Human Interaction with the Environment

1. Human Interaction with the Environment Examples of how humans have interacted and changed the environment through the ages.

2. Early Man • Migration- moving from one place to other • Hunting and Gathering- Homo sapiens who spent many hours a day searching for food • Paleolithic Era- earliest period of Stone Age • Nomads- a person with no settled home

3. Farmers and City Dwellers • Agriculture- the knowledge of raising plants and animals • Livestock- domesticated animals that provide resources • Plow- a tool used to cut, lift, and turn over soil • Domesticate- to tame plants or animals for human use

4. Mesopotamia • Irrigation- Ways to move water to land • Polytheism- a belief in many gods • City-States- a city and farmlands around it • Architecture- a style of building

5. Egypt • Papyrus- a paper like material on which ancient Egyptians wrote • Diplomacy- the skill of conducting negotiations • Hieroglyphics- pictures or symbols that stand for sounds, words, or ideas • Cataracts- Rapids, or waterfalls

6. Greece • Harbors- a sheltered place with deep water close to shore • Cultural Borrowing- the process by which a cultures takes ideas from other cultures • Fables- a short story that uses animal characters to teach a lesson • Isthmus- A small strip of land connecting larger land areas

7. Rome • Road- a wide way leading from one place to another • Concrete- a heavy, rough building material made from a mixture of broken stone or gravel, sand, cement, and water, that can be spread or poured into molds and that forms a stone like mass on hardening • Colosseum- largest arena for “games” a large amphitheater in Rome whose construction was begun by Vespasian about AD 75 or 80 • Aqueduct-a system of bridges and canals that carry water from a natural source, such as a river, to a town