Cro-Magnon

By:

Chris, Bennett, Ashley, Summer

Dates and Places

• The Cro-Magnons remains were first discovered in France. Cro-Magnons spread out over Africa, Asia, and Europe by 30,000 years ago.

• Cro-Magnons had traveled over the land bridges that were there only during the Ice Age to stay at North and South America.

• By this time, every continent but Antarctica had humans populating it.

Fire• Cro-Magnons used fire during the end of the Ice Age, for

the weather was still freezing, so fire was one of the survival elements they depended on.

• Fire was also used to hunt down animals that they ate, but it also protected them from wild animals by scaring them away.

• Fire was the only light they had to use and the only heat to cook their food.

Religion and Ceremonies

• When a person died, all members in the tribe participated in the funeral.

• The body was put into a shallow grave with tools, weapons, and food needed in the afterlife. Then the grave was covered with dirt and stones.

• The shaman, or religious leader, most likely led the ceremony to honor the dead and request a happy afterlife.

Clothing• Clothing was made out of animal hides. They wore robes,

pants, tunics, and dresses.

• The Cro-Magnons also added little beads made from colored rocks or shells into their clothing for decoration.

• With their clothes, they wore stone, shell, fish bone, and eggshell necklaces.

Tools• Cro-Magnons made flint-bladed axes into a tool-like

chisel.

• These new tools could shape stones.

• Awls were made to make holes in animal hide.

• Bone needles were made to sew more refined clothes.

• Straight-backed knives made cutting a finer skill.

• They made spearheads and blades from bones, antlers, and stone.

• 10,000 years ago they used the bow and arrow.

Art• The dearest sign of Cro-Magnons was in their art.

• Cro-Magnons were the first to discover how to paint, sculpt, carve, and use color.

• They carved the first animals and chubby females.

• The earliest paintings were of hunting scenes.

• All the paintings were found in underground caves.

Physical Appearance

• The head of the Cro-Magnons was like modern humans except it was rounder, and more defined.

• The forehead was flat, and they had very slight eyebrow ridges. Noses and jaws were smaller. The teeth were also smaller and closer together.

Food• Cro-Magnons hunted large animals, such as

woolly rhinoceros, mammoths, saber tooth tigers, and wild horses.

• Cro-Magnons gathered wild carrots, beets, onions, turnips, cabbage, celery, fruits, and berries.

• The women also gathered shellfish, eggs, and small animals that got trapped in their handmade traps.

Daily Life• Cro-Magnons had daily hunting and gathering parties.

• Hunting provided them with bones, tools, and shelter.

• Women gathered the seeds and nuts, while men did the hunting.

• Sometimes they had ceremonies and dances for special occasions.

• They had funerals for important deaths.

Shelters

• Sinews from animals were tied into rope and used to secure the huts.

• Tusks and large bones from a mammoth were used to create shelters that were covered in skin.

• Cro-Magnons also used mammoth bones and skulls for supports.

• Their houses were like dome-shaped huts.

Language• Cro-Magnons were able to produce clear speech to

develop a more advanced oral language and means of communication.

• This enabled them to share information, work together, pass down knowledge and traditions, organize hunting and gathering trips, and speak more complex thoughts, including planning for the future.

• Their ability to use language enabled them to make a more advanced culture.