PREHISTORY. English

PREHISTORY CEIP Santa Ana (Madridejos)

PREHISTORY.

1.- INTRODUCTION TO HISTORY.

History is the study of past events and ways of living of humanity throughout time till nowadays.

Archeologists and historians study past events of human beings. They use non-written sources

(archaeological sites, monuments… ) and written sources (documents, inscriptions, old coins…)

History needs other sciences like Geography (to locate the events in a place), Chronology (to

locate them through time)…

They use different units of time:

.- Year: 365 days.

.- Five-year period: 5 years

.- Decade: 10 years.

.- Century: 100 years.

.- Millennium: 1,000 years

.- Christian Age: the year Christ was born is the year “0” in the occidental culture.

So we date events in this way: .- ‘B.C.’ (before Christ)

.- ‘A.D.’ (Anno Domini)

2.- STAGES OF HISTORY.

Historians have divided history in different stages:

A.- Prehistory: from the beginning of human being evolution (million of years ago), till the invention of

writing (about 3,000-3,500 years ago).

B.- History: divided in four ages:

b.1.- Ancient History: from 3,500 B.C. (invention of writing), till 476 A.D. (Fall of the Western Roman

Empire).

b.2.-Middle Ages: from the Fall of Western Roman Empire, till 1492 (discovery of America).

b.3.- Early Modern Period: from 1492 till 1789 (French Revolution).

b.4.- Contemporary Period: from 1789 till nowadays.


3.- PREHISTORY.

It was the first stage in the humanity

existence, it lasted through millions of

years.

Hominization is the process of evolution

of human beings from big apes, it started

long time ago. There are lots of fossils all

over the world that prove this process.

About five million years ago,

‘Australopithecus’ appeared in Africa. It

was the first ancestor of humanity, later

there were other ancestors like ‘homo habilis’ till ‘homo sapiens’. Human evolution

Prehistory refers to all the time preceding human existence and the invention of writing. It has got

several stages of development:

3.1.- PALEOLITHIC.

Paleolithic means ‘old stone’, because the tools

found from that period were made of stone. This

period lasted till the invention of agriculture.

a.- Way of living:

.- They were nomads: They travelled from one

place to another (during warm weather) looking for

food: animals, fruits…

.- They lived in caves during cold weather, they

were organized in tribes, or family groups.

.- They hunted animals, caught fish and collected

fruits and vegetables from nature.

.- They divided the work to do: all men in the tribe

had to go hunting, and women collected fruits and

took care of children.

.- Life was very hard, and they spent a lot of time

looking for food.

Life in the Paleolithic time.

b.- Technical improvements:

.- Their first tools were made of stone (They hit

them each other to sharpen them).

.- Later, they selected the type of stones (silex),

that used to make arrows, spear heads,

knives… They also used bones, fur, tendons

from animals… . .

.-They discovered ‘the fire’ in that period.

Tools from the Paleolithic

c.- First Beliefs:

.- They believed in supernatural forces like nature and stars, and they made some rites in order to be

favoured by them.

.- They buried their dead relatives.

.- They painted animals, hunting scenes… on caves walls. In Spain there are two areas of paintings:


‘Cantábrica’ (Altamira…) where we can see isolated animals, and ‘Levantina’ (where they painted

many animals or people forming hunting scenes, dances…)

Cave painting in Levante Cave painting in the North of Spain

3.2.- NEOLITHIC.

About 10,000 years ago, there were groups of people in the Middle East that started to grow plants, and

domestícate animals. These techniques were spreading to other groups. This was the so-called ‘Neolithic

Revolution’.

a.- Way of living:

.- They became sedentaries (because of agriculture and cattle farming). They didn’t need to go from one

place to another to find food. They planted cereals, legumes… they domesticated dogs, goats, sheep,

pigs…

.- They built villages (several huts built with natural materials from that place) near rivers to have water

for them, their animals and plants.

.- The groups of people were doing bigger and bigger with a more complicated social structure.

.- Everybody took part in the works to prepare fields to plant, and do fences for animals.

.- People started to specialized in different tasks, so there were farmers, cattle farmers, craftsmen,

warriors…


.- They started to make crafts products, like pieces of clothes with wool, or vegetable fibers in looms.

.- They used pottery made of clay to cook… They used fire to harden the pieces.


.- They made tools polishing stones. (stone mills to make flour from wheat… axe heads…). They

invented the plough and sickle… They made objects made of esparto…

c.- Beliefs:

.- They bury their dead people because they believe

in another life after death. In these graves they put

lots of objects for the dead person ’grave goods’,

because they thought that the dead body would

need them in the other life. There are also pieces

like bracelets, necklaces, earrings…

.- They believed in gods related with nature

phenomenon and they represent them using simple

clay statues. Neolíthic ‘grave goods’

3.3.- THE METAL AGES:

At the end of Prehistory, about 7,000 years ago, metallurgy was developed. They made tools, weapons,

jewellery… using fire to melt different metals.

1º.- Copper Age: it was the first

metal that people used. They made

copper pieces beating the metal

with stones. Copper wasn’t very

hard, so they used it to make

jewellery and decorating objects.

2º.- Bronze Age: later, they used

bronze. It’s an alloy of copper and

tin, and they used it because it’s

harder.

3º.- Iron Age: iron was very

abundant in nature, and very hard.

They made tools to work, weapons

and armours to fight, container,

jewellery, statues…

Life in the Metal Ages

To produce these objects, they melted metals in enclosed furnaces, and they poured the melted metals

into moulds (with the shape of the metal piece they wanted).

a.- Way of living:

.- Many villages became cities. These cities were protected by fortified walls. Houses were small and

most of them made of clay bricks and wood, but the powerful

people’s houses were made of stone, they were big and confortable.

.-Social differences were increasing, some cities were governed by

a King. The richest people were priests and warriors who were

privileged people. The rest of population were craftsmen,

farmers… that were very poor..

.- Trade appeared at that time because of the increase of products.

At the beginning was a simple exchange of products, but later they

invented and used coins. Coins from the Metal Ages



They used metallurgy, but there were lots of important inventions like ‘the wheel’, they also improved

farming techniques and the plough, and also they made progress in navigation like ‘the sail’

Wheel plough Weapons from the Metal Ages

c.- Beliefs:

Some people started to build religious monuments, or with a funerary purpose with huge stones. These

types of constructions are called: Megalithic monuments.

The main types of megalithic art were:

.- Menhir: is a large upright standing stone. Menhirs may be found singly as monoliths, or as part of a

group of similar stones.

.- Dolmen: is a type of single-chamber megalithic tomb, usually consisting of three or more upright

stones supporting a large flat horizontal capstone (table), although there are also more complex variants.

.- A stone circle is a monument of standing stones arranged in a circle. Their purposes are unknown but

probably they were related with religious rites…

Dolmen

Menhir Piece of skull (Atapuerca)

Stonehenge (Stone circle) Working at a site in Atapuerca

These phases in Prehistory happened at different times depending on the different places, so while some

villages were in the Paleolithic, other civilitations knew writing. Nowadays, in Spain are working in

some sites like Atapuerca to try to understand life in prehistoric times.


GLOSARY-VOCABULARY:

Event: acontecimiento throughout: a lo largo de… archaelogoical site: yacimiento arque.

source: fuente coin: moneda locate: localizar

B.C.: Antes de Cristo A.D.: ‘Anno Domini’ Despúes de Cristo Christian Age: Era Cristiana

stage: etapa till: hasta Christ was born: Cristo nació

nowadays: nuestros días to last: durar Fall of the Roman Empire: Caída del Imper. Romano

preceding: que precede several stages of development: varias etapas de desarrollo

writing: escritura tools: herramientas to hunt: cazar caught: atrapaban

to take care: cuidar improvement: mejora to hit: golpear to sharp: afilar

arrow: flecha spear head: punta de lanza knive: cuchillo fur: piel (pelo)

to believe: creer to be favoured: ser favorecido to bury: enterrar relative: pariente

isolate: aislado hunting scene: escena de caza grow: cultivar spread: extenderse

so-called: llamado legumes: legumbres hut: cabaña field: campo (cultivo)

fence: vallado craftsmen: artesanos task: tarea warrior: guerrero

wool: lana loom: telar pottery: cerámica clay: arcilla

to harden: endurecer to polish: pulir mill: molino flour: harina

wheat: trigo axe head: cabeza de hacha plough: arado sickle: hoz

death: muerte grave goods: ajuar funerario bracelet: pulsera necklace: collar

would need: necesitaría earrings: pendientes nature phenomenon: fenómenos naturales

metallurgy: metalurgia to be develope: ser desarrollado weapon: arma jewellery: joyería

to melt: derretir copper: cobre to beat: golpear alloy: aleación

tin: estaño iron: hierro, acero to fight: luchar armour: armadura

to pour: verter enclosed furnace: horno cerrado mould: molde fortified: fortificada

to become: convertirse clay brick: ladrillo de arcilla to increase: incrementar, crecer

priest: sacerdote privileged: privilegiado trade: comercio exchange: intercambio

wheel: rueda sail: vela (de un barco) purpose: objetivo huge: enorme

upright: vertical singly: solo, aislado single-chamber: una sola cámara

tomb: tumba capstone: piedra de arriba flat: plano although: aunque

standing: de pie (posición) arranged: dispuestos, colocados

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PREHISTORY. English