Transcript Early Humans

Early Humans
• History is the story of humans in the past.
• Historians are people who study and write
about the human past.
• Written histories began about 5,500 years
ago, when people first began to write.
• The story of people really begins in
prehistory—the time before people
developed writing.
Tools of Discovery
• What we know about the earliest people
comes from the things they left behind.
• Archaeologists hunt for evidence buried in
the ground where settlements might once
have been.
• They dig up and study artifacts—weapons,
tools, and other things made by humans.
• They also look for fossils—traces of plants
or animals that have been preserved in
rock.
The Stone Age
• Anthropologists focus on human society
and study how humans developed and
related to one another.
• The early period of human history is called
the Stone Age because people during this
time used stone to make tools and
weapons.
Paleolithic Age
• The earliest part of the period is the
Paleolithic or Old Stone Age.
• It began roughly around 2.5 million years
ago and lasted until around 8000 BC.
Hunter-Gatherers
• Early humans spent most of their time
searching for food.
• They hunted animals, caught fish, ate
insects, and gathered nuts, berries, fruits,
grains, and plants.
• They were nomads, or people who
regularly move from place to place.
• They traveled in bands of 30 or so
members because it was safer and made
the search for food easier.
Tribal Life
• Women maintained the campsite and
gathered nuts, berries, and grains.
• Men studied the habits of animals and
used tools to hunt animals.
-hand axe
-fire and traps
-spears
-bows and arrows
Adapting to the Environment
• People in warm climates needed less
clothing and shelter.
• People in cold climates found protection in
caves.
• Paleolithic people began to make shelters
out of animal hides held up by wooden
poles.
• Controlling fire was a life-changing
discovery that gave warmth, provided
protection from predators, and cooked
food.
Ice Ages
• Fire was essential for life during the Ice
Ages.
• The last Ice Age began about 100,000 BC
and lasted until 8000 BC.
• Large thick ice sheets covered parts of
Europe, Asia, and North America.
• Early humans had to adapt by changing
their diet, building sturdier shelters,
mastering fire, and using animal furs to
make warmer clothing.
Language, Art, and Religion
• The development of spoken language
made it easier for people to work together
and pass on knowledge.
• Early people also expressed themselves in
art.
• They crushed yellow, black, and red rocks
to make powders for paint. They painted
pictures of animals on cave walls.
• These pictures may have had religious
meaning or brought luck to the hunt.
The Invention of Tools
• Paleolithic people were the first to use
technology—tools and methods to help
humans perform tasks.
• They often used flint rocks to make tools
with sharp edges. To make hand axes or
hunting spears, they tied wooden poles to
pieces of shaped flint.
• As tool making skills increased, they
crafted smaller and sharper tools like fish
hooks and needles.
Neolithic Times
• After the last Ice Age ended, people began
to change their way of life.
• They began to domesticate animals and
plants for human use.
• Animals provided
-meat
-transportation
-milk
-clothing
New Stone Age
• Once people learned how to grow food,
they could stay in one place to grow grains
and vegetables.
• Farming gradually replaced hunting and
gathering and brought about the beginning
of the Neolithic Age, or New Stone Age,
which lasted from about 8,000 BC, until
about 4,000 BC.
Agricultural Revolution
• Some historians consider
this revolution to be the
most important event in
human history.
• Farming began in different
parts of the world as people
discovered how to grow
crops at the same time. (pg.
13)
Village Life
• Because villagers produced more than
enough to eat, they began to trade their
extra food surplus.
• They traded with people in their own
communities and also with people who
lived in other areas.
• They began to practice specialization, or
the development of different kinds of jobs.
Artisans
• Because not everyone was needed for
farming, some people had the time to
develop other types of skills.
• They made pottery from clay to store their
grain and other foods.
• They used plant fibers to make mats and
to weave cloth.
• These craftspeople traded what they made
for things they did not have.
Metal Tools
• In late Neolithic times, toolmakers created
better farming tools by using heating rocks
to melt the copper inside and then pouring
it into molds for tools and weapons.
• After 4,000 BC, craftspeople in Asia mixed
copper and tin to form bronze which was
harder and longer lasting than copper.
• The Bronze Age lasted from 3,000 BC to
1,200 BC.
Ötzi The Iceman
• Ötzi lived 5,300 years ago, during the
Neolithic Age.
• His frozen body was uncovered in the
Alps, between Italy and Austria in 1991.
• Scientists study his body, clothes, and
items found with him to uncover clues
about his life and death.
• Imagine that you are going hiking.
Make a list of the things you would
bring with you.
Then and Now