Peoples & MigrationDeep prehistory

Peoples & Migration in deep prehistory

Every event in the Terralore archive tagged peoples and migration — settlement, movement and displacement, narrowed to deep prehistory — 11 of them, drawn from 9 nations, running from 3,600,000 BCE to 13,000 BCE. Each entry keeps the sources it was verified against and links back to the chronicle it came from.

Events
11
Nations
9
Earliest
3,600,000 BCE
Latest
13,000 BCE
Africa
5
Oceania
4
North America
2

Every entry below is the same record, with the same sources, as the one on its nation’s chronicle.

  1. c. 3.6 million years agoAfrica

    Tanzania

    Hominins leave footprints at Laetoli

    Early hominins, attributed to Australopithecus afarensis, cross a layer of fresh volcanic ash near Laetoli; their footprints harden and survive, giving direct evidence of upright walking.

    Era: Cradle of Humankind: Olduvai and Laetoli

    Sources: Laetoli · Encyclopaedia Britannica, Laetoli · Wikipedia, Laetoli Footprints · Ngorongoro Conservation Area Authority

  2. c. 3.2 million years agoAfrica

    Ethiopia

    Lucy lives in the Afar region

    An Australopithecus afarensis individual, later catalogued AL 288-1, lives in what is now the Afar region; her fossilised skeleton would become one of the most famous evidences of early human ancestry.

    Era: Cradle of Humankind and the Kingdom of D'mt

    Sources: Lucy (fossil hominin) · Encyclopaedia Britannica, Australopithecus afarensis, Lucy's species · Natural History Museum, London

  3. c. 1.9 million years agoAfrica

    Kenya

    Hominins at Koobi Fora

    The Koobi Fora deposits east of Lake Turkana preserve fossils of Paranthropus boisei and early Homo, making the area one of the world's leading sites for the study of human evolution.

    Era: Cradle of Humankind: the Turkana Basin

    Sources: Koobi Fora · National Museums of Kenya, Koobi Fora · Encyclopaedia Britannica

  4. c. 1.6 million years agoAfrica

    Kenya

    Turkana Boy lives near Lake Turkana

    A Homo erectus youth, later catalogued KNM-WT 15000, lives near what is now the Nariokotome River; his fossilised skeleton would become the most complete of its species ever recovered.

    Era: Cradle of Humankind: the Turkana Basin

    Sources: Nariokotome (Turkana Boy) · Encyclopaedia Britannica, KNM-WT 15000 (Turkana Boy) · Smithsonian Human Origins Program, All About Turkana Boy · Turkana Basin Institute

  5. c. 65,000+ years agoOceania

    Australia

    Aboriginal peoples settle the continent

    Aboriginal peoples reached Australia at least 65,000 years ago, crossing from Southeast Asia to the joined landmass of Sahul and beginning the world's oldest continuous human occupation of a single territory.

    Era: Aboriginal Australia: the world's oldest continuous cultures

    Sources: Australian Aboriginal peoples · Encyclopaedia Britannica, Defining Moments: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander history · National Museum of Australia

  6. c. 50,000–45,000 years agoOceania

    Australia

    Settlement across the whole continent

    Within tens of thousands of years, Aboriginal peoples had spread across the entire continent, from tropical north to the cold south, developing diverse cultures adapted to every environment.

    Era: Aboriginal Australia: the world's oldest continuous cultures

    Sources: Australian Aboriginal peoples · Encyclopaedia Britannica

  7. c. 50,000 years agoOceania

    Papua New Guinea

    First settlement of New Guinea

    People crossed from Southeast Asia to the joined landmass of Sahul, settling New Guinea in some of the earliest sea voyages and beginning one of the longest continuous human occupations on Earth.

    Era: Deep past: settlement and the world's first farmers

    Sources: Papua New Guinea · Encyclopædia Britannica, Papua New Guinea — History · Encyclopædia Britannica

  8. c. 30,000+ years agoOceania

    Solomon Islands

    Papuan settlers reach the islands

    Papuan-speaking peoples occupy the main Solomon chain, part of Near Oceania, in some of the earliest recorded sea crossings by humans.

    Era: Settlement of a Thousand Tongues

    Sources: History of Solomon Islands · Encyclopædia Britannica

  9. deep prehistoryAfrica

    Namibia

    San hunter-gatherers of the Namib

    The San, among the oldest human populations on Earth, ranged across the Namib and its margins for tens of thousands of years, hunting, gathering and recording their world in rock art.

    Era: First peoples: the San, Khoekhoe, Damara and the engravings of Twyfelfontein

    Sources: Namibia (country, history and government) · Encyclopaedia Britannica, History of Namibia · Wikipedia

  10. c. 13,000 BCE or earlierNorth America

    Canada

    Peopling of the continent

    The ancestors of First Nations were established across the Americas by the end of the last Ice Age, developing diverse societies, languages, and economies over thousands of years before European contact.

    Era: Indigenous peoples and First Nations before contact

    Sources: First Nations and Indigenous peoples in Canada · The Canadian Encyclopedia, Canada · Encyclopaedia Britannica

  11. c. 13,000 BCENorth America

    United States

    Peopling of the Americas

    Humans were established across the Americas by at least 13,000–15,000 years ago, having entered via the Beringian land bridge and Pacific coast from Asia during the last Ice Age.

    Era: Indigenous America before contact

    Sources: Abraham Lincoln and Emancipation; U.S. History Collections · Library of Congress