Homo Erectus

By Kelly, Max, Meheak, and Adrian.

Table Of Contents• Table of Contents• Introduction• Dates and Places• How They Looked• Daily Life• Clothing• Tools • Fire• Food• Ceremony, Cave Paintings, and Language• Did You Know?• Questions• Answers• Endnotes• Bibliography

Introduction

• Welcome to the world of Homo Erectus. Today we will show you how the Homo Erectus lived. You will take a journey into the past , and after you are done watching the slides, you will know more about the Homo Erectus! We hope you enjoy!

Dates and Places

• Around 2,000,000 - 400,000 years ago, a new species existed , called Homo Erectus. • They first lived in Africa , and then

migrated to Asia and Europe.[1]

How They Looked• Homo Erectus walked upright. They had thick skulls,

sloping foreheads, and large eyebrows. • They also had a low frontal bone, flat faces with no

chin, and large teeth for grinding meat.• They were from four feet , nine inches to six feet one

inch, and they weighed 88 to 150 pounds. [2]

Daily Life

• Homo Erectus never stayed in one place for long.

• They usually lived in caves for shelter. • They had to live near a water source because

they needed water.• They migrated to Asia and Europe because of

the African savannas. [3]

Clothing

• They wore animal skins from large mammals.

• Homo Erectus usually had a lot of hair. • They had some on their back, but

mostly on their head.[4]

Tools

• Homo Erectus used stones and spears they made from large sticks to kill animals.

• They used bones from animals they ate to beat their prey.

• They also used fire to scare the animals off cliffs or into swamps.[5]

Fire• Homo Erectus were the first hominids to make fire,

which was a great step forward in our history.[6] • They made fire by taking two sticks and twisting

one stick against the other stick to make a spark. • The spark then would catch fire on both sticks, and

they would have fire. Making fire was a tedious process. [7]

Food

• They ate berries, usually blackberries. They hunted and then ate large mammals, such as bison, deer, elephants, hippopotami, and rhinoceros.

• If they didn’t have fire for cooking their meals by heating them over the fire, they would eat the meat raw.[8]

Ceremonies, Cave Paintings, and Language

• Homo Erectus didn’t really have any ceremonies. • They usually expressed their feelings by drawing cave

painting of birth, and weddings. They drew other things too, such as hunting and death.

• Homo Erectus used hand gestures and grunted to communicate.

• They were very smart and had a large brain.[9]

Did You Know

• Did you know that your ancestors may be a Homo Erectus?

• Did you know that in Georgia a lower jaw of a Homo Erectus has been found?

• Did you know that these hominids were the first to walk upright and Homo Erectus means “upright man?”

Questions

• When did Homo Erectus live?• About how much did the average Homo

Erectus weigh?• What did Homo Erectus use to hunt animals?• What mammals did Homo Erectus usually

hunt?• How did Homo Erectus make fire?

Answers• When did Homo Erectus live?• Homo Erectus lived around two million to four hundred thousand years

ago.• About how much did the average Homo Erectus weigh?• The average Homo Erectus weighed 88-150 lbs.• What did Homo Erectus use to hunt animals?• They used spears, stones, and fire to hunt animals for food.• What mammals did Homo Erectus usually hunt?• Homo Erectus usually hunted bison, deer, elephants, hippopotamus and

rhinoceros• How did Homo Erectus make fire?• They made fire by taking two sticks and twisting one stick against the

other to make a spark.

Conclusion

• We hope you enjoyed our slideshow, and we wish you have learned more about Homo Erectus! Life back then was very hard for the Homo Erectus, so you should be happy that we have all this technology to teach you about Homo Erectus. Thank you for watching!

Have a nice day!

Endnotes• [1] Homo Erectus packet.• [2] www.Stanford .Edu\~harryg/protected/chp22.htm. • [3] California Vistas Ancient Civilizations, Macmillian/McGraw Hill, pp. 71-73.• [4] Homo Erectus packet.• [5] Ibid.• [6] California Vistas Ancient Civilizations, Macmillian/McGraw Hill, pp. 71-73.• [7] Homo Erectus packet.• [8]Ibid.• [9] Ibid.

Bibliography

California Visits Ancient Civilizations. Macmillan/MacGraw Hill: New York, NY, 2007.

• Homo Erectus packet.• www.Stanford.Edu\~harryg/protected/chp22.

htm.• www.humanorigins.si.edu/evidence/human

~fossils/species/homoerectus.