The document summarizes prehistory, which began with the appearance of the first human beings and ended with the invention of writing around 3500 BC. It describes the major periods of prehistory - the Stone Age (divided into Paleolithic and Neolithic), and the Metal Age (Copper Age, Bronze Age, Iron Age). It also outlines some of the key hominid species, their characteristics, and how they contributed to the process of hominization. The lifestyles, economies, social structures, religions, and arts of these periods are summarized as well.

1. PREHISTORY
1º ESO Geography and History

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 in 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
Neanderthalensis
 Homo Sapiens

9.  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)
Australopithecus

11.  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)
Homo habilis

12.  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
Homo erectus

13.  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…
Homo antecessor

16.  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)
Homo Neanderthalensis

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

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.

22. THE STONE AGE
 Palaeolithic: 4.2 million
years ago to 10,000 B.C.
 Neolithic: 10.000 B.C. to
3.500 B.C

23. THE PALAEOLITHIC
4.2 million years ago
to 10 000 B.C.

24. 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.

26. 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 important members.

27. 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

28. ART IN THE PALAEOLITHIC
 Realistic style (tried to copy nature).
 Magical purposes
 Cave paintings
 Mobile art

29.  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)

32.  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

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

35. ECONOMY IN THE NEOLITHIC: THE NEOLITHIC
REVOLUTION
 It started in the Fertile
Crescent (Middle East) located
between River Tigris and River
Euphrates (Mesopotamia) and
around 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

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

38. 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)

39. 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.)

40. ART IN THE NEOLITHIC
 Realistic style and abstract
style
 Idols
 Rock painting
 Ceramic pots

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

42. 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

43.  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.

44. SOCIETY IN THE METAL AGE
 Permanent settlements in
high places (watch 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.

45.  Greater specilisation of labour which brought
greater social differences.
 Metal became a symbol of wealth.
 Conflict and war expanded. Possesing weapons
made some settlements gain power over others.

46. 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.)

47. ART IN THE NEOLITHIC
 Megalithic constructions
 Schematic paintings on
rocks and caves

48.  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.

51.  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.