World History Unit 1 Human Origins

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World History Unit 1Human Origins

• Mrs. Saunders

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World history is the story of human experience.

• It is a story of how people, ideas, and goods
  spread across the earth creating our past and our
  present. To help us better understand this
  experience, we will divide history into four main
  eras
• prehistory,
• ancient times,
• middle ages, and
• modern times.

Our story begins during prehistory in east Africa
where human life began.
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Archaeologist

• Pre-History is the time before writing.
• Archaeologist study these early people by
  excavating early settlements (known as a Dig).
• They look for
• Bones or human remains (to determine what people
  looked like),
• Artifacts (man-made objects) and
• Fossils (animal and plant matter that has been
  preserved in nature.
• Archaeologist use Carbon-dating to tell the
  approximate age of a bone, artifact or fossil.

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Anthropologists

• Anthropologist study the culture of early people
  to get a picture of how they lived.
• Culture is the way in which people live,
  including art, science, religion, government, etc.

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Ice Ages Asia, North America, and EuropeLast
one ended about 10,000 years ago.
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Ice Ages

• Land Bridges formed from lower ocean levels and
  humans migrated across bridges
• Europe to British Isles
• Japan to Korea
• Asia to Indonesia
• Asia to North America (Bering Strait)

A map showing the Bering Strait land bridge.
Archaeologists now believe that two different
groups of Asian peoples came to North America at
least 40,000 years ago.
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Early Humans

• Hominids are the earliest humans (or human-like
  creatures) to walk upright.
• Australopithecus (southern ape) was a hominid
  that lived 4 to 1 million years ago and lived in
  nomadic clans.

A trail of footprints 3 1/2 million years old
found by Mary Leakey, archaeologist, at Laetoli,
Tanzania. Some of the oldest hominid evidence
found in Africa, these footprints show that
human-like creatures were walking upright in East
Africa 3 1/2 million years ago.
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Early Humans

• Oldest hominid found is Lucy discovered by
  anthropologist Donald Johanson in East Africa.
• Early hominids had opposable thumbs.

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Humans Overcome Their Environment

• Paleolithic Era (Old Stone Age)
• 2.5 B.C to 8000 B.C.
• Nomadic
• Simple tools (rocks or sticks)
• Learned how to make fire
• Lived in clans
• Developed oral language
• Created cave art

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Early Humans

• Homo Habilis (Handy Man) lived 2.5 million year
  ago and used simple tools.
• Homo Erectus lived from 1.6 million to 250,000
  years ago. These people were more than five feet
  tall and probably had oral (spoken) languages for
  exchanging ideas (teaching) and team work.
• They used fire for warmth, cooking, protection
  and hunting.
• They used tools for cutting, digging and
  scraping.
• They used skins for clothing and leather strips
  for lacing.

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Early Humans

• Homo Sapiens (Wise Man) emerges in Africa
  between 100,000 and 400,000 years ago in North
  Africa.
• Neanderthals lived from 100,000 to 35,000 years
  ago and their burial remains indicate a belief in
  an afterlife (grave with flowers) and medical
  care of sick (mended broken bones). They were
  short and stocky with thick brows.
• Cro-Magnon Man lived from 40,000 to 10,000 years
  ago, in the late Paleolithic age, and was similar
  to modern humans. They were taller and thinner
  than Neanderthals. Cro-Magnon man used superior
  hunting strategies and had advanced language
  skills. (Our Ancestors!)

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The reconstructed skulls of three prehistoric
humans. From left to right Homo Erectus,
Neanderthal, and Cro-Magnon.
Early Humans
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Human Migration

• From Africa humans spread to Eurasia (Europe and
  Asia), to Australia, and finally to the Americas.
  Human migration was one of the great waves of
  history.

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• How does the map show human migration?
• What theory of the origin of humanity does the
  map present? How do you know?
• In general, what does the map suggest that
  populations did when they reached barriers, such
  as oceans, that did not allow them to continue in
  the direction they were going?

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Humans Overcome Their Environment

• Neolithic Era (New Stone Age)
• 8000 B.C. to 3000 B.C.
• Advanced tools (reshaping or combining of parts)
• Developed agriculture
• Domesticated animals
• Used advanced tools
• Made Pottery
• Developed weaving skills

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Stonehenge

• This complex of megaliths (which means large
  stones of ancient construction) was assembled
  4000 years ago on the Salisbury plain in
  Wiltshire, England. Religious belief and practice
  inspired its construction and dictated its
  uses.It was begun during the Neolithic period
  and completed during the Bronze Age.

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Primary Sources

• We learn about the past from historians. But,
  where do historians get their information?
  Usually, they study primary sources, which are
  sources created at about the same time as the
  event being studied, often by people involved in
  the event. Examples of primary sources include
  artifacts uncovered by archeologists, art works,
  government records, diaries, letters, speeches,
  and newspaper articles.

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Secondary Sources

• Historians also study secondary sources. These
  are sources created after the event by people not
  involved in the event. Examples of secondary
  sources include history books, textbooks, and
  encyclopedias.
• After historians examine their sources, they
  write histories based on their understanding of
  the truth. But, what they write may be
  influenced by their own opinions or by lack of
  information. It is not possible for historians
  to know everything about a past event, so they
  must rely on the evidence left behind in the form
  of primary and secondary sources. If new
  evidence is found, interpretations of history can
  change.

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Calendars

• People in different parts of the world have
  adopted many ways to mark the passage of time.
  The Chinese calendar counts years from the reign
  of the mythical Yellow Emperor in 2698 BC. The
  Islamic calendar numbers years from 622 AD when
  Muhammad fled from Mecca. Both calendars are
  based on lunar cycles. The year 2000 in our
  calendar is 4697 in the Chinese calendar and 1421
  in the Islamic calendar.

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BC and AD

• Our solar calendar comes from ancient Egypt. It
  was modified during the middle ages in Europe,
  and it has been adopted by most of the world for
  official purposes. Years are numbered from the
  birth of Christ years before year 1 are
  designated BC for Before Christ years after
  year 1 are designated AD, an abbreviation for the
  Latin term Anno Domini, which means in the year
  of the lord. AD years are counted forward from
  year 1 BC years are counted backward from year
  1. Thus, 500 BC was earlier than 200 BC.

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BCE and CE

• In recent years, people who wish to avoid the
  reference to Christ have begun using the term BCE
  (Before the Common Era) to replace BC and CE
  (Common Era) to replace AD. The terms BCE and CE
  are used in some history books. I use the
  traditional terms BC and AD because they are more
  widely known in our culture, because there was no
  Common Era in history, and because non-Christians
  may object to the suggestion that the Christian
  era is the common era of humankind.

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Hemisphere

• A hemisphere is any half of earths surface the
  term comes from the Greek word for half a sphere.
  The equator (zero degrees latitude) divides the
  earth into the Northern Hemisphere and the
  Southern Hemisphere. The dividing line between
  the Eastern and Western Hemispheres is not so
  well defined, but it is usually placed at the
  Prime Meridian (zero degrees longitude) or at 20
  degrees west longitude.
• North and South America and surrounding waters
  are considered to be in the Western Hemisphere,
  while the continents of Europe, Africa, Asia, and
  Australia are considered to be in the Eastern
  Hemisphere.

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Climate Zones

• The earth has three main climate zones the
  Tropics, the Temperate zones, and the Arctic and
  Antarctic regions. Although local climates can
  vary considerably within zones, the Tropics are
  generally the warmest areas of the earth because
  they are near the equator where the suns rays
  are most direct. The Tropic of Cancer is an
  imaginary line that circles the earth at 23-1/2
  degrees north latitude, the northernmost point
  reached by the sun during our summer (on the
  summer solstice). The Tropic of Capricorn lies
  at 23-1/2 degrees south latitude, the farthest
  point south reached by the sun during our winter
  (on the winter solstice).
• The Arctic and Antarctic regions are located
  near the earth poles where the suns rays are
  least direct and weakest thus these are the
  coldest areas of the earth. The Arctic Circle is
  an imaginary line that circles the earth at
  66-1/2 degrees north latitude the Antarctic
  Circle lies at 66-1/2 degrees south latitude.