allow any appraisal of their behaviour. However, the first archaic humans had
smaller brains than more recent humans, which supports the assumption that they
had a lower level of intelligence.
The oldest human artefacts date back to the time long before Homo sapiens
occurred on Earth. Old stone tools such as axes dating back 3.3 to 1.5 million years
have been found in Africa and the Middle East. Fire was used at least 0.2, but most
probably one million years ago. Spears found in Germany are 300,000 years old, and
digging sticks were used at least a couple of ten thousand years BP. Both might, in
fact, have been used much longer but unfortunate conditions of preservation reduce
the likelihood to find artefacts made of timber.
Rock paintings, beads and musical instruments from Africa and Europe are
calculated to be 120,000 to 40,000 years old (James et al. 1989).
Stony material, fire, timber, shells, bones, teeth of sharks and colours were used to
hunt animals, to procure food, to produce paintings, arts and most likely to reflect
life. All these processes had a more or less strong effect on the local surroundings of
the humans concerned.
Digging sticks can be used to excavate roots or other living material from the soil.
They might easily also have been used to put seeds or fruits into the soil. This would
not easily be verifiable to science. I hypothesize that planting and transport of
propagules by humans is as old as humans’ realization of the relationship between
seed and seedling, and thus might be much older than the Neolithic Revolution.
In short, the influence of human activities on the structure of landscapes might be
as old as the evolution of hominids, the use of fire or the oldest artefacts (cf. Conard
et al. 2015; Brahic 2012; Roberts 2012; Sawyer and Deak 2008). Hunting of wild
vertebrates can be linked with the oldest artefacts and it is very likely that humans in
general hunted fish, birds and mammals wherever this was promising. Because
humans normally hunt visible prey by day in open or half open landscapes, banks,
shores, grassland, heath, steppe and light forest might have been favourable ecosystems for living and hunting. With the use of fire and lithic tools it would have been
easy to open up the landscapes for hunting.
The wolf was most probably the first domesticated animal, domesticated 4 to
26 thousand years earlier than any cultivation of crops. Nobody knows the exact
reason for this early domestication. However, from the behaviour of wolf and dog it
seems possible that these animals were seen as companions, signal transmitters in the
case of enemies such as wild wolves or foreign human populations, as facilitators for
hunting, or as herding dogs. Could it be possible that humans were pastoralists
before agriculture and settlement? There are many possible ways, such as following
wild flocks and breeding domestic animals in fenced fields, in which pastoralist
systems can be developed. During any of these processes a wolf or dog could have
been a considerable help (cf. Pierotti and Fogg 2017). It has been shown that in
sub-Saharan Africa cattle-assisted nomadic hunter gatherers took meat, milk, bones
and skin from domesticated animals long before they began to cultivate plants
(Neumann et al. 2003).
It is clear that arable land, ploughing and shifting cultivation require settledness;
as shown, among others, by the Sami in Scandinavia, it is possible that pastoralism
6
C. Hobohm
smaller brains than more recent humans, which supports the assumption that they
had a lower level of intelligence.
The oldest human artefacts date back to the time long before Homo sapiens
occurred on Earth. Old stone tools such as axes dating back 3.3 to 1.5 million years
have been found in Africa and the Middle East. Fire was used at least 0.2, but most
probably one million years ago. Spears found in Germany are 300,000 years old, and
digging sticks were used at least a couple of ten thousand years BP. Both might, in
fact, have been used much longer but unfortunate conditions of preservation reduce
the likelihood to find artefacts made of timber.
Rock paintings, beads and musical instruments from Africa and Europe are
calculated to be 120,000 to 40,000 years old (James et al. 1989).
Stony material, fire, timber, shells, bones, teeth of sharks and colours were used to
hunt animals, to procure food, to produce paintings, arts and most likely to reflect
life. All these processes had a more or less strong effect on the local surroundings of
the humans concerned.
Digging sticks can be used to excavate roots or other living material from the soil.
They might easily also have been used to put seeds or fruits into the soil. This would
not easily be verifiable to science. I hypothesize that planting and transport of
propagules by humans is as old as humans’ realization of the relationship between
seed and seedling, and thus might be much older than the Neolithic Revolution.
In short, the influence of human activities on the structure of landscapes might be
as old as the evolution of hominids, the use of fire or the oldest artefacts (cf. Conard
et al. 2015; Brahic 2012; Roberts 2012; Sawyer and Deak 2008). Hunting of wild
vertebrates can be linked with the oldest artefacts and it is very likely that humans in
general hunted fish, birds and mammals wherever this was promising. Because
humans normally hunt visible prey by day in open or half open landscapes, banks,
shores, grassland, heath, steppe and light forest might have been favourable ecosystems for living and hunting. With the use of fire and lithic tools it would have been
easy to open up the landscapes for hunting.
The wolf was most probably the first domesticated animal, domesticated 4 to
26 thousand years earlier than any cultivation of crops. Nobody knows the exact
reason for this early domestication. However, from the behaviour of wolf and dog it
seems possible that these animals were seen as companions, signal transmitters in the
case of enemies such as wild wolves or foreign human populations, as facilitators for
hunting, or as herding dogs. Could it be possible that humans were pastoralists
before agriculture and settlement? There are many possible ways, such as following
wild flocks and breeding domestic animals in fenced fields, in which pastoralist
systems can be developed. During any of these processes a wolf or dog could have
been a considerable help (cf. Pierotti and Fogg 2017). It has been shown that in
sub-Saharan Africa cattle-assisted nomadic hunter gatherers took meat, milk, bones
and skin from domesticated animals long before they began to cultivate plants
(Neumann et al. 2003).
It is clear that arable land, ploughing and shifting cultivation require settledness;
as shown, among others, by the Sami in Scandinavia, it is possible that pastoralism
6
C. Hobohm