STANDARD WHI.2a
The student will demonstrate knowledge of early development of humankind from the Paleolithic Era to the agricultural revolution by
a) explaining the impact of geographic environment on hunter-gatherer societies. Homo sapiens emerged in East Africa between 100,000 and 400,000 years ago.
Homo sapiens migrated from Africa to Eurasia, Australia, and the Americas.
Early humans were hunters and gatherers whose survival depended on the availability of wild plants and animals.
b) listing characteristics of hunter-gatherer societies, including their use of tools and fire.
Hunter-gatherer societies during the
Paleolithic Era (Old Stone Age)
• Were nomadic (migrated in search of food, water, shelter)
• Invented the first tools, including simple weapons
• Learned how to make fire
• Lived in clans
• Developed oral language
• Created “cave art”
c) describing technological and social advancements that gave rise to stable communities. Societies during the Neolithic Era
(New Stone Age)
• Developed agriculture (Domesticated Plants)
• Domesticated animals
• Used advanced tools
• Made pottery
• Developed weaving skills
d) explaining how archaeological discoveries are changing present-day knowledge of early peoples.
-Archaeologists study past cultures by locating and analyzing human remains, fossils, and artifacts.
-Archaeologists apply scientific tests such as carbon dating to analyze fossils and artifacts. -Stonehenge is an example of an archaeological site in England that was begun during the Neolithic and completed during the Bronze Age.
The study of past societies through an analysis of what people have left behind. Artifacts are those things that people left behind, they can include: Tools and Weapons
Jewelry
Art and Sculpture
Human
Remains
Pottery
Ancient Buildings and Monuments
The study of human life and culture
The remains of ancient plants and animals.
By studying fossils archaeologists and anthropologists can learn about what people ate, what animals they had around, and their way of life.
Carbon dating can be used to date organic artifacts, or things that were once alive
All living things contain a radioactive isotope of Carbon called Carbon
14 which they absorb from the sun while they are alive.
Carbon 14 has a half-life of 5000 years. That means it takes 5,000 years for half of the Carbon 14 in something to break down.
If we know how much Carbon 14 something has left we can count back to how much is had to begin with to determine the age of the artifact. Is limited to things 50,000 years old or less.
Humans and other creatures that walk upright on two feet. The first Hominids, they are thought to have emerged in East
Africa in the Great Rift Valley between 3-4 million years ago.
Homo habilis- meaning handy human was a phase between
Australopithecus and Homo Erectus that emerged between 2.51.6 million years ago.
Second stage in early human development, Homo erectus, which means upright human being, emerged about 1.8 million years ago.
These were the first hominids to leave Africa and moved into Europe and Asia.
They also used more complex tools
About 250,000 years ago Homo sapiens emerged.
Homo Sapiens means “Wise Person.”
This group split into two distinct groups:
Neanderthals and Homo Sapiens Sapiens
Discovered in the Neander Valley in Germany.
Thought to have lived between 100,000 and 30,000 years ago; they lived in Europe and Turkey.
They used stone tools, and buried their dead. It is thought they had some primitive religious beliefs.
It was originally thought that they were killed off by homo sapiens sapiens, but new evidence has recently emerged that shows that there was some genetic mixing between the two groups.
Homo
Sapiens
Sapiens
Neandertha ls Modern Human Beings
Believed to have appeared in Africa between 150,000-200,000 years ago
Began to migrate outside of Africa 100,000 years ago.
Believed by many to have replaced the Neanderthals by 30,000
B.C..
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