Change over Time

Human societies changed and remained the same from the rise of modern humans until
the development of agriculture.   The era of foragers was the time in human history when all
human communities lived by searching out or hunting food and other things they needed, rather
than by growing or manufacturing them.   A few major changes were migration, technology, and
agriculture.   Humans continued to use symbolic language.
Change was extremely rapid in comparison with the changes that took place among our
ancestors or among other large animal species.   The Acheulian’s hand axes (a type of stone tool
originating in Africa almost two million years ago) changed.   Our ancestors created a remarkable
variety of new technologies and new life ways.   Many of these new stone tools were so small
that they may have been hafted, which increased their usefulness.   Bone, amber, and vegetable
fibers were new materials.
The technological creativity of our foraging ancestors enabled them to explore and settle
lands quiet different from those in which they had evolved.   As humans spread over more parts
of   the Earth, human numbers increased.   Rates of growth during the era of foragers are striking
in two contradictory ways.   As population growth is an indirect sign of the chronological
innovation, it provides evidence for innovation throughout the era and a few signs that
innovation was accelerating. From about 10,000 years ago, humans began to settle outside
Africa.   Communities appeared in southwestern Asia, from there humans migrated west and east
to the southern, and warmer, parts of the Eurasian landmass.  
There were a few continuities between this era.   Humans still continued to use symbolic
language.   Throughout the generations of affluent foragers, populations grew and the groups of
people drew closer.   Also, people produced more food from the same area.
People started to settle down and stay in one place.   The era of the foragers ended...