Ancient
Civilizations
Chapter 1: Section 1
Standards
• H-SS 6.1: Students describe what is
known through archeological studies of
the early physical and cultural
development of humankind from the
Paleolithic era to the agricultural
revolution.
• (Link) ELA Reading 6.2.1: Identify the
structural features of popular media and
use the features to obtain information.
Objective
•To learn about the physical and
social development of early
humankind through archeological
discoveries.
Language of the
Discipline
•Prehistory
•Archeology
•Artifact
•Fossil
•Mary and Louis
Leakey
•Donald
Johanson
•Michael Brunet
Anticipatory Set
Studies of Early Humans
(Input)
•About 6,000 years ago humans had
no way to write down things.
•The time before this is called
Prehistoric.
•Archeology- is the study of human
life in the past through the
examination of the things that
people left behind.
Artifacts (Input)
• They look for places where people used to live a
long time ago. They are covered by layers of dirt.
• They dig up artifacts. Artifacts are objects made and
used by humans.
• Teaches them how those people hunted for food or
what types of plants they ate.
• They have found animal bones with carvings on
them, however, they cannot explain the thoughts
and ideas of the people who created them.
Fossils (Input)
• For the people who lived
thousands of years ago,
archeologist rely on fossils.
• Fossils are the remains or
imprints of living things
that existed millions of
years ago.
• Plants, feathers, bones,
footprints
Fossils (Input)
• One a living thing dies, it becomes covered by
mud. The soft parts of an animal decay. The
hard parts last longer. The minerals from the
soil replace the soft parts and leave a rocklike
copy of the original animal.
• Dating Fossils and Artifacts
• Comparing objects found in similar layers of rock or
soil
• Comparing an objecting with similar fossil or artifact
whose age is already known.
Fossils (Input)
• Radioactive dating.
• Living things and rocks contain radioactive
materials
• These elements day over time
• Measure the amount of radioactive material that
is left. It can tell when the object was formed.
• Other Methods
• Physical tests
• Chemical tests
• All to determine the age of something
Hunting for Fossils
• Where did people first appear on the Earth?
• 1959- Mary and Louis Leakey discovered
human fossils in Olduvai Gorge in East Africa.
• They found a piece of a skull with large molars
(rear teeth).
• They figured this person must of eaten a lot of
plants.
Donald Johnson
(Input)
• He has been searching for human remains in
Ethiopia, a country in East Africa.
• It had become too hot to continue looking. On his
way back to camp he saw a piece of bone sticking
out of the ground.
• He began to uncover what he found and
eventually found hundreds of bones that
belonged to a 3.5 foot woman.
• He named her Lucy.
Michael Brunet
(Input)
• “Oldest One”
• Many scientists believe humankind began in East
Africa.
• Michael Brunet
• He found a brown humanlike skull in Chad (located
in Africa). They say it was 7 million years old.
• This was the oldest skull that had ever been found.
• Many believed that the skull looked like an ape,
not like a human skull.
• Scientists still don’t have an answer
Review
(Input)
• You studied what an archeologist
does
• You studied what a fossil it and how it
is made
• You also studied where human
remains where first founded
Check for Understanding
• Please determine the BEST answer for the
following question.
• Please write your answer on your white
boards and wait for the teacher’s signal.
• On the teacher’s signal, hold up your white
boards.
Checking for
Understanding
•What did Mary and Louise
Leakey find in Olduvai Gorge in
1951?
•Mary and Louise Leakey found
human fossils
Checking for
Understanding
•How did the Leakey find impact the
search for the origins of human
kind?
• The Leakey find impacted the seaach
for the origins of human kind because
from that point on, searches were
centered in Africa.
Checking for
Understanding
•What was the search for the “oldest
one?”
• Michael Brunet found a skull that was
7 million years old. This led scientists to
more questions.
Guided
Practice/Independent
Practice
• Guided Practice
• Complete questions 1 - 2 on the reading comprehension
worksheet.
• Raise your hand and wait to get stamped.
• If you received an “R” go to the back table with Ms. Graham.
• Independent Practice
• Once you have been stamped moved to independent practice
and complete numbers 3 and 4 on the reading comprehension
worksheet.
• Homework
• Note-taking guide on the reverse side.