Origins of Man from stone age study guide summary

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Origins of Man from stone age study guide summary

Stone Age

I. Origins of Man

A. Paleolithic Era

Old Stone Age
2 million years ago – 12,000 BC
hominids:
- human beings & humanlike creatures that preceded them
- 1st humanlike creatures emerged roughly 4.4 million years ago in Africa
anthropology:
- scientific study, including physical features, development & behavior, of hominids
paleontology:
- study fossil remains to determine the characteristic of various perhistoric periods
archaeology:
- study prehistoric life by unearthing and interpreting the objects left behind by prehistoric people

1. Stone Age

Stone Age:
- period before writing became established when early people used of stone tools
- three shorter periods
- depending on differences in tool making techniques
Paleolithic:
- Old Stone Age
- 2.5 million years ago - about 12,000 B.C.
- began with the first tool making by Homo habilis
Mesolithic:
- Middle Stone Age
- 12,000 B.C. - about 8,000 B.C.
Neolithic:
- New Stone Age
- about 8,000 B.C. to 5,000 B.C

2. Ice Ages

between 2 million and 10,000 years ago,
four long periods of cold climate (Ice Ages)
average temperatures
- many parts of the world fell to below freezing
massive glaciers
- spread out from the poles
- scarring the landforms
northern glaciers
covered large portions of Europe, Asia, and North America
ice fields of Antarctica
- stretched over wide regions in the Southern Hemisphere
only the middle latitudes remained warm enough to support human and animal life
between glacial periods
- Earth’s climate warmed overall
- abundant rains brought lush plant growth
level of the oceans
dropped more than 300 feet
as sheets of ice formed
land bridges
some areas that are now separated by water were connected
- joined Japan and mainland Korea
- Great Britain and Ireland to Western Europe
- Malay Peninsula through the Indonesian islands almost all the way to Australia
- Asia and North America at the Bering Strait

3. Human Origins

a) Australopithecus

‘southern ape’
inhabited eastern and southern Africa
- humid forests
fed on fruits, leaves, nuts, fish & meat
4.5 and 1.7 million years ago
small and sturdy, with apelike bodies
- 3.5 – 5 ft tall
- large faces that jutted out
- small brains
- flat noses
- large teeth
mastered bipedalism
4 major Australopithecine species
- classified by variations in their skulls and teeth
nomads
- family groups lived in temporary camps

b) genus Homo

‘human’
emerged around 2.5 million years ago
body
- larger brain size
- rounded skulls
- distinctively human formation to the hips and pelvis

(1) Homo habilis

1st quarter of the Paleolithic period
emerged about 2 million years ago
‘person with ability’
‘handy man’
- distinguished by he ability to use tools
- larger brains
- indicate physical & mental advances

(2) Homo erectus

1.8 million years ago to about 30,000 years ago
‘person who walks uprights’
emerged in Africa
living areas
- covered a variety of environments
- woodlands & grasslands in Africa to forests and plains in Europe and Asia
food gatherers
- females gathered fruits, nuts, and seeds
- males scavenged for meat
fire
clothing
- wrapped themselves in animal skins
- first scrapped hair and tissue off the inner side of the skins
- laced the skins together with strips of leather

(3) Homo sapiens

‘person who thinks’
100,000 - 200,000 years ago
all people living today belong to the species Homo sapiens

4. Appearance of Homo Sapiens

a) The Neanderthals

200,000 years ago
first Homo sapiens
- probably were the Neanderthals
- named after the Neander Valley in Germany
- remains were first discovered
- A.D. 1850s
may have originated in Africa
- began spreading into Europe & Asia
- about 100,000 years ago
- separate and distinct branch of the Homo genus
- surviving until up to 28,000 years ago
body
- 5.5 ft tall
- powerful, heavy skeletons
- projecting jaw
- broad nose
- brow ridge
- brains were the same size as those of fully modern humans
adapted to a wide range of habitats & harsh climates
burials
- evidence that they had developed cultural rituals

(1) Technological Skills

nomadic hunter-gatherers
used fire for warmth and cooking
tool making ability
- more sophisticated than that of Homo erectus
- crafted stone knives, spear points, and bone tools
- hide – cleaning & food – preparing tools
- shaped by chipping away small pieces from the edges of the stone

(2) Ways of Life

lived in small groups
- 35 to 50 people
nomads
good weather / warm climates
- lived in open air camps
- along the shores of lakes or rivers
colder climates
- lived together in caves
- under the overhangs of cliffs
- heavy clothing made from animal skins

(3) Culture and Beliefs

cared for their sick and aged
- may have been the first to practice medicine
- Neanderthal fossils show signs of serious injuries that had completely healed before death
belief in life after death
- covered the bodies of their dead with flowers
- buried them in shallow graves with food, tools, and weapons

b) The Cro - Magnons

after the rock shelter in France where their remains were first found in A.D. 1860s

(1) Technology

tool making technology
- transformed human life
- blades were thinner
- sharper cutting edges
- used bone, antler, and ivory to make new kinds of tools
- hammers, hoes, and pincers
- fishing with bone fishhooks
- using bone needles to sew fitted leather clothes
stone ax
- chop down trees
- shape them into canoes
- traveling down rivers and along seacoasts
- may have used rafts to cross 50 miles of sea to reach Australia
long – distance weapons
- spear – thrower
- bow and arrow
- could hunt several animals at once & larger animals
- wooly mammoths and bison
food supply increased
- increased number of people on Earth
- 15,000 B.C.
- world population of human beings stood at roughly 2 million

(2) Social Life

necessary for 4 or 5 unrelated bands to cooperate
- cooperating bands probably needed formal rules in order to get along
leaders emerged
- devised and enforced the rules
- evidence for leaders consists of high – status burials
- archaeologists have discovered certain Cro-Magnons buried with ivory daggers & amber beads
where they lived
- some lived inside cave entrances
- others built huts in forested areas
- built more permanent homes as hunting developed
- long house holding many families were made of stone blocks
- archaeological evidence that communities of 30 to 100 people lived together

(3) Cave Paintings

Lascaux & Vallon-Pont-d’Arc
- both in France
numerous other cave sites in Spain and Africa

5. Migrations

a) Africa

least hospitable areas of Africa
- tropical rain forests
- colonized by early humans
- by about 35,000 years ago
emerging in the Nile and Niger valleys
- 10,000 BCE
- resources, fish & wild cereals
nomadic hunter – gatherers
- roamed the semi – arid savanna & the African deserts

b) Europe

settled by humans
- by about 45,000 BCE
- Ice age conditions
wood, bone, hide, and antler were all used to build
- shelters
- new tools
- bows and arrows, spear – throwers, and harpoons
- used to hunt big game

c) S. & E. Asia

end of the last Ice Age
- sea levels rose
- abundance of plants, animals, and seafood proliferated
- seafood played a very important part in the Asian diet at this time
- many hunter – gatherer groups settled around coasts and estuaries

d) Australasia

reached Australia
- about 60,000 years ago
sea levels were low
- Australia was not joined to Southeast Asia
- settlers must have used boats to cross 40 miles of open sea
early sites
- clustered along the coasts and rivers
rising sea levels
- at the end of the last Ice Age
- force settlers inland

e) N. & S. America

Beringia:
- Bering Strait land bridge
crossed from Siberia
- at least 15,000 years ago
progress south was blocked
- by the vast Cordilleran and Laurentide ice sheets
southern South America
- by 12,000 BCE
big game hunters of North America
- developed large stone points (Clovis points)
- capable of piercing mammoth hide
- herds of mammoths had been hunted to near extinction by about 9000 BCE

6. Prehistoric Finds in Africa

Lucy:
- 1974
- Donald C. Johanson and Tom Gray
- 3.2 million year old skeleton of a hominid
- Australopithecus
- Hadar
radiocarbon dating:
- all living things contain small amounts of radioactive carbon
- radioactive carbon decays at a known rate
- archaeologists can measure how much the radioactive carbon has decayed in organic remains
- figure out when the animal or plant died

7. Human Culture

culture:
- way of life
- clothing
- fire
- knowledge
- language
- food
- religious beliefs
- art / music
dig with sticks
crude stone tools
- skin animals
- cut pieces of meat
technology:
- skills and useful knowledge available to them for collecting material and making the objects necessary for survival
specialized tools
- food choppers, skin scrapers, & spear points
language
Homo Erectus
- little more than gestures and grunts
50,000 B.C.
- prehistoric people had developed speech
- enabled individuals to work with one another
- organize a hunting group
- give specific instructions about where to find fresh water

B. Mesolithic Era

between the immediate post – Glacial period & the adoption of farming
Mesolithic Europe
- land of diverse environments
- rich natural resources
- some areas hunter – gathers were able to adopt semi – sedentary lifestyles
- burials reveal the distinctions of social status
- transition from hunting and gathering to farming in Europe began in Greece and the Balkans c. 6500 BC
agriculture may initially have been introduced to Europe by immigrants
- emmer wheat & barley were certainly introduced from Anatolia
- other crops & animals could have been domesticated locally
- einkorn wheat, oats, grapes, olives, sheep, goats, cattle & horses
farming spread quickly around the Mediterranean
- spread to central and northern Europe was slower
- progress depending on the development of strains of crops and livestock
- resistant to colder and wetter climates
- farming had spread through most of Europe by 4,000 BC
- hunting & gathering lasted in the far north into the modern age
spread of farming was probably accomplished by a mixture of small – scale migrations & hunter – gatherers adopting the way of life.
- single hunter – gatherer needs about 25 square kilometers to make a living
- primitive forms of agriculture can support up to 20 people on one square kilometer
- migrations of farming peoples would have put pressure on the wild resources needed by the hunter – gatherers
- forced everyone to adopt farming

C. Neolithic Era

new environments
- developed at end of the last Ice Age
- forests and grasslands appeared in many areas
Neolithic Revolution:
- new agricultural methods led to tremendous changes in peoples’ lifestyles
- people gradually shifted from gathering and hunting food to producing food over roughly 5,000 years
cultural changes
- came in methods of obtaining food
- domestication animals & plants
- early farmers invented the sickle
- cutting wild grains
pottery:
- made from sun-hardened clay
- far more effective for carrying and storing food and water
- pouches of animal skin

1. The First Villages

world population
- 90 million
- estimate by 4000 B.C.
- people could settle in communities
- instead of wandering as nomads
- agricultural villages of about 200 began to develop
- where soil was fertile and water abundant
Jericho:
- modern West Bank
- 8000 B.C.
Catal Huyuk:
- present day Turkey
- 7000 to 6300 BC
- largest Neolithic villages
- rectangular, flat – roofed houses of mud bricks placed in wooden frames
- house of several related families made up a compound with shared walls
- people had to walk across roofs
- painted the interior walls of their windowless houses with vivid scenes of hunting and other activities

2. Technological Advances

plow & trained oxen to pull it
fertilize their fields with ashes, fish, & manure
relatively steady food supply quickened the pace of technological advance
loom
- weaving textiles of linen & wool
wheel
- transportation
bake clay bricks
- construction
hammer the metals (copper, lead, and gold)
- jewelry and weapons
religion
- many gods and goddesses
- spirits that supposedly surrounded them throughout nature
- transformed into humanlike gods and goddesses with the power to help or hurt people
- shrines at which they offered gifts in honor of their deities

Source : http://www.bradwynne.com/AWH/notes/awh1-unit-i-notes.docx

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