Early Humans

What is history?

•Story of humans in the past

What do archaeologists do?

•Hunt for evidence buried in the ground

What do anthropologists study?

•How humans developed and related to each other.

What is the earliest period of human history?

•The Stone Age

How is the Stone Age divided?

• Paleolithic Period-Old Stone Age-the period from 2.5 million B.C. to around 8000 B.C. During this time man mastered fire, created stone tools, and developed a spoken language.

• Neolithic Age-New Stone Age-the period from 8000 B.C. to 3000 B.C. During this time man used polished stone tools, created tools made of copper, made pottery, grew crops, and raised animals.

What is Pre History?

•Period in history before there was writing.

How did Early Man live?

• They were nomads traveling from place to place in search of food.

• Women gathered berries, nuts, and grain.

• Men hunted using clubs, spears, traps, and bows and arrows.

• These types of people are called Hunter-Gatherers.

What kinds of shelters did Paleolithic people create?

• Some lived in caves for short periods of time

• Others created shelters from hides and wooden poles

• They were constantly in search of a safe place to stay.

What did the Paleolithic people create?

• The people tamed fire for things like cooking, light, and warmth.

• Taming fire helped keep Paleolithic people warm during the ice ages.

How did Early Man Communicate?

•Paleolithic people developed a spoken language.

•This language helped them work together and pass on knowledge.

•They did not have a written language.

Why do historians believe cave art was created?

•They think that cave art had a religious meaning.

•Some think that paintings of animals might have been done to bring good luck during a hunt.

What types of tools were created by Paleolithic

people?•They created tools such as spears, hand axes, and arrows from wood and a material called flint.

•They created tools such as needles and fishhooks from animal bones.

How did things change in the Neolithic Age?• The Ice Ages started to end and a

warmer climate began.• People began to domesticate or tame

animals for human use. Animals provided meat, milk, and wool. They also carried goods and pulled carts.

• Women scattered seeds they had collected only to find that the seeds sprouted into crops. People realized they could grow their own food.

What do historians believe is the most important event in human history?

•The beginning of farming and growing crops or the Neolithic Revolution.

What is the Neolithic (farming) revolution?

• A revolution is a change that greatly affects many areas of life.

• People began growing crops around the world at about the same time probably because of the warmer climate.

• Now people could stay in one place and not wander in search of food.

Why did farmers build permanent homes?

•They needed to stay close to their fields to water and care for the crops.

•They needed to watch the fields against wild animals or theft.

What are the benefits of growing crops?

• Steady food supplies meant healthy, growing populations

• Food surpluses allowed some workers to “specialize” in other jobs

• Food surpluses allowed people to trade with other villagers to acquire needed items

What types of work did Specialized workers perform?

•Some made pottery from clay

•Other jobs included toolmakers, weavers, priests and priestesses

One of the earliest farming villages of the Neolithic is Catal Huyuk. It was located in Turkey and at the base of 2 volcanoes. The people of Catal Huyuk used the obsidian obtained from dried volcanic lava to make products.

Catal Huyuk• Early farming village in Asia Minor (modern

Turkey)• About 10,000 years old• Houses were built butting up to one another

and on top of one another.• Dead were buried under platforms used as

beds.• Probably worshipped a “mother” goddess

based on statues of women found at the site.

Archaeology at Catal Huyuk

• Famous “dig” has been in process for over 15 years.

• The site was found under a huge mound of earth and debris.

Catal Huyuk HomeMud bricks dry in the sunThe bricks hardened in seven to fifteen days. More than 800 of them were used to build the house!

Men from local areas recreate the house. Mud bricks are still used by local builders in some homes in the area. The bricks are held together with

This doorway is only used for convenience. This door opening was not a part of the original design.

Timber is used to construct the roof.

Plaster covers the inside walls.

A clay oven used for cooking and warmth is inside the house.

Living area of the house with oven and ladder to roof entry.

Sleeping area of the house.

Dead were buried here.

Burial site of woman and child.

Roof entry into the house.

Artist recreates wall painting using water, iron oxide red pigment, ammonia, and a milk product.

What metals did Neolithic people begin to work with?

• Toolmakers experimented with using metal to make tools

• At first they used copper which they heated and poured into molds

• Later they mixed copper and tin to form bronze. Bronze was harder and more useful than copper.

• Historians now call the period from 3000 BC to 1200 BC “The Bronze Age”