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How the Ice Age Changed Civilization
Our ancestors had the same lifestyle for 2 million years until the last Ice Age altered their trajectory.
By the time the last Ice Age began over 115,000 years ago, hominids were long settled into their nomadic hunter-gatherer lifestyle. Previous migration waves that had begun as far as 2 million years ago in southern Africa across the African continent and further North, had by now resulted in the Neanderthals inhabiting parts of Europe and the Denisovans and Homo Erectus inhabiting parts of Asia. Scientists believe that Homo Sapiens — the species that would end up engulfing all others — had already evolved in Africa about 130,000 to 200,000 years ago.
In 115,000 BC, the last Ice Age began its 105,000-year reign over the planet. During its coldest periods, thick ice would cover both poles of the Earth and spread even further inland. Today’s Scandinavia, Germany, Poland, Netherlands, British Isles, as well as the Alps and parts of the Pyrenees were covered in ice. In North America, the land gripped by ice would stretch as far as today’s New York.
But it wasn’t just the ice that made Earth’s landscape unrecognizable. Because of the low temperatures, oceans and seas would freeze causing a massive decrease in sea levels. As a result, land masses would emerge above…
