Prehistory and the birth of civilization Sixth Grade

Prehistory and the birth of civilization Sixth Grade Social Studies Stripes Team

Timeline Technology of Prehistoric Civilizations • -2, 500, 000 • -24, 000 • -20, 000 -13, 000 - Signifies B. C. E. • First stone tools are utilized in East Africa • In China, Homo erectus uses fire for domestic purposes • Fish hooks and line are utilized in Europe • Bows and arrows are in use in North Africa and Spain; oil lamps, fueled by animal fat, come into use • Devices to hurl harpoons and spears are in use

Terminology • Paleolithic – not time but culture that appeared in different parts of the world • B. C. E. – Before the Christian (or common) era”, or C. E. “Christian (or common) era. ” • Homo – group that includes man • Homo erectus – “upright human” • Neanderthals – man who used tools • Homo sapiens – self- conscious, symbolmaking- human, memory, foresight • Huminid – proto-human – lived 5 -6 millions years ago

Prehistory • Study of history before written records • Means of knowing – Geology – to determine age of earth – Paleontology – history of fossil remains; life of earliest living creatures – Anthropology – study of human beings, society, cultural practices – Archeology – uncovering, analyzing and interpreting material remains of past societies – Ethnography – study surviving, preliterate societies • Method – instruments that register radioactivity

Knowledge of earliest times • Earliest organic remains – 4 billion years old • One-celled organism in water yielded higher forms or life • 100 million years ago – dinosaurs • 80 million years ago – mammals on earth’s surface • 10 - 5 million years ago – human ancestors appear in Southern Africa

Fossil may prove • Structural similarities between man and apes • Now genetics show ties to chimpanzees

Paleolithic (Old Stone) Culture (ca 6 million-10 B. C. E. )

Huminid • Near-human who lived some five or more millions years ago • Lived in packs • Gathered seeds, berries, wild fruit and vegetables • Hunted beats of African savannas • Footprints found in South Africa in 1990’s • Fossil remains in 2001 in forests of Ethiopia evidence of man walking upright 5. 7 million years ago

Australopithecus • Using sharp-edged pebbles for skinning animals and chopping • 2. 5 and 2. 6 million years ago • Created earliest tools of stone and bone • Genus Homo • Homo habilis - tool-making human

Tool Making • Represent the beginning of culture • Defined as the manipulation of a nature • Man’s earliest technology-extending control over nature / rudiments of problem /solving