The Beginnings of Civilization Section 1

The Beginnings of Civilization Section 1

The First People

Preview
• Starting Points Map: Early People and Agriculture
• Main Idea / Reading Focus
• Studying the Distant Past
• Faces of History: Mary and Louis Leakey
• Human Origins
• Quick Facts: Early Hominids
• Spreading Around the World
The Beginnings of Civilization Section 1

The First People

Preview, continued
• Map: Migration of Early Humans
• Life in the Stone Age
The Beginnings of Civilization Section 1
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The Beginnings of Civilization Section 1

The First People

Main Idea
Scientific evidence suggests that modern humans spread
from Africa to other lands and gradually developed ways to
adapt to their environment.

Reading Focus
• What methods are used to study the distant past?
• What does evidence suggest about human origins?
• How did early people spread around the world?
• How did early people adapt to life in the Stone Age?
The Beginnings of Civilization Section 1

Studying the Distant Past

Much of the human story remains a mystery.
Writing has existed for only about 5,000 years.
To study prehistory, scholars must find and interpret clues.

Anthropologists
• Study culture: knowledge, art,
customs
• Examine artifacts: objects that
people in the past made or
used
Archaeologists
• Dig at sites where people have
left traces
• Use a variety of methods to
date and analyze objects found

Anthropology continues to expand and revise our picture of the

prehistoric past.
The Beginnings of Civilization Section 1

Find the Main Idea

How do scientists learn about prehistory?

Answer(s): by studying fossils, artifacts, and

remains
The Beginnings of Civilization Section 1

Human Origins
Where did the first people come from? When did they appear? Some
key discoveries have provided important pieces to the puzzle.

Early Hominids Later Hominids

• 1959—East Africa
– Mary Leakey finds skull
fragments
– Hominid: humanlike being that
walked upright
• 1974—Ethiopia
– Johanson finds “Lucy”
– 4 foot-tall hominid who walked
upright
– lived 4 to 5 million years ago
• More advanced hominids from
about 3 million years ago
• 1960s—Tanzania
• Louis Leakey
– Homo habilis (“handy man”)
– More humanlike features
– Made and used crude stone
tools
The Beginnings of Civilization Section 1
The Beginnings of Civilization Section 1

Other hominids
• Homo erectus (“upright man”)
• 2 to 1.5 million years ago in Africa
• Larger brain; more skillful hunter
• First hominid to control fire

Modern humans
• Homo sapiens (“wise man”)
• 200,000 years ago
• Larger brain; more sophisticated tools
• Learned to create fire
• First to develop language
The Beginnings of Civilization Section 1
The Beginnings of Civilization Section 1

Identify Supporting Details

What four main types of hominids have
scientists identified based on fossil
evidence?

Answer(s): Australopithecine, Homo habilis,

Homo erectus, Homo sapiens
The Beginnings of Civilization Section 1

Spreading Around the World

Climate and Migration
• Hominids learned to adapt
• Began to move out of Africa
• Movement occurred over hundreds
of thousands of years
The Ice Ages
• Began 1.6 million years ago
• Long periods of freezing weather
cycled with warmer periods
• Asia and North America joined at
Bering Strait

Out of Africa Adapting to New

• Homo erectus first hominid to Environments
migrate • Adapted as they migrated
• Fossils found in Asia and Europe • Two groups of Homo sapiens:
• Homo sapiens migrated around
– Neanderthals
100,000 years ago
• Might have used boats – Cro-Magnons
The Beginnings of Civilization Section 1

Analyze Information

How did the ice ages influence early human

migration?

Answer(s): The ocean level dropped, exposing

land bridges that allowed early humans to migrate
around the world.
The Beginnings of Civilization Section 1
The Beginnings of Civilization Section 1

Life in the Stone Age

The first humans lived during the Stone Age, when people made
tools mainly from stone.
• Paleolithic Era
• 2.5 million to 10,000 years ago
• Stone Age people lived as nomads
• Sheltered under rock overhangs or in caves
• Hunter-gatherers

Technology Art and Religion

• First tools: crude chipped stones • Societies began to form
• Later tools: wood and bone • Common culture
• Spears for hunting – language
• Nets and traps for fish and birds – art
• Canoes from logs – religion
• Clothing from animal skins • Animism
• Shelters from skins, wood, bones • Belief in life after death?
The Beginnings of Civilization Section 1

Summarize

How did Stone Age people use technology

to adapt and survive?

Answer(s): used fire, made tools and weapons