Eli Chapter 1 Section 1 Key Terms

People who study human life in the past by examining the things that people left behind. Learning about early humans not easy. Until about 5,000 years ago, people had no way to write things down.

• Ancient artifacts

• Archealogists

• Geologists

• Artifact

The study of how human beings behave, how they act together, where they came from and what makes one group of people different from another. A particular group of anthropologists are called archaeologists

• Populate

• Anthropology

• Nomad

• Fossil

The time before written records, archeologists look for the places where people may have lived. To learn about the earliest humans archeologists have to rely on fossils

• Geologist

• Element

• Technology

• Prehistory

Hardened remains or imprints of living things that existed long ago. These remains include plants, feathers, bones, and footprints that are millions of years old

• Migration

• Clan

• Fossils

• Culture

Scientists who study the physical materials of Earth itself, such as soil and rocks. Objects found in lower layers are generally older than those found in upper layers.

• Fossil

• Hunter-gatherer

• Geologists

• Populate

Object made and used by humans. Weapons and tools are artifacts because a human long ago may have used them

• Artifact

• Animism

• Clan

• Adapt

Early humans who hunted animals and gathered plants

• Hunter-gather

• Environment

• Migration

• Populate

When people leave their homeland to live somewhere else.

• Culture

• Technology

• Migration

• Conclude

Surroundings. Each place had its own climate, plants, and animals.

• Environment

• Fossil

• Element

• Complex

Groups of families with a common ancestor

• Artifact

• Evidence

• Clans

• Nomad