Early Human History

1
Early Human History
Paleolithic art from Lascaux, France.
2
I. The Stone Age

• Stone Age split into three distinct periods
• Paleolithic (Old Stone) Age roughly 2 million
  years ago until 12,000 B.C.E.
• Mesolithic (Middle Stone) Age about 12,000 to
  8,000 B.C.E.
• Neolithic (New Stone) Age about 8,000 to 3,000
  B.C.E.
• Life during Paleolithic age
• Simple tool use (sticks, stones of varying shapes
  and sizes)
• Nomads highly mobile, moved from place to place
  looking for food
• Hunter-gatherers depended on hunting animals
  and collecting foods
• Humans evolved to what we are today Homo sapiens
  sapiens
• Originated about 240,000 years ago in Africa

3
I. continued

• Life in Paleolithic Age continued
• Population growth was slow hunter-gatherer way
  of life cannot support large groups
• Late Paleolithic development of culture
• A peoples unique way of life helps explain the
  environment and rules for social behavior
• Development of complex languages and speech
• Entire world is populated by end of Paleolithic
  Age
• Developments in the Mesolithic Age
• Last great Ice Age ends, living conditions
  improve for most of the Northern Hemisphere
• Human progress accelerates tools, weapons
  become more sophisticated
• Food storage, animal domestication (taming)
  begins
• Population growth accelerated

4
II. Neolithic Revolution

• Between 10,000 and 12,000 years ago, agriculture
  (farming) began
• This is called the Neolithic (or Agricultural)
  Revolution
• Took thousands of years to spread from Middle
  East (Fertile Crescent) to rest of world
• Many groups began by practicing an early
  agriculture technique called slash-and-burn
  farming
• Cut and burned vegetation to clear a field
  allowed to grow back after a year or two, once
  farmers have moved on
• Further domestication of animals horses, dogs,
  goats, pigs, sheep, camels

5
II. Continued

• Neolithic Revolution paves way for permanent
  settlements
• Agriculture allowed larger groups to live in one
  place
• Catal Huyuk
• A Neolithic Age village, founded about 7,000
  B.C.E. in modern-day Turkey
• Population was in the thousands
• Specialized workers and cultural life flourished
• Drawbacks natural disasters, diseases, warfare
  were common problems or people live closely
  together
• Neolithic Revolution comic

6
III. Civilization

• Permanent settlements, like Catal Huyuk, led to
  emergence of civilization
• Societies that rely on agriculture, produce food
  surpluses
• Have formal political organization
• Characterized by groups of non-farming elites,
  merchant and manufacturing groups, specialized
  workers
• Development of writing
• Essential to civilization for communication,
  record keeping, establishment of law and order
• Cuneiform first system of writing, emerged in
  Middle East around 3500 B.C.E.

7
IV. End of Stone Age

• Bronze Age
• Emergence of civilizations also brought about the
  end of the Stone Age
• Bronze Age began around 3000 B.C.E. with the
  widespread use of bronze (type of metal) tools

8
Key Vocabulary Chapter 1 (Part 1)

• Paleolithic (Old Stone) Age
• Homo sapiens sapiens
• Neolithic (New Stone) Age
• Neolithic Revolution
• Hunting and gathering
• Bronze Age
• Slash and burn agriculture
• Bands
• Catal Huyuk
• Civilization
• Cuneiform
• Nomads