Chapters 1-5 Investigating the Past History Detectives Chapters 1-5 Investigating the Past

Five kinds of experts that study the past (social scientists): In this class you will study ancient history. That means that we will study history from the earliest humans to the first great civilizations. Five kinds of experts that study the past (social scientists): archeologists historians geographers anthropologists paleoanthropologists

Archeologists Archeologists study the past by examining objects that people of the past left behind. These include fossils, bones, and artifacts like tools, weapons, coins, clothing and anything else made or used by people. Examining artifacts give archeologists CLUES about what life was like for those people. Did you know?? Archeology is spelled two different ways: archeology and also archaeology. Both spellings are considered correct!

Historians Historians are most concerned with the last 3,000 years of the past. Why? Well, that’s because historians mainly study written records. Anything written down can give historians clues about the people and events of the past. Books, letters, diaries, speeches, business records, marks on ancient tombs, old maps, songbooks, and etc. are studied by historians.

Artifact OR Fossil Fossils are remains, impressions, or traces of a living thing of a former geologic age, such as a skeleton, footprint, a bug trapped in a hardened glob of amber, etc. BUT Artifacts are objects made by a human, especially a tool, weapon, or ornament. So, how do we distinguish between an artifact and a fossil? Now, you tell me the difference in your own word.

Identify the artifacts

Geographers Geographers study natural features of the Earth, as well as human-made features. They study water, landforms, plants, animals, towns, roads, bridges, dams, and etc. They study and create maps based on their findings and try to answer questions about the people based on their environment and surroundings.

Anthropologists Anthropology is the scientific study of the origin, the behavior, and the physical, social, and cultural development of humans. Anthropologists study human development and culture. They get evidence from fossils, artifacts, and even stories from the oral tradition.

The prefix paleo- means ancient Paleoanthropologists study the human development and culture of ancient people. They especially study the earliest hominids-our earliest ancestors.

Did you know that anything prehistoric means before history AND history means “during the time of writing?” In order for a culture or society to be considered a civilization, social scientists have to discover a writing system being used in the culture they are studying. One problem: some societies keep records through the oral tradition only.

Elements of Civilization

When social scientists record information about a culture, society, or civilization, they have to use both written and non-written sources. They also have to take into consideration who the source was, the kind of source, when and where the source was produced, and why it was produced. Let’s talk about this…

Sources Primary sources Primary sources are the most valuable. They are produced during the same time period as the events they describe. These sources are usually most accurate. Secondary sources Secondary sources are materials that were created later by people who studied the original sources. They are less accurate since they are more open to the personal bias and interpretation of the producer.

Paleoanthropologists study ancient humans and their culture. Paleoanthropologists are responsible for finding the earliest human ancestors- hominids- and tracking their development into modern humans. They make hypotheses about the culture and daily lives of early humans based on the artifacts and fossils that they find.

They also track the movements and migrations of humans from Africa to all over the world.

Hunter-Gatherers

Bands All hominids survived by gathering food, and by either scavenging or hunting meat. Many were nomadic, moving from place to place to live according to food supply. They did this in small groups so that everyone in a group could be fed and taken care of by each other. Larger groups cannot survive this way, so they lived in small groups called bands.

Did you know??? There are still hunter-gatherer societies in today’s world. Check out this band of Kung San women of the Kalahari Desert gathering edible grasses, nuts, and berries which make up 85% of the entire villages diet. Men usually do the hunting (15% of their diet).

What makes modern man special? Adaptation-humans learned to change as our environment changed. Technology-humans learned how to make new, more efficient tools to help us survive. Agricultural Revolution-humans learned to domesticate (bringing under our control) plants and animals. Division of labor-since farming made enough food for a large amount of people, everyone did not need to farm. As a result people had time to develop other jobs, skills, and talents to help our societies.