Understanding Prehistory
As far as we know, Earth’s history dates back to 4.5 million y.b.p (years before present). This giant rock we affectionately call home was then home to none and hostile to all. Many speculate it was a “primordial soup” of primitive elements such as nitrogen, sulphur, hydrogen and carbon.
The theory goes these molecules collided with each other and reacted to form more and more complex polymers (proteins etc.), eventually leading to the creation of the first self-replicating “organism”. This was the beginning of organic life. Richard Dawkins speculates that the first form of life might have been a primitive type of DNA rather than a complex bacteria. After self-replicating life was formed, Darwinian natural selection for the fittest took over. Chemistry was succeeded by biology.
I oversimplify, of course. There are many alternative theories explaining our origins but I will not cover them here. This article focuses of prehistory — a period of time dating back to approximately 200 000 y.b.p and lasting till 5000 y.b.p, or more significantly, when the Sapiens first roamed the Earth.
Historians define prehistory as the period of human activity that occurs before the existence of written…
