Pre-history

Key Terms

• Artifacts• Culture• Hominids• Nomads• Hunter-gatherers• Agricultural

Revolution

• Domestication• Civilization• Slash-and-burn

farming

How do we know about pre-history?

Archaeologists• Search for evidence

of prehistoric people and animals

• Look for bones and artifacts

• Artifacts are human-made objects

Anthropologists• Study culture, or a

people’s unique way of life

• Examine artifacts to re-create a picture of early people’s cultural behaviors

Artifacts

Stone AgeInvention of tools, use of fire, and

development of languagePaleolithic Age• 2.5 million to 8000

B.C. (Ice Age)• Earliest stone

chopping tools

Neolithic Age• 8000 to 3000 B.C.• Polished stone tools• Pottery• Grow crops• Raise animals

Homo Sapiens

Neanderthal• 200,000 to 30,000 B.C.• Developed religious

beliefs and rituals• Resourceful, using

wood and animal bones and skin.

• Took shelter in caves to survive winter

Cro-Magnon• 40,000 to 8000 B.C.• Pre-historic humans• Skeletons identical to

modern humans• Planned their hunts,

studying animal habits• Advanced language

skills

Homo Sapiens

Neanderthal Cro-Magnon

Cave Paintings

• Oldest ones are about 35,000 years old

• Purpose of cave paintings still unknown

• In Europe and Africa they often show images of hunting and daily activities

Nomads

• People that move from place to place searching for new sources of food

• Those whose food supply depended on hunting animals and collecting plant foods are called hunter-gatherers

• Technological Revolution• Hunter-gatherers invented more than 100 more

tools, including knives, fish hooks, and needles

• Caveman Diet

Agricultural Revolution

• Occurred about 10,000 years ago• Scientists believe it may have been due to

climate change• Provided a steady source of food, instead of

always searching for food• Slash-and-burn farming is when trees and

grasses are cut down and burned to clear a field, the ash fertilizes the soil, plant crops for year or two, move to new area, trees and grasses grow back, and cycle begins over

Agricultural Revolution

• As farming grew, knowledge of the animals led to domestication, or taming, of horses, dogs, goats, and pigs

• Hunters herded animals into human-made enclosures

• Provided a constant source of food

Civilization

• As agriculture grew, so did population

• Economic changes due to irrigation systems

• The new economic systems led to social changes, forming social classes

Five Characteristics of Civilization

1. Advanced cities2. Specialized workers3. Complex institutions4. Record keeping5. Improved technology

Bronze Age

• Started around 3000 B.C.

• Discovery that melting copper and tin together made bronze

• Time when people began making tools out of bronze, instead of copper and stone

Reflection• What is meant by the term pre-

history and why were the cultures of prehistoric times not considered a civilization?