Ms. Carmelitano
PEOPLING OF THE WORLD
PREHISTORY – 2500 BC
IMAGINE THE WHOLE HISTORY OF THE EARTH
AS A 24-HOUR CLOCK

If the present
is “midnight”
what “time”
do you think
human beings
came into
being?
STUDYING THE PAST

Little is known about early human species
because they had no writing


Historians call this time pre-history
Instead of studying written records, scientists
study:
Fossils
 Bones
 Artifacts: Human-made objects

 Tools
 Jewelry
WHERE IT ALL BEGAN
THE EARLY HUMAN
It was once believed that the “birth place” of
the human species was Asia
 In the 1930’s that all changed!
 Louis S. B. Leakey

 Believed
Africa was the birth
place of humans
 In the 1930’s he found fossil
evidence of human beings
in Sub-Saharan Africa; Tanzania
TANZANIA AFRICA MAP
THE EARLY HUMAN

Mary Leakey 1978
 Found
prehistoric
footprints that
resembled those of
modern humans in
volcanic ash in
Tanzania
 (Homo
Habilis)
THE DISCOVERY OF “LUCY”
Anthropologist Donald Johanson studied in
Ethiopia
 1974 – Discovered a complete
skeleton of an adult female
hominid (Australopithecus)

 Lived
3.5 million years ago
 Oldest, most complete hominid
found to that date
THE EVOLUTION OF HUMANS

Evolution

A gradual process in which something changes into
a different and usually more complex or better form
THE EVOLUTION OF HUMANS
THE EVOLUTION OF HUMANS
Human evolution: the process of change by
which people originated from apelike
ancestors.
 Hominid – A human that walks upright (on 2
feet)

 Lucy
and the Leaky footprints came from Hominids,
they walked on two feet
 Bipedalism – or the ability to walk on two feet
TRAITS OF HUMANS
Physical and behavioral traits shared by all people
originated evolved over a period of six million
years.
 human traits:

bipedalism
 large and complex brain
 ability to make and use tools
 capacity for language
 complex symbolic expression, art, and elaborate
cultural diversity

HUMAN ERAS

The first eras of human existence can be
separated into two sections
 Paleolithic:
B.C.
Old Stone Age from 2.5 million to 8000
 Hominid
Species first emerged
 Hominid Species began to use stone tools intelligently
 Fire is discovered (Homo-Erectus)
 Mesolithic:
 Homo
Middle Stone Age
Sapiens first emerged
 Advance in the use of stone tools
PALEOLITHIC – THE FIRST PEOPLE

Australopithecus


Existed: 4 million BCE
Homo Habilis

2.5 million B.C.E
 B.C.E.
– means ‘before common era’
 C.E. or A.D. – means ‘common era’
 Homo: Human

Homo-Erectus:
Existed 1.6 million BCE
 “Upright man”

MESOLITHIC PERIOD

Homo Sapiens:
 “wise
man”
 Modern Humans
 The first Homo-sapiens evolved in Africa 100,000
and 400,000 years ago

Homo Sapiens: Neanderthal
 200,000-30,000

BCE
Homo Sapiens Cro-Magnon

40,000-8,000 BCE
HUMAN FAMILY TREE

http://humanorigins.si.edu/evidence/humanfamily-tree