It makes sense that man could have lived in small settlements where there was a constant food source like supplied by the sea or a large lake. As to why development did not go faster, we have to consider the periodic ice ages that occurred around every 100,000 years. We know that Long Valley and Yellowstone blew up around 700 and 600 thousand years ago, what about other more recent world wide catastrophes. Toba blew about 74,000 years ago and scientists now feel the subsequent 6 or so year long nuclear winter seriously reduced the world hominid population. If we go back into another ice age will we end up with nuclear warfare fighting over the reduced area of useable, growable land? What will our “civilization” look like then? The “Dark Ages?”
Valid questions. Civilization was slow (imho) because of low life spans. Live spans were low because of lack of proper diet and medicines. Trade increased diets with choices available and eventually life spans increased and then medicines to increase life spans. Any worldwide catastrophe returns mankind to the Dark Ages. Never is mankind safe. A university Professor was listening to summed it up best (imho) when the Professor lectured on life and how fragile life is .... His final three words of the lecture were, “Good Luck, Everyone!” Don’t know about the other people in the class but the Professor’s lecture scared the ‘heck out of me’. Lecture was a long time before the global warming scam. At that point was listening to Professor the world was beginning to think the New Ice Age was beginning. Cycle come and go. How often those cycles come and go is one for debate though none of has/have any idea. Basically our minds are useless in knowing the history of our planet except for knowing once there were dinosaurs and dark ages.
There have been periods of massive glaciation, but there have never been periodic ice ages, they’ve happened rapidly, and at random intervals. And there was no ‘population bottleneck’ at Toba — there’s no genetic evidence for it, any more than there’s genetic evidence for out-of-Africa. And the archaeological evidence is to the contrary.
Toba super-volcano catastrophe idea ‘dismissed’
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/3015183/posts
Modern Humans in India Earlier Than Previously Thought?
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/3067171/posts
‘Pompeii-Like’ Excavations Tell Us More About Toba Super-Eruption
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/2464512/posts
many think and this is only a theory that our planet has experienced nuclear warfare in our past. I do not know. Many of the reasons do sound possible to an occurrence having occurred but then there is also the radiation of space ... thus a past nuclear war on planet Earth becomes another 'unknown'. Someone once made the comment .... Maybe we destroying ourselves is God's Way of telling us to get it right this time or you shall repeat the process until I, God, decide to interrupt. Only person alive that knows though is God. (imho) ...