Lesson 1: Africa’s First People

Bellringer: What is one thing you learned from the movie?

Africa’s First People

• Sahara wasn't always a desert– Used to have enough

water to support farms– Farmers lived in the

Sahara 4000 years ago (evidence of cliff paintings)

• Millions of years ago, the first people lived in East Africa

Fertile Crescent• Fertile Crescent or “Cradle of Civilization”

– Crescent-shaped region containing the comparatively moist and fertile land of otherwise arid and semi-arid Western Asia

– Where the first civilizations began– Mesopotamia

• Many people moved out of the area and brought knowledge with them

African Civilization Grows

• Earliest period African history is the Stone Age– Marked the first use of

stone tools– Hunter-gatherers– 8000 BCE – 4000 BCE,

hunter-gatherers began to farm and here animals• Wheat, barley,

sorghum, and millet

Settling Down

• Began to domesticate plants and animals– To adapt for your own use

• This allowed people to settle– Settled in fertile areas to

support farms– Produced a surplus, more

than needed, so members of the community could do other work besides farming

Civilization• Communities grew into

civilizations, societies with cities, government, and social classes

• Architecture, writing, and art

• Around 4000 BCE a civilization rose up around the Nile; Egypt– Each summer, the Nile

flooded, leaving a fertile layer of silt for farming

– 4000 BCE villages rose up– Transitioned to a civilization

Egypt

• Ancient Egypt was ruled by Pharaohs, god kings– Buried in pyramids– Murals, hieroglyphics, paper,

architecture, medicine, and math

• Nubia: 6000 BCE– South of Egypt– Thrived until 300 AD– Developed iron in Africa

Bantu Migrations

• 500 BCE, Bantu people developed iron in West Africa– Allowed for better farming, which led a surplus

and an increase in population– BUT, around the 1st century BCE, the Bantu people

began to migrate out of Western Africa– Settled in Central and Southern Africa– Introduced farming, herding, and iron to this

region

Cavemen to Civilization

• Hunter-gatherers were nomads; no permanent settlements

• Domestication allowed for settlements• Farming led to surplus and varied jobs• Allowed for more complex forms of society to

rise up, civilizations• Look at the transition from villages to

civilizations

Exit Cards

Where did early hunter-gatherers settle and why?

Transitions

• History is all about the transition from one time period to another based on changing ideas

• Illustrate the transition from hunter-gatherers to civilization