WHAT IS PREHISTORY?

Everything before writing

PREHIS

TORY

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HOW CAN WE KNOW ABOUT PREHISTORY?Archaeology

study of past through left over artifacts

Anthropology

study of human life and culture

Biology of humans and their ancestors

how we are related

how do we work

Dating Finds

determining the age

C14 dating

Ar

etc.

THIRD CHIMPANZEE?

Title of book by Jared Diamond

argument over how man evolved, what makes man different and the same, and mankind’s future

Science has placed Humans (Homo sapiens sapiens) in the evolutionary tree like this

DEVELOPMENT

Hominids

apes that walk upright

earliest fossil evidence dates back 4 million years

Likely was a gradual development

walking upright

thumbs

tools

Australopithecus afarensis

HOMO SAPIENS AND HOMO NEANDERTHALENSISEmerged about 200,000 years ago

As with most hominids probably emerged first in east Africa

Neanderthals found in Europe

colder climates

used furs

burial of dead

HOMO SAPIENS SAPIENS

Anatomically the same as us

Appear in Africa about 150-200,000 years ago

Spread “out of Africa” about 100,000 years ago

replace/eliminate/out compete other hominids

MIGRATION

Moving to a new place

What does it take to migrate?

depends where your going

advances in technology

clothing, fire, tools, etc.

PALE

OLITHIC

AGE

PALEOLITHIC AGE

Old Stone Age

2,500,000 BCE to 10,000 BCE

BCE= Before Common Era (before year 0)

HUNTERS AND GATHERERS

Early man lived in small hunting and food gathering groups numbering 20-30 people

In general men hunted while the women and the children gathered berries, fruit, nuts, wild grain, and sea food.

Women were responsible for more of the caloric intake than men.

These early people were nomads

Nomads- people who wander to find food

WHAT MAKES HUMANS DIFFERENT?

Humans modify their environment NOT just adapt

fire, clothing, shelters, modern conveniences (AC, fridge, roads, etc.)

Early humans did this to migrate and survive

Ice Age

100,000 BCE to 8,000 BCE

ART

Represents daily life

hunting scenes

Also used for religious purposes

RELIGION

Around 30,000 years ago evidence emerges of man’s belief in a spiritual world

Man believed spirits and forces resided in animals, objects, and even dreams

They drew paintings of these animals on cave walls

These beliefs are called animism

RELIGION

Why would people revere symbols of pregnant women?

Why would they bury their dead?

Why would they bury their dead with items from their life?

Why would they paint drawings of their prey?

NEOLITHIC

REVOLU

TION

NEOLITHIC REVOLUTION

Guess what Neolithic means?

New Stone Age

Starts at the end of the last Ice Age ~8,000 BCE

Why do you think it is a revolution?

Start of systematic agriculture

domestication of animals

wasn’t sudden it was a gradual process started before

wasn’t that common at beginning

took thousands of years for more people to farm than hunt/gather

FARMING/DOMESTICATION OF ANIMALS

How do you think it started?

garbage heaps, leftovers grew came back to them

animals became dependent on humans for survival

What are advantages?

free time, not everyone focused on food production

People can become specialists(pottery, writing, building, etc.)

higher caloric intake

larger population

DISADVANTAGES OF AGRICULTURE?

1. Introduced inequality, women rear children men, do the farming, children work the fields.

2. More disease

3. Altering local environment towards ecological shifts including collapse in certain regions

4. Less diverse diet as hunting and gathering, meaning less healthy people. Fossil remains show a 50% increase in malnutrition.

5. Hunting and gathering societies spent about 3 hours a day on food acquisition. During planting season, people could spend 12 hours a day on food production.

WHERE IT STARTS

Agriculture developed in 3 separate regions independently. Maybe as many as 5

First, in the Middle East around 11,000 years ago along the Black Sea Wheat/ Barley

Second, in Southern China along the Hueng He (Yellow River) 9,000 years ago- Rice

Third, in Central Mexico around 7,000 years ago- Maize (corn).

There is evidence that Sub-Saharan Africa and Northern China might have developed agriculture independently.

Wherever agriculture developed it spread. This is called diffusion.

What did they grow first?

grains

types of grass

DOMESTICATED ANIMALS

Species Year Domesticated

Location

Dog 15,000 BCE Multiple Locations

Reindeer 14,000 BCE Scandinavia

Goat 10,000 BCE Iran

Sheep 8,000 BCE Middle East

END OF NEOLITHIC

Discover metallurgy 4,000-3,000 BCE

heat metal it melts pour into molds

Copper first used

soft metal melts easily

Bronze

copper and tin

harder than just copper

Bronze Age 3,000-1,200 BCE

Iron Age

harder metal than bronze

FARMING VILLAGE TO CIVILIZATION

More people living and working together

More need for organization

division of labor

social organization

governments

First types of government?

autocracies (one ruler)

monarchy, dictators, etc.

writing

art

Cities can compete better than villages