Prehistory questions

Interbreeding between Neanderthals with modern humans took place several times. Neanderthal-derived DNA was found in the genome of contemporary populations in Europe and Asia, it accounts for 1–4% of modern genomes. Neanderthal genes are absent from most modern populations in sub-Saharan Africa.

Neanderthals had large cranial capacity (1,600 cm3), which was larger than that of modern humans. Compared to modern humans, neanderthals had shorter legs and bigger bodies - this was likely an adaptation to preserve heat in cold climates. Larger eye sockets suggest that their eyesight may have been better than that of modern humans.

Neanderthals are named after the first site where their fossils were discovered in the mid-19th century – it was a river valley in Germany named Neanderthal. Neanderthal remains were found in Europe (early range), as well as Southwest, Central, and Northern Asia (late range).

The name of homo erectus indicates that it was the first human ancestor which was bipedal.

The name of homo habilis indicates that it was the first human ancestor which used and created stone tools.

The name “homo sapiens” was introduced in 1758 by Carl Linnaeus.

The mulberry is a significant fiber crop in the history of paper. It was used for papermaking in China by around 100 AD. The paper recipe used by Cai Lun included plant bark fibres, rags and fishing nets. Early paper makers particularly valued Mulberry for producing high quality paper. Washi, a Japanese handcrafted paper, is made with the inner bark, which is pounded and mixed with water to produce a paste, which is dried into sheets.

Caral, or Caral-Chupacigarro, was a large settlement in the Supe Valley, near Supe, Barranca Province, Peru. Caral is the most ancient city of the Americas ( inhabited roughly between 26th and 20th centuries BCE) and a well-studied site of the Norte Chico civilization.

The last universal common ancestor (LUCA) is the most recent population of organisms from which all organisms now living on Earth have a common descent. LUCA is not thought to be the first living organism on Earth, but only one of many early organisms, whereas the others became extinct. In 2016 study identified a set of 355 genes inferred to have been present in LUCA. LUCA is estimated to have lived some 3.5 to 3.8 billion years ago in the Paleoarchean era.

The He zun is an ancient Chinese ritual bronze vessel of the zun shape.It dates from the era of early Western Zhou (1046–771 BC) and is famous as the oldest artifact with the written characters meaning "Middle Kingdom", that is, "China" ( the modern names of China) in a bronze inscription on the container. Today it is in the Baoji Bronze Ware Museum in Shaanxi.