IES Aljanadic Posadas (Córdoba)

History

Unit 7: Life in the prehistory

1. Prehistory, a very long period

We call Prehistory the period extending from the origin of the human being to the
invention of writing.

This long period is divided into three stages: the Palaeolithic Age, the Neolithic Age
and the Metal Age.

• The Palaeolithic Age extends from the appearance of our first ancestors to about
10,000 years ago. Human beings used tools of stone and lived on hunting and
gathering.
• The Neolithic Age began about 10,000 years ago, when human groups started to
live in villages and practise agriculture and cattle raising.
• The Metal Age began about 7,000 years ago, when human beings learned to use
metals to make objects.

2. The First Human Beings

The present human being is the result of a

long evolutionary process known as
Hominisation.

*The Australopithecus were the first

ancestors of the human being and
appeared about 5,000 000 years ago.
Although they climbed trees, they
probably walked on two legs and their
brain was little developed. They only lived
in Africa and they didn’t make tools but
used what nature offered them.

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*Homo Habilis appeared 2,000 000 years ago. They had small brains and their legs
were all ready more developed to walk continuously. They made tools of stone and
lived on hunting and gathering. (You can see the Homo Habilis on the following
cartoon).

*Homo erectus appeared a million and a half years ago. Although they were similar to
Homo Habilis, they had a greater technological development. For example, this species
discovered fire.

*Homo sapiens appeared about 100,000 years ago. Within this species, two subtypes
are recognised: Neanderthal man, similar to us but more sturdy, and Homo Sapiens
Sapiens, the species we belong to.

The environment

*The climate was very cold because of the Ice Age. The term “Ice Age” is used to refer
to cold periods with extensive ice sheets over the North American and Eurasian
continents; in this sense, the most recent Ice Age ended about 10,000 years ago

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first human beings lived in caves or outdoors.

*These people lived on hunting, fishing and the gathering of wild fruits. They hunted
mammoths, bears, elephants, deer, bison and other animals. They used the meat as food
and their skins as clothes. Men and women organised themselves into small tribes,
constituted by the members of the same family. These groups were nomadic, that is to
say they did not live in a fixed place but move from place to place in search of good
areas for hunting and gathering the wild food.

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*Fire, discovered about a half million years ago, was one of the most important
discoveries of the human species. Thanks to the fire, they could heat their caves to face
climatic conditions, light them, cook food and drive wild animals away.

*In this age, men and women made tools and objects mainly of stones. The technique
was very simple: they knocked two stones together until they got small pieces or stone
chips (=small pieces) from one of them and these became cutting objects.

Tribes decorated their cave walls with paintings and made sculptures among which the
so-called Venus forms were outstanding (=popular); the Venus was a symbol of
fecundity. They used to paint animals they wanted to hunt.

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3. The Neolithic Age

The discovery of agriculture and cattle raising took place about 10,000 years ago in the
Middle East, when human beings learnt to cultivate plants and domesticate animals.
Men and women gave up hunting and gathering as the only sources of living and learnt
to produce their own food. This process can be described as a revolution. The Neolithic
Age finished with the invention of writing.

Environment

In the Neolithic Age a climatic change took place. The temperature increased and the
ice began to melt. Fauna and flora changed and the number of plants grew.

Agriculture

After they had observed nature for a long time, they learnt how to cultivate plants
themselves. That is how agriculture came into existence and man turned into a producer.
The first cultivated species were cereals: wheat in the Middle East, rice in Asia and corn
in America.

Cattle Raising

People began to domesticate animals like sheep, goats, pigs, oxen and dogs to obtain
meat, milk, skins and dung.

These new economic activities forces human groups to settle near arable land. This is
why they became sedentary and built villages, generally located next to rivers.

Society

A specialisation of work took place in villages. While

some people cultivated fields, other people looked
after the animals and others made weapons, fabrics,
tools, pottery,…

Techniques

The discovery of agriculture caused the development

of polished tools to work the land, such as for example hoes (azada), sickles (hoz) and
hand mills (molino de mano).

Fabrics were produced from animals’ wool. Thread was woven

using bone spindles (husos) and then by means of looms (telares).

Pottery was shaped by hand and baked in a bonfire. New instruments

appeared, such as vessels to keep the grain, bowls for eating and
cooking, etc. The ceramic pieces were sometimes decorated.

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Arts

*The decorated ceramic pieces became authentic works of art.

*They also made idols, images of their gods, out of stone or bones.
*The human figure was also represented in the paintings: hunting, harvesting
vegetables, dancing, etc. Figures were very schematic and they probably had a religious
meaning.