FOCUS 1 Notes

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FOCUS 1Notes

• Human Origins In Africa

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• No written records of prehistoric peoples
• Prehistory dates back to 5,000 years ago

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• Evidence shows that the first hominids originated
  in Africa more than 3 million years ago.
• These hominids, australopithecines, had opposable
  thumbs and could walk upright.

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Scientists Search for Human Origins

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Scientists Discover Clues

• archaeologists excavate early settlements
• artifacts are manmade objects

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• anthropologists study culture
• culture a peoples way of life

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• paleontologists study fossils
• fossils are rocks which have evidence of
  early life

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Mary Leakey Finds Footprints

• an archaeologist who discovered humanlike
  footprints in East Africa in
• 1978
• hominids are creatures that walk
• australopithecines is a hominid

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footprints made by australopithecines
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australopithecines is a hominid
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Johanson Discovers Lucy

• Johanson discovered the first adult female
• skeleton in 1974
• the skeleton was named Lucy

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• Lucy lived about 3.5 million years ago
• Lucy is the oldest living hominid found
• Lucy was an australopithecines species

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Hominids in Motion

• easier to travel distances
• easier to spot dangerous animals
• easier to carry food and children
• opposable thumb made picking up small
• objects and making tools easier

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Paleolithic Age

• During the Paleolithic Age, people learn to make
  tools, use fire, and use language.
• The hominid Homo habilis appears about 2.5
  million years ago in Africa and may be the first
  to make stone tools.
• A more intelligent hominid, Homo erectus, becomes
  the first to use fire and to migrate from Africa.

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Progress During the Old Stone Age

• Some achievements during Stone Age were invention
  of tools, controlling fire and development of
  language
• Paleolithic Age (2.5 million to 8000 B.C.) was
  the earlier part of the Stone Age in the Ice Age
• The earliest stone chopping tools can be dated to
  the Paleolithic Age
• Neolithic Age (8000 to 3000 B.C.) was known as
  the New Stone Age.
• In the Neolithic Age people learned to polish
  stone tools, make pottery, grow crops and raise
  animals

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Homo Habilis The First Toolmaker?

• 1960 Mary Leakey discovers a hominid
  fossil in northern Tanzania.
• the fossil was named Homo Habilis which means
  man of skill
• the Leakeys also found tools made of lava rock

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B. Homo Erectus Is More Intelligent

• appeared while Homo habilis still existed
• means upright man
• thought to be more intelligent and
• adaptable than Homo habilis

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• able to develop technology, learn to
• hunt, made tools for digging, scrapping and
  cutting

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• first hominid to migrate from Africa
• They migrated to India, China,
• Southeast Asia and Europe
• first to use fire, begin using spoken
• language, organize into work teams

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New Improved Humans

• The Neanderthals, the first modern humans, are
  resourceful hunters who survive in Ice Age
  winters, have religious beliefs, and perform
  ritual burials.
• Cro-Magnons, the first fully modern humans,
  gradually replace the Neanderthals.
• New discoveries are adding to knowledge of human
  origins.

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The Dawn of Modern Human

• Homo erectus developed into Homo sapiens
• Homo sapien means wise men.
• Homo sapiens had a larger brain than the hominids
  before them

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Neanderthals Way of Life

• lived between 200,000 and 30,000 years ago
• tried to explain and control their world

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• developed religious beliefs and performed
• rituals
• belief in world beyond grave

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• lived in caves or shelters made of animal skin
• disappearance is a mystery

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Cro-Magnons Emerge

• appeared about 40,000 years ago
• identical to modern humans

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Arrgh! Theres always one bone left over!!!

• first to plan hunts which contributed to
  population increase
• used advanced spoken language skills to
• plan more difficult projects

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Recent Findings Add New Knowledge

• 1944 fossils and tools found in Ethiopia
  indicate first toolmakers were in earlier time
  period than originally thought

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• Neanderthal bone flute found in New York
• in 1996 indicates
• added talents
• attempts to adapt to
• environment
• through
• technology was
• beginning of a
• revolution

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Key Ideas

• The first hominids, emerge in East Africa
  about 3.6 million years ago. They gradually
  develop large brains and learn to make tools and
  use fire, which allows them to spread over the
  earth.