as the KT event, which stands for Cretaceous-Tertiary extinction event.

-------------------------------------66MYA: beginning of Tertiary period------------------------------------

(also referred to in terms of Paleogene Period and Neogene Period)

---Rise of Mammals---

Paleogene Period

66-56MYA: Paleocene epoch

probable emergence of the primates 

56-33.9MYA: Eocene epoch

33.9-23.03MYA: Oligocene epoch 

Neogene Period

23.03-5.333MYA: Miocene epoch 
probable emergence of Hominoidea and Homininae

14-10MYA: genus Ramapithecus

6MYA: Bipedalism - The upright, bipedal (two-footed) gait was the first hallmark feature of our hominin ancestors. (Larsen)

5.5MYA: Nonhoning Chewing - Humans’ nonhoning chewing complex lacks large, projecting canines in the upper jaw and a diastema, or gap, between the lower canine and the third premolar. The chewing complex of apes such as gorillas has large, projecting upper canines and a diastema in the lower jaw to accommodate them. (Larsen)

5.333-2.58MYA: Pliocene epoch
multiple genera of Homininae, emergence of genus Homo 

4.4-1.4MYA: various species of the genus Australopithecus (Plio-Pleistocene)

3.3MYA: Material Culture and Tools - Humans’ production and use of stone tools is one example of complex material culture. The tools of our closest living relatives, the chimpanzees, do not approach the complexity and diversity of modern and ancestral humans’ tools. (Larsen)

2.5MYA: Speech - In the entire animal kingdom, only humans can speak and, through speech, express complex thoughts and ideas. The shape of the hyoid bone is unique to hominins and reflects their ability to speak. Speech is part of the overall package in the human lineage of increased cognition, intelligence, and brain-size expansion. (Larsen)

2.5*MYA: first stone tools (first artifacts)

----------------------------------2.58MYA: beginning of Quaternary period----------------------------------

---Rise of Man---

2.58MYA-0.0117MYA/11.7KYA: Pleistocene epoch

many species of humans

1.8MYA-150KYA: Homo erectus, first to demonstrate cultural adaptation (Middle Pleistocene)

1MYA: Hunting - Humans’ relatively large brains require lots of energy to develop and function. Animal protein is an ideal source of that energy, and humans obtained it for most of their evolution by eating animals they hunted. To increase their chances of success in hunting, humans employed tools they made and cooperative strategies. (Larsen)

75-35KYA: Homo neanderthalensis, extinct species of genus Homo (Middle to Upper Pleistocene)

0.0117MYA/11.7KYA-present: Holocene epoch

Homo Sapiens dominates

11KYA: Domesticated Food - In recent evolution, humans domesticated a wide variety of plants and animals, controlling their life cycles and using them for food and other products, such as clothing and shelter. (Larsen)

6KYA: earliest writing systems

References: 

"International Commission On Stratigraphy". Stratigraphy.Org, 2022, https://stratigraphy.org/chart

Spencer, John J, and Joseph B Aceves. Instructor's Manual To Accompany Introduction To Anthropology, Joseph B. Aceves And H. Gill King. General Learning Press, 1979.

Larsen, Clark Spencer. Essentials of Biological Anthropology. W.W. Norton & Company, 2022. 

IGNOU MA Anthropology (MAAN) Books

Time, Distance, Direction.

All people have the sun and moon to help them think about time. But thinking about time is easier for people who lived in cold places, where winter is very different from summer, than it is for those who live in tropical places, where days and nights are all the same length. There They had to count time by the changing direction of the winds or by the seasons when it rains or when the rivers rise. The moon helps them to mark off months, and this is easier still for people who live by the seaside, where they can watch the tides come and go with the changes of the moon. From watching the sun and the moon, some people went on to watching constellations like the Dippers or stars like the Pleiades, and they could talk more accurately about the passing of time. 

A section of a calendar history (winter count) of the Kiowa. The vertical black poles indicate winters; the pictographs above and between them illustrate outstanding events of succeeding winters and summers.

Once people had a way of thinking about days, by calling them suns, and of thinking about nights, by calling them the time when there is no sun or the time when the stars shine, they could think about distance too. One man could ask another: "How far is it to the place where you found that strong stone out of which you made that ax?' And the other could answer: "I walked for five days toward the place where the sun rises, and I slept for five nights." In order to make this kind of answer, it was necessary already to have learned to watch the sun, to know where it rose and where it set, to think of days as the periods of time when the sun shines, and to count. 

Then man could think about the little world he knew. One part was toward the rising of the sun, another toward the place where the sun set. When people did this accurately, they then had directions -east and west, north and south. Sometimes they included two more directions -the very top of the sky above (the zenith) and the very center of the earth beneath (the nadir). 

Mead, Margaret. People And Places. World Pub., 1959.

Note on Archaeological Anthropology

Archaeological anthropology can be simply defined as the study of human past based on material objects, recovered by systematic explorations and excavations, which are classified, analyzed, described, and interpreted, based on various scientific methods and theories.

As a subbranch of anthropology, it not only helps in understanding diversity around the World but also to see how people since prehistoric times related to the material World. As it tries to reconstruct the past human societies and their cultural processes, it provides the much-needed temporal dimension to the Anthropologist's study of contemporary simple societies. The major goals of this specialization is timeless and spaceless; the construction of cultural chronologies, the reconstruction of extinct lifeways, and the search for bio-cultural processes are some of the main objectives.

Before the 1960s, Archaeology remained for a long time a discipline concerned with the description and classification of ancient objects and features.

After the 1960s, Lewis Binford’s New Archaeology movement emphasized the larger anthropological goals of Archaeology.

Systems of measuring time are dependent on human thoughts and are relative in nature. Relative time is a system of temporal division to establish the sequence of events in history. The temporal division is required to realize the immense length of time.

The whole of human history has been divided into different ages for analytical purposes; on the basis of activities, ideas of change, concepts of progress, and variability in objects.

Material remains are considered proofs of these actions which mark time.

The entire range of material remains constituting the archaeological record belongs to 3 broad temporal divisions, namely, Prehistory, Protohistory, and Historical period. 

References:

Brief Summary: Pleistocene Epoch

The geologic time scale serves as the "calendar" for Earth's history. It subdivides all time into named units of abstract time called—in descending order of duration—eons, eras, periods, epochs, and ages. Stratigraphy, or the correlation and classification of rock strata, is used to enumerate and classify those geologic time units. 

As mentioned, the geological time scale is divided into eras, and the last era, in which we live in is called Cenozoic. The Cenozoic era is divided into two periods, the Tertiary and Quaternary. Quaternary period covers a time span of two million years and is further divided into two epochs, Pleistocene and Holocene, Holocene being the recent time.  

The Quaternary period and the first epoch of the period, Pleistocene, began about 2.58 million years ago. The Pleistocene too is divided into 3 parts, lower, middle, and upper Pleistocene.

The beginning of the Pleistocene was fixed by IUGS (International Union for Geological Science) in the year 2009, at the base of Matuyama, Palaeomagnetic event.

This epoch lasted from about 2,588,000 to 11,700 years ago, covering the World’s recent period of repeated glaciations. It is a very strange period in geological history of Earth, as it coincides with the history of man and also the time of dramatic climatic changes occurring on Earth.

Climatic Episodes of Pleistocene Period:

The work of Agssiz in 1840, followed by Penck and Bruckner in 1909. led to the classic Alpine chronology that includes 4 major glaciations, separated by 3 interglaciations, these stages form the framework for the Pleistocene and Palaeolithic studies. The glaciers were named after four little streams in the Alps, Günz, Mindel, Riss and Würm. Each glacial advance tied up huge volumes of water in continental ice sheets, resulting in temporary sea level drop of 100m or more. During the interglacial periods, such as the present time, the ice sheets melt, drowning the coastlines.

The terms pluvial and interpluvial are also used, corresponding to the terms glacial and interglacial. A pluvial refers to a warmer period, relatively wet climate, with increased rainfall, and interpluvial is a period with relatively dry conditions because of decreased rainfall. There are traces of lakes in regions which are now dry, which are evidence of the major climatic changes in the tropical region.

It is yet to be determined whether pluvial processes in low latitudes and glaciers in high latitudes occurred simultaneously.

The end of Pleistocene corresponds with the end of the last glacial period, and also with the end of the Paleolithic age in Archaeology.  

References:

Geological Time Scale

Source: 

"Geologic Time | Periods, Time Scale, & Facts". Encyclopedia Britannica, 2022, 

https://www.britannica.com/science/geologic-time.

Journeys Through Geological Time