The Outline of History: Being a Plain History of Life and MankindWells, H. G. (Herbert George)
History
The Outline of History: Being a Plain History of Life and Mankind
Wells, H. G. (Herbert George)
World history
The apes and monkeys already appear to have been differentiated at the
beginning of the Cainozoic Age, and there are a number of Oligocene and
Miocene apes whose relations to one another and to the human line have
still to be made out. Among these we may mention _Dryopithecus_ of the
Miocene Age, with a very human-looking jaw. In the Siwalik Hills of
northern India remains of some very interesting apes have been found, of
which _Sivapithecus_ and _Palæopithecus_ were possibly related closely
to the human ancestor. Possibly these animals already used implements.
Charles Darwin represents baboons as opening nuts by breaking them with
stones, using stakes to prize up rocks in the hunt for insects, and
striking blows with sticks and stones.[21] The chimpanzee makes itself a
sort of tree hut by intertwining branches. Stones apparently chipped for
use have been found in strata of Oligocene Age at Boncelles in Belgium.
Possibly the implement-using disposition was already present in the
Mesozoic ancestry from which we are descended.[22]
§ 2
Among the earliest evidences of some creature, either human or at least
more man-like than any living ape upon earth, are a number of flints and
stones very roughly chipped and shaped so as to be held in the hand.
These were probably used as hand-axes. These early implements
(“Eoliths”) are often so crude and simple that there was for a long time
a controversy whether they were to be regarded as natural or artificial
productions.[23] The date of the earliest of them is put by geologists
as Pliocene--that is to say, _before the First Glacial Age_. They occur
also throughout the First Interglacial period. We know of no bones or
other remains in Europe or America of the quasi-human beings of half a
million years ago, who made and used these implements. They used them to
hammer with, perhaps they used them to fight with, and perhaps they used
bits of wood for similar purposes.[24]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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