Prehistory and the Beginnings of Civilization – Key Vocabulary

A vocabulary set covering major terms, species, periods, sites, and concepts from the lecture on human prehistory and the origins of agriculture.

Bipedalism

Habitual walking on two legs; first appeared in African hominids 6–8 million years ago and freed the hands for tool use.

Hominid

Any member of the biological family that includes modern humans, their extinct ancestors, and the great apes.

Hominin

A more specific term for modern humans and our direct fossil ancestors after the split from the common ancestor with chimpanzees.

Australopithecines

Early bipedal hominids; robust forms had large teeth adapted to grassland diets in Eastern and Southern Africa.

Homo habilis

"Handy man"; first Homo species (c. 2.6 mya) noted for making simple stone tools of the Oldowan Industry.

Homo erectus

Hominid species (c. 1.9 mya – 143 kya) that mastered fire, produced hand-axes, and was first to leave Africa widely.

Homo sapiens

Modern humans; emerged in Africa c. 300 kya, migrated globally by 10 kya, showing advanced cognition, art, and seafaring.

Homo neanderthalensis (Neanderthals)

Stocky Ice-Age hominins of Eurasia (400–40 kya) with tools, language capacity, and ritual burials.

Oldowan Industry

Earliest widely used stone-tool tradition (c. 2.6–1.7 mya); simple choppers and flakes for cutting and smashing.

Paleolithic Era

"Old Stone Age"; from earliest stone tools to c. 10,000 BCE, marked by foraging and mobile hunter-gatherer bands.

Neolithic Era

"New Stone Age"; began c. 10,000 BCE with agriculture, permanent settlements, and polished stone tools.

Neolithic (Agricultural) Revolution

Gradual worldwide shift from foraging to farming and animal domestication after the last Ice Age.

Pleistocene Epoch

Geological period (2.6 mya – 11,700 BCE) of repeated glaciations that shaped human evolution and migrations.

Holocene Epoch

Warm period from 11,700 BCE to present; stable climate allowed farming and civilization to flourish.

Miocene Epoch

24 – 2 mya era when African forests shrank and grasslands expanded, encouraging early bipedalism.

Pliocene Epoch

5 – 2.6 mya; saw climatic shifts linked to the turnover-pulse hypothesis and the appearance of Homo habilis.

Last Glacial Maximum

Coldest span of the last Ice Age (22,000 – 14,000 BCE) with low sea levels enabling land migrations.

Younger Dryas event

Abrupt global cooling c. 10,900 – 9,600 BCE that stressed foragers and encouraged cereal cultivation in the Near East.

Radiocarbon (C-14) dating

Technique introduced in the 1950s to date organic remains up to ~50,000 years old by measuring radioactive carbon.

Potassium-Argon dating

Geological method for dating volcanic layers older than 50,000 years by measuring decay of potassium-40 to argon-40.

Turnover-pulse hypothesis

Theory that rapid environmental change favors creation or extinction of species, explaining multiple early hominids.

Hunter-gatherer

Mobile subsistence strategy relying on wild plants, animals, and fish rather than agriculture.

Sedentarism

Permanent settlement; became widespread with reliable farming and food storage.

Domestication

Genetic alteration of plants or animals through human selection to make them more useful for food or labor.

Fertile Crescent

Arc-shaped Near Eastern region where rye, wheat, and barley were first domesticated and early villages arose.

Natufians

Late-Pleistocene foragers (c. 12,500–9,500 BCE) of the Levant who lived in semi-sedentary villages and harvested wild cereals.

Abu Hureyra

Syrian site showing transition from foraging to rye cultivation after the Younger Dryas, c. 9,000 BCE.

Jericho

One of the world’s earliest towns (c. 9,000 BCE) near the Jordan River; featured mud-brick walls and grain storage.

Çatalhüyük

Large Anatolian Neolithic settlement (c. 7,000 BCE) with dense houses, craft workshops, and ritual wall paintings.

Dolni Věstonice

Upper-Paleolithic Czech site famed for mammoth-bone dwellings and the earliest known ceramic figurines.

Beringia

Pleistocene land bridge that connected Siberia and Alaska, enabling human entry into the Americas.

Clovis Point

Distinct fluted stone projectile head (c. 13,000 BCE) spread across North America; key marker of early hunters.

Monte Verde

Chilean archaeological site showing human presence in South America by at least 14,500 BCE, earlier than Clovis.

Paleo-Eskimos

Early Arctic peoples arriving c. 2,000 BCE with small-tool kits including toggle-headed harpoons.

Polynesian Migration

Deliberate seafaring colonization of Pacific islands between 3,500 BCE and 1,000 CE using advanced navigation.

Radiocarbon Limit

Maximum effective dating range (~50,000 years) beyond which too little C-14 remains for accurate measurement.

Hand Axe

Bifacial stone tool typical of Acheulean industry, used by Homo erectus for cutting and butchering.

Climatic Fluctuations

Alternating glacials and interglacials that lowered sea levels, opened land routes, and shaped human adaptation.

Tool Division of Labor

Evidence from clustered cutting sites and wear on Neanderthal teeth indicating specialized hunting and butchering roles.

Venus Figurines

Upper-Paleolithic female statuettes emphasizing fertility; suggest heightened ritual role of women before farming.