The earliest people and where they lived

Humans did not reach today’s form at once; it took several million years of development. The bones of our earliest ancestors were first found in southern and eastern Africa. Because they made simple stone tools they were called the “skilled human” (Latin Homo habilis), which is why the beginning of human history is called the Stone Age. In Asia, remains of Pithecanthropus (“Java man”) were found in Indonesia and of Sinanthropus (“Peking man”) in China; Sinanthropus learned to use natural fire, a great achievement. The Neanderthal (named after the Neander valley in Germany) wore clothes of animal skin in the cold climate and cooked meat on fire. The Cro-Magnon (named after a cave in France) looked like people today and counts as the “wise human” (Homo sapiens). Traces of early people have been found in Uzbekistan too: Selungur cave in the Fergana valley, Teshiktosh cave in Surkhandarya (Neanderthal remains), Siyobcha near Samarkand and Kulbulak in Tashkent region.