From our earliest ancestors we have tried to gain information on human beings. Today through science we have been able to have an extensive knowledge on human origin. The study of fossils is what started it all. Geologists analyzed the layers of rocks and debris that have been associated with skeletal material that was discovered in Africa. These skeletal materials attest to the presence of a small-brained hominid that walked on two feet and lived about three to four million years ago. The hominidae form a family of living and fossil forms that somewhat resemble modern human beings, but also resemble monkeys and apes. As research continued, other hominids soon evolved. The species Homo erectus began to migrate to Africa about a million years ago. What counts in this instance is the evidence that Homo erectus was more able, inventive, and adaptable to different environments that many had previously believed they may not be able to adapt to. This species had a considerably larger brain than it's predecessors, it was considered by some to be the first "real" human, although they were not the same as our present species, Homo sapiens. About 100,000 years ago people of a modern time of Homo sapiens began to appear. Human Skeletons began appearing about 20,000 years ago. Up until that time we did not recognized the people in Africa as what they are, our distant ancestors of our present day population.
The use of stone tools and fire are in the distant background of Africa history. Two other simplifying discoveries bring us to where history discovers agriculture and animal husbandry that made vast new amounts of energy available to many. Human history illustrates people who lived by gathering wild crops, who over time settled down to grow these crops. They changed from gathering to producing food, which was probably a gradual development. Early steps towards agriculture included intensive ways of collecting grains.
