Over the years, there have been several great scientific discoveries that help explain the origin and nature of human beings. In the timeline below, several dates and events are written that are important to the history of human beings.
1848 Gibraltar Neanderthal
1856 Neander Valley fossil
1869 First modern Homo sapiens found
1886 Spy Neanderthals found
1891 First Homo erectus
1907 Mauer mandible, Germany
1908 French Neanderthals discovered
1911 Piltdown “fossils” discovered
1912 Acheulean and upper Paleolithic industries are defined
1913 Marcelin Boule’s Neanderthal monograph is formed
1924 Taung child discovered
1927 Homo erectus in China discovered
1936 Sterkfontein Australopithecines and the modjokerta skull, java, discovered
1938 First Robust Australopithecine
1942 Lascaux cave art uncovered
1947 First Pan-African congress on prehistory
1948 First fossil hominid discoveries at swartkrans, Japanese Macaque field studies occur
1950 Oldowan tools in North Africa are uncovered
1952 Excavations at Haua Fteah
1953 Piltdown hoax revealed
1954 First Hominid fossils discovered at Olduvai Gorge
1955 First stone tools at Sterkfontein
1967 Omo expedition launched, Ethiopia
1969 First Koobi Expedition
1971 First discoveries at Arago Cave
1974 Hominid discoveries at Hadar, Ethiopia
1978 Discovery of the Loetoli Footprints
1985 Oldest robust Australopithecine in East Africa
1992-1993 Pre-Australopithecus fossil at Awash Ethiopia. Oldest human discoveries at Atapuerca, Spain.
1994 Cave art of the Chauvet Cave, France, discovered
1995 “Little foot” discovery at Sterkfontein. New Australopithecine Species, Lake Turkana, Kenya
1998 Complete skeleton found at Sterkfontein
1999 New Australopithecine species found at Awash
In addition to these human discoveries, throughout this period of time many artifacts such as tools were discovered. These are also important because they tell up the level of competence that the ancient people had.
A certain area in the timeline I want to elaborate about is the Piltdown fossil scam. From 1911 to 1953 the find was believed to be true, until a scientist by the name of Kenneth Oakley came up with the conclusion that relative dating finds have similar fluorine counts. When he tested this on the Piltdown fossils, he discovered that there were several different fluorine counts, meaning that the find was a hoax.
Although I can’t go into further detail on all the dates and events, they all play an important role in the discovery and understanding of human beings and their origin.
