ancient human

 humans have been doing mostly the same thing for SO many years. talking to each other, schools, trade, crafting, law, society. cultural modernity was reached 50,000 BC don't forget. 

but it all started with the "recognition of I", of self, which is on the order of tens of millions of years ago. thats when humans really started to take a turn. hominids diverged from gorillas around 9 mya. probably the theory of self, gestural communication, cooperation, social hierarchy, tool use, and other basic aspects of human life were already in place (or their foundations). 

after 3 mya and by 700,000 BC, early hominids (Homo erectus and heidelbergensis) already had established cave man culture and had left Africa to expand. by 500,000 BC, most of Europe and Asia had at least been colonized by someone (prior species evolving into Neandertals and Denisovans). all this time, Homo sapiens was evolving from heidelbergensis in Africa, until 70-60,000 BC when they too migrated out. this was the full blown migration of sapien that would overtake the world.

after 500,000 BC, and by 100,000 BC, abstract symbolic thought AND sophisticated spoken language became fully developed. broca's & wernicke's areas become fully evolved. story telling developed. "Our god is the earth, we must kill them, this is my family, i will give you this fish, dont touch my bear" etc. ever since then we've been wheelin and dealin in boats, weapons, trade, structures, clothing, all the good stuff.

so we had about 1 million years of consistent rich cave man culture and activity, most modern lines of thought already had foundations, religions being created, primeval city states and monkey kings. just, no one was writing anythng down in any preservable context. 

after 100,000 BC by 50,000 BC, humans all over the world were behaviorally modern: abstract thought, symbolism, language, hunting, society, laws. neanderthals were already operating flint mines in the ground, for tool making. south african humans already had a hematite mine operating, extracted for pigment production. we can mine, yall. but seemingly most precious metals back then were used in cerominial purposes: badges, funeral things, etc. slabs of marble in funeral tombs. 

so we had over 50,000 years of consistent rich fully developed human culture before anything got even documented.

after 30,000 BC and known by 10,000 BC, basic writing was finally being employed preservably: hieroglyphics, symbols, calendars, math, counting. 

so after 10,000 BC, and known by 1000 BC, the Greeks had already colonized the mediterrenean coasts. Crete was already long since colonized by the Minoans by 10,000 BC, with great seafaring prowess. and the phonecians were living a vibrant, scholarly society to the east. and egyptians, similarly, to the south. and (?proto-) romans to the west. and to the north: macedonia (who would cause trouble) and the germanic tribes. Greeks (and ?most coastal societies) were adept at crafting boats, sailing, etc. 

so by the time Homer wrote the Iliad around 750 BC, he was just documenting oral stories that were being told for ?hundreds of years already.

agriculture and land controlled were the two main wealth resources of the day. but we're all so close together now, some are super rich. well luckily we found shiny metallic stones in the ground that look super cool and its kinda a pain in the ass to get but if we start collecting a ton of it, its gunna look way cooler, and other people will also want it. 

thus economics with coins is born!

but how did currency evolve? it probably started 10s of thousands of years BC with the evolution of the theory of mind, altruism, accountability. when humanoids started realizing "if you try ten times as hard as he does, and the community all benefits, you should receive more than him". an extension of "I have this" and "I need this", which is at the base of evolution itself. cooperation then underlies the origin of currency. in a hierchical social group, everyone understands that everyone else is different - we just need a way to quantify that, to counteract cheaters in the group.

after 100,000 BC and by 50,000 BC, the main form of currency was promises and debts, NOT trading materials. favors too.

by 10,000 BC, agriculture was booming, and crops and livestock became all the rage. grains were some of the earliest material currency. by 4000 BC, egyptians were using gold and mesopotamians silver. mesopotamians in 3000 BC said "If you work 20 hours we will give you one bushel of grain", and "deposit a bushel of grain with us each day, and youll receive a clay tablet that you can use to redeem services with us". for generations, humanoids had already been trading with debts, promises, favors. and for tens of thousands of years, trading with materials here and there. but by 10,000 BC, humans basically had the hang of material items as a form of currency.