Prehistoric Asia

Prehistoric Asia refers to the events on the Asian Continent beginning with the arrival of homo sapiens to Asia 65–50,000 years ago (60–50 ka). This story covers the migrations of modern man throughout Asia, settling the continent, and ends with the emergence of writing in Asia — the beginning of History with the first historical records.

Asia is one of the first regions to have been inhabited by hominins — distant ancestors of modern homo sapiens — which includes to our recently-deceased sibling species of human. Homo erectus is believed to have left Africa 1.8 Mya, and inhabited Asia and Southeast Asia until around 40 ka. [1]

The Prehistory of Asia extends across millions of years of human evolution and cultural development. Technically it includes all of geological history of the Asian Continent, all the way back to Pangea and the Formation of the Earth.

The Geographical Extent of Asia

Prehistoric Asia covers the story that unfolded across the entire Eurasian landmass. The Continent of Asia is typically defined as everything to the east of the Ural Mountains in the far north, and east of the Black Sea, Caspian Sea, Caucasus Mountains, and Red Sea (as we move south from the Urals).

In the east Asia is bounded by the Pacific Ocean, in the north by the Arctic Ocean, and the south by the Indian Ocean.

Today Asia is a diverse, broad, and powerful land with deep ties into antiquity.

The Arrival of Modern Humans To Asia

The first humans arrived in Asia the moment that they stepped off the African Continent (presumably by foot across the Sinai Peninsula). [1]

The Change of an Era — From Prehistory To History In Asia

We must remember that Asia is large — and includes the developments and innovations of the Near East, as well as those in India, China, and so on — incorporated within the history of a continent that holds hundreds of cultures and languages within.

Prehistoric Asia begins to come to an end with the Neolithic Revolution (the emergence of settled living with a pastoralist, farming, and ranching lifestyle) that marks the final phases of Prehistory. These occurred first in the Near East (in Western Asia, but more specifically in the Fertile Crescent and later Mesopotamia). However, many of these developments took thousands of years to diffuse throughout the Far East.

Prehistoric Asia comes to an end definitively with the Invention of Writing In Sumer.