Human Origins. The agricultural revolution

Neanderthal – early hominid from Eurasia

"Java man" – early hominid from Java

"Peking man" – early hominid from east Asia

“Lucy” – famous fossil, more than 3 million years old, belonging to the

Australopithecus Africanus class of early hominids

homo erectus – advanced version of hominid with larger brain

homo sapiens – modern humans

homo floresiensis – unique species of hominids from the island of Flores in Asia, only 3

feet tall

bipedalism – walking upright on two feet

“hunter-gatherer society” – main social organization and subsistence strategy for more

than 95% of human history

“Dreamtime” – collection of stories and ceremonies in Australia telling the early

beginning of occupation during prehistory

"Clovis culture" – prehistoric culture of North America

Venus of Willendorf - famous prehistoric female figurine

“Otzi the Iceman” – famous fossil of a prehistoric man found in the European Alps in

the 1990s, fully dressed and with all his tools including a bronze axe

Lascaux – prehistoric cave in France dating to the Magdalenian period; Over 600 parietal

wall paintings cover the interior walls and ceilings of the cave.

“Fertile Crescent” – Mesopotamia and the Mediterranean coast where agriculture was

practiced for the first time on a large scale

sorghum - a type of African grain

manioc – Mesoamerican plant

Catalhuyuk – prehistoric farming settlement in Turkey, 7000 BC

Gobekli-Tepe – ceremonial site c. 11k years old, built in southeastern Turkey, called the

“world’s oldest temple”; evidence of early agriculture in the region

Jericho – early settlement in Jordan, first town with defensive wall enclosure

Banpo – ancient fortified village in China close to modern Xian studied by

archaeologists last century; it was an early agricultural community displaying great

technological innovation

Patriarchate – communities ruled by men

Matriarchate – communities ruled by women

Paleolithic – old stone age (hunter-gatherers)

Mesolithic – middle stone age (transition to agriculture)

Neolithic – new stone age (agricultural communities)