PART 1: FROM CAVE TO COTTAGE

Though our understanding of how our ancient ancestors made “home” is largely speculative, we do know that from around 500,000 B.C. to approximately 8,000 B.C., humans were nomadic hunter-gatherers living in small and perhaps egalitarian groups. During this era the mastery of fire lit our first campfires and served as a significant technological catalyst for human evolution.

Just as fire revolutionized our early existence, another pivotal technology would forever reshape our conception of home–the invention of the plough. Emerging in different places around the world between 8,000-4000 B.C, this seemingly simple tool propelled humans into the Agricultural Revolution, and into fixed dwellings centered around a new type of campfire–the hearth. Our new homes became epicenters of economic activity, where families engaged in farming, crafting, and trading.