How, why and when humans began to evolve on earth is a subject of great debate and discussion around the world, and has been for centuries, as evidence for early man can often be limited and even contradictory in suggesting. However, if man developed through literally millions of years of evolution, then he will advance hundreds of thousands of years until early man began to realize the skills he would need to acquire in order to survive. It is this extended period of self-realization that many have called the true evolution of man, since without it humans probably would not have lasted long.
All the evidence from early man points to the fact that humans used to live in a much warmer climate than we do today. If all mankind really originated in what is now Africa and spread across the world from there, the need for humanity to develop some key survival skills is understandable. The first of these, without a doubt, would have been fire. Man would have known the concept and danger of fire from the most ancient times, when random lightning would have shown its destructive nature without giving man the opportunity to harness its energy yet. In many ancient European caves, however, not only were charcoal drawings found on the walls, but charred animal bones were discovered; showing that fire has been used for hundreds of centuries. How man came to use fire will always be unknown, but you can imagine that perhaps an old, dry tree was hit during a thunderstorm, creating a great warm fire. From this man they probably started their own smaller fires that they would have had to keep burning for a long time if they had wanted to keep warm. Likewise, the discovery of striking flint to make sparks would also have been a lucky accident; cavemen probably noticed sparks when walking in the dark, when certain stones collided with each other.
Fire would have had many benefits, from heat to a more nutritious diet and even protection against wild animals. The man would have taken advantage of all these benefits and developed them further, making the most of his new knowledge. As the weather began to cool, or as man traveled further north or south from the equator, man at some point would have started wearing clothing to keep warm when fire was not available. How the heck could anyone say precisely when this was? Well, one method that has been extensively researched is simply to perform a genetic analysis of the common human body louse, as the louse lives mainly on clothing, as the human body has very little hair. This louse apparently dates back 540,000 years, so this is a theory for when men’s clothing began.
Finally, man would have invented, or rather discovered, the wheel. From the artifacts discovered, it is believed that the wheel was first discovered or used extensively in Mesopotamia, what is now Iraq, until 4000 BC. At some point, man, after simply dragging and hauling heavy supplies, probably would have realized that rolling rocks along the branches of tubular trees was much easier and from there developed the wheel.
