Between 10 million and 5 million years ago, humans were separated from chimpanzees, and around 3 million years ago, there were many different branches of human evolution. Humans spread to Asia 2 million years ago, the earliest works of art appeared in Africa 70,000 years ago, prehistoric agriculture originated in West Asia and China 10,000 years ago, and the pyramids were built in ancient Egypt more than 5,000 years ago … Now these are all familiar knowledge. But before the rise of modern archaeology, after careful study, Cardinal Arthur fixed the history of human beings in 4004 BC, and God created human beings. For the ancients in China, the origin of human beings is still related to myths, and the history described in the Book of Changes under the connection begins with the origin of agriculture. From this perspective, there would be no prehistory of human beings without archaeology.
After reading Brian Fagan’s Archaeology and Prehistoric Civilization, this book comprehensively combs the relationship between archaeology and prehistory, and shows us the contribution of archaeology in revealing human prehistory. As an archaeologist, I always suffer from lack of archaeological ability or archaeological data. However, looking back on the progress made in archaeology, we can’t help feeling a little proud. If there is really no archaeology, it will be difficult for us to get rid of the shackles of religion and myth, and the ideological revolution, social revolution and scientific revolution of all mankind will be seriously affected and will probably stagnate. Archaeology, which usually seems to belong to the knowledge of chatting after dinner, belongs to the knowledge of excessive hormones and sexual desire, and is actually the basis of human knowledge. Without it, many ideas will have no place.
Archaeology and Prehistoric Civilization
Translated by Brian Fagan of Yuan Yuan.
CITIC Publishing Group July 2020
How does archaeology reveal prehistory? The knowledge most similar to archaeology is criminal investigation. Archaeologists come to the prehistoric “crime scene”, just like criminal investigation experts, first protect the scene, then extract evidence, conduct multidisciplinary analysis, find possible explanations, and understand what happened … The difference is that the material remains studied by archaeologists are non-renewable resources, historical witnesses, the inheritance of human culture, and the hot spot of modern tourism. Therefore, archaeologists need to try their best to protect material remains (cultural heritage), preferably in situ. More than 100 years have passed, and archaeology has already walked out of the era of exploration. Contemporary archaeology has developed very diverse theories and methods, which are also colorful in practice. Some archaeologists have been sitting on the sofa like philosophers, meditating; Some archaeologists put on white coats (or blue coats) and work in laboratories eliminated by natural science; Some archaeologists, like engineers, are completing excavation or protection projects … For many people, archaeology still seems to belong to “poetry and distance”, but it also pays attention to reality and the fundamentals of human beings.
How did humans evolve?
Fagan is a famous author of archaeological textbooks and is very popular. His prehistory of the world has been updated for more than ten editions. He skillfully weaves the main thread of evolution, classic discoveries and his own personal experiences together, which is clear and colorful. As a reader, what kind of feeling is it to look at the history of human beings for more than 6 million years, including global discovery and research? An old picture floated before our eyes. Things are different, white clouds are pale. Are we a bit like God, quietly mastering all kinds of changes, The Secret Behind?
However, it is not easy for archaeologists to explain how human beings evolved, and there is no perfect solution so far. As a species, human beings belong to the primate-rhinoceros-anthropoid superfamily … biologists have given human beings a clear position in nature and established the basic principle of human evolution, that is, evolution theory. Man is the product of evolution. However, human evolution is different from all other species in that human beings have scientific and technological knowledge and means. We can move mountains and fill the sea and explore the stars on the moon. Human beings have extremely complex social organizations, including countries, companies and armies. Humans also have religious, ideological and spiritual lives. All these things are not found in other species. We call them “culture”. People mainly solve their survival problems through culture, instead of relying on physiological changes like other species. For early humans, the evolution of the body was obvious. It was not until the appearance of anatomical modern people about 200,000 years ago that the naming of human species stabilized. The evolution of human physique has not stopped, such as the degeneration of wisdom teeth and a smarter brain, which are inseparable from the evolution of culture.
Because of this, researchers (not limited to archaeologists) are entangled between physical evolution and cultural evolution. Can evolution theory directly explain the cultural evolution of human beings? One view is that it can. This part of researchers regard culture as “phenotype”, which is different from the evolution (genotype) of constitution. Another view is that the two go hand in hand, and the evolution of physique and culture has its own path and corresponding evolutionary mechanism. The evolution of physique has biological genes, and the evolution of culture has cultural genes. The change mechanism of the latter emphasizes horizontal interaction, which is different from the longitudinal (intergenerational) differences in physical evolution. No matter which viewpoint you hold, discussing the evolution of human beings can’t be separated from physique and culture. The earlier human history, the more emphasis on physical evolution, the more emphasis on the impact of changes in natural environmental conditions. But fundamentally speaking, the evolution of human beings is mainly cultural evolution, and culture is the fundamental feature of human beings!
Throughout the history of human evolution, we are bound to be attracted by two aspects of evolution. On the one hand, it is the inevitable trend of human evolution. Although there are different evolutionary branches, it seems that human beings are moving towards a lifestyle dominated by cultural adaptation, and those species that still rely on physical fitness to adapt to the environment will eventually go extinct. In the competition of cultural adaptation, many cultures disappeared. On the other hand, the rich diversity in human evolution is also a process of differentiation, which is more prominent in cultural evolution, and different regions of the world have developed unique cultures. Unity and diversity are two indispensable aspects in human evolution. In the world of the law of the jungle, it seems that there is only one principle that is universally applicable, and that is survival; However, the world is constantly changing. There is no forever strong person, only flexible people can survive. At this time, diversity is the basis of choice. The history of human evolution vividly deduces this dialectical law.
Brian Fagan, author of Archaeology and Prehistoric Civilization
What is the evolution of culture?
The most fascinating thing about human evolution is the evolution of culture, but what is the evolution of culture? The advantage of looking at the prehistory of the world is that it has an unprecedented macro vision and time depth, especially combined with the study of archaeological material remains. It is more appropriate to think about the connotation of human cultural evolution at this time.
If we regard culture as human’s ability to cope with all kinds of difficulties, we can easily find that human’s ability can be divided into three levels: seeking from the outside, seeking from the society and seeking from the inside. Lewis Binford, a former teacher, said that the cultural system of human beings can be divided into three levels: technology, society and ideology, with similar meanings. However, I think my statement is easier to understand, or what I offer here is a new perspective of understanding. Seeking outward means that human beings use foreign objects to expand their abilities, and technology is the most prominent aspect. Millions of years ago, human beings competed with many species, and human ancestors chose the evolutionary path of using and making tools. Humans don’t have sharp teeth, but they can use stone chips, which can be constantly replaced and upgraded. Humans can not only cut stone chips, but also use them to process new tools such as wooden spears and digging sticks. From the birth of stone tools more than 3 million years ago to the end of the Paleolithic Age 10,000 years ago, human stone tools technology has been continuously upgraded, becoming lighter and more complicated, and bows and arrows have also developed from the simplest stone pieces to the present. Humans don’t need the speed of cheetahs, and they can hunt from a distance with bows and arrows. About 10,000 years ago, with the end of the last ice age, great changes have taken place in the environment, and human beings are facing the problem of increasingly scarce food resources. But human beings invented agriculture, domesticated animals and plants, and greatly increased the amount of food resources per unit area. The history of mankind is marked by a series of milestones explored by mankind.
We all know that human beings are highly socialized animals. For early humans, sociality was a necessary condition for survival. Humans living in savanna environment are faced with numerous threats of eating meat, and adopting group defense is the basic survival strategy. When human ancestors began to walk upright, the process of socialization was further strengthened. People who walk upright expose their soft abdomen and need similar protection; At the same time, human beings can express richer meanings with their faces, voices and liberated hands. The research of evolutionary anthropology and archaeology shows that people “domesticated” themselves in the process of socialization: the friendly and cooperative human population evolved into modern human beings. Human evolution and society are a two-way promotion process: in order to survive, human beings need society; And social development has strengthened people’s dependence on society. Successful adaptation will inevitably lead to the increase of population. The increase in population means a larger community, which means more social interaction, and the human brain is expanding. Robin Dunbar, an evolutionary anthropologist, noticed that there was a clear correlation between community size and brain capacity. In addition to the expansion of brain capacity, human beings gradually have more complex languages, just like the operating system of computers. Language is also constantly upgrading, from grunts to words with clear syllables to complete sentences, language symbols and characters … In short, without society, there would be no development of human intelligence.
Evolutionary anthropologist Robin Dunbar
When mankind stepped out of the hunting and gathering era and invented agriculture, its social evolution became more noticeable, which is the familiar “civilization” stage. Civilization is based on agriculture, without which it cannot be traced back to civilization. The so-called civilization is basically a major change in the way of social organization. Human beings have a complex social organization, which we usually call the country. There are many theories to explain the origin of this country, and Fagan briefly combed these theories in his book. Whether it is water conservancy hypothesis, war theory or other theories, it is inseparable from the return of human beings to primitive sociality. When human beings are faced with problems, apart from exploring outward, society is undoubtedly an effective way for us to solve them. Group prevention and treatment, social intelligence, language communication and so on are all milestones of social development. However, we also need to realize that society itself is a problem! Compared with solving social problems, it is not difficult to go to Mars. People living in contemporary society will certainly have a deep understanding of this. With agriculture, mankind will have more population, larger community size and social stratification; With the potential of agriculture and surplus production, it means that someone can control its distribution and “civilization” begins to sprout. A history of civilization is almost a history of human beings solving social problems.
The mystery of human cultural evolution lies not only in technical economy and social organization, but also in human spiritual world. For archaeological research, the specific problem is to explore the origin of art and religion. The spiritual world is the inner world of people, and it is the product that people seek inward when facing problems. Religion is the refuge of human spiritual world. In the history of civilization, we see that the ancient Egyptians and Mayans built magnificent pyramids, and even the ancestors of the British island who lived in a corner built great buildings such as Stonehenge. Under the material conditions at that time, it often took several generations to complete such a project. What makes people make unremitting efforts is unshakable belief. When technology and society are not enough to solve problems, spiritual power becomes a catalyst. The spiritual world is a world created by human beings themselves, a world derived from life but higher than life; The world abstracted from reality; A world reorganized according to people’s own ideas. At present, archaeological data show that the earliest possession of works of art by human beings was more than 70,000 years ago-indicating that the birth of human spiritual world may be earlier. Anatomically speaking, modern people have spread all over the world since then, from the extremely cold Arctic tundra to the Amazon rainforest, from the plateau with thin air to the extremely remote islands. We can’t urge human beings to accomplish these feats just because they have a large population or complete technology. It must contain the spiritual pursuit of human beings. Psychologists say that it’s because human beings have adventurous genes, but they may ignore that human beings have a spiritual world that can overcome practical difficulties and drive themselves.
In the contemporary world, the definition of culture has been narrowed to the spiritual field, and culture has become the yardstick of social and personal living standards. In the era of back to the prehistoric, the rise of human spiritual culture is still an incredible thing. Contemporary archaeological research has shifted from the focus on technology and economy in the 1960s to the focus on society in the 1980s, and now it seems that more and more attention is paid to the study of spiritual culture. Looking back at the history of human civilization, it is not difficult to find that the simplest expression is spiritual culture, and the closer it is to modernity, the more so. Comparing the history of civilization in China, West Asia, South Asia, Europe and other places, little attention is paid to the differences in agricultural production and social organizations, and the characteristics of spiritual culture are often emphasized. If human beings have no spiritual culture and only operate at the level of technology, economy and social organization, then the human world will lose at least half of its motivation. Because if there is no beautiful dream, there will be no corresponding action; Human society will also lose peace and beauty, the world we live in is utilitarian and meaningless, there will be no plum blossoms to sharpen our will, and there will be no pine and bamboo to alert our integrity; There will be no touch of “looking up, I found it was moonlight, sinking back again, and I suddenly thought of home”. The spiritual world is a truly free world, a world of free creation, which helps mankind to transcend the shackles of reality.
Enlightenment from prehistoric times
A history of mankind is a history of rise and fall. The object of rise and fall is population at first, some populations continue to evolve, and some populations go extinct, which is the result of natural selection and conforms to the law of evolution. Since human culture has become increasingly complex, there has been diversified development. Just as species adapt to radiation, the object of rise and fall has become culture. Later, the object of rise and fall became civilization. From prosperity to decline, we can easily get the impression that culture or civilization is like a species. However, things are not that simple. They are similar, but not the same thing. The evolution of culture has its particularity.
The biggest particularity of cultural evolution is that other species are not so complicated. In order to solve their own problems, human beings have chosen three main ways: seeking outward, seeking from society and seeking inward. The fundamental goal of culture is to balance and seek the balance between man and environment. This is true in the hunting and gathering stage, in the agricultural era and in today’s industrial and commercial era. After the last ice age, the living environment of human beings has changed greatly, the cultural and ecological balance in the hunting and gathering era has been broken, and human beings have moved towards agricultural production. In the era of traditional agriculture, China developed the most perfect cultural ecosystem in the world, and finally put forward