The Beginnings of Civilization Section 1

The Beginnings of Civilization Section 1

Preview

• Starting Points Map: Early People and Agriculture

• Main Idea / Reading Focus

• Studying the Distant Past

• Faces of History: Mary and Louis Leakey

• Human Origins

• Quick Facts: Early Hominids

• Spreading Around the World

The First People

The Beginnings of Civilization Section 1

Preview, continued

• Map: Migration of Early Humans

• Life in the Stone Age

The First People

The Beginnings of Civilization Section 1

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The Beginnings of Civilization Section 1

Reading Focus

• What methods are used to study the distant past?

• What does evidence suggest about human origins?

• How did early people spread around the world?

• How did early people adapt to life in the Stone Age?

Main Idea

1. Scientific evidence suggests that modern humans spread from Africa to other lands and gradually developed ways to adapt to their environment.

The First People

The Beginnings of Civilization Section 1

Anthropology continues to expand and revise our picture of the prehistoric past.

Much of the human story remains a mystery.

Writing has existed for only about 5,000 years.

To study prehistory, scholars must find and interpret clues.

• Study culture: knowledge, art, customs

• Examine artifacts: objects that people in the past made or used

Anthropologists

Studying the Distant Past

• Dig at sites where people have left traces

• Use a variety of methods to date and analyze objects found

Archaeologists

The Beginnings of Civilization Section 1

Find the Main Idea

How do scientists learn about prehistory?

Answer(s): by studying fossils, artifacts, and remains

The Beginnings of Civilization Section 1

Where did the first people come from? When did they appear? Some key discoveries have provided important pieces to the puzzle.

• 1959—East Africa

– Mary Leakey finds skull fragments

– Hominid: humanlike being that walked upright

• 1974—Ethiopia

– Johanson finds “Lucy”

– 4 foot-tall hominid who walked upright

– lived 4 to 5 million years ago

Early Hominids

• More advanced hominids from about 3 million years ago

• 1960s—Tanzania

• Louis Leakey

– Homo habilis (“handy man”)

– More humanlike features

– Made and used crude stone tools

Later Hominids

Human Origins

The Beginnings of Civilization Section 1

The Beginnings of Civilization Section 1

Modern humans• Homo sapiens (“wise man”)

• 200,000 years ago

• Larger brain; more sophisticated tools

• Learned to create fire

• First to develop language

Other hominids• Homo erectus (“upright man”)

• 2 to 1.5 million years ago in Africa

• Larger brain; more skillful hunter

• First hominid to control fire

The Beginnings of Civilization Section 1

The Beginnings of Civilization Section 1

Identify Supporting Details

What four main types of hominids have scientists identified based on fossil

evidence?

Answer(s): Australopithecine, Homo habilis, Homo erectus, Homo sapiens

The Beginnings of Civilization Section 1

Climate and Migration

• Hominids learned to adapt• Began to move out of Africa • Movement occurred over hundreds

of thousands of years

Out of Africa• Homo erectus first hominid to

migrate • Fossils found in Asia and Europe• Homo sapiens migrated around

100,000 years ago• Might have used boats

2. The Ice Ages

• Began 1.6 million years ago

• Long periods of freezing weather cycled with warmer periods

• Asia and North America joined at Bering Strait

Adapting to New Environments

• Adapted as they migrated• Two groups of Homo sapiens:

– Neanderthals

– Cro-Magnons

Spreading Around the World

The Beginnings of Civilization Section 1

Analyze Information

How did the ice ages influence early human migration?

Answer(s): The ocean level dropped, exposing land bridges that allowed early humans to migrate around the world.

The Beginnings of Civilization Section 1

The Beginnings of Civilization Section 1

3. The first humans lived during the Stone Age, when people made tools mainly from stone.

• Paleolithic Era• 2.5 million to 10,000 years ago• Stone Age people lived as nomads• Sheltered under rock overhangs or in caves• Hunter-gatherers

• First tools: crude chipped stones• Later tools: wood and bone• Spears for hunting• Nets and traps for fish and birds• Canoes from logs• Clothing from animal skins• Shelters from skins, wood, bones

Technology• Societies began to form• Common culture

– language– art– religion

• Animism• Belief in life after death?

Art and Religion

Life in the Stone Age

The Beginnings of Civilization Section 1

Summarize

How did Stone Age people use technology to adapt and survive?

Answer(s): used fire, made tools and weapons