Chapter 1 – The Beginnings of Civilization

1. Chapter 1 – The Beginnings of Civilization

2. The Big Picture: As early humans slowly spread from Africa to other parts of the world, they struggled to survive by using stone tools and weapons to hunt animals, catch fish, and gather plants and nuts. For hundreds of thousands of years, humans lived in this way. Then, as the last Ice Age ended, some learned to farm. This breakthrough gave rise to villages and cities, and in time, to the first civilizations. In this chapter you will learn how humans spread to other parts of the world and established the first civilizations.

3. Section 1 - The First People

4. 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?

5. I. Studying the Distant Past The scientific method is the process by which scientists, collectively and over time, endeavor to construct an accurate, reliable, consistent and non-arbitrary representation of the world Scientists interpret prehistory by using the scientific method

6. I. Studying the Distant Past Anthropologists study fossils, artifacts, or culture

7. I. Studying the Distant Past Culture: beliefs, knowledge, and patterns of living

8. II. Human Origins 1959 –Mary Leakey finds hominid skull fragments Louis and Mary Leakey in Tanzania's Olduvai Gorge Reconstructed replica of 1.75 million year-old “Nutcracker Man” from Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania

9. II. Human Origins 1974 - hominid “Lucy” was found in Ethiopia by Donald Johanson "Lucy," - 3 million year-old female hominid discovered at Hadar in 1974

10. II. Human Origins Both hominids were Australopithecines, or “southern ape”

11. II. Human Origins 1978 – Leakey found 3.5 million year-old hominid footprints Leakey working at the Laetoli, Tanzania, site where fossil footprints were found in hardened volcanic ash, 1978.

13. II. Human Origins 1. Australopithecus afarensis 2. Australopithecus africanus 3. Homo habilis 4. Homo erectus 5. Neandertal Other stone-tool making hominids lived in East Africa about 2 million years ago

14. The world's oldest known child was discovered in East Africa. The 3.3-million-year-old fossilized toddler was uncovered in north Ethiopia's badlands along the Great Rift Valley.

16. II. Human Origins Homo Sapiens appeared about 200,000 years ago All humans today belong to the species Homo Sapiens

22. Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania. The lighter layers in the outcrop are volcanic ash layers.

23. III. Spreading around the World Several Ice Ages occurred over the last 1.6 million years

24. III. Spreading around the World Humans began migrating out of Africa when sea levels dropped, creating land bridges

25. III. Spreading around the World Neanderthals, early Homo Sapiens, lived 200,000 to 30,000years ago

26. III. Spreading around the World Cro-Magnons appeared about 40,000 years ago; left cave paintings

29. IV. Life in the Stone Age Stone Age –began with development of stone tools

30. IV. Life in the Stone Age First part of Stone Age called Paleolithic Age, or Old Stone Age Paleolithic comes from the Greek for “ancient” and “stone”. It began about 2.5 million years ago and lasted until about 10,000 years ago (Over 2 million years)

31. IV. Life in the Stone Age Stone Age people were nomadic hunter-gatherers who lived in small bands

32. IV. Life in the Stone Age Archeologists have found that they wore clothing, used fire, and had tools

33. IV. Life in the Stone Age Clothing, fire, and shelter helped them adapt and live in different environments

34. IV. Life in the Stone Age They practiced animism; buried dead with food and tools, showing belief in afterlife