Scribd
Upload
233 views13 pages

CH 1 Sec 2

1. The document summarizes the Old Stone Age (Paleolithic Era) from 2 million BC to around 10,000 BC. During this time, early humans lived in small nomadic groups in Africa and eventually migrated to Europe and Asia. 2. It describes early religious beliefs during the Paleolithic Era including animism and burying the dead. Towards the end of this period, some humans began farming and domesticating animals. 3. The Neolithic Agricultural Revolution around 11,000 years ago saw nomadic groups learn to farm and domesticate animals, leading to population growth and the emergence of civilization. New technologies developed for agriculture, clothing, calendars, and tools.

Uploaded by

mbr91853285
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PPT, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
233 views13 pages

CH 1 Sec 2

1. The document summarizes the Old Stone Age (Paleolithic Era) from 2 million BC to around 10,000 BC. During this time, early humans lived in small nomadic groups in Africa and eventually migrated to Europe and Asia. 2. It describes early religious beliefs during the Paleolithic Era including animism and burying the dead. Towards the end of this period, some humans began farming and domesticating animals. 3. The Neolithic Agricultural Revolution around 11,000 years ago saw nomadic groups learn to farm and domesticate animals, leading to population growth and the emergence of civilization. New technologies developed for agriculture, clothing, calendars, and tools.

Uploaded by

mbr91853285
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PPT, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 13

Ch 1 Sec 2 – The Dawn of

History
• I. The Old Stone Age – the Paleolithic Era - 2 million B.C. (first stone
toolmakers) until about 10,000 B.C.
• A. African Beginnings –pieces of bone embedded in ancient rock in
Tanzania
– 1.1959 Mary and Louis Leakey found bones that belonged to
humanlike primates
– 2. 1974 Donald Johanson found part of skeleton in Ethiopia, named
it Lucy
– 3. Because of this evidence, many scientists think that the earliest
people lived in East Africa
• a.) Their descendants may have migrated north and east into
Europe & Asia
      
• B. Hunters and Food Gatherers
– 1. Paleolithic people lived in small hunting and
food-gathering groups of about 20 or 30 people.
(men – hunted and fished, women-gathered berries,
fruit, nuts, etc)
– 2. Nomads – traveled from one place to another
following game and ripened fruit
– 3. At some point they developed spoken language
– 4. made simple tools and weapons out of stone,
bone, and wood
– 5. glaciers spread and people invented clothing out
of animal skins
• II. Early Religious Beliefs
• A. Animism – belief that spiritual forces might reside in
animals, objects, or dreams
• 1. Cave paintings found which depict animals and stick
figures – may have been part of spiritual rituals
• 2. Statues found that depicted earth - mother goddesses
• 3. Towards the end of the Old Stone Age people began
burying their dead which signified a belief in the afterlife
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=
Cmx4ObOLOCc&feature=fvw
• III. Neolithic Agricultural Revolution
• A. The First Farmers - 11,000 years ago nomadic bands
learned to farm
• 1. Varying opinions on where farming started
• People learned to domesticate: tame some animals
• B. Changing Ways of Life
• 1. Enable people to become food producers  growth
in population
• 2. Status of women declined as men dominated
family, economic, & political life
• a.) Heads of families formed a council of elders and
make decisions about when to plant and harvest
• 3. Warriors fought when food was scarce
• C. New technologies
– a.)Had to find ways to protect crops and measure out
enough seeds for next year
– b.)As a result, they created the first calendars
– c.)Learned to use animals such as oxen or water
buffalo to plow the fields
– d.)Some people learned to weave cloth from animal
hair or vegetable fibers
– e.)Some technologies took up to 5000 years to
spread across continents, others were invented
separately
– f.)These advances led to the emergence of
civilization
• F. Region - Based on location, physical characteristics,
cultural characteristics
• 1. What region of the United States do we live in?
• 2.What region of Pennsylvania do we live in?
• II. How do we know? Prehistory – the long period of time
before people invented systems of writing. Ancient people
had no cities, countries, organized central governments, or
complex inventions
• A. Anthropology - the study of the origins and
development of people and their societies
• 1. Study the culture - way of life of a society handed
down from generation to generation (some focus on the
origins of human life, others on the variety of human
cultures)
• B. Archaeology – the study of past people and
cultures (branch of anthropology)
• 1. Began over 500 years ago
• 2. Europeans dug up old statues and sold them
for a lot of money
• 3. Became a specialized branch of
anthropology
• 4. Study past people and cultures
• 5. Find and analyze materials and remains of
human cultures to learn more about them
• 6. Use artifacts – objects made by human
beings (tools, jewelry, cloth, pottery, weapons,
etc)
• 7. Use Carbon-14 to determine age of artifacts
• C. Archaeologists at Work
• 1. By studying thousands of items, they have traced how early
people developed new technologies
• a. technology – refers to the skills and tools people use to
meet their basic needs
• D. Technology and the Past
• 1. Computers can be used to store and sort data or to develop
accurate site maps
• 2. Techniques for measuring radio-activity help chemists and
physicists determine the age of objects
• A. Historians: study how people lived in the past
1. Study artifacts, from clothing and coins to artwork and
tombstones
2. About 5,000 years ago people started to keep written
records. This marked the beginning of recorded history
B. Historical Detection – historians must evaluate the
evidence to determine if it’s reliable
1. Historians must interpret the evidence, explaining what it
means
2. Their goal is often to determine the causes of a certain
development or event
3. By explaining why things happened in the past, the
historian can help us understand what is going on today and
what may happen tomorrow

You might also like