Paleolithic Era: Old Stone Age

(CHP 1)A HISTORY OF THE WORLD: The Beginnings of Civilization 

By Marvin Perry

• Some of the most impressive achievements in human history were made in the period before people kept written records. the Paleolithic period (roughly 2.5 million years ago to 10,000 B.C.), 

• About 5,000 or 6,000 years ago, people in river valleys in Asia and Africa began to build cities, organize governments, and keep written records. The civilizations they built were based on the achievements made during the immense stretch of prehistoric time.

[1]Achievements Are Made in the Old Stone Age

• The study of history depends greatly on written records; clay, stone, wood, bone, and paper.

PREHISTORY: the story of human progress is much older. The period of time before people kept written records is called prehistory.

THE STUDY OF PREHISTORY

UNWRITTEN EVIDENCES

• Scientists study evidence of the human past. What we know about prehistoric times comes from unwritten evidence  tools, drawings, pottery, weapons, jewelry, and other objects made by prehistoric people.

• simple stone tools and weapons, the period as a whole has been named the Stone Age. 

ARTIFACTS 

• objects shaped by human beings.

FOSSILS 

• human or animal bones and teeth and other traces left in rocks by plants and animals.

FIELDS OF STUDY  

1. Archeologists 

   1. study places where prehistoric people lived, looking for the remains of homes, graves, and towns and examining the artifacts found there. 

   2. archeological dig: a site where ancient objects are deeply buried. Arche- ologists base their choice of the site for a dig on clues such as the ground surface and stories or traditions that indicate people once occupied the site. Sometimes a dig is made where artifacts have been found by accident.

2. Anthropology,

   1.  Scientist study artifacts, bones, and other clues and try to determine what people looked like, what they ate, how long they lived, and other characteristics.

3. Geologists 

   1. analyze fossils and the rocks in which they are found,

4. Chemists and Physicists 

   1. use special methods to estimate the ages of artifacts and other remains from the past

5. Botanists and Zoologists 

   1. also contribute their specialized knowledge about plants and animals.

Scientific techniques are used to find the age of artifacts.

How can archeologists know how old an object is? 

1. [1948] American chemist, Willard Libby: CARBON-14 DATING 

   1. all living organisms, plant or animal, contain a certain amount of radioactive carbon, called carbon-14. 

   2. When the organism dies, the carbon-14 begins to decrease at a fixed rate. By analyzing how much carbon-14 is left in a piece of wood or bone or other once-living material, scientists can tell its approximate age. 

2. Radioactive Elements, 

   1. such as potassium-40, uranium, and thorium, are also used in methods for dating rocks and minerals. 

3. Chemical and Physical analysis

   1. devised to date the remains of living things.

OLD STONE AGE HUNTERS AND GATHERERS

• Old Age or Paleolithic Age: longest part of prehistoric times 

  • Old Stone Age people hunt and gather food. 

  • The men and women of the Paleolithic Age were nomads, people who have no permanent homes but wander from place to place.

  • Small groups, usually twenty to thirty people, traveled together following herds of wild animals, which they killed for meat. 

  • Gathered wild fruit, nuts, seeds, honey, roots, and grains, and caught fish in streams and rivers.

• Achievements of Paleolithic people 

  • [460,000 years ago] in a Chinese village scientists excavated a cave and found over 100,000 stone artifacts and evidence that the cave dwellers used fire.

  • Paleolithic people did not build permanent dwellings or settle in villages. They made temporary homes in caves or in tents constructed of branches and animal skins.

  • When the animals left the area or the food supply ran short, the people moved on.

  • Early in this period, human beings made a variety of tools that had specific uses. Paleolithic tools found by archeologists are of stone, which is longer lasting than wood or bone. 

    • daggers and spearpoints for hunting, 

    • hand axes and choppers to cut up meat, 

    •  scrapers for cleaning animal hides.

    •  Some tools were used to dig up roots, to peel the bark off wood, and to remove the skin from animals. 

    • Sharpened wooden sticks, hardened in a fire, were used as spears. 

    • Later in the period, splinters of bone were used as needles and fishhooks.

  • They learned to control and use fire, and they used spoken language.

• FIRE and the Paleolithic people 

  • Fire provided warmth and light in the cave or shelter and kept wild animals away at night.

  •  Fire was useful in hunting: hunters with torches could drive a herd of large animals over the edge of a cliff rather than trying to kill them with their clumsy short spears. 

  • Cook food :Smoke from a fire helped preserve food and make animal skins more waterproof.

• Spoken language was a great advance for Paleolithic people.

  • speech contributed much to human progress and achievements. Knowledge, skills, and information could be passed from parents to children. People could discuss ideas and share experiences.

• The environment undergoes changes.

  • Late in the Old Stone Age, the earth's weather and climate changed and grew cooler.

  • variations in temperature have produced at least four long cold periods, Each Ice Age probably lasted tens of thousands of years.

Most recently reached its height about20,000 years ago.