Five thousand years ago writing changed the world How? Prehistory – time before writing How do we know about this time? Historians – scholars who study and write about the historical past What do they use to figure out what happened?

 Artifacts – objects made by humans in the past – ex. Clothes, coins, art, tombstones…written evidence  Is what is written always reliable?  What if it is written by someone who was there? A witness to the occurrence?  What bias might a person have?  What is bias?  Historians attempt to explain the past clearly and unbiased

 Anthropology – the study of the origins and development of people and society  Focus on how humans acquired physical traits over time – like what?  Focus on the culture of a society / people Culture – way of life of a society -their beliefs, values and practices -handed down from one generation to the next. -How? -what are some of our / your cultural aspects?

 Archaeology – subfield of anthropology  Study of past people and culture through the remains they left behind…to figure out how they lived. Like what?  Tools, weapons, writings  Are they wrong? why or why not? New evidence?  Change?  How do they know how old artifacts are?

 Relative Dating – similar items are grouped together and put in order according to their style  Lower levels to higher levels –  Higher = newer  Lower = older  When the age of some items are known, items around them can be approximately dated

 Absolute Dating – determine the age of an artifact due to actual physical deterioration  Bones lose chemicals at a certain rate – test them  Wood grains – can tell how old a piece of wood is  Carbon 14 decay in biological matter  This way we can tell if items that are found next to each other are the same age or not

 Technique – procedure or skill  What is needed to find artifacts or archaeological dig sites  1800’s – early 1900’s – guessing game!  Now … we use technology to help find spots to dig – digitally map out areas, enter data and let the computer decide the best spot to dig  Also, communication with other professionals to help determine the: age of rocks – Geologist. Plant and animal identification – Zoologists and Botanists

 Pre-1950, we did not know much about prehistory…which is what?  Mary and Louis Leakey – Anthropologists – 1930’s – Worked in East Africa – Canyon in Tanzania called Olduvai Gorge  Explored layers of sediment in canyon dating back to million years ago… prehistory?  Found ancient tools made of stone – sign of technology

 Technology – skills and tools people use to meet their basic needs and wants  Prehistoric tech vs. current tech. As the Leakey’s explored the newer layers they found advanced technology…smooth and polished tools 1959 – found skull of early hominid Hominid – group that includes humans and close relatives but must meet this requirement: *must walk upright on two feet *humans are the only hominids alive today Legends of other Hominids?

 Donald Johanson – Anthropologist – 1974  Found pieces of single hominid – 3 million yrs.  how do you think this was dated? Relative or absolute?  Named the partial skeleton “Lucy”. Why?  Australopithecus – earliest group of hominids  “Lucy” was one of these  Lived in Africa around 7 million yrs. ago

 Homo Habilis – 2 million yrs. Ago  “Handy Man” – first hominids to make tools  Cutting, scraping, chopping, sawing  How did they make these tools?  Have discovered tools about 2.6 million years old. Who made them?  Homo Erectus – 2 million years, fully upright  “Upright Man” – larger brains and bones – smaller teeth than Homo Habilis –  First to use fire and hand axe  Found in Asia and Europe – first to migrate out of Africa  Disappeared 250,000 – 100,000 years ago

 Homo Sapiens – modern humans  Two theories theories  1) developed in Africa and then dispersed from there  2) Homo Erectus evolved into homo sapiens at about the same time around the world  “multi-regional hypothesis” Modern humans bred with archaic humans and overtook them

 Two Groups of Homo Sapiens:  Neanderthals and Modern Humans  Lived mostly in Europe and Asia  Spread all over the rest of the world  Around 50,000 – 60,000 years ago Neanderthals died out  Why?  Who was left?

Row 1: Pliopithecus, Pronconsul, Dryopithecus, Oreopithecus, Ramapithecus Row 2: Australopithecus, Paranthropus, Advanced Australopithecus, Homo Erectus, Early Homo Sapiens, Solo Man, & Rhodesian Man Row 3: Neanderthal Man, Cro-Magnon Man, Modern Man

Color Transparency 2: Locations of Hominid Finds in Africa 6 of 8



 Who? Otzi the Iceman was 5'5" tall, weighing in at 84 pounds. He was aged 46 years at the time of his death and hailed from the Copper Age, in Neolithic times. He spent his childhood in an Italian village called Velturno, to the north of Bolzano. Otzi enjoyed long walks through the hilly terrain of Italy, suggesting that he was perhaps a mountain shepherd, since his level of mobility is not common to most copper Age Europeans. He had approximatley 57 tattoos of simple dots and lines.

 Why? So, why was the discovery of Otzi the Iceman so monumental? It was because his corpse gave scientists and archeologists an unrivaled view into the lives of humans during the Copper Age, which had previously been, for the most part, a mystery. Understanding the Copper Age is important because it was a time when advanced metal working, like smelting, first emerged. Otzi was also a pop culture phenomenon. There has been countless books written about him and he even stars in a play.