Ch 1.1 Human Origins

Human Origins

and the

Arise of Civilizations

Prehistory

• Before writing
• 30,000 BC

Prehistoric Cave Paintings

• Used charcoal, mud, plants, and animal blood.

• Used to communicate and tell stories.

Scientists Discover Clues

• Archaeologists study artifacts.
• Anthropologiststudy culture, peoples way of life.
• Artifactsare manmade objects.

What does an Archaeologist study?

What about an Anthropologist?

Scientists Discover Clues

•Paleontologists study fossils.

•Fossilsare rocks which have evidence of early life.

Hominids

• Originated in Africa at least 3 million years ago.
• Opposable thumbs could walked upright.
• Archaeologist Mary Leaky discovered

humanlike (Hominids) footprints in East Africa.

“Lucy”

• First adult female skeleton found in Africa.
• Lived about 3.5 million years ago
• Oldest living hominid found

Old Stone Age

• Paleolithic- 2.5 million to 10,000 B.C.; art and stone

chopping tools

• Ice Age: 1.7 million years ago; ice covered most of

Earth

• Nomads- people who wander from place to place,

hunt animals and collect plants (hunter-gatherers)

Who is Lucy and How old is

she?

How long ago did the Paleolithic age
happen?

How long ago was the Ice Age?

Neanderthals of the Old Stone Age
• Lived between 200,000 BC and 30,000 BC
• Tried to explain and control their world
• Religious beliefs/burials
• Lived in caves
• Advanced tools: chisel, fish
hooks, bone needles, art

Cro-Magnons Emerge

• 40,000 B.C. to 10,000 B.C.
• Identical to modern humans
• New tools increased food

supply:
-Spears to hunt at greater
distances.
-Digging sticks to pry
plants loose

Cro-Magnons Emerge

• Planned hunts contributed to
population increase
• Advanced spoken language
• Cave paintings/art

Arrgh!

I ‘m so hungry!

New Stone Age→ Neolithic
Revolution

• 8000 B.C. to 3000 B.C.- polish stone tools & pottery
• Slash and burn farming and warmer climate
• Domesticate animals.
• Population increase
• Believed to have first begun in Iraq

Slash & Burn …. Domestication

Effects of the Neolithic Revolution

• Surplus and variety of food
• Population increase; settled in communities
• Division of labor and specialization
• Artisans- specialized products (copper/bronze)
• Trade developed
• Men and Women were not =
• Disease /natural disasters / attacks

Emergence of Civilization

• Religious and Cultural Diffusion through trade
• Social / Class system
• Governments
• Surplus food / irrigation.
• Writing to keep records.

People gradually gave up hunting/gathering and learn

to cultivate crops, domesticate animals, and live in
settled villages. Some villages grow and prosper,
developing complex social and economic systems that
set the stage for the development of civilization.