Prehistoric Times

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Pre-historic Times
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Pop 9/15/08

• Answer each question on your sheet.
• 1. Define hominid.
• 2. What is a hunter/gatherer?
• 3. What is an example today of a hunter/gatherer?
• 4. Who or what was Lucy?
• 5. The Ice Age went from when to when in terms of
  years ago.?

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What do you know about Prehistoric Man?

• What I know.

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Table of Contents

• Introduction
• Website Links
• The Old Stone Age
• The Middle Stone Age
• The New Stone Age
• Neanderthals
• Cro-magnons
• Prehistoric Art

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Website Links

• -Early Man
• - Ice Age Animals

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Stone Age

• Stone Age, the time, early in the development of
  human cultures, before the use of metals, when
  tools and weapons were made of stone. The dates
  of the Stone Age vary considerably for different
  parts of the world. In Europe, Asia, and Africa
  it began about 2 million years ago.
• In the most advanced parts of the Middle East and
  Southeast Asia it ended about 6000 bc, but it
  lingered until 4000 bc or later in Europe, the
  rest of Asia, and Africa.
• The Stone Age in the Americas began when human
  beings first arrived in the New World, some
  30,000 years ago, and ended in some areas about
  2500 bc at the earliest.
• Throughout the immense time span of the Stone
  Age, vast changes occurred in climate and in
  other conditions affecting human culture. Humans
  themselves evolved into their modern form during
  the latter part of it.
• The Stone Age has been divided accordingly into
  three periods the Paleolithic, Mesolithic, and
  Neolithic.

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Paleolithic (Old Stone Age)

• Longest period.
• It began about 2 million years ago, when stone
  tools were first used by humanoid creatures, and
  ended with the close of the last ice age about
  13,000 bc.
• The hunting and gathering of food was the norm.
  At first, single tools, such as chipped pebbles
  or flaked stone implements, were used for all
  purposes. Over time, a variety of tools were made
  for specific purposes.
• By about 100,000 years ago, Neanderthal cultures
  had several types of tools and were using bone
  implements.
• At the end of the Paleolithic period, modern
  humans (Homo sapiens) made such specialized tools
  as needles and harpoons. In the Cro-Magnon caves
  of Europe, wall paintings and evidence of both
  religious cults and possible social
  stratification point to the complexity of the
  cultures.

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Mesolithic (Middle Stone Age)

• After 13,000 bc
• Changing weather patterns resulted in the
  greater availability of food. In tropical and
  temperate forest regions, Paleolithic tools,
  still chipped, were adapted to the new
  conditions.

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Neolithic (New Stone Age)

• In both the Middle East and in Mesoamerica,
  however, agricultural villages had begun to
  develop by 8000 bc.
• This is known as the Neolithic period, or New
  Stone Age.
• Stone tools became highly polished and varied. By
  6000 bc pottery appeared in the ancient Middle
  East, and copper was used for the first time in
  some regions. In other regions, the Neolithic
  arrived much later.

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3.5 million year old footprints

• A trail of footprints 3 1/2 million years old
  found by Mary Leakey at Laetoli, Tanzania. These
  footprints show that human-like creatures were
  walking upright in East Africa 3 1/2 million
  years ago.
• Although precise relationships between the
  Australopithecine species and modern man (Homo
  sapiens) are still subject to debate, new
  discoveries in Africa promise to continue pushing
  back the frontiers of knowledge about human
  prehistory.

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Homo erectus, Neanderthal, Cro-Magnon

• The reconstructed skulls of three prehistoric
  humans. From left to right Homo erectus,
  Neanderthal, and Cro-Magnon. Homo erectus
  (formerly known as Pithecanthropus erectus, a
  part of the species which includes Java Man and
  Peking Man) lived from 1 1/2 million to 250,000
  years ago.
• These people were more than five feet tall and
  probably had spoken languages. Although they used
  stone tools and fire, no traces of industry were
  found associated with them.
• The Neanderthals, who lived from 100,000 to
  35,000 years ago, are among the direct ancestors
  of modern man (Homo sapiens) their burial
  remains indicate a belief in an afterlife.
  Cro-Magnon Man lived from 35,000 to 10,000 years
  ago, in the late Paleolithic (Stone) age, and was
  similar to modern humans. (GPB)

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What do you know about Neanderthals?

• 1.
• 2.
• 3.
• 4.
• 5.
• 6.

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Neanderthal Video

• Main Ideas

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Neanderthals

• Neanderthals are the best known of the ancient
  humans. The Neanderthals lived in Europe and
  central Asia between 230,000 and 30,000 years
  agolonger than Homo sapiens, or modern humans,
  have lived on Earth. They lived during the most
  recent Ice Age, when vast sheets of ice covered
  many northern parts of the world.
• The term Neanderthal (also spelled Neandertal)
  comes from the Neander Valley near Dusseldorf,
  Germany. This is where scientists found the first
  Neanderthal fossils in 1856.

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Homo Sapiens and Neanderthals

• Scientists believe Homo sapiens first appeared
  about 120,000 years ago, which means they
  coexisted with Neanderthals.
• Scientists have two theories about the
  relationship between modern Homo sapiens and
  Neanderthals
• Out of Africa The theory states that Homo
  sapiens first lived in Africa and eventually
  traveled into Europe and Asia. These humans had
  evolutionary advantages that allowed them to
  outliveand perhaps cause the extinction of all
  other hominid groups (as opposed to apes) such as
  Neanderthal.
• Multiregional The theory states that modern
  Homo sapiens evolved from Neanderthal and other
  hominid groups in Europe and Asia.

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Group Project

• Project Aim Study the physical features and
  lives of Neanderthals. Research the following
• Physical features and cranial capacity
• Hunting and diet
• Tools and weapons
• Burial of dead and religion
• Shelter
• Art, music, and language

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• Use the following websites and write a one page
  group paper. Print out or sketch pictures you
  find while doing research.
• - In the Stone Ages (see A Neanderthals Day and
  Follow Your Roots)
• http//www.neanderthal-modern.com/
• - Neandertals A Cyber Perspective
  http//dsc.discovery.com/stories/science/stoneages
  /stoneages.html
• - Homo Neanderthalensis
• http//sapphire.indstate.edu/ramanank/

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• http//www.handprint.com/LS/ANC/hfs9.html
• Neanderthal for High School Students
• http//members.iinet.net.au/chawkins/frames.htm
• Gale Discovering http//infotrac.galegroup.com/itw
  eb/newm58356
• EBSCO http//search.epnet.com

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Prehistoric Art
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WHAT DO YOU KNOW?

• What do you know about Prehistoric Art?
• 1.
• 2.
• 3.
• 4.
• 5.

• What did you learn?
• 1
• 2
• 3
• 4
• 5

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Cave Paintings

• A prehistoric bison painting from the caves at
  Altamira, Spain.
• This image was found in the Painted Hall, a
  300-yard deep limestone cave.
• This cave is a prehistoric gallery of Cro-Magnon
  art that includes 25 other images of various
  animals bison, boars, horses, deer, and a wolf.
• The paintings date back to the Old Stone Age,
  around 12,000 B.C.

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Pictograph Painting on a surface like a cave
wall.
Petroglyph Design carved into rock or other
surface.
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Kentucky Rock Art
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Cave of Lascaux, France
Discovered by four boys in 1940. Caves are
filled with pictographs and petroglyphs of
hundreds of animals.
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There are almost 600 pictures of animals, mostly
horses. Other animals painted are stags,
bulls, bison, and ibex.
Only one man is painted.
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Why did they paint the cave? What do
the paintings mean?
Just the animals that were around at that time.
Instructions on how to hunt or not to hunt.
The cave was used for religious ceremonies.
Painting were for good luck in hunting.
PowerPoint created by Amy J McCray, WKU
Anthropology Undergrad. 2005.
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References

• Coy, Fred, Thomas C. Fuller, Larry G. Meadows,
  and James L. Swauger. Rock Art of Kentucky.
  University Press of Kentucky, Lexington, KY,
  2003.
• Google Images. 1 December 2005.
  lthttp//www.google.com/imghp?hlentabwiqgt
• The Caves of Lascaux. 1 May 2005.
• lthttp//www.culture.gouv.fr/culture/arcnat/lascau
  x/en/gt

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ADDITIONAL NOTES