The Rise of Wealth: How We Became Civilized and Started Shopping

Abstract

In 25,000 BC a few people at Dolni Vestonice, now in the Czech Republic, lived in shelters made of rocks, wood, and mastodon bones. Most tribes back then dwelt in caves or temporary huts, and some on the European steppe made torches by burning animal fat in the bulbs of mammoth femurs. From the era of Homo habilis through 10,000 BC, total global wealth was near zero.