Scientists believe that life began on the continent of Africa 3.6 million years ago……

Neanderthal Cro-Magnon Modern Man

Cro-Magnon man -early Homo sapiens (the species to which

modern humans belong) that lived

about 40,000 years ago.

• The Old Stone Age or the Paleolithic Era, was a period of time that lasted until about 12,000 to 70,000 years ago.

•Man survived by hunting animals and gathering roots, berries,

leaves, and seeds.

•Old Stone Age (Paleolithic Era) people eventually began to hunt in groups.

•These antlers may have been used as a disguise during the hunt.

•Cave Art showing men hunting in groups

•Man used stone, wood,

and bone tools to survive

during the Old Stone Age.

Bow found in Denmark

Bone Harpoon

Hand AxeFlint Blades used to sharpen tools

•using a flint blade to skin an animal

•using a flint blade to butcher a carcass

There was another important development – the discovery of fire

•There was another important development – the discovery of

fire.

Many Stone Age people were Nomads, or people who had no settled home.

http://museums.ncl.ac.uk/flint/images/sandel.jpg

• The New Stone Age or The Neolithic Era lasted until about 6,000 to 12,000 years ago.

• During the Neolithic

Era, people began to

settle in one place.

• Man began to change his diet and eat grains and small animals.

• Agriculture is the raising of crops and animals.

• The development of agriculture began over a long period of time and in more than one place.

• People no longer needed to travel great distances to gather food.

• People learned how to domesticate plants and animals.

• To domesticate means to train something to be useful to people.

• Early people learned to care for plants such as wheat, barley, peas, and lentils.

• The first farmers also domesticated wild goats, cattle, and sheep.

• Man domesticated wild wheat.•Ancient charred wheat grains are

shown in the picture above.

• Thousands of years ago, an ear of corn did not make much of a meal. (top)

• It took thousands of years of careful breeding for ears of corn to reach their present size. (bottom)

• People still used stone, bone, and wooden tools, but some new tools were added by using copper and bronze.

•These early farming tools date back to around 8,000 years ago. The axe, bottom, was used for clearing; flint sickles,

left, were used for harvesting cereal crops; a flat rock and rounded stone, center, were used for grinding flour; and perforated clay slabs, upper right, were probably used to

ventilate bread ovens.