Studying History and Early Humans

What is this early human doing?

Essential Questions

1. Why do people study history and try to learn more about the past?

2. How did early humans adapt to the environment?

3. What were the main elements of prehistoric culture?

4. How did their experience as hunter-gatherers help early humans to domesticate plants and animals?

Why study history? (answer this question)

Primary Source – produced by someone who was there

• Artifacts (tools, weapons, pottery, etc.)

• Journals, diaries and letters• Military records• Marriage, birth and death

certificates

Secondary Source – produced by someone who wasn’t there

• Newspaper – they are reporting

• Books• Paintings

Provide an example of a primary source and a secondary source.

Hunter-Gatherers• Lived in bands of 30 – 100

people• Men hunted animals (fish)• Women gathered fruits,

plants, nuts and berries• Early humans were nomadic• Nomadic means a person

with no permanent home• Migration means to move

from one place to another• Why did early humans

migrate?

• The Great Migration

Where is that land bridge?

Tools and Culture• Technology – anything

that makes life easier (tools, weapons)

• Early tools were made from stone and bone

• Fire was a DISCOVERY!• It was discovered

500,000 years ago• How was it discovered?• What are the

advantages/uses of fire?

• Animals that Talk• Early humans did not

possess developed language• How does language make

life easier?• Culture includes art,

language and religion• Some examples of early

human culture are cave art, the belief in gods or spirits and jewelry

Domestication – the adaptation of plants and animals for human use

• By 8,000 B.C., humans had learned to grow crops and raise animals• The only reason this was possible is because of rising temperatures• Humans figured it would be a good idea to keep animals in human-made

enclosures What is the advantage of this?• Early humans learned to domesticate animals around 9000 B.C.• Analyze the chart. What does having a constant food supply allow

nomads to do?

Animal Location Use

camel Asia Transport

Sheep Asia Meat, wood

Dog East Asia Herding, hunting

Cow Europe, Asia, Africa Milk, meat

Turkey North America Meat

Llama South America Transport, meat

The Agricultural Revolution• Beginnings of Farming• Agriculture is farming• Just like hunters’ knowledge of wild animals led to their domestication, gatherers’

knowledge of plants probably led to the development of farming.• This leads to a shift from food gathering to farming• Leads to changes in tools and technology (plows, sickles)• How might growing food change the lifestyle of a hunter-gatherer?

Use the graph on page 13 of your textbook to answer the following questions.

1. About how many years ago did the Agricultural Revolution take place?

2. How much did the world’s population grow from 10,000 to 5,000 years ago according to the graph?