Issue 1 March 17, 2026 Author or Publication Name 1 A reconstruction of Homo habilis skull KNM_ER_1813, discovered in Kenya in 1973 and dated to 1.9 million BP. The period from three million to two million years ago, was one of the most important, and least understood periods in human prehistory. During this time period three major hominid groups diverged from earlier evolutionary lines. This includes the fi rst well identi fi ed evolutionary ancestor of modern humans, Homo habilis. Homo habilis is believed to have been the fi rst hominid to make tools. Tool making is a de fi ning characteristic of humankind. Three million years ago, a great diversity of hominids fl ourished in tropical Africa, particularly in the open country of east Africa. This is THE HORIZON GAZETTE The First Hominids Issue 1 March 17, 2026 Author or Publication Name 2 not to say that researchers may not fi nd hominid fossils in other parts of Africa, however, the highest concentration of hominid fossils has been found in east, central and southern Africa. Most of these fossils consist of Australopithecus remains, which were identi fi ed by Raymond Dart in 1924. Between three and two million BP, there were at least three main forms of hominid. These three broad groups were probably composed of many lesser known subgroups, some of who have not yet been identi fi ed. The original form found by Raymond Dart, Australopithecus africanus , or the southern ape man from Africa, was small, gracile and very lightly built, with a small delicate skull and a face with a protruding snout. Australopithecus did not stand very tall, but was nimble and highly mobile. Very little else is know about this small creature. Australopithecus africanus appears to have been an evolutionary dead end. Some time after the discovery of Australopithecus africanus , a much more robust form was found. This fossil was named Australopithecus robustus, due to its heavy, squat build and massive skull, with a large crest on top, which helped support the jaw. These hominids also have a small brain in addition to teeth that were suited to chewing tough, fi brous plant material. Until forty or fi fty years ago, Australopithecus africanus and Australopithecus robustus were thought to be the fi rst tool makers. Additionally, Raymond Dart believed that they used bones to club small animals and break bones. However, additional research has demonstrated that the bones that Dart had believed had been made into tools were actually chewed on and dropped by hyenas. A cast of Australopithecus robustus skull SK-48. Australopithecus robustus is a subspecies of Australopithecus , which is the earliest evolutionary ancestor of modern humans and lived between 2.27 million and 0.87 million BP. Issue 1 March 17, 2026 Author or Publication Name 3 Identifying the earliest tools is very, very, very di ffi cult. The reason for this is because the only material that survives in the archaeological record is that which is durable, such as stone and bone. As a result, the archaeological record of human prehistory is written in durable materials, such as stone tools and pot shards. Our knowledge of human behaviour during this period is very incomplete. In 1960, Mary Leakey invited the South African anatomist Philip Tobias to examine the remains of a hominid fossil that she had discovered while excavating in Olduvai Gorge, in east Africa. She named the fossil Homo habilis. Homo habilis was a small gracile hominid with thin bones, a more rounded skull than Australopithecus and more human characteristics than Australopithecus . In 1959, Mary Leakey had discovered an Australopithecus robustus fossil at Olduvai Gorge. Homo habilis was a dramatically di ff erent creature. It was not as heavily built and was lighter and more Louis and Mary Leakey excavating in Olduvai Gorge in the 1960s. The discoveries made by the Leakies reshaped our understanding of the process of human evolution. Issue 1 March 17, 2026 Author or Publication Name 4 agile. Additionally, it was found next to a lakebed in the middle of a scatter of stone tools and animal bone fragments. Louis Leakey con fi dently identi fi ed Homo habilis as the fi rst tool maker upon discovering this fossil. This was a signi fi cant discovery because primatologists had observed chimpanzees using sticks that they have chewed on to dig grubs out of ant hills and termite mounds. They have also observed chimpanzees in West Africa using stones to pound nuts to break open the shells and get at the meat within. They have done this for many generations, however, this is not the same as making stone tools. The stone tools made by Homo habilis and other early hominids are much more complex than the simple chippings utilized by chimpanzees. A chimpanzee using a stick to acquire food. The identi fi cation of Homo habilis as a tool user was con fi rmed by primatologists observing modern primates using tools to acquire food and for defence. Issue 1 March 17, 2026 Author or Publication Name 5 Tobais examined the fossils discovered by the Leakeys and came to the conclusion that unlike Australopithecus , this creature was a tool maker. It is from this that Homo habilis got its name, Handy Man. Whether or not, there were other hominids from the same time period, and in the same evolutionary lineage as Homo habilis, is as yet unknown. Nevertheless, the name stuck. Olduvai Gorge is a huge gash in the Serengeti Plain where Africa is slowly rifting apart into two continents. This same landscape, where a shallow lake existed two million years ago, was a paradise for game from the beginning of human history. Sometime around 100, 000 BP an earthquake resulted in the opening of a huge gorge in the Serengeti that was several hundred feet deep, exposing the deposits of a shallow lake that formed and dried many times over hundreds of thousands of years. It was on the shores of this lake that some of the earliest known humans stopped to butcher some animals before moving on. Olduvai Gorge was found in 1908 by a German butter fl y hunter named Wilhelm Kattwinkle, however, it was not until the 1920s that Olduvai Gorge was discovered to be an extremely rich source of fossilized animal bones. In 1931, Louis and Mary Leakey, arguably the most famous paleo-anthropologists of the 20th Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania. Olduvai Gorge has been called the Cradle of Mankind because the oldest hominid fossils and stone tools have been found here. Issue 1 March 17, 2026 Author or Publication Name 6 Century, discovered the fi rst stone tools in Olduvai Gorge. Louis Leakey, who h a d g r e a t i n s i g h t , prophetically stated that one day hominid fossils would be found in Olduvai Gorge. He also believed that not only would hominid fossils be found, but also e v i d e n c e o f h o m i n i d activity. The archaeological record in Olduvai Gorge consists of a strati fi ed series of lakebeds that formed in very still water. In places, the Leakeys discovered scatters of stones and animals bones. These spaces occupied an area equivalent to the area of a medium sized room. They were also very shallow, which suggests a vert short period of occupation. It was due to the fl oors, which were covered in choppers, fl akes and broken animal bones, the Leakey said that one day someone would fi nd a hominid. In 1959, Mary Leakey discovered the fossilized remains of an Australopithecus robustus , which she called Australopithecus boisei, after the philanthropist who funded their research. Was this the earliest tool maker? The discovery of Homo habilis in the layer below this one strongly suggested that it was Homo habilis who was the fi rst tool maker. Potassium-argon dating, which was used for the fi rst time in 1960, proved that the bottom layer of Olduvai Gorge was two million years old. In contrast, Australopithecus boisei was 1.75 million years old. At the time, it was believed that the origin of humans dated back to 500,000 BP. As a result, the discovery of Homo habilis was revolutionary. Since then, however, the origins of humans has been pushed back to two million BP. A side by side comparison of a chimpanzee and a human hand. The evolution of the opposable thumb in combination with the shorter palm and fi ngers gave early hominids greater dexterity and allowed for easier tool use. Issue 1 March 17, 2026 Author or Publication Name 7 The Homo habilis fossil discovered by Mary Leakey inn Olduvai Gorge was dated to 1.8 million BP. Home habilis stood four feet three inches tall and weighed eighty-eight pounds. Homo habilis was a slender bipedal hominid and c l o s e l y r e s e m b l e d Australopithecus , however, Homo habilis had a higher, rounder face that protruded much less, also with a smaller jaw. Additionally, Homo habilis h a d a l a rg e r b r a i n t h a n A u s t r a l o p i t h e c u s H o m o habilis also had more curved hands which were good for gripping. Imagine yourself manipulating a pebble as you turn it in one hand and fl ake it with a hammer stone in the other. Homo habilis also had opposable thumb which allowed it to manipulate smaller objects and make stone tools. Homo habilis was found as part of an artifact and animal bone scatter that the Leakeys described as a living fl oor. They believed that these were basecamps from which hominids would, such as Homo habilis would hunt and scavenge. More recent research has been dedicated to determining if this interpretation is correct. Homo habilis’ skeletal anatomy consists of a mosaic of both apes and hominids. Homo habilis had longer arms, which were better suited to climbing in trees. Some researchers believe that Homo habilis may have slept in trees, where it would be safe from predators, as opposed to living on the ground, where it would have to camp on a living fl oor. Homo habilis’ anatomy suggests that it may have spent much of its time in tree, suggesting that its was much more ape like than human. A diorama of a group of Homo habilis scavenging meat from a dead hippo. Issue 1 March 17, 2026 Author or Publication Name 8 Human evolution was initially understood to be a gradual process. However, Australopithecus and the early hominids show a very di ff erent picture. There were long periods of relative evolutionary stability punctuated by bursts of sudden change. These periods of rapid evolutionary change were the result of new selective pressures, such as altered circumstances. These my have included changes in the environment or alterations to the organism itself. These changes may have occurred sometime between three and two million BP. This is one of the most critical periods of human prehistory. Who was the fi rst human? This question, as with so much of palaeontology, is the subject of on-going debate. These debates are compounded by the fact that there are very few artifacts from this time period. There is an on-going debate in paleoanthropology circles not only over the question of what is or isn’t a member of the genus Homo , but also over the nature of the relationships between di ff erent hominid species three million years ago. Enough is known by researchers today to divide hominids that evolved after three million BP into two very broad groups. The fi rst group consists of Australopithecus and hominids, such as Homo habilis An artist’s impression of prehistoric Africa. The environmental shift from woodland to savannah produced a wide range of physiological and behavioural di ff erences between hominids and primates. Issue 1 March 17, 2026 Author or Publication Name 9 All of these hominids had a low body mass and a bipedal skeleton. Additionally, they retained the ability to climb trees. The second group includes all later human forms, i n c l u d i n g m o d e r n H o m o sapiens We have a larger body mass, modern human like physique that functioned well in open country, but very limited climbing ability. A vast anatomical and behavioural chasm separates these two groups, with the second group appearing in Africa 1.9 million years ago. Before this time, human behaviour was much more ape-like than human. This break between apes and hominids occurred somewhere between two and three million years ago. However, whether this occurred soon after the emergence of Homo habilis or sometime later is as yet unknown. For many years, paleoanthropologists assumed that the fi rst hominids were at least somewhat similar to modern hunter-gatherer tribes, such as the San people of the Khalihari Desert. They argued that the earliest humans lived in base camps, from which the males hunted and scavenged meat, while the females collected plant foods. This assumption came from research into modern hunter- gatherer cultures. It was also based on the assumption that the Olduvai living fl oors were in fact campsites where people ate and slept. In actuality, more recent research has suggested that something much di ff erent was taking place. This research has been done, not just in the fi eld, but also in the laboratory. It has been done by intensively studying the cut marks and fracture patterns on the bones found at Olduvai Gorge. Two San bushmen starting a fi re. The San are composed of a variety of hunter gatherer tribes in southwest Africa. They are believed to be the oldest continuous culture in the world. Some researchers have studied the San, along with Africa’s other hunter gatherer cultures for insights into human prehistory. Issue 1 March 17, 2026 Author or Publication Name 10 T h i s r e s e a r c h demonstrated that the bones found at theses scatters had a very complex history. After they had been dropped there, many of them w e r e f r a c t u r e d , however, they were also covered in teeth marks made by hyenas and o t h e r s c a v e n g e r s . Homo habilis lived in p r e d a t o r fi l l e d e n v i r o n m e n t , a s a re s u l t , i t h a s b e e n speculated that early hominids were not skilled hunters, but rather expert scavengers. Early hominids lived in trees, from which they were able to observe the ground. They might see a lion, or a pride of lions, with a kill. Waiting for the lions to eat their fi ll, might be hyenas and other predators. The hominids see an opportunity, dash out and collect some meat, which they cut with choppers. They then carry it away to a location near the lake, where they butcher and eat the meat they have collected. Eventually, they drop it before moving on. Not very far away, hyenas are hovering, waiting to move in. They were able to achieve this quick scavenging and butchery by utilizing a very simple and e ff ective stone technology. Originally identi fi ed and studied by Mary Leakey, when she excavated and wrote about the chopping tools they created. These were crude cobbles from which a few fl akes had been fractured. They used these jagged edges to slice and dismember meat. More recent research has demonstrated that it wasn’t the cobbles that mattered, but rather the fl akes that were struck from A stone tool from Olduvai Gorge, dated to 1.8 million BP. Issue 1 March 17, 2026 Author or Publication Name 11 them. There sharp edges were highly e ff ective at scrapping meat, severing sinews and dismembering b o n e s q u i c k l y a n d e ffi ciently. The fi rst stone tools consisted of large stone fl akes several inches long that were used and t h e n d i s c a r d e d . T h i s t e c h n o l o g y h a s b e e n painstaking replicated by modern researchers snd is much more sophisticated than it initially appears to be. It also demonstrates detailed knowledge of di ff erent stone types. These tools are known as Oldowan tools, after Olduvai Gorge. Some of the oldest Oldowan tools date to 2.6 million years ago and was in continuous use until two million BP. The earliest archaeological sites of all come from Ethiopia, on the shores of Lake Turkana. The earliest knows tools ever found come from a site called Gona in Ethiopia and date to 2.6 million BP. The best archaeological evidence for early hominid behaviour comes from a series of sites on the shores of Lake Turkana. Excavations at Koobi Fora have revealed the remains of antelope that have been scavenged and butchered by a small group of hominids utilizing only simple stone tools for this purpose. Trees provided shade for those who scavenged and cut up the carcasses. This was merely a temporary stopping point, and not a permanent, or even a seasonal camp. How did Homo habilis behave? Were hominids more ape-like as many researchers believe, or did they behave di ff erently. There are three major di ff erences between apes and early hominids. Hominids were bipedal, which was more e ff ective for A view of Lake Turkana, Kenya, Issue 1 March 17, 2026 Author or Publication Name 12 a carrying tools and other objects. Hominids were also adapted to living in open savannah, where they had to organize themselves in order to cover far more territory. As time went on, the early hominids became increasingly dependant on on technology. As a result, the casual opportunistic fl akes, characterized by Oldowan tools, eventually gave way to much, much, much more re fi ned, sophisticated and standardized tool types. Starting a million years ago, Homo habilis ’ larger brain allowed for a much higher degree of social intelligence. This allowed early hominids to cope more easily with the complexities of living in larger groups. The future course of human evolution may have been the consequence of the fact that early hominids had to be more socially adept. In this essay, we have examined the three hominid forms that are know to have fl ourished in east Africa starting at around three million BP. The hominid population was much more diverse than the archaeological record might suggest. Homo habilis is A diorama of archaic hominids. The ability to co-exist in complex social groups may have given hominids an early evolutionary advantage. Issue 1 March 17, 2026 Author or Publication Name 13 believed to have been the earliest known evolutionary ancestor of modern humans. Homo habilis is also believed to have been the earliest took make and opened a huge evolutionary chasm between Homo habilis and Australopithecus The discovery of Homo habilis raised a number of additional questions about how the earliest stone tools were made. Initially, some researchers believed that Homo habilis lived in settled camp, however, subsequent research has shown that this was probably not the case. The choppers and fl akes produced by Homo habilis is the world’s oldest technology. These tools needed, not only knowledge and familiarity with stone, but also a hight degree of skill to manufacture. These tools are also the ancestors of much more advanced tool making technology, but highly e ff ective in the world in which it was used. As a result, it fl ourished for a very long time. The early hominids were much more ape-like in their behaviour and social organization than human, however, they were probably also much more socially adept than apes. They were not capable of fully articulate speech, like modern humans, but their ability to communicate by grunting and gesturing may have been more advanced than those of there hominids. Homo habilis needed to have advanced communication abilities due its larger and more complex social structure. Two million years ago, all hominids living on Earth lived in central Africa, south of the Sahara Desert. There was little to distinguish Homo habilis from the many other hominids that also lived in Africa during the same time. However, over time, the other hominids became extinct, and only the genus Homo survived to evolve into the fi rst true humans, classi fi ed generically, but probably inaccurately as Homo erectus , the fi rst upright humans. A reconstruction of Lucy from the National Museum of Anthropology in Mexico. Researchers are uncertain as to how ape-like early hominid behaviour was, but it is believed that they may have been capable of more sophisticated communication than other primates. This may have given them an evolutionary advantage. Issue 1 March 17, 2026 Author or Publication Name 14 Illuminating the Dark Continent Over the course of its long history, Africa has meant many di ff erent things to many di ff erent people, however, to many people in the western world, Africa is mainly seen as a lost continent. This seems to be the case for two main reasons. The fi rst reason is that Africa seems lost from view because we don’t hear very much about Africa. As a result, we don’t know very much about Africa, or its many cultures. Because of this lack of knowledge, to many people in the west, Africa seems marginal to their consciousness. The second reason why Africa seems to have become a lost continent is because most of what we do hear unintentionally reinforces the image of Africa as hopelessly lost. In the western imagination Africa is mired in poverty, disease, violence, corruption and tyranny. This negative stereotype itself has a long history in the west, however, for a long time, this was not based on yesterday’s depressing news story, but rather on a much more straightforward dismissal of Africa as a repository of savagery and a lack of civilization. This was true across a broad spectrum of western society, at all social levels and walks of life. In the late 18th Century, the Scottish philosopher David Hume wrote that he was Apt to suspect the negroes to be naturally inferior to the whites. There scarcely was ever a civilized nation of that complexion, nor even any individual eminent, either in action or speculation, no ingenious manufacturers, no art, no sciences. The sun rising over the African savannah. Issue 1 March 17, 2026 Author or Publication Name 15 In 1831, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel gave a series of lectures that eventuality became famous in their own right, in which he said of Africans He exhibits the natural man in his completely wild and untamed state. There is nothing harmoniums with humanity in this type of character. At this point we quit Africa, not to mention it again. For Africa is no historical part of the world. What we properly understand by Africa is the unhistorical, the undeveloped spirit still involved in the conditions of nature. The Oxford professor Hugh Trevor-Roper set forth his own thoughts on Africa in relation to the study of history in the middle of the 20th Century. Perhaps in the future, there will be some African history to teach, but at present there is none, or very little. There is only the history of Europeans in Africa. The rest is largely darkness, like the history of pre-European, pre-Columbian America. I do not deny that men existed, even in dark countries and dark centuries, nor that they had political life and culture. Interesting to sociologists and anthropologists, but history, I believe, is essentially a form of movement. The positive content of history consisting not in the meaningless fermentation of passive or barbarous societies. Hugh Trever-Roper was the Regius Professor of Modern History at Oxford University from 1957 until 1980. Like many people in the 20th Century, Roper perpetuated the mistaken belief that Africa has no history of its own. Issue 1 March 17, 2026 Author or Publication Name 16 The approach we will take to African history will be different than that of Hume, Hegel or Trevor-Roper. However, it should be noted that our goal is also not lurch to the other extreme, and sugar coat, explain away or make excuses. There is enough reality behind the images of misery to make sugar coating, or making excuses for African history, or explaining away its present realities a genuine disservice to the people of Africa. As such, we will not romanticize African history, or where all of Africa’s problems and challenges are wholly attributed to outsiders. What we seek is a much fuller and more balanced perspective of Africa, its history and its people over the long term. We seek a subtle and more nuanced appreciation of the full breadth and depth of the African experience. Therefore, we come to our subject with enthusiasm because of the potential that the material offers us, but we also come to African history critically. This means that African history is fully human history, nothing more, nothing less. The Ethiopia Famine of 1983 to 1985. The image most people have of Africa is of su ff ering and poverty. This is an overly simplistic and incorrect image. Issue 1 March 17, 2026 Author or Publication Name 17 We also need to be more speci fi c about where we are heading. We will concentrate our focus on Africa south of the Sahara Desert. To include north Africa would require us to include themes that are more relevant to the Near East and the Mediterranean world. We will devote some of our time to ancient Egypt and the upper Nile, however, we do so because the interpretation of Egyptian history in relation to world history in general, and African history in particular means that this is something that we are unable to avoid. We will devote a considerable amount of time to the history of west Africa, in addition to central, eastern and southern Africa. We will be especially concerned with the history of southern Africa. The Republic of South Africa in particular offers the potential for a number of comparisons with the history of North America, especially the history of the United States. Both South Africa and The planting of the cross by Bartolomew Dias in 1488 In some ways, the history of South Africa is similar to the history of the United States. Issue 1 March 17, 2026 Author or Publication Name 18 the United States had indigenous populations which were affected by the a r r i v a l o f E u r o p e a n c o l o n i s t s i n t h e 1 7 t h Century. Both of these countries then had colonial h i s t o r i e s , i n c l u d i n g histories of slavery and frontier histories. In the 20th Century, the United States and South Africa both developed systems of legalized, rigidly enforced white supremacy, as well as the rise of movements to combat those systems of oppression. History is often described as drama. Accordingly, drama is played out on a stage. In the most basic sense, the stage of African history is the natural environment. Geography affects the unfolding of the human experience at every turn, and the logical place from which to begin our foray into African history. As a result, we will look at, not a single stage, but at an incredible variety of environments. Understanding the differences between desert, tropical rainforest and savannah can help us how Africa’s natural reality helped to shape African history. We will also go on a virtual tour of Africa’s great places and natural wonders, starting at the Cape of Good Hope, and moving northward to Mount Kilimanjaro, Lake Malawi and fi nishing at Victoria Falls, the source of the Nile. Despite the importance of the stage, the play is the thing. We are primarily interested in human history over the long term, and Africa has the longest human history of all. Various kinds of evidence, including fossil evidence and genetic analysis, make a clear case for Africa as the cradle of humanity. We are also interested in the principle phases of the unfolding of the human experience in this vase continent. Landing of Van Riebeeck at the Cape of Good Hope in 1652 by Charles Davidson Bell, 1851. Like the United States, South Africa was a settler colony built on land taken from displaced natives. Issue 1 March 17, 2026 Author or Publication Name 19 Certain themes will recur, and we will examine these themes shortly, but fi r s t l e t ’ s c o n s i d e r c h r o n o l o g y. H i s t o r y i s nothing without chronology, not because we need to memorize names and dates, b u t r a t h e r w i t h o u t chronology, we have no way of establishing a sequence of events, at change, at causation. We have no way of discovering the roots of a particular situation or epoch in the preceding epoch. We have no way of understanding the growth and fl owering of those situations and how that provides the seed for what comes next. With this in mind, we will follow a more or less chronological pattern of African history. Accordingly, we will start at the beginning and proceed chronologically to the present day. However, we will not be overly obsessed with focusing our attention on sub-Saharan Africa. We are also not going to be overly obsessed with focusing our attention on the chronology of African history, and may, for the sake of continuity, focus more deeply on a particular place or theme, and fast forward the narrative, such as in the case of Ethiopia or the Belgian Congo. Our major recurring themes, including the following questions: • How have Africans and outsiders who have come to Africa encountered the natural environment? The earliest Africans were foragers and extracted their sustenance directly from the natural environment by hunting and gathering and altered the environment relatively little. However, this began to change following the introduction and spread of agriculture, which was Foragers living in the Congo rainforest in 2014. The earliest African communities consisted of hunter- gathers, similar to this one. Issue 1 March 17, 2026 Author or Publication Name 20 reinforced by the introduction and spread of iron tools. This lead to population growth, the emergence of cities, infrastructure and the extraction o f r a w m a t e r i a l s , a l l o f w h i c h profoundly altered the relationship between people and nature. • How have Africans organized and structured their communities? What is the nature of African identity? What do we mean by clans and lineages? What is an age set? What is exogamous marriage? What does it mean wean a community is matrilineal or patrilineal? Most crucially, what about ethnic identity? What is a tribe? We want to examine the role that status and power, or lack of them, in addition to the roles of women, plays in African societies, both past and present. • Africa’s religious and spiritual history. We want to provide an over view of Africa’s various indigenous religious traditions, but one can fi nd common elements in and about creator deities, or supernatural powers that affect the natural world. We also want to trace the arrival and spread of two of two of the world’s great religious traditions, Christianity and Islam, both of which became an important part of the African story. However, they have not resulted in the erasure of pre-existing native African religions. • The rise of Africa’s major states-kingdoms and empires. A terracotta Nok sculpture from Nigeria, dated to between 500 BCE and 500 CE. Subsaharan Africa has its own artistic and cultural traditions and its own history of kingdoms and empires,