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These
early people learned to make fire!
They were probably a bit
startled when they saw what they had created,
little knowing that the invention of fire would change life
dramatically!
It took man another 200,000 years to grow up. Homo
erectus man was about the same size as modern humans, although they only
had two-thirds the size of our brains. Their tool-making skills were
considerably improved. Their weapons included stone axes and knives. Homo
erectus man was probably the first hunter.
Very importantly, Homo
erectus man had fire-making skills. Like all new, major
inventions, this discovery changed life dramatically.
Why was the ability to able to make fire so
important? As man had already discovered, most animals were afraid of
fire, so a roaring campfire gave protection to the group or tribe. They no
longer had to shelter out of the wind, unless they chose to do so. If
their fire went out, they could relight it. They could choose where they
camped. On a hot night, if they could find a relatively safe place, a
breeze might feel good. Control of fire made moving into colder regions
possible, as fire they could count on would provide them with warmth. It
also changed the way they prepared food.
These people began to cook their food consistently.
Food that is cooked is more secure from disease and much softer to eat. As
a result, it would have been easier for the young and the old to survive.
The Homo erectus species was the first to look
like....people, because their teeth and jaws were shaped somewhat like
ours our today. You might think this change in appearance happened over
time because they cooked their food. But, according to Anthropologist,
Dr. John J. Shea, that's not true at all. Dr. Shea told us: "The
reduction of teeth and jaws due to cooking is a popular idea, but not
evolutionarily plausible. If you relax selective pressure for massive
jaws--say by cooking food--you get greater variability, not reduced
robusticity. Jaw reduction probably had something to do with changes in
respiration, maybe speech." (In other words, nah...they looked far
more like people do today because that's how they looked!)
Thanks to their fire-making skills, a nightly
campfire became a possibility and a routine. What was once comfort and
safety, was now also a social occasion. People would collect around the
fire each night, to share stories of the day's hunt and activities, to
laugh, and to relax.
About one million years ago, these people
began to slowly leave Africa and travel to other continents. They did
not need a boat. The Ice Age was here! For a very long time, the earth was
frozen, creating giant walkways, which were natural bridges of solid,
frozen ice and land. These "walkways" allowed them to travel
over what would later be vast rivers and seas. Some of the walkways
were a hundred miles wide! These early people wandered from Africa to
Europe and Asia, and from Asia to America, probably in search of food.
How do we know so much about Homo Erectus? 
Like the discovery of Lucy, scientists found another skeleton near
Peking, China, that dates to this period. This skeleton is referred to as
the "Peking Man". Artifacts have also been found
of their tools and weapons, which help us to understand how they lived,
where they went, and how they got there.
CREDITS
Our thanks to Anthropologist,
Dr. John J. Shea,
for
generously sharing with us some very interesting facts about early man!
(Ph.D., 1991, Harvard University)
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