Early Humans
 Prehistory is the period before writing
was developed
 Anthropology is the study of human life
and culture.
 Archaeology is the study of past
societies through analysis of what they left
behind (like tools, paintings, etc. - artifacts).
 C-14 and Thermoluminescence are two
types of dating techniques.
 C-14 measures the carbon &
Thermoluminescence dating determines an
object’s age by measuring electrons in soil.
 Louis B. and Mary Leakey discovered
the bones of the earliest known human at
Olduvai Gorge.
 The term “Homo erectus” means
“upright human being”
 Homo sapiens sapiens spread across the
world at a rate of only two to three miles per
generation.
 All human beings today belong to the
Homo sapiens sapiens subspecies of human
being.
 Paleolithic peoples were nomads
because they had no choice but to follow
animal migrations and vegetation cycles.
 The Paleolithic Age is the period in
which humans used simple stone tools.
Neolithic Revolution
Neolithic Revolution changes & consequences
 The Neolithic Age is sometimes called
the New Stone Age.
 The ability to acquire food on a regular
basis meant humans could give up their
nomadic ways of life and begin to live in
settled communities.
 The Neolithic Revolution can best be
described as the growing of crops and the
taming of food-producing animals by early
humans.
 The real change in the Neolithic
Revolution was the shift from hunting and
gathering to systematic agriculture.
 The movement toward systematic
agriculture led people to settle in one area.
 This, in turn, led to the development of
farming villages, causing people to see the
need to build houses for protection and other
structures for the storage of goods.
 The trading of goods caused people to
specialize in certain crafts, and gave rise to
artisans.
 Tools became more refined and food
plants began to be cultivated.
 Food surpluses in the Neolithic farming
village of Çatal Hüyük made it possible for
people to do things other than farming.
 Men became more active in farming and
herding animals, while women stayed at
home to care for the children, weave cloth,
and perform other jobs that required staying
in one place.
 As men took on the responsibility for
obtaining food and protecting the settlement,
they came to play a more dominant role.
 This basic pattern would remain until
our own times.
 Historians have identified the basic
characteristics of civilizations as cities,
governments, religion, social structure,
writing, and art.