World History - The First People

1. The Beginnings of Civilization Section 1

2. The Beginnings of Civilization Section 1
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 First People

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

4. The Beginnings of Civilization Section 1
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5. The Beginnings of Civilization Section 1
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?
Main Idea
1. Scientific evidence suggests that modern humans spread from
Africa to other lands and gradually developed ways to adapt to
their environment.
The First People

6. The Beginnings of Civilization Section 1
Anthropology continues to expand and revise our picture of the
prehistoric 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.
• Study culture: knowledge, art,
customs
• Examine artifacts: objects that
people in the past made or
used
Anthropologists
Studying the Distant Past
• Dig at sites where people have
left traces
• Use a variety of methods to
date and analyze objects found
Archaeologists

7. The Beginnings of Civilization Section 1
Find the Main Idea
How do scientists learn about prehistory?
Answer(s): by studying fossils, artifacts, and
remains

8. The Beginnings of Civilization Section 1
Where did the first people come from? When did they appear? Some
key discoveries have provided important pieces to the puzzle.
• 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
Early Hominids
• 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
Later Hominids
Human Origins

9. The Beginnings of Civilization Section 1

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

11. The Beginnings of Civilization Section 1

12. 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

13. The Beginnings of Civilization Section 1
Climate and Migration
• Hominids learned to adapt
• Began to move out of Africa
• Movement occurred over hundreds
of thousands of years
Out of Africa
• Homo erectus first hominid to
migrate
• Fossils found in Asia and Europe
• Homo sapiens migrated around
100,000 years ago
• Might have used boats
2. 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
Adapting to New
Environments
• Adapted as they migrated
• Two groups of Homo sapiens:
– Neanderthals
– Cro-Magnons
Spreading Around the World

14. 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.

15. The Beginnings of Civilization Section 1

16. The Beginnings of Civilization Section 1
3. 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
• First tools: crude chipped stones
• Later tools: wood and bone
• Spears for hunting
• Nets and traps for fish and birds
• Canoes from logs
• Clothing from animal skins
• Shelters from skins, wood, bones
Technology
• Societies began to form
• Common culture
– language
– art
– religion
• Animism
• Belief in life after death?
Art and Religion
Life in the Stone Age

17. 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