The document outlines the historical periods divided by historians, focusing primarily on prehistory and its subdivisions: the Stone Age (Paleolithic and Neolithic) and the Metal Age. It details the evolution of hominids, highlighting significant species such as Australopithecus, Homo habilis, and Homo sapiens, including their physical characteristics and societal developments. Additionally, it discusses economic, social, religious aspects, and art from different ages, showcasing the transition from nomadic hunter-gatherer lifestyles to settled agricultural societies and the emergence of metalworking.

1. PREHISTORY
María Jesús Campos
historyandgeography.org

2. HISTORICAL PERIODS
 Historians have divided
the past in different
periods or stages to help
people understand past
events:
 Prehistory
 Ancient Age
 Middle Ages
 Early Modern Age
 Contemporary History

3.  Prehistory: is the
historical period that
began with the
appearance of the first
human beings on Earth
and ended with the
invention of writing (3500
B.C.)

4. STAGES:
 Prehistory is divided into
different stages or ages
usually connected to the
material of the tools used at
the time:
 The Stone Age: dividided into
Palaeolithic and Neolithic.
 The Metal Age: dividided into
the Copper Age, the Bronze
Age and the Iron Age.

5. THE PROCESS OF HOMINISATION
 Hominids: upper
primates who
walked upright and
all their
descendants,
including human
beings.
 The evolution of
hominids does not
follow a direct line.

6.  Hominisation had different stages starred
by different species that developed
several features that distinguish them
from apes:
 Bipedalism (upright walking)
 Cranial changes: smaller jawbone and
teeth, vertical forehead, increased brain
size.
 Changes in the hand: opposable thumb
which made holding objects easier.

8. PRINCIPAL HOMINIDS
 Australopithecus
 Homo Habilis
 Homo Erectus
 Homo
Antecessor
 Homo
Neanderthalensi
s
 Homo Sapiens

9. AUSTRALOPITHECUS
 Chronology: 5-1
million years ago
 Geographical
location: Africa
 Height: 1 m
 Characteristics:
 Brain not very
developed
 Bipedalism, walking
erect
 Used tools but did not
make them (sticks and
stones in their natural
state)

11. HOMO HABILIS
 Chronology: 2,5-1,6
million years ago.
 Geographical location:
Africa
 Height: 1,55m
 Characteristics:
 Small brain but bigger than
the Australopithecus
 Legs better adapted to
bipedism.
 First hominid to make tools
(by knocking one stone
against another to sharpen
it)

12. HOMO ERECTUS
 Chronology: 1,5-0,3
million years ago
 Geographical location:
Africa and Asia
 Height: 1,70 m
 Characteristics:
 Bigger brain
 Made fire
 Made tools: bifaces (two-
sided stone tool for cutting)
 Animal hides as clothes

13. HOMO ANTECESSOR
 Chronology: 800 000 years
ago
 Geographical location:
Europe (found in
Atapuerca, Burgos, Spain)
 Height: 1,60 m
 Characteristics:
 Mixed physical features: old
ones as protruding
eyebrows, new ones as fine
jaw.
 Made more evolved tools to
cut, break…

16. HOMO NEANDERTHALENSIS
 Chronology: 130 000-35
000
 Geographical location:
Africa, Europe and Asia
 Height: 1,60 m
 Characteristics:
 Strong complexion
 Big face, protruding
eyebrows, sunken forehead
and no chin.
 Brain similar size to a human
brain today.
 Various stone tools.
 Buried their dead (culture)

18. HOMO SAPIENS SAPIENS
 Chronology: 195 000-today
 Geographical location:
Europe, Asia, Africa, America
and Oceania
 Height: 1,70 m
 Characteristics:
 Human beings of today:
spherical skull, straight
forehead, prominent chin
 Developed intelligence: same
size of brain as the
neanderthalensis.
 Varied tools made of stone,
bone, animal horns…
 Art (culture)

21. PREHISTORY IS DIVIDED IN DIFFERENT STAGES:
 The Stone Age: dividided
into Palaeolithic and
Neolithic.
 The Metal Age: dividided
into the Copper Age, the
Bronze Age and the Iron
Age.

23. THE STONE AGE
 Palaeolithic: 3 million
years ago to 10,000
B.C.
 Neolithic: 10.000 B.C.
to 3.500 B.C

24. THE PALAEOLITHIC
3 million years ago to 10 000 B.C.

25. Source: Raquel Aliaga wixsite

26. ECONOMY IN THE PALAEOLITHIC
 Hunter-gatherers: they
consumed nature’s
products but did not
produced anything by
themselves.
 Stone and bone tools.
 Made fire for light, heat
and cooking.
 Used animal hides to
make clothes, bags,
vessels, etc.

28. Source Raquel Aliaga wixsite

29. SOCIETY IN THE PALEOLITHIC
 Humans lived in small
groups (20-30 members)
 Nomadic hordes or tribes:
caves and huts. When
resources run out in a
place, they moved to
another one.
 Hierarchy within each
group: the strongest
warrior, the wisest old man,
the witch doctor or
sorcerer…were the most

30. RELIGION IN THE PALAEOLITHIC
 Worshipped the
natural elements (rain,
thunder, lightning) as
they depended on
them.
 Practised magic rituals
to promote fertility
(food and members).
 Buried and
commemorated their
dead

31. ART IN THE PALAEOLITHIC
 Realistic style (tried to copy nature).
 Magical purposes
 Cave paintings. Rock art.
 Mobile art

32.  Cave paintings:
 Colours obtained from natural elements (blood, coal, minerals…)
mixed with grease.
 Isolated animal figures (bison, deer, horse…) and their own hands.
 Used the parts of the rock and the cave ceilings to give an
impression of relief
 Purposes:
 Magical
 Personal expression of what they saw
 Examples:
 Altamira cave (Santillana del Mar, Cantabria, Spain)
 Lascaux cave (France)

35.  Mobile art:
 Portable artistic objects. Animals,
amulets, Venus.
 Venus statues: female figurines
made of stone, ivory or bone.
 Large pregnant bellies and breasts
symbolising fertility.
 Purposes:
 Magical
 Ornamental
 Examples:
 Venus of Lespugue (France)
 Venus of Willendorf (Austria)
 Baston of deer/horse

37. THE NEOLITHIC
10.000 B.C. to 3.500 B.C. (invention of writing)

38. ECONOMY IN THE NEOLITHIC: THE NEOLITHIC
REVOLUTION
 Around 10.000 BC the Ice Age
finished. The Earth’s
temperature increased and
some areas dried up.
 Draughts affected the Near East
and only vegetation close to
rivers and oasis were able to
survive. Human beings and
animals moved to those areas.
 Human beings observed how
plants and animals behaved and
they learnt how to use water to
cultivate.

39.  It started in the Fertile
Crescent (Middle East)
located between the River
Tigris and the River
Euphrates (Mesopotamia)
and around the River Nile
(Egypt).
 Invention of farming:
agriculture and livestock.
 Humans became
producers: cereals, goats,
sheeps, pigs…
 Animals provided: meat,
milk, hides and dung
(fertilise)
 Bartering: exchange of
products among groups

41.  Specialised tools: axes, sickles, mortars, hoes
 Pottery, textiles, baskets to contain the food.

42. SOCIETY IN THE NEOLITHIC
 Sedentary as they
produced their own
food.
 Houses made of clay
and wood. Later also of
stone
 Population
increased:more food
meant more safety.
 Social division according
to their activity (division
of labour)

43. RELIGION IN THE NEOLITHIC
 Worshipped the natural
elements such as the stars
and the sun as their crops
depended on them.
 Believed in spirits.
 Cult of the dead:
necropolises close to the
villages. The dead were
buried with their personal
possesions (pots, jewels,
tools, etc.)

44. ART IN THE NEOLITHIC
 Realistic style and abstract
style
 Idols
 Rock painting
 Ceramic pots

45. THE METAL AGE
5000 B.C. to 1000 B.C

46. ECONOMY IN THE METAL AGE
 It started in the Fertile Crescent
(Middle East).
 Metal tools:
 Cooper Age (from 4000 B.C)
 Bronze Age (from 2200 B.C.)
 Iron Age (from 1000 B.C. to the Roman
Empire)
 Metallurgy (extraction an use of
metals)
 More durable and resistant tools
 Weapons
 Agriculture and livestock

47.  Specialised tools: axes,
sickles, mortars, hoes
 Pottery, textiles, baskets to
contain the food.
 Metalworking: the ore was
extracted with stone picks.
The ore was smelted in an
oven and left to cool, then
the slag was removed by
hitting the metal with a
hammer. Then it was
smelted again and poured
into a mould in the shape of
the required object.

48. Copper Age
• 5000-3000 BC
• Copper Ore
Bronze Age
• 3000-1200 BC
• Alloy=Copper
Ore+Tin Ore
Iron Age
• 1200 BC-…
• Iron Ore

49. SOCIETY IN THE METAL AGE
 Permanent settlements
in high places
(surveillance and
defense)
 Surrounded by palisades
or walls.
 Circular or rectangular
dwellings with a stone
base, wooden or adobe
walls, and roofs made of
thatch and branches.

50.  Greater specilisation of labour which brought
greater social differences.
 Metal became a symbol of wealth.
 Conflict and war expanded. Possesing weapons
allowed some settlements to gain power over
others. Chieftains gained power.

51. RELIGION IN THE METAL AGE
 Worshipped the forces of nature
such as the stars and the sun as
their crops depended on them.
 Believed in spirits.
 Ceremonies in caves and sacred
places where they offered metal
objects to their gods.
 Cult of the dead: constructions with
funerary function. The dead were
buried with their personal possesions
(pots, jewels, tools, weapons,etc.)

52. ART IN THE NEOLITHIC
 Megalithic constructions
 Schematic paintings on rocks
and caves

53.  Megalithic constructions:
 Mega =big; lithos=stone
 Funerary function and sanctuaries
 Types:
 Menhir: a big stone standing vertically on the
floor
 Alignments: parallel rows of menhirs. Carnac
(France)
 Cromlech: stones ordered in a circle. Stonehenge
(United Kingdom)
 Dolmen: large standing stones supporting a
larger horizontal stone.

56.  Schematic paintings:
 On rocks and in caves
 Often in red and black
 Depicting simplified
human and animal
figures.
 Signs and geometric
figures (circles, spirals,
dots, zigzag lines…)
 Idols: depicted with big
eyes and triangles with
arms and legs.

57. Source Raquel Aliaga wixsite

58. Developed by María Jesús Campos
Chusteacher
wikiteacher