Early man and his culture from Eritrea in Northeast Africa

Abstract

The track of human evolution and its cultural remnants set evergreen inquiry in the minds of every modern man. African continent has yielded rich evidences that proved crucial not only in establishing the identity of human ancestors but also the cultural evolutionary trends complementing with the biological evolution. The post-independent era of Eritrea with the prevailing peace became conducive to undertake the present geo-archaeological explorations in different environmental zones such as the Eastern Rift and the Danakil Depression, the central highlands and the western and southwestern lowlands. The explorations made in the Buyya region in Eritrea during 2002, provided rich collections of cultural artifacts including stone tools that marks technically improved the workmanship in tool making. A pastoral rock art examined at Adi Keih depicted the human figures with weapons like spears, shields and arrows, and a few hump-less cattle. The evidences obtained in this study suggest that the cultural ecology of various primitive communities of Eritrea existing today such as Kunama, Nara, Rashaida, Afar, Saho, Bilen, Hidareb, Tigre and Tigrinya can be understandable from the varied cultural paradigms developed over a period of time in response to the then prevailed local environment. Thus, this study adds more evidences to the understandings of early human colonization in relation to the cultural artifacts. Keywords: Eritrea, Early man, Northeast Africa, culture, human evolution, Stone Age, tools, Homo sapiens.