How Did Humans Survive the Ice Age?

Depiction of ice age people

Earth has experienced at least five significant ice ages in its history — periods in which colder global temperatures caused glaciers to expand across the planet’s surface. Homo sapiens, which emerged about 300,000 years ago in Africa, survived two such ice ages. The most recent, known as the Last Glacial Period, or simply the “last ice age,” occurred between 120,000 and 11,500 years ago. It reached peak conditions between 24,000 and 21,000 years ago, in a period known as the Last Glacial Maximum, when vast ice sheets covered North America and northern Europe.

At that point, Homo sapiens had already spread around the world. Many of our ancestors, therefore, found themselves in a survival situation during the frigid ice age, along with animals such as brown bears, caribou, and wolves — as well as large animals known as megafauna. These impressive creatures included woolly mammoths, mastodons, and saber-toothed cats — all of which went extinct during the last ice age.

How, then, did humans survive? It was no easy task, for sure, but our ancestors were highly adaptable. Here’s how humans not only managed to survive the last ice age, but also emerged as the most dominant species on Earth.

Weatherproof Shelters

Contrary to the popular image of ice age humans — or “cavemen” — living in deep caves, our ancestors were more likely to have built sturdy rock shelters. While these shelters often made use of natural features, such as a depression in a cliff face, early humans would also have made extensive modifications to further weatherproof their shelters, such as draping large animal hides from overhangs to block out the bitter winds. With a warm fire blazing inside, these shelters provided ample protection from the cold. In the brief but slightly warmer summer months, when hunters moved out onto the open plains, they built dome-shaped huts or tents out of mammoth bones, which were then covered with animal skins.

Warm Clothing

Unsurprisingly, warm clothing was absolutely vital to survival in the ice age. While humans might have once worn rudimentary, loose-fitting animal hides, such clothing would not have been adequate in freezing temperatures. Thankfully, about 30,000 years ago, our ancestors developed what anthropologist Brian Fagan called the most important invention in human history: the needle. Carved out of ivory or bone, with tiny eyes bored through by a fine-pointed flint drill, these ice age needles would be instantly recognizable today. They allowed for the manufacture of tight-fitting clothing that was tailored to the individual and often sewn together in layers, providing effective protection from the cold.

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Innovative Tools

Needles weren’t the only innovation that helped humans survive the ice age. As part of their adaptation, Homo sapiens improved upon existing tools, some of which had been used by the Neanderthals, while also creating new innovations in toolmaking and weaponry. One of the most important tools created during the ice age was the burin, a type of rock chisel used to cut grooves and notches into materials such as bones and antlers, allowing for the creation of intricate and lightweight spearheads and harpoon tips. Not only did this mark one of the first instances of detachable and interchangeable technology — known as compound tools — but it was also the first time that tools had been developed exclusively for making other tools.

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Language and Art

Scientists suggest that Homo erectus, an extinct early human species, may have used a primitive form of conversation, or protolanguage, when it walked the Earth some 2 million years ago. Fast-forward to the last ice age, and members of Homo sapiens were most definitely talking among themselves. Language was arguably as important as anything else when it came to surviving the ice age. It allowed humans to share knowledge, whether regarding new technology, edible plants, or animal migrations. And through spoken language, as well as symbolic activities such as rituals, personal adornments, and art (the cave paintings at sites such as Lascaux in France, for example), our ancestors created a shared sense of social identity. This, in turn, allowed them to band together and forge connections beyond their immediate communities. By collaborating, early humans had a far greater chance of surviving the extremes of the ice age — and, ultimately, they came out stronger than ever before.