In the Footsteps of Cavemen

 The evolution of Homo sapiens

 The Hominids
 Australopithecus (4,000,000-1,000,000 BCE)
 E. Africa
 Walked upright on two legs; well-developed hands
 Stone tools; fire later
 Homo erectus (2,500,000-200,000)
 E. Africa
 Large brain; sophisticated tools
 Developed language skills
 Migrated to Asia and Europe
 Homo sapiens
 Large frontal lobes for conscious and reflective thought
 Spread throughout Eurasia (100,000 BCE)
 Ice age land bridges enabled them to populate other
continents
 The natural environment
 used knives, spears, bows, and arrows
 Brought tremendous pressure on other species
 Paleolithic Era
 Hunting-Gathering People
 Economic life
 egalitarian existence
 small bands, about 30 to 50 members
 Big game hunting
 Some permanent Paleolithic settlements
 Natufians in eastern Mediterranean
 Jomon in central Japan
 Chinook in Pacific NW area of North America
 Paleolithic culture
 Neanderthal peoples (100,000-35,000 BCE)
 Europe and SW Asia
 burials: evidence of a capacity for emotion
 Cro-Magnon peoples (40,000 BCE)
 (Homo sapiens sapiens) The 1st human beings
 Venus figurines--fertility
 Cave paintings of animals--sympathetic magic
 The Neolithic era and the transition to agriculture
 The origins of agriculture
 Refined tools and agriculture
 Women: cultivation of plants
 Men: domesticate animals
 Early agriculture around 9000 B.C.E.
 Agriculture: independently around world
 Merchants, migrants, and travelers spread food
  Slash-and-burn cultivation: frequent movement of farmers
 Agriculture more work than hunting/gathering
 Early agricultural society
 Emergence of villages and towns
 Jericho, earliest known Neolithic village
 Mud huts and defensive walls
 Specialization of labor
 Neolithic site of Çatal Hüyük, 8,000 people
 Prehistoric craft industries: pottery, metallurgy, and
textile production
 Social distinctions: private ownership
 Neolithic culture
 Leaned seasonal shifts/ develop calendars
 Life cycle deities
 Fertility gods
 Death gods
 Associated gods with animal symbols
 The origins of urban life
 Emergence of cities
 larger and more complex than villages
 Centered near water
 Jobs to run cities: Bureaucracy
 Earliest cities
 valley of the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers, 4000 to
3500 B.C.E.