Download Today`s powerpoint slides

Homework
• Complete H.W. #3 on the assignment sheet
for tomorrow.
• Test on Unit #1 Monday
– Multiple Choice Questions
– Short Answer Questions
Aim #4: What were the earliest
humans like (part 1)?
• Do Now: Future historians will want to look
back and know what life was like in the 21st
century. What three items would you leave to
give them an understanding of what
youth/teen culture was like during your
generation, and why?
I. Prehistory
= Period of time before written records existed
(before writing was invented)
A. Sources of prehistorical knowledge:
1. Archaeologist: A person who digs up and studies
artifacts (remains of human made objects – tools,
jewelry, weapons).
2. Anthropologist: A person who uses
artifacts to try to explain what prehistoric
cultures were like.
A. Sources of prehistorical knowledge:
3. Paleontologist: A person who studies fossils
(remains of living organisms – bones, plant
tissues).
Australopithecines
(4 million to 1 million B.C.)
• “Lucy-” Discovered in Ethiopia by
anthropologist Donald Johanson in 1974.
Earliest hominid (human-like being) found up
to that time.
Australopithecines
(4 million to 1 million B.C.)
• Found in southern and eastern Africa
• Brain size: 500 cm³ (orange)
• Walked upright
• Had opposable thumbs, allowing them to pick
up small objects and make simple tools.
Homo Habilis
Means: “Man of Skill”
2.5 million to 1.5 million B.C.
• Lived in East Africa.
• First to make stone tools to cut meat and
crack open bones.
Homo Erectus
Means: “Upright Man”
(1.6 million to 300,000 B.C.)
• Migration:
• First to use:
• Brain size = 1000 cm³
• Used larger, more advanced
tools for digging, scraping and
cutting.
• May have developed the
beginning of spoken language
Concluding Question
• Would you consider Homo Erectus to be
human? Why or why not?