Key Concept 1.1 Big Geography and the Peopling of the Earth

1. Key Concept 1.1Big Geography and the Peopling of the Earth Big Bang to 600 BCE

2. Outline • Main Idea • Paleolithic Era/Old Stone Age era • Archeological evidence • Hunter-gatherer communities • Tools • Movements • Small kinship groups • Religious beliefs and practices • Earliest societies

3. Main Idea During the Paleolithic Era, hunting-foraging bands of humans gradually migrated from their origin in East Africa to Eurasia, Australia, and the Americas, adapting their technology and cultures to new climate regions.

4. Paleolithic Era/Old Stone Age • Archeological evidence • Migrated from Africa to Europe, Asia, Australia, and the Americas • Usually in small hunting-foraging bands • Survived by hunting animals and gathering edible plants • Usually had family connections

5. Tools • Fire was the main tool. • Hunting and foraging • Defense • Warmth • Stone and wood were also used to make tools • Spear, bow and arrow, the club, and the stone axe • Cave paintings show people in France using these tools 17,000 years ago

6. Groups • Started religious practices during this era • Usually animistic • Ceremonial burials • Indicates the dead were taken care of—expected to have an afterlife • Archeologists have found many small statues of deities made from stone and clay

7. Groups • Trade of goods and technology occurred • As groups of hunter-gatherers encountered each other they may have • Fought over nearby herds of animals • Worked together to find meat, grains, and fruit • These encounters also facilitated the exchange of weapon and tool making technology and possibly religious beliefs