[betocmn]

A Hominins timeline to help put things in perspective:

  7-6 million years ago: Possible divergence of the lineage leading to humans from the lineage leading to chimpanzees and bonobos (our closest living relatives).
  Ardipithecus kadabba (~5.8-5.2 million years ago)
  Ardipithecus ramidus (~4.4 million years ago)
  Australopithecus anamensis (~4.2-3.9 million years ago)
  Australopithecus afarensis (Lucy) (~3.9-2.9 million years ago)
  Kenyanthropus platyops (~3.5 million years ago)
  Australopithecus africanus (~3.3-2.1 million years ago)
  Paranthropus aethiopicus (~2.7-2.3 million years ago)
  Australopithecus garhi (~2.5 million years ago)
  Paranthropus robustus (~2-1.2 million years ago)
  Homo habilis (~2.1-1.5 million years ago)
  Homo rudolfensis (~1.9 million years ago)
  Homo ergaster/Homo erectus (~1.9 million years ago - ~143,000 years ago)
  Paranthropus boisei (~1.7-1.1 million years ago)
  Homo heidelbergensis (~700,000-300,000 years ago)
  Homo naledi (~335,000-236,000 years ago)
  Homo neanderthalensis (Neanderthals) (~400,000-40,000 years ago)
  Denisovans (around 300,000-50,000 years ago)
  Homo sapiens (modern humans) (~300,000 years ago to present)

[akiselev]

In addition, a timeline of culture & technology:

    Oldowan industry - simple flaked stone tools (~2.9-1.7 million years ago)
    Acheulean industry - advanced tools like hand axes (~1.7 million - ~160,000 years ago)
    Archaic humans in Southeast Asian islands like Indonesia (~1.8-1 million years ago, dating is a bit uncertain on this one)
    First control of fire (~1 million - ~700,000 years ago)
    First archaic humans living in colder climates like Atapuerca, Spain (~800,000 years ago)
    First wooden spears denoting a change in hunting tech (~400,000 years ago)
    Widespread control of fire (~400,000 years ago)
    ==> First homo sapiens <== (~300,000 years ago)
    First neanderthals arrive in Europe (~230,000-150,000 years ago)
    First use of ochre pigment for symbolic purposes (~190,000 years ago)
    Body lice genetically diverge from head lice due to clothing (~170,000 years ago)
    Mousterian industry - points, scrapers, denticulates, notches, and awls (~300,000-40,000 years ago)
    First time eating seafood at Pinnacle Point (~150,000 years ago)
    Humans start collecting and using shell beads (~130,000 years ago)
    First heat treated material - silcrete (~110,000 years ago)
    First compound adhesive leads to tar-hafted tools (~100,000 years ago)
    First bed (~77,000 years ago)
    First bow and arrow in Sibudu (~72,000–60,000 years ago)
    Arrival in Australia (and thus first boat?) (~70,000-65,000 years ago)
    First musical instrument (flute) (~60,000 years ago)
    First burial ritual at Shanidar Cave (~60,000 years ago but controversial)
    First sewing needle (~45,000 years ago)
    Aurignacian industry - true homo sapien tools like microlithics, blades, projectile points, pressure flaking, split-base bone points (~43,000-26,000 years ago)
    Gravettian industry - Bow and arrow, harpoons, and darts come into their own (~33,000-22,000 years ago)
    Solutrean & Magdalenian industry - flint tools, cave art, etc. (~22,000-12,000 years ago)
    

Disclaimer: "First [...]" means "oldest surviving evidence of [...]". I tried my best to select a realistic middle ground age but each one has error bars of tens (if not hundreds) of thousands of years and there's a lot of overlap in industries.

This list is so incomplete it's not even funny :)

[idiocrat]

A thought experiment.

It has been said that if a modern "average" human were transported back in time, it would be difficult for that person to build anything useful, because of the lack of material manufacturing (c.f. "Toaster from Scratch" and "Primitive Technology" channels) and lack of specific knowledge.

So goes my thought experiment. If I were transported 100,000 years back, I would big-scale industrialize the production of soap blocks and then build soap distribution networks over wast lands (the King of Soap). Soap is quite easy to produce with wood ash.

I would also mass-scale press-print porno comics (using wooden plate carvings).

I think these two what defines civilization and will give me a chance for not being killed as a practitioner of witchcraft.

[fuzzfactor]

>A Hominins timeline to help put things in perspective:

>In addition, a timeline of culture & technology:

A lot can be accomplished in a few million years that can just not be done in a few hundred thousand.

[AndrewKemendo]

Thank you! Always good to see our family tree when talking about the extremely recent transition to sapiens