Unit 1-Paleolithic Era Old Stone Age

Historian: Someone who studies written records, documents, and artwork to find out more about the laws, religion, and social structures of the civilization.

History: Events that happened in the past.

Archaeology: The study of past societies through what was left behind.

Artifacts: Things that were left behind

Anthropologists: Someone who studies humans and their culture.

Archaeologists: Someone who studies past cultures by locating and analyzing human remains, settlements, fossils and artifacts.

Hominids: Have some human attributes

-ability to walk upright

-opposable thumbs (ability to move them and touch the other fingers)

Homo sapiens: means wise human, 250,000 years ago

Lucy: Found in eastern Africa and found to have

-small brain

-walked on two legs

-had long arms

How would they survive?

Life was shaped by the physical environment. People followed food and water supplies, simple tools were used to manipulate the environment, and the power of fire was harnessed.

Nomad: Person who moved from place to place in order to find food for survival.

The people were hunters and gatherers, who would follow grazing animals, and moved based on the growing season. They invented the first tools including simple weapons, learned how to use fire, lived in clans—society was structured and everything was equal, developed oral language and created “cave art”. Bread is the difference between the Paleolithic times and the Neolithic times.

Life Before Bread: Humans lived in small social units. Food was gathered and hunted. More egalitarianism and gender identity equality relative to farming society.

Farming is more work, but also more efficient. Gathering and hunting produced food less quickly, but in greater variety. Hunter and gathering societies also have more free time.

Note