Unit 2 – Lesson 5
The Peopling of the Earth
Reviewing What We Have
Learned…
Homo sapiens
Between 200,000 and about
100,000 years ago, people
who were both anatomically
and genetically “like us”
emerged in eastern and
southern Africa.
This is a reconstructed Homo
sapiens skull, found in Israel.
It has been dated to about
90,000 years ago.
Locations of
Earliest
Human
Remains
From their African
homeland, Homo sapiens
groups migrated to…
…Where?
5
When early humans moved out of Africa,
where do you think they went?
Migrations of Homo sapiens
Europe
40,000 years ago
Siberia
40,000 years ago
North America
12,000-30,000
years ago
Oceania
1600 B.C.E.-500 C.E.
Southwest Asia
100,000 years ago
Human Origins
200,000-250,000
years ago
Australia
as many as 60,000
years ago
Chile
12,000-13 ,000
years ago
Possible coastal routes of human migration
Possible landward routes of human migration
Migrations in Oceania
Why do people move?
Work with
a partner to
complete
the T-chart.
Which of the
push and pull
factors we
identified might
have caused
early humans to
move out of
Africa?
To find food
To find food
To escape weather
patterns
To find food
To escape weather
patterns
To find space for a
growing population
taiga
tundra
alpine forest
steppe
grasslands
deciduous forest
tropical rainforest
savanna
desert
steppe
grasslands
deciduous forest
taiga
tundra
alpine forest
Biomes Map
Biomes Map
That’s amazing!
Why were modern humans
able to move into so many
different environments?
After all, no other
large animals had
spread so widely! So
what was so special
about us?
Language!
Homo sapiens had language
◦ so they could exchange complex ideas with each
other.
◦ and they could store and add to the ideas of
previous generations.
Because they swapped ideas, they kept finding
◦ new ways of doing things.
New
Ideas
◦ new ways of living.
Language
Shared
Ideas
Learning
Language made
collective learning possible.
The stores of knowledge
and skills humans built up
are called “culture.”
No other animal can store
and accumulate
knowledge and skills in
this way.
We call this ability
“collective learning.”
It is what
human history
is about!
It is what
makes us
special!
Video
Online Activity
http://www.phschool.com/atschool/california/webcodes/history_interactive/mwp1013/common_player.html
Lesson Summary
• Humans were able to move out of their original habitat while other species
did not.
• Human migration over the planet took thousands and thousands of years.
• As humans migrated, they learned to live in more varied environments such
as deserts and dense forests.
• Humans migrated to new biomes to find food, escape weather patterns, and
find space for a growing population.
• Language might have developed in Africa, anywhere between 50,000 and
100,000 years ago. As humans migrated and moved, language likely became
more complex and helped people solve new problems.