Chapter 2: Prehistoric People, 8000 BC
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
0032-0047 CH02-846240 11/14/02 11:33 PM Page 32 CHAPTER Prehistoric People 2 8000 B.C.–3000 B.C. ᭡ Neolithic pottery Paleolithic carving ᭤ 8000 B.C. 6500 B.C. 4000 B.C. 3000 B.C. New Stone Age begins Catal Hüyük World population reaches Writing is established about 90 million invented 32 UNIT 1 PLACE AND TIME 0032-0047 CH02-846240 11/14/02 10:11 PM Page 33 Chapter Focus Read to Discover Chapter Overview Visit the Human Heritage Web site • How tools, language, clothing, and the discovery of fire at humanheritage.glencoe.com helped early people advance. and click on Chapter 2—Chapter • What Neanderthals and Cro-Magnons were like. Overviews to preview this chapter. • How people changed from food gatherers to food producers. • Why specialization, government, and religion were impor- tant in Neolithic societies. Terms to Learn People to Know Places to Locate prehistory Lucy Olduvai Gorge civilization Neanderthals Jericho migrate Cro-Magnons Catal Hüyük specialization Why It’s Important Most archaeologists believe people have lived on the earth for millions of years. The period of time before the invention of writing is called prehistory. It lasted Reading Check until about five thousand years ago, when people learned how When did to write. Through the use of artifacts, archaeologists have prehistory end? traced the milestones that paved the way from prehistory to What helped bring the rise of civilization—a time when people progressed cultur- about the rise of ally and began to live in cities. civilization? SECTION 1 The Paleolithic Age Although there were no written records during prehistory, scientists have learned a great deal about prehistoric people. They have learned how early human beings lived and what important discoveries were made. Scientists also think they know why people moved out of Africa to other parts of the world. Many scientists believe that until about 1.75 million years ago, people lived only on the grasslands of eastern and southern Africa. Then the earth’s climate changed—it became colder. Ocean water froze into huge glaciers that spread out from the North and South poles. As the ice sheets grew, the sea level fell and uncovered land that had been under water. Land bridges then connected Africa to both southern Europe and southwest- ern Asia. CHAPTER 2 PREHISTORIC PEOPLE 33 0032-0047 CH02-846240 11/14/02 10:11 PM Page 34 Reading Check People were able to migrate, or make their way, around the How did early desert of northern Africa and across the land bridges. Between people migrate out of about 1.75 million and 700,000 years ago, people made their way Africa? into Europe and Asia. Much later, between about 40,000 and 15,000 years ago, they also migrated to the Americas. Scientists call the first age in which people lived the Pale- olithic (pa¯ le¯ uh lith’ ik) Age, or Old Stone Age. It lasted from about 2.3 million years ago until 10,000 years ago. During this period, people obtained their food by hunting and gathering. Reading Check Obtaining Food Paleolithic people lived in small bands, How did living or groups, of about 30 members. When the food supply was in bands help people good, the bands grew to about 40 or 50 members. Most of the survive? group members lived to be no more than 20 or 25 years old. More than half of the children died from illnesses or were killed by ani- mals before their first birthdays. The people within a group lived and worked together and shared their food. They fed and cared for people who became injured or sick. GROUP LIFE Experts believe that most early people lived in groups made up of several families. Here, a group of hunters use stones to sharpen tools. Two men carry a large animal killed in a hunt, as a few women tend fires near their tents. How did Paleolithic people use fire? 34 UNIT 1 PLACE AND TIME 0032-0047 CH02-846240 11/14/02 10:12 PM Page 35 EARLY TOOLS For more than 2 million years, prehistoric people lived by hunting animals and gathering plants. They used tools made of wood and stone. The wooden tools have decayed. Archaeologists, however, have found many stone tools. For what purposes did prehistoric people use stone tools? Each band searched for food within an area known as its Reading Check home territory. This usually covered about two square miles, or What were some five square kilometers, for every band member. There were of the features of a campsites at various places throughout the home territory. The band’s home territory? band stayed at a campsite until the available food supply was used up and then moved. Women and children gathered berries, nuts, fruit, and eggs out of bird and turtle nests. They poked sticks into bee nests to get honey and into the ground to dig roots. Men of the group obtained meat. They caught fish using their bare hands and hunted small animals with sticks and stones. Occasionally, they were able to kill a large animal that was too young, too old, or too badly hurt to run away. A good Oldest Tools In 1995, kill meant that the group would have enough meat to last for archaeologists working in several days. Ethiopia found stone spear points more than 2.6 mil- Making Tools Life for hunters and gatherers became easier lion years old, making when they learned to make tools. At first the only tools people them the earliest tools had were sticks and stones they found on the ground. Soon they found on Earth. learned to shape stones to make them more useful. CHAPTER 2 PREHISTORIC PEOPLE 35 0032-0047 CH02-846240 11/14/02 10:12 PM Page 36 Among the earliest shaped stones are the Olduvan pebble tools, named after the Olduvai Gorge in eastern Africa where they were first discovered. Pebble tools were made from pebbles or stones about the size of a fist. The toolmaker hit one pebble with another, removing chips and creating a jagged cutting edge. This edge was sharp enough to cut the meat off of small animals’ bones, split animal bones, and chop up plants. Later people learned to knock long, sharp-edged chips, called flakes, from stones and use them as tools. Using flakes for knives, they could butcher, or cut up, animals as big as elephants quickly and efficiently. People also used flakes to scrape one end of a wooden branch into a sharp point for a digging stick or a meat skewer. Making Fire People also learned to make fire during the Paleolithic Age. The first fires they knew about were made by nature, such as those started by lightning. Eventually, people dis- covered how to make fire themselves. They created sparks by rubbing two sticks or stones together, or rapidly turning a stick in Lucy a hole in a dry log. C. 3,200,000 B.C. People used fire to keep themselves warm and dry. They Hominid Skeleton also used it as a weapon, throwing burning sticks of wood at ani- mals to drive them away. Sometimes they used fire to drive big Lucy made headlines animals into mudholes. The heavy animals would sink in the in 1974 when two sci- mud and people could then kill them. entists—Donald C. People also used fire to clear out brush and undergrowth. Johanson and Tom Finally, people used fire to cook food. Cooked food was much Gray—discovered her easier to chew and digest than raw food. As a result, people skeleton in the deserts spent less time eating and more time doing other things. of Ethiopia. They named her after a Seeking Shelter Early people usually camped out in the popular Beatles song, open. They protected themselves from the wind by digging pits "Lucy in the Sky with in the ground or by crouching in dry river beds. They also took Diamonds." Although shelter under an overhanging rock or piled up brush. Lucy walked the earth At first, early people used caves only for such emergencies 3.2 million years ago, as escaping from a sudden storm or a large animal. By about her skeleton was near- 100,000 years ago, however, people in China, western Europe, ly complete. She gave and southwestern Asia were living in caves most of the time. the world its first look at an early prehuman. Making Clothing After hunters began killing large ani- mals, they found that the animal skins could be used for protec- tion and warmth. They scraped the skins clean and then laid them out in the sun to dry. Later, people discovered that pound- ing fat into the skin while it was drying would make it softer. At first people wrapped the skins around themselves. Later, they learned how to fasten the skins together. Clothing made a big difference in where people lived. Before they had clothing, most people stayed in areas that were warm and dry. Once they 36 UNIT 1 PLACE AND TIME 0032-0047 CH02-846240 11/14/02 10:13 PM Page 37 PREHISTORIC PEOPLE There were two types of early Homo sapiens, Nean- derthals and Cro-Magnons. From the remains of these two peoples, scientists have tried to reconstruct how they might have looked. These models show the facial fea- tures of the Neanderthal (left) and a Cro-Magnon (right). In what areas of the world did the first people most likely live? had clothing to protect them from the weather, they were able to move into areas that were cooler and wetter.