I.E.S. Llanes Sevilla
Departamento de Ciencias Sociales
PREHISTORY
1.1 MAIN IDEAS
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History is a term used for information about the past.
Everything that has happened is History.
Historians divide the times in two great periods:
1. Prehistory
2. History
1.2 PREHISTORY consists of the period of human history where we have not written
documents. It starts with the invention of the first tools (3 million years ago) and
finishes when people can write their own histories. (Egypt 3500BC, America 1500 AD,
New Guinea 1900 AD)
We divide Prehistory into three ages:
1. STONE AGE: the period of time when human beings made tools from stone,
wood, and bone.
2. METAL AGES:
 BRONZE AGE: the period when human beings made tools with a mixture of
cooper and tin called “bronze”.
 IRON AGE: the last period of Prehistory: it began in Turkey around 1300 BC
and later in other areas. The Iron Age finished when written documents
appeared.
Vocabulary:
Historians: historiadores /
term: término, expresión / to happen: ocurrir
/ to survive: sobrevivir / written: participio de write / bone: hueso / copper :
cobre / tin: estaño/ until: hasta
Activities
1.
Put these sentences in the correct order:
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where we don’t have / we call Prehistory / the period of human history / written
documents
________________________________________________________________
and finishes when / the prehistory starts / people discover the writing / with the
invention of the first tools
________________________________________________________________
at the same time / the discovery of the writing / for example in Egypt is BC and
in America is AD/ doesn’t happen everywhere
________________________________________________________________
I.E.S. Llanes Sevilla
Departamento de Ciencias Sociales
3. Write true or false next to the sentences:
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Prehistory is the period before Christ is born______.
When Egyptians discover writing in the 4th millennium before Christ,
History begins everywhere in the world.________
If we study a period of a place when we don’t have any writing documents
we can say that it is Prehistory.________
Some places are in the Prehistoric period and at the same time other places
are in a Historic period______________
4. Organize these words in a concept map:
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Prehistory
History
Tin
Stone Age
Stone tools
Turkey
Bronze Age
Iron Age
Metal Age
Written documents
_______________
_______________
1______________
_______________
2_________________________
=
______________
___________
_______________
___________
_____________________________
I.E.S. Llanes Sevilla
Departamento de Ciencias Sociales
1.3 PALAEOLITHIC AND NEOLITHIC
The most important division in the Prehistoric age is between the Palaeolythic and the
Neolithic periods.
PALAEOLYTHIC (Old Stone Age)
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This period is the oldest part of the Stone Age.
It started approximately 3 million years ago and continued until the use of
agriculture (9,500 BC in the fertile Crescent, 10,000 BC in the Nile area and
6,000 in the Iberian peninsula).
The humans are nomads and predators. This means that they live on everything
they can get from nature (fruit, snails, vegetables, hunting animals…) but they
never plan the future. They don’t grow vegetables, there is no farming.
People hunt together with weapons made of flint stones or bones.
INNOVATIONS in the Palaeolythic period
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People make weapons and tools.
People can make fire.
The religion and the arts appear thanks to the people’s
intelligence and creativity.
- People paint into the caves. They paint animals and
later human figures
NEOLITHIC (New stone age)
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The most important revolution in the history of mankind takes place during this
period.
People control the environment. Agriculture and farming are new ways of
survival.
People become sedentary.
INNOVATIONS in the Neolithic period
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Works in flint stone are better than before. Now they polish
the flint tools.
People make pottery and cloth for the first time.
People don’t live in caves or in the open air, but in villages
made of wood and clay.
Each person has different jobs: shepherds, farmers, bricklayers,
potters, soldiers.., so labour division appears.
I.E.S. Llanes Sevilla
Departamento de Ciencias Sociales
EXERCISES
1.What is the difference between a predatory man and a producer man? ( a man
who produces)
2. Think of people who don’t know how to farm ….
 Can they be sedentary?
 Why?
 What can they do for a living?
3.When does the Palaeolithic start?
When does it finish?
4.Write “N” if the these statements refer to the Neolithic or “P” if they refer to the
Palaeolithic:
 This period is the oldest part of the Stone Age_________
 People control the environment_______
 People know agriculture and farming_______
 Humans are nomads and predators_________
 People never plan the future_________
 People control fire________
 People become sedentary__________
 People know about fire________
 People live in caves or in the open air________
 People live in small villages_________
 People know about pottery and cloth________
 There is labour division_________
5.Make a list with the jobs that appear in the Neolithic and don’t exist in the
Palaeolithic:
6.Imagine you are a person who lives in the Palaeolithic. Write five sentences
describing a day in your life ( I get up at….. then…..)
7. Imagine you are a man who lives in a small Neolithic village. Write five
sentences describing a day in his life.
8. Now imagine you are a Neolithic woman. Write five sentences describing a day
in her life.
I.E.S. Llanes Sevilla
Departamento de Ciencias Sociales
1.4 THE METAL AGE
The three important periods in the METAL AGE are:
1. The COPPER AGE
2. The BRONZE AGE
3. The IRON AGE ( people start writing their History)
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At the end of the Neolithic period people use copper for making rings, earrings
and other accessories.
Copper is the first metal that people use because it is very easy to find and to
work with.
Later they discovered that melting and mixing tin and copper produces an alloy
that is stronger than both: copper and tin. This alloy is called BRONZE.
In the second millennium before Christ, people discover the strongest metal:
IRON and from then on every weapon and tool is made of iron.
Ownership of the mines is very important in this period. People
who have mines are rich and people who don’t have mines are
poor.
Society becomes more organized. There is a strong king with a
strong army in every society.
Wars become frequent. People build walls to protect their
villages.
Vocabulary:
Mankind: la humanidad / copper: cobre / to melt: derretir, fundir / tin: estaño / alloy:
mezcla / weapon: arma / ownership: posesión / / army: ejercito / war: guerra
RELIGION AND ART
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People build graves and tombs.
Some people bury their dead individually, but some other people
bury their dead all together.
You can know how important the dead person is according to the way
he or she is buried.
People build big tombs called MEGALITHIC TOMBS.
There are three kinds of Megalithic tombs:
1. MENHIR: it is big individual stone which shows where
a grave is.
2. DOLMEN: when the grave is indicated by two big
stones which support another one above them.
3. CROMLECHT: it is a funerary monument. The stones
appear in a big circle called stone circles. We think that
this kind of funerary monument also serves as a ceremony for
watching the sky. It is usual to find bracelets, earrings, statues… etc.
next to the big funerary stones.
I.E.S. Llanes Sevilla
Departamento de Ciencias Sociales
Vocabulary: dead: muerto / burial: enterramiento
/ to bury : enterrar / grave : tumba / tomb: tumba
1. Write the name of the three important periods in which we divide the
METAL AGE.
EXERCISES:
2. What is the BRONZE AGE?
3. Write the three kinds of Megalithic tombs that we can find.
A WALK IN THE MEGALITHIC MAP OF ENGLAND
Across the British Isles we can find prehistoric remains which date from
the period 3,000 BC to 1,500 BC, and have the form of a number of
stones standing in a circle. Nobody knows the reason for their
construction or the importance of these tombs in society. The most
famous one is STONEHENGE in England, but there are almost 1,000
other stone circles.
Stonehenge
(Wiltshire)
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/secrets/case_stonehenge/
Find in Internet:
1. Two examples of dolmens in the British Isles ( Great Britain or
Ireland)
2. Two examples of menhirs in the British Isles.
3. Two examples of cromlechts or stone circles in the British Isles.
I.E.S. Llanes Sevilla
Departamento de Ciencias Sociales
GALLERY OF IMAGES
ALTAMIRA CAVE (SPAIN)
LASCAUX CAVE (FRANCE)
VALLTORTA (SPAIN)