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The name Africa came into European use through the Romans, who administered as the province of Africa. It was made up of the territory formerly controlled by Carthage (location of modern Tunisia). The historian Leo Africanus attributes the origin to the Greek word phrike (φρικε, meaning "cold and horror"), combined with the negating prefix a-, so meaning a land free of cold and horror. But the change of sound from ph to f in Greek is datable to about the first century, so could not really be the origin of the name. Others have suggested it is from a name Afer, related to the modern name Berber. Egypt was considered part of Asia by the ancients, and first assigned to Africa by the geographer Ptolemy, who made the isthmus of Suez and the Red Sea the boundary between Asia and Africa. As Europeans came to understand the real extent of the continent, the idea of Africa expanded with their knowledge.
Africa was the birthplace of the genus homo, which includes a broad range of hominid species including Homo sapiens.
According to the latest archaeological and paleontological evidence, hominids were already in existence at least five million years ago. These animals were very much like their close cousins the African apes, but had adopted a bipedal form of locomotion, giving them a crucial advantage in the struggle for survival, as this enabled them to live in both forested areas and on the open savannaSavanna is a grassland dotted with trees, and occurs in several types of biomes. In savannas, grasses form the predominant vegetation type, usually mixed with herbs and shrubs, with trees scattered individually or in small clumps. Savannas are sometimes a, at a time when Africa was drying up, with savannah enroaching on forested areas.
By 3 million years ago several hominid species had developed throughout southern, eastern and central Africa, the most famous of which are Australopithecus africanus and A. afarensis.
The next major evolutionary step occurred approximately 2 million years, with the advent of Homo habilisHomo habilis ("handy man") is a species of the genus Homo which lived from approximately 2. 5 million to 2. 0 million years ago. The definition of this species goes back to Louis Leakey who found fossils in Tanzania, East Africa, in 1964. Homo habilis is, the first species of hominid capable of making tools. This enabled H. habilis to begin eating meat, using his stone tools to scavenge kills made by other predators, and harvest cadavers for their bones and marrow. H. habilis was not capable of competing with predators as a hunter, and was still more prey than hunter, although he probably did steal eggs from nests, and may have been able to catch small gameGame is any animal hunted for food. The type and range of animals hunted for food varies in different parts of the world. This will be influenced by climate, animal diversity, local taste and locally accepted view about what can, or can not, be legitimate, newborns or incapacitated individuals from time to time.
By a million years ago Homo erectusHomo erectus ("upright man") is a hominid species that is believed to be an ancestor of modern humans. The species is found from the middle Pleistocene onwards. It had fairly modern human features, with a larger cranial capacity than that of Homo habilis' had evolved. With his large brain (1,000 ccA cubic centimetre cm is an SI derived unit of volume, equal to the volume of a cube with side length of 1 centi metre. It was the basic unit of volume of the CGS system of units. In SI units: 1 cm³ 10−6 cubic metres 1 milli litre (mL) The abbreviat), he mastered the African plains, fabricating a variety of stone toolA stone tool is, in the most general sense, any tool made of stone. Although stone-tool-dependant cultures exist even today, most stone tools are associated with prehistoric societies that no longer exist. The study of stone tools is often called lithic as, mainly so called pebble-tools and chopperThe word Chopper " when used alone, has several possible meanings in the English language: Chopper (motorcycle) a motorcycle were many parts were removed (chopped) or replaced, esp. a radically customized Harley-Davidson as seen in the movie Easy Rider Ths that enabled him to become a hunter equal to the top predators. In addition Homo erectus mastered the art of making fire, and was the first hominid to leave Africa, colonizing the entire Old World.
Records show Homo sapiens living in southern and eastern Africa between 100,000-150,000 years ago.
For more details on the evolution of hominids, which occurred in Eastern, southern and Central Africa, and particularly of Homo sapiens, please see under paleontology and other entries.
The earliest human migration out of Africa and within the continent are indicated by linguistic and cultural evidence, and increasingly by computer-analyzed genetic evidence (see Cavalli-Sforza).
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