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Prehistoric Humankind

Prehistoric Humankind. Earth’s Geologic Time. Major Periods of Human Culture bp=before present. PALEOLITHIC: Old Stone Age Lower paleolithic 2.5 million-75,000 bp Middle paleolithic 75,000-35,000 bp Upper paleolithic 35,000-12,000 bp MESOLITHIC: Middle Stone Age 12,000-10,000 bp

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Prehistoric Humankind

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  1. PrehistoricHumankind

  2. Earth’s Geologic Time

  3. Major Periods of Human Culturebp=before present • PALEOLITHIC: Old Stone Age • Lower paleolithic 2.5 million-75,000 bp • Middle paleolithic 75,000-35,000 bp • Upper paleolithic 35,000-12,000 bp • MESOLITHIC: Middle Stone Age • 12,000-10,000 bp • NEOLITHIC: New Stone Age • Began 10,000 bp • BRONZE AND IRON AGES: Civilization • Began 5000 bp

  4. The Paleolithic Period

  5. Paleolithic PeriodBegan 2 1/2 Million Years Ago • Also called Old Stone Age culture • Characterized by the use of rudimentary chipped stone tools • Hominids, Homo habilis, Homo erectus, • Homo sapiens -- Neanderthal and Cro-magnon • Hunter-gatherers

  6. Lower Paleolithic2.5 Million-70,000 Bp • Hominids and earliest human ancestors • Gatherer/scavengers • Simple pebble tools, pebble chopper tools, and hand axes associated with Homo habilis and Homo erectus • Remains found in Europe, Africa and Asia

  7. Hominids:Australopithicenes • Immediate ancestors of humans: intermediate between apes and humans • Classified hominidiae because of biological similarity to humans • Large brains • Bi-pedal: walked upright • Began evolving 5 million years ago and were widespread 3 million years ago

  8. Homo Habilis2.4-1.6 Million Years Ago • Early transitional human fossils first discovered in Olduvai Gorge in 1960s • Homo habilis -- “handy or skilled humans” -- strong evidence of stone tool usage • Larger brains, smaller mouths and teeth than Australopithicenes

  9. HOMO ERECTUSca. 1.9 Million bp- ca. 100,000 bp • First fully human species • Moved out of Africa to populate tropical, subtropical and temperate zones throughout the old world • Skilled tool makers • Highly successful species

  10. Subsistence and Living • Much fuller exploitation of animal food resources through hunting and carcass scavenging: sheep, pigs, buffalo, deer, turtles, birds, etc.. • Movement out of Africa to populate colder temperate zones made possible through new inventions and increased meat consumption • Began to occupy caves and build shelter • Family units • Use of fire reconstruction of a possibledwelling at Terra Amata, France

  11. The Coming of FireWhat are the implications of fire use? Light Warmth Animal management Cooked food Communal gatherings Special status for fire-bearers

  12. Early Archaic Homo Sapiens • Blurry dividing line between Homo erectus and Homo sapiens • Evolutionary changes extended over several hundred thousand years: ca. 600,000 bp-100,000 bp • Fossils of archaic Homo sapiens have been found throughout the old world. • Extent of the interaction between the diverse and widely distributed populations is not clear. • No agreement about which populations were the ancestors of modern humans.

  13. Middle Paleolithic75,000-35,000 bp • Major leap forward in tool making traditions: The Mousterian tool tradition • Tools employed by Neandertals, other late archaic Homo sapiens and by such early modern Homo sapiens as Cro-magnons • Part of successful adaptation to hunting and gathering, especially in sub-arctic and temperate environment during the last Ice Age which began about 75,000 years ago

  14. NEANDERTALSca. 130,000-29,000 bp • Best known of late archaic Homo sapiens • Bones first discovered in late 1820s • First humans to live successfully in sub-arctic regions during ice ages

  15. NEANDERTAL Figures modeled fromskulls and skeletons Israel France

  16. Neandertal modern human Continuing controversy over relationship to Homo sapiens: Homo sapiens neandertalis or Homo neandertalis? Genetic evidence indicates that Neandertals were a separate variety of Homo sapiens, but successfully interbred with Homo sapiens sapiens

  17. Neandertal Death Rituals Burial in Fetal Position Model of mourning Neandertal womanGibraltar

  18. Indications of Burial Rituals • Burials contain food and tool offerings • Some sites have hearths built around skeletons • In many sites skeletons are carefully arranged in sleep-like positions • A burial at Teshik-Tash is surrounded with animal horns • A body a Le Moustier, France, was covered in red ochre powder • Stone slabs are found over some burial sites

  19. Cave Bear Cult • Ritual burial of the heads of cave bears in at least 2 caves in Western Europe: • Regourdou Cave in southern France • Drachenloch Cave in Switzerland • At 12 feet tall standing up, these animals were larger than any bear species today. • Cave bears hunted the same animals that the Neandertals did, and they probably would have considered people to be food as well. • Cave bears would have engendered considerable fear and respect as powerful, dangerous creatures.

  20. Neandertal Art • Few artifacts in archeological record • Bones and rocks with scratched patterns • Highly polished, colored mammoth’s molar • Pendant from Arcy-sur-Cure, France • Bone with clear markings • Amulet • May indicate interaction between Neandertals and Cro-magnons

  21. Neandertal Music • In 1996, a flute made from a juvenile bear femur with two intact pierced holes was found at the former Neandertal hunting camp of Divje Babei, in Slovenia • The notes on the Neanderthal flute, are consistent with 4 notes of the minor diatonic scale.

  22. Neandertal Music Daniel Maurer/Associated Press Nicholas J. Conard of the University of Tübingen, in Germany, showed a thin bird-bone flute carved some 35,000 years ago.

  23. Upper Paleolithic35,000-12,000 bp • Movement of Homo sapiens sapiens throughout the world • Extinction of at least 50 types of large animals • Height of Old Stone Age technical sophistication • Most advanced tool tradition was the Magdalenian tradition of Western Europe ca. 17,000-10,000 bp • First major art works: • Cave paintings • Small sculptured figurines

  24. Modern Humans:HOMO SAPIENS SAPIENS • First fossil remains of Homo sapiens sapiens -- named Cro-magnon-- found in 1868 in a 28,000 year old rock shelter in Les Eyzies-de-Tayac, France • Homo sapiens sapiens very likely evolved from archaic Homo sapiens in Africa and/or the Near East • Earliest remains dated to 120,000-100,000 years ago in Near East and south Africa • Began to appear in Europe and east Asia. 50,000-40,000 years ago

  25. Europe28,000-20,000 years ago

  26. Les Eyzies-de-Tayac, known as the "Capital of Prehistory" because remains of Cro-Magnon man were first discovered here. In the cliffs above town, caves provided shelters for the practice of magic. For thousands of years, humans inhabited these caves and left bones, tools, utensils

  27. Ivory figurines Les Eyzies-de-Tayac

  28. Cro-magnon Artists "If the total span of human existence on earth equals one year, then art originated within the last two weeks." • PALEOGRAPHICS:any activity that results in the production of visual signs in any medium -- what is generally referred to as "art” as well as images typically designated as signs and symbols. • Beginnings of graphic activity. Prior to 33,000 b.p.

  29. Paleographics • There are two classes of graphic activity: • Mobilary statuary and graphics in stone, bone, ivory, horn, antler, clay • Painted or carved graphics in rock shelters and caves • The graphics consist largely of: • Megafauna (large animals: mainly horses, bison, aurochs (wild cattle), mammoths, various species of deer, and goats) • Birds and smaller mammals, • Signs (rectilinear shapes, wedges ("claviforms"), tectiforms (like a roof), dots, lines, strands ("spaghetti") • Hand prints • Human figures are rare

  30. Cave Art

  31. La Grotte Chauvet: 30,000 bp – World’s Oldest Painted Cave • The cave was not used for human habitation • A hearth was possibly used to provide light for Paleolithic artists • Scores of cave bears appear to have hibernated in the grotto, and the ground is littered with their bones • Discovered in 1994 near Vallon-Pont-d‘Arc in southern France

  32. Herd of animals, Chauvet

  33. Hyena, Chauvet

  34. Bear, Chauvet

  35. Horses and Rhino, Chauvet

  36. Lions, Chauvet

  37. Lascaux1700 bp“the Sistine Chapel of Caves” • The western edges of the Massif Central and the northern slopes of the Pyrenees are noted for an exceptional concentration of Paleolithic caves. • 130 sanctuaries • The most renowned is Lascaux • Discovered in 1940 by 4 teenagers, closed to public in 1963, Lascaux II opened in 1980 • Contains over 1500 paintings

  38. Bulls, Lascaux

  39. Ceiling, Painted Gallery, Lascaux

  40. Horse, Lascaux

  41. Reindeer, wall painting, Font-de-Gaume caves, Dordogne

  42. Altamira, Spain19,000-11,000 bp • Paintings located in the deep recesses of caves in the mountains of northern Spain • Altamira is the only site of cave paintings where people lived in the first cavern with actual paintings • The paintings at Altamira primarily focus on bison, important because of the hunt.

  43. Ceiling, Altamira: 15 bison

  44. The frieze of swimming stags

  45. FemaleFigurines

  46. “VENUS” or FEMALE FIGURINES • The distinctive features consist of breasts, buttocks, bellies and vulvas, emphasized and greatly exaggerated • The extremities: head, arms, hands, legs and feet, are very much diminished or missing • Because these figures are often faceless, and sometimes headless, the images are probably signs of WOMAN rather than images of women.

  47. Woman of Willendorf24,000-22,000 Bce

  48. Woman, Doll or Goddess? • Earth mother or mother goddess? • Fertility symbol or charm? • Some figurines daubed with red ochre in vulva area -- connection with menstrual cycle? • Tradition of making figurines lasted 17,000 years Venus of RespugueFrance Venus of KostienskiRussia

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