A Short History of the World in 50 Places

Homo erectus (‘upright man’)

Homo sapiens (‘wise man’),

Homo habilis (‘skilful man’).

ng south, upstream, required oar-power. On the Nile outside of Egypt,

barges

The East African Rif

This ‘Old Stone Age’ began to come to an end from around 10,000 BC, as humans, starting in the Middle East, began to transition into living in permanent agricultural societies.

Over time, Homo sapiens began to engage in ritual behaviour, with the first burials of the dead taking place 100,000 years ago and the first representative visual art being made about 50,000 years ago.

15,000 years ago there were Homo sapiens living in almost every habitable corner of the world,

Then, around 200,000 years ago, anatomically modern humans, Homo sapiens, emerged in East Africa.