Download Ch. 1 Class Notes

Name ____________________________________Date ______________________________Period ____
Chapter 1: The First Humans
Guided Lecture Notes
What does prehistory mean?
• Prehistory describes _____________________________________________________________
• We know about these people because of ____________________ and ______________ findings
• Prehistory is the longest period of history, could range from 3,000,000 BC to 3,000 BC
Archaeology
• Archaeology is the study of past societies by analyzing what people have left behind
• Archaeologists dig up and study ________________ (the things people leave behind) –
this could be tools, weapons, art, buildings, even trash!
• Anthropology is the study ________________________________________
• Anthropologists try to figure out what everyday life is like for a group.
• They use artifacts and fossils to find out more
• Fossils are rocklike remains of organisms – ex. ______________________________
How to date a fossil
• Radiocarbon dating – all living things absorb C-14, and when it dies it slowly loses C-14.
Scientists measure how much is left in an organism
• Only works for organisms less than 50,000 years old!
• Thermo-luminescence – measures the light given off by electrons trapped in the soil around an
artifact or fossil
• Microscope analysis – scientists can look at ____________________________________ to find
out more about evolution and the history of farming
Early Humans
• Hominid – _______________________________________
• Lived in Africa up to 4 million years ago
• Changed over a long period of time
• The Leakey’s thought hominids used tools until…
“Lucy” was found
• Donald Johanson found a different skeleton in Ethiopia in 1974 - Lucy
• They called this new skeleton “Australopithecus” meaning ________________________
• Homo habilis “handy human” evolved _________________________________________
• They had a larger brain than other hominids and possibly used stone tools
• Homo erectus “upright human” developed 1.8 million to 100,000 years ago and had arms and
legs that were proportionate to modern people.
• ______________________________________________________________________
• Homo sapiens = wise human
• Brains grew quickly and they were _________________________________________
• Two early humans descended from them: ______________________ and homo sapiens sapiens
• Neanderthals
• Found in Neanderthal, a valley in Germany
• Lived from 100,000 BC to 30,000 BC
• Made clothing from animal skins, buried their dead, and used stone tools
Name ____________________________________Date ______________________________Period ____
•
Homo sapiens sapiens = wise, wise human
• ________________________________________________
• Appeared 150-200,000 years ago
Theories
• Replacement theory/”out of Africa” theory : homo sapiens sapiens moved from Africa to
Europe and Asia and ________________________________________________________
• Homo sapiens sapiens replaced the Neanderthals, possibly there was conflict.
• Homo sapiens sapiens migrated to look for food and animals to hunt
• We all belong to this subgroup of humans!
Replacement Theory
What is this picture showing?
The Paleolithic Age
• Paleolithic Age is the time period from 2,500,000 BC to 10,000 BC when humans used stone
tools
• Paleolithic = Greek for __________________________________
• Early people were called hunter gatherers because they gathered wild nuts and berries and
hunted various animals depending on where they lived
• They learned how to make sharp edges for tools such as spears, arrows, harpoons, and bone
needles
• Paleolithic people were nomadic because __________________________________________
• They worked in groups to hunt large animals and lived in groups of 20-30
Paleolithic Men and Women
• Both men and women were responsible for finding food – the most important thing
• Women stayed closer to camp and raised the children, and gathered berries and nuts
• They kept the camp safe and caught small animals
• Men traveled farther to track herds of animals
• Scientists believe there ______________________________________________________
Survival
• Early humans lived in natural caves or simple structures made with wood poles or mammoth
bones and animal hides
• As hominids moved north, they needed fire to survive
Name ____________________________________Date ______________________________Period ____
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•
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Utilized fire 500,000 years ago!
Fire kept animals away from their shelter and they were able to cook their food
There is no concrete evidence to _____________________________________ –
possibly friction
Ice Age – from 100,000 – 8,000 BC, ice covered parts of Asia, Europe, and North America. When
the sea level went down, people could travel over land bridges that appeared
Paleolithic Art
• Paintings have been found in
• Lascaux. France (1940)
• Altamira Spain (1879)
• Chauvet Cave, Southern France (1994)
• The paintings here were older __________________________
• Used different painting styles, different tools such as their fingers or twigs, and created colors
Neolithic Revolution
• Neolithic Revolution – 8000-4000 BC
• Greek for “New Stone”
• We shifted to systematic agriculture – ________________________________________
• This was a big change from being hunter gatherers
• They also domesticated animals – use them for meat and other products and to do
labor
• Systematic agriculture spread from southern Asia to southern Europe and finally middle
Europe and the Mediterranean region
• Growing crops __________________________________________________________________
• Leads to creation of Neolithic farming villages
• Catalhuyuk was a large city in Turkey with 6,000 people – they entered their shelters through
the roof!
• Steady food supply meant everyone did not have to farm
• Some became artisans ____________________________________________________
• Trade encouraged more artisans to specialize
• The role of men changed because they were in charge of farming and protecting the settlement
• Began to use copper in molds – you could heat metal and it became a liquid!
• Copper + tin = bronze, which was more durable (long lasting)
• This leads to the Bronze Age and then the Iron Age
Civilization Changes
• Civilization – complex culture in which large numbers of people share a number of
commonalities
• Six key characteristics: _____________________________________________________
• Cities were able to grow when they had a greater amount of food
• All cities developed a religion to understand their place in the world
• New social structure based on wealth:
• Upper class = ___________________________________________________
• Middle class = __________________________________________________
• Lower class (bottom) = ___________________________________________
• The civilizations in Mesopotamia, Egypt, India, and China developed on their own
• Writing was used to keep records and for creative expression
Name ____________________________________Date ______________________________Period ____
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Art had new purposes – religion, honoring rulers and the dead
So why do we care?
• Write down three important things that you learned at the end of your notes. Be prepared to
share with a partner!