Written by Kim Sang Tae

Humans had begun to use letters and systematically recorded their own thoughts and experiences since B.C. 3000, nearly 5,000 years ago from today. The Epic of Gilgamesh written in Sumerian clay tablets as well as the good luck and bad luck carved in Chinese oracle bone inscription became the foundation of the civilization, which rapidly improved for the last 5,000 years. We call the rise and fall of humans originated from the letters as ‘history’, and we call the field to study the past based on the records as the academy of history.

However, ‘the first letter of humans’ is not ‘the first record of humans.’ The evolution of human beings started 7 million years ago, and humans left so many recordings for the last 7 million years. On their stone-made bowls, in their town site, on their wall paintings inside the cave, and in the slash carved on the stone, there remained the traces of the past and they all passed down on us. Sometimes, their bodies with only bones told us the ancient experiences instead.

This book is about the story of archeology to explore the history before the letter creation through the remains and historical sites. Among them, the writer led readers into the world of ‘paleolithic archeology’, which people studied archeology originated from the scene a human picked up a sharp stone 3 million years ago. How come those common rocks have their own meanings and usages? And how do these rocks have each meaning and purposes? Let’s pick out the stone and bones buried in strong ground and let’s read the life and thoughts of primitive humans.