Objectives
Students will be able to…
1. Define prehistory.
2. Explain the importance of archeology and anthropology to understanding early human history.
3. Define and describe culture.

Skills Objectives
Students will be able to…
S 1. Identify and locate key features of the textbook.
S 2. Take effective notes from textbook readings.

Procedures
• Entering class
– Check your folder
– Take today’s papers
– Sharpen pencils, etc.
– Start the Bellringer

Procedures
• Leaving the room
– Bathroom/water/nurse: hold up your AMSLAM sign
• Interrupt class for emergencies
– End of class: clean up supplies, move desks to where they belong, wait for teacher to dismiss you

Why study history?

• The main thing history can teach us is that human actions have consequences and that certain choices, once made, cannot be undone. They foreclose the possibility of making other choices and thus they determine future events.
- Gerda Lerner

Why do you need history?

Don’t Be Charlie Brown

Objective #1
Prehistory
• Prehistory – the time in human history before the invention of writing
• What sources can we use to understand the “prehistoric” world?

Unwritten History
1. Oral histories
2. Drawings
3. Stuff they left behind

Oral Histories
• Storytellers prized in many cultures, and stories are passed down for generations
• Problems:
– “Whisper down the lane” effect
– Dead people don’t tell stories

Drawings
• Mostly, cave paintings
– Famous pictures from Lascaux
(France)

Cave Paintings
• Art is in the eye of the beholder
– Stories?
– Actual events?
– Religious beliefs?
– Nice pictures?
– Textbooks?

Artifacts
• Something made by people

Fossils
• Solidified remains of living things

Using Artifacts
• Some assembly required
– Like a giant puzzle with no idea what the picture will be
• What if we use things for different purposes?
• If we know what, do we know when?
• Some things get lost

Objective #2
Studying the Past
• Archeology • Anthropology

Archeology
• The study of the human past by examining artifacts and remains
– Excavation
– Hoping to find ancient settlements, burial sites, tools, etc.

Carbon Dating
• A scientific test used to analyze the age of artifacts and fossils
• (based on the half-life decay of Carbon-14… ask a science teacher)
• Pretty accurate for the last 40,000 years or so

Anthropology
• Anthropology – the study of culture
– Study artifacts, try to re-create an understanding of people’s cultural behavior including customs, family life, and social relationships.

Objective #3
Culture
• Culture is a system of beliefs, values, and assumptions about life that guide behavior and are shared by a group of people
• Everyone has culture
• What does culture include?

Stonehenge

Catal Huyuk

Jericho

Aleppo

Our Culture
• What will archeologists and anthropologists use to understand our culture in 10,000 years?

HW: Textbook Notes
• Study Vocab for quiz next week

Find and Label
On Your Map
• North America
• South America
• Africa
• Europe
• Asia
• Australia
• Antarctica
• Aleppo
• Indian Ocean
• Atlantic Ocean
• Pacific Ocean
• Southern Ocean
• Jericho
• Catal Huyuk
• Stonehenge
• Mediterranean
Sea