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Prehistory – time before recorded or written history
*Written record begins approx 5,ooo yrs ago
Anthropologists – scientists who
study early humans
Hominids – any species of
humans
Archeologists
Scientists who recover physical evidence
of early humans
Archeologists working on a “dig”
Artifact
Any object produced by
Humans
*Exs. -
Culture
All aspects of any
human society
Exs. -
Radiocarbon
Dating
One of many methods used
to date artifacts found, this
process measures the amount
of carbon in the artifact
Great Rift Valley
Geologic feature in East Africa where many early
hominid remains have been found
Donald
Johanson
Noted anthropologist who
found hominid remains in
The Rift Valley
Australopithecus
>“Southern Ape”
>Considered one of earliest
primates that are hominids
or humans
Lucy
An Australopithecus specimen
found in the Rift Valley
*Named after -
Neanderthals
A Hominid species, the remains of
which were first found in the
Neander Valley of Germany
Cro-Magnon Man
This term relates to a cave in
France, but Cro-Magnon is
modern man or us *(Homo Sapiens)
*The scientific community
today doesn’t use the term
Cro-Magnon anymore. They
now use the term or phrase
“Early Modern Human” or EMH
Homo Sapiens –
“Thinking Man”
Term referring to modern man
Paleolithic Age (Old Stone Age)
From earliest hominids to about 10,000 years ago
> Tools of stone, bone, antler, control of fire, clothing, etc.
>Nomadic hunter-gatherers
> Spoken languages, religion, art, etc.
Ice Ages
> Evidence shows we experienced 4 separate ice ages
Polar ice caps grew, ocean levels dropped, and
glaciers covered much of the earth
Last ice age ended approximately
10,000 – 12,000 years ago
Asian-North American Land Bridge
Generally accepted theory
as to how the Americas
became populated
Neolithic Age
Era following Ice Ages was marked by increased
technology, the development of agriculture,
and permanent settlements
Domestication
To tame or train for
human use
*Animals or plants
Neolithic Revolution
The development of Agriculture and
the establishment of permanent
settlements
*Also called the Agricultural Revolution
River Valley Civilizations
*Oldest advanced civilizations In the world
Nile River
*In Egypt
Tigris & Euphrates Rivers
*Largely in today’s Iraq
Yellow River
*In China
Indus River
*In today’s Pakistan
>Technology
Characteristics of
“Civilization” include:
>Government
>Division of Labor
Copper
First metal to be worked
Bronze
An alloy of copper and tin
*Led to the era known as
the “Bronze Age”
Iron
A metal more durable than bronze, leading to
the “Iron Age”
Forge
A furnace used to work metal
Bellows
Artisan
Any Skilled Craftsman
Cultural
Diffusion
The spreading of aspects of one
culture to another culture
Exs. – military technology, foods,
Clothing styles, music, gov’t, etc.
Calendar
Egyptian Calendar
Method of measuring in writing the
passage of time and the seasons –
either lunar(moon) or solar(sun) based
Maya
The Development of Writing
Pictograms
A picture represents
a thing
Ideograms
A picture represents an
idea or concept
Phonogram
A picture represents a sound
Piltdown Man Hoax
An orangutan jaw bone was placed in a dig site
to intentionally mislead archeologists into
thinking the connection between man and
apes (the “missing link”) had been found
*Discovered in 1912
Fully disproved in 1953
“Salted” Dig
Intentionally placing something in a dig
that didn’t belong there
Mandible
A lower jaw bone
Charles Darwin
British scientist who promotes the theory of
“Natural Selection” (Evolution) in mid 1800’s
*VERY controversial…
On the Origin of Species
Darwin’s book which suggested that species are
competing to exist and that the “fittest” survive
while others become extinct i.e. “Natural Selection”
or evolution
Atlatl
Device used to throw a “dart” – an improvement
over the simpler and heavier spear