Prehistoric People

Lesson 3 ; Introduction - Hunters and Gatherers to Farmers

by David Metzger

​Lesson 3 introduction

​Scientists have identified and studied five important groups of hominins. Like the hominins before them, early modern humans hunted and gathered their food. You'll read about how early people learned, over thousands of years, to produce food by farming.

​Lesson 3 Introduction

​Humans discovered farming toward the end of the Stone Age. This period gets its name from the stone tools prehistoric people made and used. Historians divide the Stone Age into two periods. The first is the Paleolithic Age, or Old Stone Age. During this period, people got food by roaming from place to place to hunt wild animals and gather nuts, berries, and seeds from the plants they found.

Multiple Choice

The first stone age when people roamed looking for food was also called the .......

• Old age

• Paleolithic age

• Draconian age

• Neolithic age

​Lesson 3 Introduction

​By about 8000 B.C.E., some people had learned how to raise animals and crops for food. This knowledge enabled these people, for the first time, to live in one place. The Neolithic Age, or New Stone Age, had begun.

Multiple Choice

By approximately what year did people learn to raise animals and grow food to make life easier ??

• 9,000 BCE

• 500 CE

• 10,000 BCE

• 8,000 BCE

​Lesson 3 Introduction

​This gradual shift from hunter-gatherers (food collectors) to farmers (food producers) is one of the most important advances in human development. People built permanent shelters. They settled in larger communities in the best areas for growing crops. 

Multiple Choice

By learning to grow crops and stay in one place, ancient people could then ........

• build permanent shelters

• learn to drive cars

• start grocery stores

• make the citizens pay taxes

​Lesson 3 Introduction

​ People developed new skills and made a variety of things that improved the quality of their lives. Over time, they also began to exchange goods with people in other communities for the things they lacked in their own villages. In this lesson, you will explore the many ways in which the development of farming changed human life.

Multiple Choice

The technical term for farming or growing your own food is ...................?

• horticulture

• culinary arts

• agriculture

• fragmentation