Prehistory of Asia

The Prehistory of Asia is a rich tapestry that extends across millions of years of human evolution and cultural development. Asia was one of the first regions inhabited by hominins (distant ancestors of modern homo sapiens). Many other species of human — including out recently-deceased sibling species such as homo heidelbergensis, homo erectus, Neanderthal, and the Denisovans — thrived on the land before our species even evolved into being.

Humans arrived in Asia the moment that they stepped out of Africa. Technically. The first wave of prehistoric, anatomically-modern, human immigrants probably left Africa on foot, crossing the Sinai Peninsula. (There are some indications that we had boats, and could follow the coasts, and maybe cross the Red Sea or the Mediterranean.)

The moment that humans set foot onto the landmass that we call Asia, the Prehistory of Asia begins. Which in all probability begins with the first waves of the human exodus from Africa.

We left Africa in waves. Waves that could be separated by centuries or millennia. Great tribes (formed from clans, made of many individual families) could have immigrated together, leaving Africa on foot across the Sinai Peninsula. As well as smaller clans, and maybe even single families from time to time.

The generally accepted date that we first began to permanently populate the rest of the world, is around 70,000 years ago. (70 ka, 70,000 ya, or c.70,000 BCE)

While the prehistory of Asia technically includes the entirety of the geological history of the landmass of Asia itself, back to the first emergence of the Asian continent from the world ocean, in this chapter we are paying attention specifically to the Prehistory of Asia concerning the arrival of modern humans.

Evolving Prehistoric Asia

The Arrival of the First Humans

Archaeological evidence suggests that Asia was one of the earliest regions inhabited by hominins. Significant discoveries have shed more light on early human migration patterns, and our unique adaptation to diverse environments.

Fossils of homo erectus have been found at sites like Zhoukoudian in China, as well as in the Levant and the Near East — with other distinctions like the Middle East, Mesopotamia and the Fertile Crescent nestled within — along with finds from Southwest Asia, all provide crucial insights into the origins of human settlement in Asia during the Palaeolithic period (2.6 million – 10,000 years ago).

Neolithic Revolution

Across Neolithic Asia (10,000 – 2,000 BCE) settled agricultural societies began to emerge. These societies were sedentary (they had left their nomadic ways behind). Instead they focused on farming the land, and raising the animals that had first been domesticated by their ancestors.

They lived a completely different way of life.

This new way of life is called the Neolithic Revolution, which began around 10,000 BCE in Asia — specifically in Western Asia that we also call the Near East. This was a dramatic shift in the level of human culture. A step that ultimately evolved into the development of complex civilizations, and the emergence of the first true cities, and high civilizations, of the world with the dawn of history around 3000 BCE.

The End of Prehistoric Asia

Finally, after thousands of years spent as farmers and herdsmen from the Neolithic Revolution in the Fertile Crescent, the first great cities begin to emerge across Asia. The oldest known city in the world, Uruk, emerged in the land of the Mesopotamian nation we call Sumer around 3000 BCE, with significant roots going back to the mid-fifth millennium BCE, along with glorious cities of Ancient Egypt at around the same time.

Sumer, in Mesopotamia and the Fertile Crescent appears to be the oldest of the high civilizations, defined by its ancient cities of Uruk and Ur. Writing was first invented at Uruk, the city of Inanna, along with law, medicine, astronomy, and organized religion. This evolution occurred under the pyramids of Egypt a few hundred kilometers away at around the same time.

The Indus Valley Civilization in present-day Pakistan and northwest India, is another example of this type of society, characterized by its advanced urban planning and sophisticated drainage systems, with an early form of script that remains undeciphered.

The early Shaang Dynasty in China arose shortly after (which was preceded by the somewhat mythical Xin Dynasty) developing writing also, and over the course of this new historical period, developed into illustrious states and powerful empires across Asia.

These cultural revolutions in Sumer, Ancient Egypt, Ancient China, the Indus Valley Civilization of the Vedic Peoples in northern India, and the Minoans of Crete in Europe all at around the same time, mark the end of the prehistoric period for all humanity. Each of these peoples developed writing, leaving prehistory for the first time. The true End of Prehistory, and the Dawn of History.

With the exception of the Minoans from the Greek island Crete, and the Ancient Egyptians from the northeastern corner of Africa, all of these revolutions occurred in Asia.

This shift into the new historical age takes place in Asia in the Bronze Age (3,000 – 1,200 BCE) during which time Asia and Europe — together Eurasia — develop technologically and culturally advanced, literary societies.

The Bronze Age gives way to the Iron Age (1,200 BCE – 500 CE) of Asia, where we see the emergence of powerful empires and states in the lands of their ancestors: including the Persian Empire of Iran, the Babylonians of Mesopotamia, the Maurya Empire in India, and the Han Dynasty in China.

These civilizations played a pivotal role in shaping the political, economic, and cultural landscape of Asia, leaving a lasting legacy that continues to influence the region to this day.