Loading...

How did the earliest humans live?

The first human civilizations emerged out of the world of hunter-gatherers about 10,000 years ago. This was a time before writing existed and records were kept. Historians and scientists refer to the time before written records as prehistory.

Following the end of the last Ice Age,around 11,500 years ago, people spent their days hunting game and gathering plants. Because the hunter-gatherer bands had no permanent dwellings, and no writing, they left very little evidence for us to use to understand their experience. What remains are mostly artifacts, such as tools, and sometimes animal remains. Archeologists use this scarce evidence to help us imagine the lives of prehistoric peoples.

Use this slideshow to learn what archeologists believe to be true about hunter-gatherer societies.

Hunters and gatherers in the late Stone Age

As the term hunter-gatherers suggests, people who lived in prehistoric times spent a majority of their time hunting and gathering food for survival. They hunted wild game and gathered edible plants and fruits.

Stone Age Humans

Following the wild game, these small groups of people moved with food, mostly seasonally, but sometimes more often, depending on how far they had to migrate. They were nomadic in this way, without permanent settlements.

Stone Age Humans

Hunters and gatherers sometimes lived in caves, or they set up seasonal campsites.

Stone Age Humans

In the years before the rise of agriculture, the tool and weapon development of hunters and gatherers was also evolving. The hunter-gatherers of this period used stone, wood, and bone to craft their tools and weapons. Tool and weapon collections that were once made up of only blunt arrowheads and spears now included axes, hoes, adzes (an ax-like tool with a curved blade, used for shaping wood), bows and arrows, hammer stones, and pottery. The tools and weapons were also more intricately made and might have engravings and carvings.

Stone Age Tools

  

Stone Age Tool User

This period also saw advances in art through cave paintings and statuette sculptures. Cave paintings illustrated everything from hunting to nature scenes, while statues depicted various human forms, especially that of Venus, which reverently depicted the female figure.

Cave Painting

  

Stone Age Statue

Question

How did people survive 13,000 years ago?

They hunted animals and gathered fruits and vegetables, moving around to follow animals as they migrated with the change of seasons.

Question

Why do scientists and historians believe that hunter-gatherer groups had only small numbers of people?

For hunter-gatherers, food sources in any one area could not support more than a few people.