Prehistoric Asia

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Map of Asia[citation needed]
  North Asia
  Central Asia
  East Asia
  West Asia
  South Asia
  Southeast Asia

Prehistoric Asia refers to events in

writing systems or the documentation of recorded history. This includes portions of the Eurasian land mass currently or traditionally considered as the continent of Asia. The continent is commonly described as the region east of the Ural Mountains, the Caucasus Mountains, the Caspian Sea, Black Sea and Red Sea, bounded by the Pacific, Indian, and Arctic Oceans.[1]
This article gives an overview of the many regions of Asia during prehistoric times.

Origin of Asian hominids

Main article: Human evolution
Homo erectus georgicus from Dmanisi in modern Georgia (Caucasus) is the earliest evidence for the presence of early humans outside the African continent.
Illustration of what Peking Man
may have looked like.

Early hominids

About 1.8 million years ago,

Homo sapiens and used simple tools.[2]

The earliest human fossils found outside of Africa are skulls and mandibles of the Asian

saber-toothed tigers and wolves from Eurasia.[2] Tools found with the human fossils include simple stone tools like those used in Africa: a cutting flake, core and a chopper.[2]

The oldest Southeast Asian Homo fossils, known as the Homo erectus Java Man, were found between layers of volcanic debris in Java, Indonesia.[7] Fossils representing 40 Homo erectus individuals, known as Peking Man, were found near Beijing at Zhoukoudian that date to about 400,000 years ago. The species was believed to have lived for at least several hundred thousand years in China,[3] and possibly until 200,000 years ago in Indonesia. They may have been the first to use fire and cook food.[8]

Skulls were found in Java of Homo erectus that dated to about 300,000 years ago.[7] A skull was found in Central China that was similar to the Homo heidelbergensis remains that were found in Europe and Africa and are dated between 200,000 and 50,000 years ago.[9]

Homo sapiens

Between 60,000 and 100,000 years ago,

Jebel Qafzeh cave. Included among the remains was a skeleton of another species which was not Homo sapiens; it had a "distinct and undivided browridge that is continuous across the eye sockets" and other discrepancies.[10]

Researchers believe that the modern human, or Homo sapiens, migrated about 60,000 years ago to

Denisovans on the islands of Southeast Asia.[14]

Homo sapiens females weighed an average of 54 kilograms (119 lb) and were on average 1.6 metres (5.2 ft) tall. The males weighed an average of 65 kilograms (143 lb) and were on average 1.7 metres (5.6 ft) tall. They were omnivorous. As compared to earlier hominids, Homo sapiens had larger brains and used more complex tools, including, blades, awls, and microliths out of antlers, bones and ivory. They were the only hominids to develop language, make clothes, create shelters, and store food underground for preservation. In addition, language was formed, rituals were created, and art was made.[15]

Prehistory by region

Prehistoric Asia by region
Caucasus
Azerbaijan  • Georgia
Near East
Arabia
East Asia
East Asian Bronze Age
Southeast Asia
Prehistoric Burma  • Cambodia  • Indonesia  • Malaysia  • Philippines  • Thailand
South Asia
Prehistoric India  •
Tamil Nadu
See also South Asian Stone Age
Central Asia
Prehistory of Central Asia
The Far East and Siberia
Prehistoric Siberia

North Asia

Ancient North Eurasians and Ancient Northern East Asian
ancestry, and are closely connected to the first wave of humans into the Americas.

Above China is North Asia, in which Siberia,[16] and Russian Far East are extensive geographical regions which has been part of Russia since the seventeenth century.

At the southwestern edge of North Asia is

Russian Federation
.

Evidence from full genomic studies suggests that the first people in the Americas diverged from

Paleosiberian peoples and Ancient Native Americans, which later migrated towards the Beringian region, became isolated from other populations, and subsequently populated the Americas.[17][18]

The

Trialeti culture
(ca. 3000–1500 BC).

The prehistory of Georgia is the period between the first human habitation of the territory of modern-day nation of Georgia and the time when Assyrian and Urartian, and more firmly, the Classical accounts, brought the proto-Georgian tribes into the scope of recorded history.

See also:
Prehistoric Siberia

Central Asia

Main article:
Prehistory of Central Asia
Early Indo-European migrations from the Pontic steppes and across Central Asia, and encounter with Ancient Northeast Asian populations.[19]

China in the east and from Afghanistan in the south to Russia in the north. It is also sometimes referred to as Middle Asia, and, colloquially, "the 'stans" (as the six countries generally considered to be within the region all have names ending with the Persian suffix "-stan", meaning "land of")[20] and is within the scope of the wider Eurasian continent. The countries are Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Afghanistan
.

East Asia

Chinese Bronze Age, and the Bronze Age sites
.

Ancestors of East Asians split from other human populations possibly as early as 70,000 to 50,000 years ago.[21][22] Ancestral East Asians, which gave rise to modern East/Southeast Asians, Polynesians, Siberians and Native Americans, expanded in multiple waves outgoing from Southern China northwards and southwards respectively. Population genomic data suggest that Paleolithic East Asian show continuity to modern East Asians and related groups.[23]

China

The earliest traces of early humans, Homo erectus, in East Asia have been found in China. Fossilized remains of

southwest China and have been dated to 1.7 Ma. Stone tools from the Nihewan Basin of the Hebei province in northern China are 1.66 million years old.[24]

Early humans were attracted to what was the warm, fertile climate of Central China more than 500,000 years ago.[25] Skeletal remains of about 45 individuals, known collectively as Peking Man were found in a limestone cave in Yunnan province at Zhoukoudian. They date from 400,000 to 600,000 years ago and some researchers believe that evidence of hearths and artifacts means that they controlled fire, although this is challenged by other archaeologists. About 800 miles west of this site, near Xi'an in the Shaanxi province are remains of a hominid who lived earlier than Peking Man.[25]

Between 100,000 and 200,000 years ago, humans lived in various places in China, such as

modern humans lived in isolated locations on the North China Plain, where they fished and hunted for food. They made artifacts of bone and shell.[25]

Model of a Yangshao culture village (4800–2500 BC)

Starting about 5000 BCE humans lived in Yellow River valley settlements were they farmed, fished, raised pigs and dogs for food, and grew millet and rice. Begun during the late Neolithic period, they were the earliest communities in China. Its artifacts include ceramic pots, fishhooks, knives, arrows and needles. In the northwest Shaanxi, Gansu and Henan provinces two cultures were established by about the sixth millennium BCE. They produced red pottery. Other cultures that emerged, that also made pottery, include the Bao-chi and Banpo people of Shaanxi and the Chishan people of Hebei.[25]

The Yangshao people, who existed between 5000 and 2500 BCE, were farmers who lived in distinctive dwelling which were partly below the surface. Their pottery included designs which may have been symbols that later evolved into written language. Their villages were in western Henan, southwestern Shanxi and central Shaanxi. Between 2500 and 1000 BCE the Longshan culture existed in southern, eastern and northeastern China and into Manchuria. They had superior farming and ceramic making techniques to that of the Yangshao people and had ritualistic burial practices and worshiped their ancestors.[27] Subsequent dynasties include the Xia, Shang, and Zhou dynasties, when the Old Chinese language developed.[28]

Dynasties
Zhōu DynastyShang DynastyXia DynastyLongshan cultureMajiayao culture
Dates are approximate, consult particular article for details

Taiwan

The

Taiwanese aborigines
are believed to be their descendants.

Korea

palaeontology
.

Japan

The study of

Jōmon
.

Near East

Further information: Prehistory of the Levant and Prehistory of Iran

The

Western Asia. Despite having varying definitions within different academic circles, the term was originally applied to the maximum extent of the Ottoman Empire, but has since been gradually replaced by the term Middle East. The region is sometimes called the Levant
.

At 1.4 million years,

Jordan River Valley is the earliest Homo erectus site in the Levant.[30]

Near East Bronze Age timeline
New Kingdom of EgyptMiddle Kingdom of EgyptOld Kingdom of EgyptEarly Dynastic Period of EgyptNaqada IIIAncient EgyptKassitesAssyriaBabyloniaThird Dynasty of UrAkkadian EmpireCities of the ancient Near EastAncient Near East
Dates are approximate, consult particular article for details

South Asia

Dolmen from Godavari district, Andhra Pradesh, India. Woodcut from the article "Indiska fornsaker" by Hans Hildebrand.

above sea level as the India south of the Himalayas and the Paropamisadae. South Asia is bounded on the south by the Indian Ocean and on land (clockwise, from west) by West Asia, Central Asia
, East Asia, and Southeast Asia.

The Riwat site in Pakistan contains a few artifacts – a core and two flakes – that might date human activity there to 1.9 million years ago, but these dates are still controversial.[31]

The South Asian prehistory is explored in the articles about

Tamil Nadu

Bronze Age India timeline
Cemetery H cultureMature HarappanIndus Valley Civilization
Dates are approximate, consult particular article for details
See also: South Asian Stone Age

Southeast Asia

Denisovans
on the islands of Southeast Asia.

Burma), Thailand, and Vietnam; and (2) Maritime Southeast Asia, comprising Brunei, Malaysia, East Timor, Indonesia, Philippines, and Singapore.[33]

The rich Sangiran Formation in Central Java (Indonesia) has yielded the earliest evidence of hominin presence in Southeast Asia. These Homo erectus fossils date to more than 1.6 Ma.[34] Remains found in Mojokerto have been dated to 1.49 Ma.[35]

Its history is told by region, including the

Early history of Burma and Cambodia, as well as the articles about Prehistoric Philippines, Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia
.

Skeleton remains were found of a hominid that was only 3 feet (0.91 m) tall as an adult in Indonesia on the island of Flores. It had a small brain and, nicknamed "the Hobbit" for its diminutive structure, was classified distinctly as Homo floresiensis. Evidence of H. floresiensis has been dated to be from 50,000 to 190,000 years ago,[36] after early publications suggested the small hominid persisted until as recently as 12,000 years ago.[37] Ancestral East Asians are suggested to have originated in Mainland Southeast Asia, before expanding northwards.[38]

The Negritos form the indigenous population of Southeast Asia, but were largely absorbed by Austroasiatic- and Austronesian-speaking groups that migrated from southern East Asia into Mainland and Insular Southeast Asia with the Neolithic expansion. The remainders form minority groups in geographically isolated regions.[39]

Written language

Date Writing system Attestation Location Region
c. 2600–2500 BC Sumerian
Fara period)[40]
 Mesopotamia Near East
c. 2400 BC Akkadian A few dozen pre-Sargonic texts from Mari and other sites in northern Babylonia[41] Syria Near East
c. 2400 BC Eblaite Ebla tablets Syria Near East
c. 2300 BC[42] Elamite Awan dynasty peace treaty with Naram-Sin Iran / Iraq Near East
c. 21st century BC Hurrian Temple inscription of Tish-atal in Urkesh[43] Mesopotamia Near East
c. 1650 BC Hittite Various cuneiform texts and Palace Chronicles written during the reign of
Hattusili I, from the archives at Hattusa
 Turkey Near East
c. 1300 BC
Ugaritic
 Tablets from Ugarit[44] Syria Near East
c. 1200 BC Old Chinese Oracle bone and bronze inscriptions from the reign of Wu Ding[45] China East Asia
c. 1000 BC Phoenician
Ahiram
epitaph		 Canaan Near East
c. 10th century BC
Aramaic
 Near East
c. 10th century BC Hebrew Gezer calendar Canaan Near East
c. 850 BC Ammonite Amman Citadel Inscription[46] Jordan Near East
c. 840 BC Moabite Mesha Stele Jordan Near East
c. 800 BC Phrygian
Asia Minor
 Near East
c. 800 BC
Old North Arabian
 Northern Arabian Peninsula Near East
c. 800 BC Old South Arabian Southern Arabian Peninsula Near East
c. 600 BC Lydian [47] Anatolia Near East
c. 600 BC Carian [47] Anatolia Near East
c. 500 BC Old Persian
Behistun inscription
 Iran Near East
c. 500-300 BC Tamil Brahmi cave inscriptions and potsherds in Tamil Nadu[48] Sri Lanka / India South Asia
c. 260 BC
Middle Indo-Aryan (Prakrit
)		 Edicts of Ashoka[49][50] (Pottery inscriptions from Anuradhapura have been dated c. 400 BC.[51][52]) India South Asia
c. 170–130 BC Pahlavi Iran Near East

See also

Notes

  1. ^ A previous theory, the "multiregional continuity theory", held that the Asian Homo sapiens evolved from the Asian Homo erectus. This has been disproved by DNA findings which show that all living humans descended from a common African ancestor who lived within the past 200,000 years. The Homo erectus species then ceased to exist.[3]

References

  1. ^ "Asia". eb.com, Encyclopædia Britannica. Chicago: Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. 2006. Retrieved 2014-03-07.
  2. ^ a b c d e Out of Africa. Archived 2014-04-19 at the Wayback Machine American Museum of Natural History. Retrieved April 23, 2014.
  3. ^ a b c d e Peking Man Archived 2014-04-19 at the Wayback Machine. The History of Human Evolution. American Museum of Natural History. April 23, 2014.
  4. ^ Evolutionary Tree Information. Human Origins. Smithsonian Institution. Retrieved April 23, 2014.
  5. ^ Rightmire & Lordkipanidze 2010, p. 242.
  6. ^ Dennell 2010, pp. 247–48, 266.
  7. ^
    ISBN 978-1-57607-770-2
    . p. 173–174.
  8. ^ Homo erectus. London: Natural History Museum. Retrieved April 23, 2014.
  9. ^ New Migrants. Archived 2014-04-19 at the Wayback Machine American Museum of Natural History. Retrieved April 23, 2014.
  10. ^ a b The Arrival of Homo Sapiens. Archived 2014-04-19 at the Wayback Machine American Museum of Natural History. Retrieved April 23, 2014.
  11. ^ a b Expansion of Homo Sapiens Archived 2014-04-19 at the Wayback Machine American Museum of Natural History. Retrieved April 23, 2014.
  12. ^ By Land and Sea. Archived 2014-04-19 at the Wayback Machine American Museum of Natural History. Retrieved April 23, 2014.
  13. ^ Steppes into Asia. Archived 2014-04-19 at the Wayback Machine American Museum of Natural History. Retrieved April 23, 2014.
  14. ^ "New evidence in search for the mysterious Denisovans". Australian Museum.
  15. ^ Life During the Ice Age. Archived 2014-04-19 at the Wayback Machine American Museum of Natural History. Retrieved April 23, 2014.
  16. ^ Far East, AskOxford, archived from the original on 2007-09-29
  17. ISBN 978-1-5387-4971-5
    .
  18. ^ Sapiens (2022-02-08). "A Genetic Chronicle of the First Peoples in the Americas". SAPIENS. Retrieved 2022-10-29.
  19. PMID 31488661
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  20. ^ Paul McFedries (2001-10-25). "stans". Word Spy. Retrieved 2011-02-16.
  21. PMID 26530905
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  24. ^ Rightmire & Lordkipanidze 2010, p. 241.
  25. ^ a b c d Marshall Cavendish, World and Its Peoples: Eastern and Southern Asia. New York: Marshall Cavendish. 1. 2007. p. 30.
  26. S2CID 53873016
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  27. ^ Marshall Cavendish, World and Its Peoples: Eastern and Southern Asia. New York: Marshall Cavendish. 1. 2007. pp. 30-31.
  28. ^ Marshall Cavendish, World and Its Peoples: Eastern and Southern Asia. New York: Marshall Cavendish. 1. 2007. pp. 31-36.
  29. ^ "Changbin Culture - 台灣大百科全書 Encyclopedia of Taiwan". Archived from the original on 2014-05-03. Retrieved 2014-05-03.
  30. ^ Tchernov 1987.
  31. ^ Dennell 2007, pp. 41 and 55–58.
  32. ^ Klaus Kästle (September 10, 2013). "Map of Southeast Asia Region". Nations Online Project. One World – Nations Online. Retrieved September 10, 2013.
  33. ^ "World Macro Regions and Components". The United Nations. Retrieved September 13, 2009.[dead link]
  34. ^ Swisher et al. 1994; Dennell 2010, p. 262.
  35. ^ Dennell 2010, p. 266, citing Morwood et al. 2003.
  36. S2CID 4469009
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  37. ^ Spreading through Asia. Archived 2014-04-19 at the Wayback Machine American Museum of Natural History. Retrieved April 23, 2014.
  38. ISSN 2770-5005
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  39. S2CID 253969988. The analysis of time of divergence suggested that ancestors of Negrito were the earliest settlers in the Malay Peninsula, whom first separated from the Papuans ~ 50-33 thousand years ago (kya), followed by East Asian
    (~ 40-15 kya)...
  40. ISBN 978-1-885923-76-9. Archived from the original
    (PDF) on 2021-08-26. Retrieved 2024-06-05.
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    • Works cited


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