Studying History and Early Humans

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Studying History and Early Humans
What is this early human doing?
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Essential Questions

1. Why do people study history and try to learn more
   about the past?
2. How did early humans adapt to the environment?
3. What were the main elements of prehistoric
   culture?
4. How did their experience as hunter-gatherers help
   early humans to domesticate plants and animals?

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Why study history? (answer this question)

• Primary Source produced by someone who was there

• Secondary Source produced by someone who wasnt
  there

• Artifacts (tools, weapons, pottery, etc.)
• Journals, diaries and letters
• Military records
• Marriage, birth and death certificates

• Newspaper they are reporting
• Books
• Paintings

Provide an example of a primary source and a
secondary source.
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Hunter-Gatherers

• Lived in bands of 30 100 people
• Men hunted animals (fish)
• Women gathered fruits, plants, nuts and berries
• Early humans were nomadic
• Nomadic means a person with no permanent home
• Migration means to move from one place to another
• Why did early humans migrate?

• The Great Migration

Where is that land bridge?
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Tools and Culture

• Technology anything that makes life easier
  (tools, weapons)
• Early tools were made from stone and bone
• Fire was a DISCOVERY!
• It was discovered 500,000 years ago
• How was it discovered?
• What are the advantages/uses of fire?

• Animals that Talk
• Early humans did not possess developed language
• How does language make life easier?
• Culture includes art, language and religion
• Some examples of early human culture are cave
  art, the belief in gods or spirits and jewelry

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Domestication the adaptation of plants and
animals for human use

• By 8,000 B.C., humans had learned to grow crops
  and raise animals
• The only reason this was possible is because of
  rising temperatures
• Humans figured it would be a good idea to keep
  animals in human-made enclosures What is the
  advantage of this?
• Early humans learned to domesticate animals
  around 9000 B.C.
• Analyze the chart. What does having a constant
  food supply allow nomads to do?

Animal Location Use
camel Asia Transport
Sheep Asia Meat, wood
Dog East Asia Herding, hunting
Cow Europe, Asia, Africa Milk, meat
Turkey North America Meat
Llama South America Transport, meat
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The Agricultural Revolution

• Beginnings of Farming
• Agriculture is farming
• Just like hunters knowledge of wild animals led
  to their domestication, gatherers knowledge of
  plants probably led to the development of
  farming.
• This leads to a shift from food gathering to
  farming
• Leads to changes in tools and technology (plows,
  sickles)
• How might growing food change the lifestyle of a
  hunter-gatherer?

• Use the graph on page 13 of your textbook to
  answer the following questions.
• About how many years ago did the Agricultural
  Revolution take place?
• How much did the worlds population grow from
  10,000 to 5,000 years ago according to the graph?