Chapter OneThe First Humans: Prehistory-3500 BC

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Early Humans

• Early people had no writing skills

• What we know comes from artifacts found by archaeologists and interpreted by anthropologists

• Artifacts are dated through carbon-dating process

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Man’s Predecessors

• Louis and Mary Leakey find remains in Olduvai Gorge in East Africa

• “Lucy” found in Ethiopia

– 3.5 million years old

– Australopithecus

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Homo habilis

• “Handy human”

• May have used stone tools

• 2.5-1.6 million years ago

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Homo erectus

• Arms and legs in more modern human proportion

• Remains found in Asia

• Probably first hominids to leave Africa

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Two Kinds of Homo sapiens

• “Wise human”

• Neanderthals—found in German valley

• Homo sapiens sapiens

– Anatomy similar to people today

– Appeared in Africa 150,000 to 200,000 years ago

– Spread to other parts of world 10,000 years ago (“out of Africa” theory)

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Paleolithic Age

• 2,500,000 BC to 10,000 BC• “Old Stone Age”• Food hunters and

gatherers—nomads• Women stayed closer to

camp to care for children, picked berries

• Men roamed to hunt game• Sheltered in caves• Discovered how to use fire• Survived the Ice Age from

100,000 BC to 8000 BC• Did cave art

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Neolithic Revolution, 8000-4000 BC

• “New Stone Age”

• Farming and domestication of animals begins to grow

• Starts first in the area we call the Middle East

• Nomadic life is forced to the fringes of “civilization”

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Agriculture Allows People to Build Towns and Cities

• Towns begin along rivers

• Wheat, barley, rice, millet

• Domesticated animals include pigs, cows, sheep, and goats

• Tigris-Euphrates culture spreads to Nile valleyhttp://www.bing.com/images/search?q=ancient+middle+east

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Village Life Leads to Job Specialization

• Surplus food stored, traded

• Artisans started to make goods for trade

• Tools improved, made of copper first and then iron

• Men became the farmers, women took care of the children and ran the household

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Six Factors of Civilization

• Cities

• Government

• Religion

• Social Structure

• Writing

• Arthttp://www.bing.com/images/search?q=ancient+civilizations&view=detail&id=36D1165B8A4BE71D9F35EE3192C4C6385CC58F2B&first=0&FORM=IDFRIR