By 10,000 years ago, humans occupied almost every piece of land on earth except for the Arctic, Antarctica, and the islands of the Pacifi c. Their tools and artifacts were becoming ever more elaborate. So was their diet, as they hunted more kinds of animals, fi shed more effi ciently, and gathered a greater variety of plant foods. To do so, they needed not only a more complex toolkit but also a deeper understanding of plants and animals, their behavior, and their value to humans. The technology of Stone Age people may seem simple to us, but their knowledge of their natural environment must have been enormous and has perhaps never been surpassed. Of all the earth’s environments, the shores of the Arctic Ocean offer the greatest challenges to human life. Nowadays, those who venture there from the temperate zone must bring everything they need to survive: ships, airplanes, snowmobiles, and tons of supplies and equipment. Yet long ago, the Inuit mastered the Arctic without elaborate imported paraphernalia.The first inhabitants on the American side of the Arctic Ocean, ancestors of the Inuit, came from Siberia 10,000 years ago to hunt caribou. Later inhabitants ventured out onto the ice to kill seals as they came up to breathe at air holes. Their descendants went out in teams to kill whales that approached the shore. On land, they hunted with bows and arrows, but to kill whales and sea mammals, they fashioned harpoons with detachable heads attached to sealskin fl oats by lines of sinew. Once they impaled an animal, they could track its underwater movements by following the fl oats on the surface. Their boats— kayaks with which to hunt seals and larger umiaks to carry several people and to hunt whales and walruses—were made of wood and animal skins. To travel on snow, they used sleds pulled by dogs. Their houses were built of stones and sod; in the winter out on the ice, they built igloos of snow. For heat and light in the months-long winter nights, they made lamps in which they burned animal fat and whale blubber. Their clothes and shoes were made of the skins of seals, polar bears, and other animals. Having the right clothing was a matter of life or death in the Arctic. Making them was the work of Inuit women, who spent hours softening the hides by chewing them and sewing them into airtight and watertight clothing for each member of the family.
Evolution of Koran Sciences and Epistemological Expansion of Islamic Faith
