Page "History of Kazakhstan" Paragraph 1

The history of Kazakhstan describes the human past in the Eurasia's largest segment of the steppe belt that was the home and crossroads for numerous human groups starting with extinct Pithecanthropus and Sinanthropus 1 mln – 800, 000 in the Karatau Mountains, Caspian and Balkhash areas ; Neanderthals 140 – 40 thousand years ago in the Karatau Mountains and Central Kazakhstan, and the arrival of the modern Homo Sapiens 40 – 12 thousand years ago in the Southern, Central, and Eastern Kazakhstan.

After the end of the Last glacial period, 12. 5 – 5 thousand years ago campsites spread across the whole of Kazakhstan, eventually leading to extinction of large animals ( mammoth, woolly rhinoceros ).

The hunter-gatherer communes invented bow and boats, and used domesticated wolf and traps for hunting, developed Atbasar archeological culture.

Around 5 thousand years ago in the process of Neolithic Revolution appeared animal husbandry and agriculture, which formed the Atbasar, Kelteminar, Botai, Mokanjar, Ust-Narym, and other archeological cultures.

The Botai culture ( 3600 – 3100 BCE ) is credited with the first domestication of horses.

In the course of the Neolithic Revolution.

ceramics and polished stone tools appeared, found spread across Kazakhstan steppes, river valleys, and mountains.

The 4th – 3rd millenniums witnessed the beginning of metal production, manufacture of copper tools, and use of casting molds.

Up to 100 sites were found with copper casting shops.

In the 2nd millennium, ore mining developed in Central Kazakhstan, pastoral animal husbandry appeared and spread, and horse nomadic economy became a developed technology as a viable production method in the Eurasian steppes.