The first chapters in the story of humanity
In Susan Wise Bauer's History of the Ancient World, she begins with the Sumerian king lists and similar ancient accounts of the beginnings of human society. The king lists give a lot of names of improbable people with impossibly long life-spans. Nobody much takes them seriously. But Bauer argues that History is the study of written records, and these are the first narratives we have, produced by ancient people themselves. You can't go behind them, because without writing we don't know what people said about themselves. And you can't ignore them, because, well, there they are. This is what Bronze Age people thought about their origins. Make of them what you will.
Because Bauer is a trained historian she insists upon the primacy of the written record. There are other ways of writing history, however. You have to be careful how you use the evidence of archaeology, including archaeogenetics, but evidence is evidence. We know more about ancient humans who existed before the invention of writing all the time; of course, the story we tell from that evidence is open to debate, and it is always changing as we dig up new things that have to be explained.
Nevertheless, if I were going to teach a World History course or write a textbook for it, I would begin with a section on Pre-History. And I would summarize what we know (or think we know) now with the following.
The first great story to be told is the Peopling of the Earth. I am not particularly interested in the origin of our species; I think paleontology (the study of fossil remains) doesn't tell us much about humans in society. But how people spread out across the earth is a story we know a good bit about. And while we can't say a whole lot about our encounters with other human types (Neanderthals, Denisovans, whatnot), we know our ancestors encountered them -- indeed, interbred with them.
The next great story is about Hunting and Gathering. The Old and Middle Stone Age show people adapting to many environments and exploiting all the resources therein. But they also show us something about their lifestyle and their thinking that has become hard-wired in us. The Hunter-Gatherers invented human society. The routines of acquiring food led to the institutions of marriage and family, which are the ultimate building blocks of society. The Hunter-Gatherers achieved much in technology (use of fire; making tools, clothing, shelter), and also in art (also, probably, music and religion). Primitive we may call them, but if we were reduced to their level in terms of available materials we could do no better. And the first domestication event occurred between Ice Ages, when Man began a relationship to some wolves and turned them into Dog. This had profound effects upon humans as well as canines.
The third great story is what we call the Neolithic Revolution: the domestication of plants (and animals). The First Farmers spread out of Anatolia into Europe. This story is repeated in the Indus Valley, in China, and in North America. The use of cereals led to what we call civilization: living in settled communities.
The fourth great story is the discovery of metals: the Ages of Copper and Bronze. Human societies become interconnected. Trade develops. And with the Bronze Age comes the invention of writing, and we can begin to see what people thought of each other, and of their own origins. Egypt hits its stride. This is the age of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. But not everybody had writing, and some of the stories with the most far-reaching effects occur over the horizon, among Bronze Age societies which left no records. The Yamnaya -- the Indo-Europeans -- begin their expansion in the Bronze Age and start showing up all over the place. A shock of recognition hits us when we investigate their story.
The Bronze Age suffered a civilizational collapse in 1177 BC, give or take. It was succeeded by what we call the Iron Age. Iron Age authors gave us the first histories and epics, both based upon their memories of the Bronze Age (e.g., the story of the Trojan War). By about 800-600 BC, we are in familiar territory, with Babylonians, Assyrians, and Israelites, Buddha and Zoroaster and the Old Testament prophets, Greeks and Persians. The Phoenicians develop an Alphabet that is the ancestor of ours. The Iron Age morphs into what we call Classical Antiquity, with the histories of Herodotus, the memoirs of Xenophon, the conquests of Alexander.
Because Bauer is a trained historian she insists upon the primacy of the written record. There are other ways of writing history, however. You have to be careful how you use the evidence of archaeology, including archaeogenetics, but evidence is evidence. We know more about ancient humans who existed before the invention of writing all the time; of course, the story we tell from that evidence is open to debate, and it is always changing as we dig up new things that have to be explained.
Nevertheless, if I were going to teach a World History course or write a textbook for it, I would begin with a section on Pre-History. And I would summarize what we know (or think we know) now with the following.
The first great story to be told is the Peopling of the Earth. I am not particularly interested in the origin of our species; I think paleontology (the study of fossil remains) doesn't tell us much about humans in society. But how people spread out across the earth is a story we know a good bit about. And while we can't say a whole lot about our encounters with other human types (Neanderthals, Denisovans, whatnot), we know our ancestors encountered them -- indeed, interbred with them.
The next great story is about Hunting and Gathering. The Old and Middle Stone Age show people adapting to many environments and exploiting all the resources therein. But they also show us something about their lifestyle and their thinking that has become hard-wired in us. The Hunter-Gatherers invented human society. The routines of acquiring food led to the institutions of marriage and family, which are the ultimate building blocks of society. The Hunter-Gatherers achieved much in technology (use of fire; making tools, clothing, shelter), and also in art (also, probably, music and religion). Primitive we may call them, but if we were reduced to their level in terms of available materials we could do no better. And the first domestication event occurred between Ice Ages, when Man began a relationship to some wolves and turned them into Dog. This had profound effects upon humans as well as canines.
The third great story is what we call the Neolithic Revolution: the domestication of plants (and animals). The First Farmers spread out of Anatolia into Europe. This story is repeated in the Indus Valley, in China, and in North America. The use of cereals led to what we call civilization: living in settled communities.
The fourth great story is the discovery of metals: the Ages of Copper and Bronze. Human societies become interconnected. Trade develops. And with the Bronze Age comes the invention of writing, and we can begin to see what people thought of each other, and of their own origins. Egypt hits its stride. This is the age of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. But not everybody had writing, and some of the stories with the most far-reaching effects occur over the horizon, among Bronze Age societies which left no records. The Yamnaya -- the Indo-Europeans -- begin their expansion in the Bronze Age and start showing up all over the place. A shock of recognition hits us when we investigate their story.
The Bronze Age suffered a civilizational collapse in 1177 BC, give or take. It was succeeded by what we call the Iron Age. Iron Age authors gave us the first histories and epics, both based upon their memories of the Bronze Age (e.g., the story of the Trojan War). By about 800-600 BC, we are in familiar territory, with Babylonians, Assyrians, and Israelites, Buddha and Zoroaster and the Old Testament prophets, Greeks and Persians. The Phoenicians develop an Alphabet that is the ancestor of ours. The Iron Age morphs into what we call Classical Antiquity, with the histories of Herodotus, the memoirs of Xenophon, the conquests of Alexander.