Early humans lived as nomadic hunter-gatherers during the Paleolithic Era. They traveled in groups of 20-30 people and constantly moved to find new sources of food. The discovery of fire allowed early humans to cook food for the first time and migrate to colder areas. Nomadic groups built temporary dwellings near water sources and migrated when food supplies ran low in an area.

2. prehistory
Hominids
(Key Finds)
 The time before writing. Historians rely on the
work of archaeologist and anthropologist to
discover the past.
Early human ancestors
 1. Mary and Louis Leaky
 Found bones of hominids in East Africa in 1960
 2. Donald Johansen
 Found “Lucy”. Test showed she lived more than 3
million years ago and walked of two legs.
 3. Tim White
 Found even older remains from as long as 4.4 million
years ago.

4. First
Appearance
 Groups of hominids appeared about 3 million
years ago. (Johansen)
 A group of hominids called Homo erectus, or
upright man, appeared in Africa about 1.5 million
years ago.
 Many scientists think that modern humans
appeared about 200,000 years ago in Africa.

5. The way humans change their environment
Example:
Before – natural desert landscape with pockets of farming.
After – roads, houses, and retail stores are built.

7. Stone Tools

9. Nomads
Societies
Hunter-
Gatherers
Discovery
of Fire
 A person who has no settled home (dwelling).
 Traveled in groups of 20-30.
 Keep moving to new places to find food.
 A community of people who share a common culture
 Nomads hunted and gathered food for the group.
 Men = hunters & Women = gatherers
 Hunted animals & gathered wild plants
 Discovered during the Old Stone Age.
 How could this new technology changed the lives of
nomads during the Paleolithic Era?
 Allowed Effects food to of be the cooked Discovery for the of 1st Fire
time.
 Nomads could move to colder climates.

10. Nomad
Migration
Migrated from Africa approx. 1 million years
ago.
Built temporary dwellings of branches and
animals skins.
Built near a water source.
 Why?
Once the nomadic group gathered all the food
in the area they moved on…

12. Summary: Summarize how early humans lived during
the Paleolithic Era.

13. Create a Thinking Map that
illustrates elements of the Paleolithic
Era.
What style of Thinking Map will you create?

14. Paleolithic
Era

15. Paleolithic
Era
No settled
home
20-30
Nomad

16. Revolution Essential Question
What is a revolution? Is it
positive or negative? Does
it always involve war or
violence?

17. Neolithic Greek for “new stone” (neo
= new & lithic = stone)
Known as the “New Stone
Age”

18. Mesopotamia
Fertile
Crescent
About 11,000 years ago
FARMING was discovered.
Discovered in Asia
Fertile Crescent (modern day
Middle East)
Started the Neolithic
Revolution.

19. Development
of Farming
EFFECT = early humans no
longer had to be nomads. They
could now settle in one place.
Still depended on STONE
TOOLS.
Used the seeds from BIGGEST
and best tasting plants to plant
crops, which led to…

20. Domestication To adapt wild plants for
human use; to tame wild
animals for human use.
Over time, this careful
selection of seeds and roots
from each crop led to the kinds
of food we eat today.

21. Domestication During the New Stone Age / Neolithic
Revolution, early humans learned to tame
wild animals and breed them for human
use.
1st domesticated animal = dog
Valuable in hunting
Sheep, goats, & pigs.
Meat, milk, & wool
Over time, herders developed animals
that were gentler than their wild
ancestors and provided more resources.

23. Cave Paintings Hand painted/drawn images inside
caves on cave walls.
Images were added over & over to the
cave walls.
Over time, a cave could accumulate
hundreds of cave drawings/paintings.
Colors used:
 Brown
 Yellow
 Tan
 Dark Red
 Coal Black

25. Ice Age About 1.6 million years ago, many places
around the world began to experience long
periods of freezing weather, called the ice
ages
The ice ages ended about 10,000 years ago.
Huge sheets of ice covered much of the earth’s
land.
Many areas that are now underwater were
then dry land. A land bridge, or strip of land
connecting two continents, probably
connected Asia and North America.

26. New Stone Age Early humans learned how to cure
and store food for the long winter.
Used hand-made traps to catch
animals (food).
Development of primitive types of
boats.
EFFECT = catch bigger fish in deeper
water.

28. New Stone Age Early humans learned how to cure
and store food for the long winter.
Used hand-made traps to catch
animals (food).
Development of primitive types of
boats.
EFFECT = catch bigger fish in deeper
water.
Made clothing & jewelry.
Invention of the 1st primitive bow &
arrow.

29. CIVILIZATION By 3,500 B.C. small farming
communities in the Middle
East were developing into
the world’s 1st cities, marking
the rise of CIVILIZATION.

30. Centralized
Infrastructure
Farming led to the development
of larger societies and eventually
civilization.
It is essential that you remember
the patterns of civilization:
1. Growth of Centralized Government
2. Organized Religion
3. Writing
4. Artistic Activity
5. Social Structure
6. Rise of Cities/Infrastructure

31. Catal Huyuk
Modern Turkey
First settled:
c. 7000BCE
Jericho
Modern Israel
First settled:
c. 7000BCE

32. Summary: Describe how early humans lived during the
Neolithic Revolution.

33. Create a web diagram that illustrates
elements of the Neolithic Revolution.