Download File - Mr. Champion

EARLY HUMANS – THE JOURNEY BEGINS
TERMINOLOGY
 Prehistory: The period before writing was developed.
 Archeology: The study of past societies through an analysis of items people left behind them.
 Artifacts: tools, pottery, paintings, weapons, buildings, and household items left behind by early
people.
 Fossils: a remnant or impression of an organism from a past geological age that has been preserved in
the earths crust.
 Anthropology: A study of human life and culture based on artifacts and human fossils.
QUESTIONS
How do archeologists and anthropologists:
a)
Learn about the social and military structures of society:
By examining artifacts such as pottery, tools, and weapons.
b)
Learn about the diet and activities of early people.
By analyzing bones, skins, and plant seeds.
RADIOCARBON DATING
 All living things absorb a small amount of radioactive carbon or C-14 from the
atmosphere. After a living thing dies, it slowly loses C-14. By measuring the amount
left in an object, a scientist can figure its age. This method is accurate for objects no
more than about 50,000 years old.
THERMOLUMINESCENCE
 This measures light given off by electrodes trapped in the soil surrounding fossils
and artifacts.
 Microscopic and biological analyses of organic remains, --such as blood, hairs and
plant tissues left on tools and weapons –give scientists still much more evidence.
THE NATURE OF HISTORY
 History is the study of change over time.
 The task of historians is to gather information from a particular time period when a
significant change or development took place.
 They try and answer two important questions:
◦ Why did this change take place?
◦ What effects did this change have on the people who experienced it?
SOURCES OF INFORMATION
 Artifacts- Human made objects such as tools, shards of pottery, or ruined buildings.
 Primary Documents- Written records, written by people of the period.
 Secondary Accounts- Written records, written about past events.
 Fossils- the remains of a prehistoric plant or animal preserved in rock
BIASES
 Since historians are rarely able to discover ALL of the facts in their investigations,
they must make educated guesses.
 This reconstruction always involves some BIAS, because they base their explanations
on their interpretations of the evidence.
GATHERING DATA
 To create a complete picture of a particular time, the historian must gather material
related to five specific developments:
◦ Political- operation and decisions of the government
◦ Economic- ways in which the people survived or made a living
◦ Social- relate to people’s homes and their culture
◦ Geographic- the ways in which the environment affected human actions or conditions
◦ Military- What conflicts took place, why they took place, what were the effects
 The farther back we go in our investigations, the more difficult the gathering of
historical data becomes.
ERAS IN HISTORY - TERMINOLOGY
ERA: a period of time marked by distinctive character, events, etc
DECADE: A period of 10 years
CENTURY: A period of 100 years
MILLENIUM: A period of 1000 years
ACTIVITY
In front of you is an artifact.
Your task is to:
Assess the characteristics of the society from which that artifact came.
Make inferences, analyze details and features, examine assumptions, brainstorm, work
cooperatively, and formulate questions.