Modern Humans
By: Grace, Madi, Donovan and
Antonio
Introduction
• Dates/ Daily life: 10,000 years after the ice age ended
and the climate got warmer, plant life flourished and
larger animals died out, and were replaced by forest
dwelling animals along with a new type of Modern
Humans. The Modern Humans made many advances in
hunting and gathering. They were able to find out
where the big game came from, and so they soon
sheltered near the creatures and began hunting and
farming. Their daily lives involved hunting, planting,
gathering, and making homes. (1)
Where They Lived
• Modern Humans lived in many different places. These
places involved the grasslands of Africa and Australia, the
forest of South America, the grasslands of Australia, the
glaciers of Greenland and Alaska, and the deserts of
Mexico, etc.They also migrated from place to place until
they settled and lived their lives. (2)
Shelter
Modern Humans’ shelters were made from
bricks, which consisted of mud and straw,
and the roofs were thatched from straw,
which was covered in mud. The houses were
multiple stories, two or three at the most.
Rush mats covered the rough earthen floor.
Along with houses, courtyards, shrines, and
granaries, store houses were built. (3)
Food
• Modern Humans were the first farmers, but life still
made farming difficult. So most of the food they ate
was food they gathered or hunted. They collected
wild grain, berries, nuts, and roots. From the grain,
they used mortar and pestle to make flour that they
then baked into hard, flat bread. Since Modern
Humans had many techniques for hunting (fish traps,
dams, bows and arrows, and canoes), they had a
plentiful supply of meat. Besides these contraptions,
they took wolf pups and trained them to help them
on the hunts. (4)
Tools
• Modern Humans used tools such as stone
axes—some with wooden handles, knives,
spears, harpoons, sharp stone-tipped arrows,
and wooden bows. All of these things were
made by Modern Humans. (5)
Fire
• The Modern Humans would make fire with a
stick(tinder) and a stone(flint).The Modern
Humans would use the fire to cook, to
provide heat and for light, and to make
jewelry shine. They would have to use special
tools to make fire. The fire would protect
them from dangerous animals, but when
there was rain, the rain would extinguish the
fire. (6)
Religion
• Modern Humans buried their dead. There is
proof. Peter Beaumont found an infant buried
in a cave, and the skeleton was one hundred
percent complete! (6)
• Usually priests were group leaders of the
Modern Humans. They organized daily
worship at the shrines and also held
ceremonies and rituals. (7)
Communication
• Modern Humans communicated through
cave paintings; they also had a spoken
language.(8)
Clothing
• During the sweltering hot days of summer, the Modern
Humans had to put away their winter clothing and take out
their looms for making cloth. When the cloth was made,
they would dye the cloth in different shades, such as grey,
brown, and black. (9)
• Modern Humans used many materials for their clothing,
including cattle and goat skins. They also used sheep’s
wool. But, back then goats, cattle, sheep were wild, so the
Moderns Humans had to tame and raise the babies they
took from the mother goat and sheep. After a few years,
goats and cattle were killed for their meat and skins, and
sheep were sheared yearly for their warm fleece coats. (9)
Art
• Modern Humans made jewelry. They also
created pottery, and they fired it to give it a
custom strength. They also created little
statues carved from ivory or bones. (10)
Conclusion/Fun facts
• All in all, Modern Humans were interesting to
learn about, and we hope you had as much fun
learning about them as we did telling you. One
fun fact is that when compared to Homo
Sapiens, Neanderthals, Homo Erectus, and
Homo Habilis, Modern Humans had the largest
brains. Our second fun fact is that Modern
Humans actually aren’t that different from
humans today! (11)
Questions
• Which human group has the largest brain?
• How complete was the baby Modern Human
skeleton found in the cave?
• What aspects of the Modern Humans led
them to being so successful?
Answers
• 1. Some scientists believe that Cro-Magnons
may have had larger brains than Modern
Humans, but Modern Humans were the most
complex of all the Early Human groups.
• 2. The baby was 100% completed!
• 3. The Modern Humans were such a success
was because they farmed and worked
together.
End Notes
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(1) Early Humans Packet, pp. 1-3.
(2) Ibid.
(3) Ibid.
(4) Ibid.
(5) Ibid.
(6) msmcclure.com/PPP.
(7) Early Humans Packet, pp. 1-3.
(8) msmcclure.com/PPP.
(9) Early Humans Packet, pp. 1-3
(10) early humans.modern.org
(11) Facchini, Fiorenzo. A Day with Homo Sapiens, p. 16.
Bibliography
• Facchini, Fiorenzo. A Day With Homo
Sapiens. 21st Century Books:
Brookfield,Connecticut, 2003.
• Kearns, Marsha. Homo Sapien Early Humans.
Creative Teaching Press: C.A., 1993.
• Martin, Philip.
http://earlyhumans.modern.org.
• McClure, Tracy. http:msmcclure.com.