Foundations of CivilizationPrehistory-300 B.C.

Understanding Our PastSection 1

What is History?

What is Prehistory?

Studying the Historical Past

Prehistory= the long period of time before people invented writing.

Historians= are scholars who study and write about the historical past.

How do Historians learn about the past?

Artifacts

• Artifacts=are object made by humans

What is considered an artifact??

Investigating Prehistory

• Scholars want to learn about the origins and development of people and their societies. This field of study is called Anthropology.

• Anthropologist study things like bones and cultures.

What is a culture?

Investigating Prehistory

• Archaeology is the study of past people and cultures through their material remains.

• Remains include things such as tools, weapons, pottery, clothing, and jewelry.

• Archaeologists find and analyze artifacts to learn about life during prehistory as well as during historical times.

• Archaeologists work with other experts.

Video

• What is Archaeology? YouTube video

You be the Archaeologist

Based on the artifacts we come up with in class, what can you tell about the person who owned the belongings? Be the Historian and write a brief history about this person.

Discoveries and Africa and Beyond• Mary Leakey and Louis Leakey searched

in the Olduvai Gorge and found some ancient tools.

• They concluded that whomever made them had learned to develop technologies to help them survive

Hominids

• Mary Leaky found the skull of a hominid in 1959.

• Hominids are a group that includes humans and their closest relatives, all walk upright and on two feet.

• Donald Johanson found many pieces of a single hominid dating back to 3 million years ago.

• Lucy

Group Work

Complete sections B on the note taking study guide. You may work with a partner. 10 minutes only!

1. Australopithecines

2. Homo habilis

3. Homo Erectus

4. Homo sapiens

Early Hominid Groups

• Australopithecines all lived in Africa about 7 million years ago. (Lucy)

• Homo Habilis (“Handy man”) lived 2 million years ago and were the first to invent tools.

• Homo Erectus( “upright man”) appeared around 2 million years ago. Larger brains and bones. They used new tools. FIRST TO USE FIRE!!!

Homo Habilis

Homo Erectus

Homo Sapiens

• Between 250,000 and 100,000 years ago, Homo erectus disappeared and Homo sapiens appeared. MODERN HUMANS!

• Neanderthals are another group of homo sapiens that appeared but they eventually disappeared.

Turning Point:Neolithic Revolution

Section 2

Old vs. New Stone Age

• 2 million B.C. - 10,000 B.C. – OLD Stone age (Paleolithic)

• 10,000 B.C. to the end of prehistory – NEW stone age (Neolithic)

• During the new stone age people began to develop skills and technologies that led to dramatic changes in their everyday lives.

Old Stone Age: Nomads• Nomads are people who move from place

to place to find food.

• 20-30 people in small groups

• Men hunted and fished while women and children gathered fruits, nuts, grains, or shellfish.

Developed strategies for survival during the Old Stone age

• Made tools with stone, bone, or wood

• Developed language

• Learned to travel across water

Neolithic Revolution

• Known as the transition from nomadic life to settled farming.

• Marked the beginning of the New Stone Age.

• People settled in permanent villages and developed new skills and technologies.

• Early farmers domesticated plants and animals.

Earliest Villages Established• Jericho (pg. 14)

– Populations of a few thousands– Surrounded by a huge wall (2 soccer fields)

• Catalhuyuk

What new technologies did people invent as a result of agriculture?

Read page 15. come up with a list.

Beginnings of CivilizationSection 3

First Cities and Civilizations Arise

• All settled along major rivers.

• These areas favored farming by spreading silt.

• Farmers could produce surpluses of food.

• This allowed for villages to grow into cities.

River Valley Civilizations

• Civilization is a complex, highly organized social order.

First Civilizations in the Americas

• First civilizations were located in the highlands of Peru, Mexico, and Central America

Basic features that define civilization

• Organized Governments

• Complex Religions

• Job Specialization

• Social Classes

• Arts and Architecture

• Public Works

• Writing

Civilizations Change Over Time

• Environment Affects People’s Lives.– Need natural resources– Natural disasters

Civilizations Change Over Time

• Cultural Diffusion= The spread of ideas, customs, and technologies from one people to another.– Trade– Warfare

Civilizations Change Over Time

• Cities Grow into City-States controlled by rulers, priests, and nobles.

First Empires

• An Empire is a group of states or territories controlled by one ruler.