| How, why and when humans started evolving on earth | | | | own smaller fires which they would have had to have |
| is a topic of great debate and discussion around the | | | | kept burning for a long time if they wished to stay |
| world, and has been for centuries, as evidence of | | | | warm. Likewise, the discovery of striking flint to make |
| early man can often be limited and even contradictory | | | | sparks would have been a fortunate accident too; |
| in what it suggests. However, if man developed | | | | cave men probably noticed sparks when they were |
| through literally millions of years of evolution, then | | | | walking in the dark, as certain stones struck each |
| fast-forward hundreds of thousands of years to when | | | | other. |
| early-man started to realise the skills he would need to | | | | With fire would have come many benefits, from |
| gain in order to survive. It is this extended period of | | | | warmth to a larger and more nourishing diet, and even |
| self-realisation that many have called the true evolution | | | | protection from wild animals. Man would have taken all |
| of man, as, without it, humans probably would not have | | | | of these benefits and developed them further, making |
| last for long. | | | | the most of his new found knowledge. As the climate |
| All evidence of early man points to the fact that | | | | started to cool, or as man travelled further north or |
| humans used to live in a far warmer climate than we | | | | south from the equator, man would have at some |
| are largely living in today. If all human kind did indeed | | | | point started to wear clothing to stay warm when fire |
| originate in what is now Africa and disperse around | | | | wasn't readily available. How on earth could anyone |
| the globe from there, the need for mankind to develop | | | | accurately say when this was? Well one method that |
| some key survival skills is understandable. The first of | | | | has been researched extensively is to simply carry out |
| these would undoubtedly have been fire. The concept | | | | a genetic analysis of the common human body louse, |
| and danger of fire would have been known to man | | | | as the louse largely lives in clothing, as the human body |
| since the very earliest of times, when random | | | | is so sparse of hair. This louse apparently dates back |
| lightening strikes would have shown its destructive | | | | 540,000 years, so this is one theory of when mens |
| nature without giving man the chance to harness its | | | | clothing began. |
| energy just yet. In many ancient European caves | | | | Finally, man would have invented, or rather discovered, |
| though, not only were charcoal drawings found on the | | | | the wheel. From artefacts discovered, it is believed |
| walls, but charred animal bones were discovered; | | | | that the wheel was first discovered or widely used in |
| showing that fire has been in use for hundreds of | | | | Mesopotamia - what is now Iraq - up to 4000 BC. At |
| centuries. How man came to use fire will always be | | | | some stage, man, after just dragging and carrying |
| unknown, but you can imagine that perhaps an old, dry | | | | heavy supplies around, would likely have realised that |
| tree was struck during a lightning storm, creating a | | | | rolling rocks along tubular tree branches was far |
| large, warm fire. From this man probably started their | | | | easier, and from there developed the wheel. |