Member-only story
Would The Earth Be Better Off If We Were Still Hunter-Gatherers?
Before civilization, there were almost 7 million years of human survival.
We homo-sapiens have been around for about 200,000 years, give or take a few centuries. The first group of our modern human ancestors migrated out of Africa approximately 100,000 years ago. Well before that time, a group of our cousins also out of African and later to be known as Neanderthals had begun expanding their horizons in small groups that would eventually travel across Eurasia long before other human groups made the trek. They ranged as far north and west as the Britains, across the Middle East to Uzbekistan and south to Spain.
The most recent research indicates their population base was not large and they lived and traveled in small groups. They were very good hunters with a stocky build and sophisticated weaponry. Some Neanderthal skeletons discovered have been found with deformed or broken bones suggesting Neanderthals took care of their sick and those who could not care for themselves. They became extinct around 30,000 years ago well before homo sapiens developed agriculture which leads to my story.
